At the beginning of the year if you asked me what my greatest growth was going to be for my junior year of high school, I probably would have told you it was going to be in collaboration or maybe in communication. This answer would have been easy, or at least easier then saying that I was going to grow in wondering about the world around me. It took the entire course of my 11th grade year to realize that my greatest growth wasn’t in communicating to my peers and teachers. It wasn’t working in a group and pulling my own weight. It wasn’t working hard to push through problems in my path. Although I did grow in these things, they don’t stand out to me as my greatest or most impressive growth achievement.

 

In fact, my greatest growth was in inquiry. To put it simply, inquiry is seeking information. This is usually through asking questions, but for me, research was where I got most of my understanding. Since I was young, I wanted to know a little about a lot of things, rather than knowing a lot about a few things. In order to really grasp and understand a concept, you have to ask more than a few questions. You have to take a topic, unpack all of the terminology related to it, understand what it means and apply it to your own life. Once you have done this you have the ability to reciprocate this information to others. At this point, you fully understand whatever concept you dived into.

 

At school, inquiry manifested itself in the Personal Finance Project. This was an Economics project where students had to create a real life budget for their first few years out of college. I considered everything like where I would be living, what car I would be driving, how much money I would be making and more. This forced me to objectively wonder about my future. As well as asking myself questions, I had to ask my peers, teachers and parents. As a high school student, I wasn’t used to seeing all the expenses that I would have to face, let alone being able to plan for them. However, my teachers and parents had already been to college, paid off loans and purchased cars and houses. This made them a great resource for questions regarding ways to save money and navigate life after college in general.

 

Looking at my physical budget, there is clear evidence of inquiry. Through multiple drafts, some sections were left undone until I could take the time to research them and figure out what I needed to do. In the end, all the sections are filled in and I ended up being able to pay off my future loans in just a few years. The project was research intensive. I had to research things that I previously hadn’t really thought about. I had no idea how much a monthly phone bill was. I didn’t know how to file taxes or apply for scholarships. All this research is shown in my notes where I jotted down relevant information. I used this note sheet to write down the answers to my questions so I could put them in my budget later. Through my own research during this project, I developed a greater understanding of what my life will look like. This is meaningful for me because I learned vital skills that I can apply them in the future.

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Besides Economics, I also practiced inquiry when I was working on the Poster Project in Chemistry. In this project I was given a term that I had to research and show in a model of the periodic table. The term I was assigned was electronegativity. Electronegativity is a measure of how likely an atom attracts an electron to form a bond. I had to find this definition through my own research. The purpose of this was to gain an understanding of the topic and make a model so that the class can see the trend and understand the topic as well. This concept of researching a question, developing an understanding of a topic and sharing it so others can learn from it demonstrates inquiry because if I didn’t answer the question for myself, I would have never been able to explain it to others. The poster we made that displays the definition of electronegativity and the model shows this understanding.

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Growing in inquiry has been beneficial over the course of my 11th grade year because I can find a problem and research an applicable solution. This is going to be helpful during my senior year because in school and out of school I’m going to have to figure things out for myself. After high school, I can apply this skill to college and my life as a young adult.