ABOUT CRAFTING INQUIRY

Crafting Inquiry is the Spear Center’s annual flagship conference, and it celebrates all aspects of inquiry-based teaching and learning. Each year the sessions and presenters offer a different perspective into the multi-faceted, exciting, and challenging world of inquiry-based education. We seek to bring together innovative and creative educational leaders from across the country and around the world to provide a unique and collaborative professional learning experience for our participants.

The first Crafting Inquiry conference was scheduled for the fall of 2020. Due to the COVID-19 shutdown, having an in-person conference was not possible, but we held the event completely virtually in the fall of 2020. Kath Murdoch, Stephanie Harvey, and Kimberly Mitchell joined us from around the world to share their insights into inquiry-based learning.

In October of 2022 we were thrilled to return to in-person professional learning with Crafting Inquiry 2022 as our kick-off. It was held at the beautiful Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon and featured Kath Murdoch, Trevor MacKenzie, Stephanie Harvey and Kimberly Mitchell.

In October 2023 we welcomed Lynn Cuccaro, Yvonne Liu-Constant, and John Spencer to Crafting Inquiry 2024 at the Kimpton Riverplace on the beautiful Portland waterfront!

In October 2024 we were thrilled to host Jo Boaler and Cathy Williams for a special, one-day conference all about math! This year’s conference was held at The Nines Hotel in downtown Portland, with a pre-conference reception at Departure Restaurant, offering a beautiful rooftop view.

Read more about our past Crafting Inquiry events on the ‘Previous Crafting Inquiry Conferences’ page.