Religious Inquiry Kits

This guide to creating “religion inquiry kits” was designed by Rachel Clawson, a teacher at Timberline Middle School in Alpine, Utah and a member of the 2025-2026 Network of Inclusive Educators.

This project proposes the use of religious inquiry kits to facilitate hands-on, inquiry-based learning of different world religions. Each kit includes religious materials from different religions that are important to the practice of the tradition. Students are instructed to respectfully handle and ask questions about each material before the teacher explains to the class the purpose of each item and the religion they belong to. See the Guidelines for Respectful Communication handout for guidance.

The Inquiry Kits for Teaching World Religions were developed to provide a tangible, interactive approach to exploring world religions by integrating tradition-specific objects, images, sounds, and scents into classroom learning. Designed for secondary history, geography, and religion classrooms, the kits encourage curiosity and deeper understanding by emphasizing diverse, lived religious experiences rather than traditional textbook learning.

The project was created to address several common challenges in teaching world religions:

• Many students have limited exposure to religious traditions outside their own experiences.
• Opportunities to visit houses of worship are often limited or unavailable.

The inquiry kits seek to:

1. Bring an immersive field trip experience into the classroom.
2. Provide educators opportunities to experience immersive interactions with faith leaders to foster confidence in supporting student exploration.
3. Create active and situated learning experiences that encourage respectful inquiry, curiosity, and meaningful discussion.

The kits can be used:

• As an introduction to a new religious tradition, community, or practice.
• During inquiry stations.
• In small-group investigations.
• As part of comparative religion units.
• Before or after studying primary sources.
• To prepare students for visits from guest speakers or faith community members

Download this resource to access the full Religious Inquiry Kits materials guide and instructions.