Introducing Depth and Complexity

Are your students new to Depth and Complexity? Start here to introduce each of the prompts.

Part 1: Depth and Complexity: 🏛️ Big Idea

Let’s get students thinking big and focusing on more abstract ideas.

Part 2: Depth and Complexity: 🌻 Details

Get kids focusing on the small, but essential, details of a topic.

Part 3: Depth and Complexity: ⚖️ Ethics

Want to add drama to any topic? Use the Ethics prompt!

Part 4: Depth and Complexity: 👓 Multiple Perspectives

Every topic looks different depending on who’s looking. This prompt teaches students to see through someone else’s eyes.

Part 5: Depth and Complexity: Patterns

Can your students spot anything that repeats? Or that has stopped repeating?

Part 6: Depth and Complexity: 🚦 Rules

Is there a consequence for not doing something? You may have found a rule!

Part 7: Depth and Complexity: ⏳ Change Over Time

Want to get students thinking about how a topic has changed or might change in the future? The ⏳ Change Over Time thinking tool is just what you need!

Part 8: Depth and Complexity: 👄 Language of the Discipline

Imagine a construction worker who doesn’t know the name of a screwdriver or a doctor who can’t remember what to call your neck. It’s pretty hard to communicate well without knowing the 👄 Language of the Discipline!

Part 9: Depth and Complexity: 📚 Across Disciplines

No topic is an island! With the 📚 Across Disciplines prompt, students note connections within and across multiple fields.

Part 10: Depth and Complexity: ❓ Unanswered Questions

This underutilized tool focuses students on what we don’t yet know and even what we can’t know.

Part 11: Depth and Complexity: 📈 Trends

Has something been changing recently? What might be causing that? What are the effects?