Pull trade books you will need. Give them the criteria you will use to evaluate their work. Have students brainstorm questions on the topic. Group questions into natural categories if possible. Assign groups to research the categories of questions.
Older children can copy the questions from the board or chart.
Younger students need an organized question sheet. Give students 10 minutes to start research. There will be chaos. Pull students back in a large group. Talk about what went wrong and what worked.