C3 Inquiry Studio | Land Use Case

Dimension 2: Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools

Dimension 2 asks students to investigate questions using the ways historians, geographers, economists, and civic thinkers examine the world. Each discipline notices different evidence, asks different questions, and contributes a different kind of reasoning.

1Questions
2Disciplines
3Evidence
4Conclusions
TimeFull class activity
StructureExpert groups + home groups
WorkspaceShared PHP group system
Before Expert Groups

Choose your Dimension 2 expert group

Your home group is already saved from your first login. Before beginning the expert-group work, open My Session and choose the expert discipline and expert group number your instructor gives you.

Open My SessionOpen Dimension 2 Workspace
Dimension 2 in one sentence: Students do more than learn content. They use disciplinary tools to investigate a question and make their thinking visible.

One question, four disciplinary lenses

Your expert group will become responsible for one disciplinary way of thinking. Then you will return to your home group and use all four lenses together.

Compelling Question

How should a growing community use a 20-acre parcel of undeveloped land?

Fictional land-use inquiry siteA 20-acre parcel near homes, a school, roads, and a creek. The map is illustrative and not to scale. 20-ACRE PARCELWhat should happen here? School Homes CreekIllustrative map - not to scale
A place. Many possibilities.FICTIONAL PRACTICE SITE
Shared group workspace

One recorder captures the expert-group thinking

Your expert group will read and discuss the discipline-specific articles before applying the discipline to the land-use case. Choose one recorder to type the group discussion while every member reads, explains, questions, and helps decide what should be saved.

  1. Understand your disciplinary lens and the tools it uses.
  2. Read and discuss each assigned article. Capture the important idea and the disciplinary skill it emphasizes.
  3. Synthesize the readings. Decide what your discipline most needs the home group to understand.
  4. Apply those ideas to the 20-acre land-use case and identify the evidence your discipline still needs.
  5. Prepare a short expert share to teach your home group.
Open the Dimension 2 Group WorkspaceInstructor: open the Teacher Guide

Use the class code provided by your instructor. The expert-group notes become the teaching notes each expert carries back to the home group.

Expert Groups

Become the disciplinary expert your home group needs

Your job is to become a teacher of one disciplinary lens. Read the discipline-specific articles, discuss what each article contributes, synthesize the ideas, then use those ideas to analyze the land-use case. The website workspace will walk your group through each step.

Geography Expert Group

Read the place and its spatial relationships

Guiding question: How would location, access, and human-environment relationships affect each proposed use?

  • Spatial patterns
  • Map interpretation
  • Scale and distance
  • Human-environment interaction
National Geographic: Spatial Thinking About MapsNational Geographic: Map Skills for StudentsElementary Map Skills Activity Guide
Expert product: Identify two spatial-thinking skills and explain how they change what students should notice about the land-use case.
Civics Expert Group

Weigh voices, authority, and fair participation

Guiding question: Who should participate, who has authority, and what would make the decision-making process fair?

  • Stakeholder analysis
  • Public deliberation
  • Rules and institutions
  • Evidence-based civic participation
Baytas & Schroeder: Cultivating Civic EngagementSix Research-Based Methods for Teaching CivicsiCivics Scope & SequenceiCivics Elementary Resources
Expert product: Identify whose voices and authority matter and explain how students could deliberate fairly.
Return to Home Groups

Apply all four lenses to the compelling question

  1. Each expert has about two minutes to teach four things: what the discipline pays attention to, what the readings taught the expert group, what that reveals about the land-use case, and what the group still needs to know.
  2. The home-group recorder captures the key contribution from History, Geography, Economics, and Civics.
  3. Compare the lenses. Identify where they reinforce one another and where they create tension or different priorities.
  4. Use the four lenses together to draft a provisional response to the compelling question.
  5. Name the evidence still needed before the group could defend a final conclusion.
LensWhat does it help us notice?Question to investigateEvidence that would help
HistoryChange over time, context, perspectiveWhat has happened here before?Historical maps, photos, records, oral histories
GeographyLocation, access, spatial patterns, environmentHow does location affect each option?Maps, transportation, environmental data
EconomicsScarcity, tradeoffs, costs, benefitsWhat do we gain and give up?Costs, benefits, needs, opportunity costs
CivicsStakeholders, authority, fairness, participationWho should have a voice?Stakeholder views, rules, public procedures
Home-group synthesis: At this point, we think the community should ______ because ______. History helped us see ______. Geography helped us see ______. Economics helped us see ______. Civics helped us see ______. Before reaching a final conclusion, we still need evidence about ______.
Whole-Class Debrief

Compare how the disciplinary lenses changed the investigation

New Thinking

  • Which lens changed your thinking the most?
  • What did it make you notice?

Connections

  • Where did the lenses reinforce each other?
  • Where did they create tension?

Premature Claims

  • What claims are we tempted to make too early?
  • What evidence is still missing?

Integrated Social Studies

  • What does this suggest about teaching social studies as connected disciplines?
Question -> Disciplinary Lenses -> Provisional Thinking -> Need for Evidence