Imagine that you were at school, your teacher let you do a project, and you could do anything you wanted for that project. What would you do? 

The Year 5/6 children are doing a project similar to this, and the topics they chose range from space exploration to gaming.

This project that the Middle Stars are doing is called the STAR project. For the STAR project, you can do whatever you want that you are keen to find out about. For example, some students are interested in finding out more about a certain career, some children want to be anesthetists and I know a few that want to work in the police force. Others want to find out more about a certain topic, for example : How are animations done? I have done mine about how people get into space.

We used the Inquiry Cycle to do the STAR project. The Inquiry Cycle consists of 6 steps : Tuning In, Finding Out, Sorting Out, Going Further, Making Conclusions and Taking Action.

Tuning in consists of writing down what you already know about the topic, planning how you will find the information and thinking what might be a question to your answer. This stage is mainly about ‘tuning in’ to the big question.

Finding Out is the ‘body’ of the inquiry. This is when you find out information to answer the big question. This ‘finding out’ stage usually takes a few weeks and is usually the longest part of the inquiry. Usually, in finding out you also think of a few other ‘small questions’ that are related to the big question and also answer those.

Sorting Out is when you sort your information out. You’ve got this large chunk of information (or at least, you’re supposed to have) and some of it is useful and some of it is not. You’ve really got to think at this point, “What information in here is useful to answer my big question?

Going Further is where you try to see what information you still need and try and get it.

Making Conclusions is when you take your sorting out and going further information and make some conclusions. This could be where you say, for example: "To work for NASA I've got to move to the US". Also, this is when you to present your work in the form of an iMovie, PowerPoint or any other presentation software.

In our STAR project, we didn't do Taking Action. Taking Action is when you 'extend your inquiry' to other people. For example, with our 'How does our lunchbox affect the world?' inquiry, we shared our conclusions with other classes in the school and encouraged the school to become more litter free.

During the inquiry you reflect on personal understanding. This can be questions like "How well have I understood the topic?". Reflecting is an ongoing stage in our STAR projects.

STAR projects are very interesting. We started doing them at the start of Term 2, and some children have already finished!