Index of Critical Thinking Challenges - Grade 2/3
Are Trolls Good Or Bad?
Students consider the classic fairy tale The Three Billy Goats Gruff and then examine The Truth About The Three Billy Goats Gruff. The second story provides a non-traditional viewpoint in defence of the troll. The students are asked to compare the two stories as they determine the troll's character.
Design An Ideal Pioneer Kitchen
After extensive study of pioneer life, students construct an ideal pioneer kitchen, in pairs, with the materials of their choice. Students must justify their choice of utensils, pots, and gadgets, placement of those materials within the kitchen and why their design is an ideal pioneer kitchen.
Help Save the Birds
Students will image they have the power to create and change laws to try and protect birds. Students will be given a realistic issue and will be asked to decide upon some solutions having the power to change or create new laws.
Hero or Hologram?
Students will identify, define, and validate a contemporary hero of their choice and critically evaluate their criteria for choosing that hero. Participants will learn to access tools they can use to become conscious of the distinction between hero, celebrity, and role model.
How Much Electricity Is Really Needed?
This critical challenge will enhance the idea of being power smart. The actual critical challenge the students will be doing is deciding if an electrical item is necessary or unnecessary and give reasons for their answer.
Investigating the Morality of a Story Hero
Students are asked to identify good and bad character types. Their task is to label characters as good or bad, and to determine whether a character can have both traits.
Is Raven A Thief Or A Hero?
The students will read several Haida legends where Raven is the main character. The students will discuss the question in pairs, then write one paragraph on what they decide, using supporting details from one or more of the legends read.
Leaving The Path?
The students will be asked to determine if Little Red Riding Hood should have left the path, and to give reasons for their answers.
Museum Inquiry: Asking Powerful Questions
The students will begin this challenge by learning some local history and by learning how to formulate powerful questions. Through this process they will realize that answers to powerful questions will give them back more information than those questions that are not powerful.
Our Community: Our Pride or Our Problem?
The students are to collect community information from local newspapers. The information will then be classified on the basis of being a community pride or a community problem. The students will be required to make a justification or judgement for the classification of the community issue.
Should Bears Be Hunted?
Students will establish their own positions on whether bears should be hunted in Canada. Students will be able to state reasons both for and against bear-hunting, and support their own positions with valid reasons.
Should They Play Hockey With The Team?
Students will form a judgment about whether non-conventional hockey players should play for a league team. The children will benefit from the challenge of considering issues of inclusion and difference.
Watching TV: For Learning or For Enjoyment?
The students will examine the kinds of television shows they watch on TV and why they like to watch them. As a group the students will decide on criteria for an "educational" show and an "enjoyable" show, and will conduct a two-week survey in their home, where they watch (and rate) a different show every night.
What Is It? A Study Of Early Canadian Artefacts
After studying early Canadians for several weeks and learning about implements and wares seen in a pioneer home, students will learn to use effective questions in order to make succinct observations and reasoned inferences. The students will list effective questions and make observations and inferences of several artefacts.
Who is the Grinch?
Students will consider whether or not the Grinch is a good or bad person on the basis of his actions throughout the story of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.