Inquiry/Project-based learning - Its importance in my unit plan

Imagine having to do an assignment for one of your classes about the ocean, its properties, and all the creatures that live in and around it. All you know about your assignment is what your teacher has told you without any further details than what is probably in your textbook.

Do you think that this would be quality teaching on the part of your teacher or quality learning on your part as the student? Personally, I don't think so.

With inquiry-based learning, a student could question the different types of oceans that there are and the different areas of the world that they are situated in, and how all of the creatures in that certain part of the world in that ocean live there and what that certain ocean has to offer the creatures that live in or around it. Why aren't there this certain type of shark in the Arctic Ocean but it is in the Pacific Ocean? Does the temperature of the water attract a certain sort of species that lives there or encourages certain types of plant life to grow there? Would a fish or plant from a warmer climate be able to survive in the cooler climate?

Students could test these different theories with project-based learning, which is a different kind of inquiry-based learning. Students could simulate different oceans with a program on the internet and the life-forms that live in or around them and see how they survive in that ocean as compared to a different ocean, or they could build an ocean habitat for themselves and watch what happens to certain plants or animals that have to survive in waters that are different than their natural habitats and how they flourish in their natural habitats.

This example has almost everything to do with my unit plan. This certain experiment can also be done with people. We can already see how that is happening by looking at all the immigrants that come from different countries to our own country, or by studying how we survive in countries or parts of the world that are different from our own. Why do you think that people live in different parts of the world? Look at the people around you and see how they flourish in that certain part of the world and what they use to keep themselves alive and make a living in their environment. What other factors like the weather of a certain area affect how people look? Do you know why it makes them look that way or how it helps them to survive in their environment? Also, after learning about all the people in and places in different parts of the world, where would you like to live, and why? Explain what qualities attracted you or what caught your interest while you were studying them.