Understanding eWISE
e-- evaluate This part of the research process is listed first because it occurs at each step along the way.
- Students are taught to evaluate what they wonder by judging their research questions to see if they are likely to lead to interesting information (students learn about the difference between "thick" and "thin" questions).
- Students should evaluate the resources they use while investigating a topic to make sure that the information they access is accurate and reliable, and that the notes they take are relevant to their research questions.
- Students evaluate while they synthesize information to check their own understanding of their research.
- Students evaluate they way that they choose to express what they learn through their research to make sure that their final product is clear and conveys the information they want to share.
W--Wonder Students often (but not always) begin the research process at this step when they become curious about a topic and want to know more.
I--Investigate Students investigate a topic by looking for information that answers the questions they are wondering about. They might investigate by reading a book, looking on a website, or watching a video. Often times, investigating a topic will cause them to come up with new things that they wonder about!
S--Synthesize Synthesizing occurs when students make connections between the information they have found from different resources as they investigate. It's like putting together all the pieces of the puzzle and gaining a true understanding of how something works or why it occurs.
E--Express Expressing is whatever students do to share what they learned through their research. This could be a traditional report or Powerpoint presentation, a poster, a Voicethread, a blog post, a model, or even just simply talking with a friend.
eWISE is the research model adopted by Wake County during the 2013-2014 school year. eWISE is an acronym; each letter stands for a part of the research process. As indicated by the arrows, the model helps us teach students that research is a cycle. It's normal for students to have to go back and repeat different steps in the process as they evaluate, wonder, investigate, synthesize, and express.