Focus on Friends: Olivia, Jaja and Jessica—Imaginative Inquiry in the Lower School

A few summers ago, while exploring professional development opportunities, Lower School teacher Olivia Elliott came across a workshop on Imaginative Inquiry. The approach immediately resonated, echoing the kind of inquiry-driven work she had experienced in graduate school. After attending a week-long training, Olivia returned to Friends Seminary eager to explore what this kind of work could look like in her classroom. That enthusiasm soon connected with the work of colleagues, including Jaja Engel-Snow and Jessica Contreras, and what began as one teacher’s professional learning took root across second and third grade social studies classrooms.

Imaginative Inquiry asks students to step into purposeful roles and engage with real world questions through sustained investigation. In the third grade Monarch study, students are commissioned as a team of citizen scientists working on behalf of the NYC Parks Department to investigate monarch migration and understand why milkweed has become increasingly scarce. Rather than being given information upfront, students uncover knowledge gradually through observation, research, discussion, and reflection. Monarch migration is introduced through a series of postcards sent by citizen scientists along the route, allowing the study to unfold as a story. 

For Jessica Contreras, this shift was intentional. “In previous years, children were primarily given information,” she reflects. “By viewing the study through an imaginative inquiry lens, students are now invited to engage in critical thinking, problem solving, and hands-on exploration.” In the Monarch study, this means students are not simply learning about migration, but actively investigating causes, consequences, and possible responses to environmental change.

A similar structure anchors Imaginative Inquiry work in second grade, where Jaja Engel-Snow and her colleagues have developed social studies units focused on city systems, including the Department of Transportation and the Brooklyn Bridge. In these units, students investigate how New York City stays connected, whom its systems serve, and how choices about transportation affect the environment and daily life in the city. Positioned as part of an expert team, students conduct fieldwork across the city, speaking directly with commuters and MTA workers to better understand how decisions made in the past continue to shape life in the city today. “I knew imaginative inquiry was working when I saw kids considering the needs of New Yorkers across the boroughs and problem solving with empathy,” Jaja shares.

The work continues to grow. This year, the fourth grade team is partnering with the Imaginative Inquiry organization to explore how an inquiry-driven approach might reframe parts of the fourth grade social studies curriculum. While this work is still developing, the essential questions at the heart of fourth grade studies about identity, governance, expansion, and immigration naturally lend themselves to the kind of inquiry already taking root in earlier grades. As Olivia Elliott notes, “At its heart, Imaginative Inquiry allows children to grapple with complex problems and find meaningful solutions.”

What unites this work across grades is a shared belief in what children are capable of when learning invites imagination, inquiry, and responsibility. Students are asked to wrestle with complex ideas, listen closely to others, and see themselves as contributors to the world around them. Imaginative Inquiry has become a powerful way of honoring children’s curiosity while helping them build the skills and dispositions they will carry with them as learners and collaborators at Friends and beyond.

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Focus on Friends is an initiative of the Friends Seminary administration designed to celebrate the people and programs that make our community thrive. Each month, a member of the Senior Administration will select an individual, group, department, or office—uplifting those who are doing exciting work, leading with creativity, or simply contributing in meaningful ways to the spirit of Friends. This month’s story was chosen and written by Hassan Wilson, Dean of Studies.