Depth and Complexity

What words are specific to the work in this discipline?

What tools are used by the experts in this discipline?

What are the origins of new terms in this discipline?

DETAILS

What details define_______________________?

Which details are more important than others and what is your evidence of this?

What distinguishes this from other things?

What are its attributes?

What features characterize this?

PATTERNS

Describe the patterns you find.

How do you evaluate a pattern’s importance to what you are studying?

How does one pattern compare to another?

Identify the primary patterns and the secondary patterns.

How are patterns and details related?

RULES

Describe the rules.

Identify the implicit and explicit rules.

How do you evaluate rules’ efficiency and validity?

How are rules related to patterns and details?

Compare structural rules and procedural rules.

TRENDS

Describe the trends.

Identify the causes and results of a trend.

How do you evaluate a trend’s importance to what you are studying?

How are trends related to patterns?

How (and when) does a fad become a trend?

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

Describe the unknown details or stimuli for the event.

Identify the origins of an unanswered question.

How do you evaluate an unanswered question’s importance?

How do you determine if, in fact, a question is unanswered?

Which areas of science or human behavior can you connect with unanswered questions?

ETHICS

Describe the ethical issues you find.

How did or does an ethical issue affect the information you are studying?

Why are there different ethical issues in different times and places?

What are some universal ethics or values?

How do ethics get developed?

How does a culture teach or transmit its ethics?

BIG IDEA

List the evidence needed to support a big idea.

How do you evaluate a big idea’s importance to what you are studying?

How does working with big ideas help you learn new knowledge?

How are patterns, trends, and rules related to big ideas?

OVER TIME

Describe the past, present, and possible future related to this issue or topic.

Identify a time that this issue or topic was different.

How does knowing things over time affect what we learn?

How is history being made every day? How does this help us predict the future?

MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES

Describe the multiple perspectives on an issue or topic.

Identify a different point of view and explain it.

How does a point of view affect what we learn?

What perspectives do experts have?

When is your perspective different from others? Why?

ACROSS DISCIPLINES

Describe a topic’s place in more than one discipline or subject area.

Sort information you are studying into several disciplines.

How is “across disciplines” related to “multiple perspectives”?

How do experts in a discipline learn from experts in other disciplines?

What is concilience (and who is E.O. Wilson)?