Project Based Learning Handbook

Why do we need essential question?Essential question creates the framework and theenvironment within which students’ ‘real’ learning occurs.It drives the student’s inquiry process and requiresstudents to:EVALUATEMake a thoughtful choice between options,with the choice based upon clearly statedcriteriaSYNTHESISEInvent a new or different versionANALYSEDevelop a thorough and complexunderstanding through skillful questioningEssential questions spark curiosity and sense of wonderderived from our inner wish to understand issues and theunexplainable. Answers to essential questions cannot befound. They must be invented. It is like cooking a greatmeal. The researcher goes out on a shopping expedition forraw ingredients, but “the proof is in eating the preparednasi lemak.”29