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Seven Questions to Find Out If Your Question is Essential

By

Alec Patton

PUBLISHED October 16, 2025

PUBLISHED October 16, 2025

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One of the central components of project-based learning is the “essential question.” The essential question is the engine that propels the inquiry in your project. A well-crafted essential question requires students to conduct serious research, and also inspires conversations among friends at lunch, and family at dinner.

Expect to come up with a few versions of your essential question before you settle on one that works. You may want to share draft versions with students to see which ones capture their imaginations!

1. What’s the simplest possible way you could ask about the most complex ideas in your project?

2. What question emerges naturally from a real problem or need that your students could actually help address?

3. Can this question be answered with a google search?

4. Is the essential question a “leading question?”

  • A leading question contains assumptions about what the “right” answer is. For example, the question “How can we help integrate refugees into our community?” assumes students already agree their community should accept refugees. Leading questions do significant cognitive work for students, and steer them to specific responses. A student who disagrees has no entry point. Compare this to “Why is there a refugee crisis and what should we do about it?” which requires students to grapple with fundamental questions first.

5. Can students connect every single activity in your project back to your essential question in a meaningful way?

6. Will students want to keep talking about this question when they aren’t in class?

7. Will different students be able to explore this question in different ways?

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