What is an Essential Question?

An essential question provides the basis for a successful project.

It requires multiple activities and the synthesis or combining of different types of information before it can be answered. It brings coherence, understanding, and meaning to various project activities and serves as a “lighthouse” that promotes student interest and directs students toward the project’s goals and objectives (Designing and Planning Successful Projects, p. 37).

Guidelines for Your Essential Question

Once you have a project theme or a “big idea” for your project, you need to frame your theme in the form of a problem or a question that cannot be easily solved or answered. Essential questions go to the center of a topic and they are challenging. Essential questions also address real-world dilemmas or problems that are interesting to students.

Refining Your Essential Question

Creating a powerful essential question usually involves drafting and revising more than one version of the question. Your question should challenge you on a complex or difficult issue. Your question should make you “do things” as well as “know stuff” (Designing and Planning Successful Projects, p. 39).

Essential Question Rubric
Essential Question Gauntlet Materials