Environments for Thinking
and Learning
In this workshop teachers will examine
the characteristics of an environment that promotes thought and learning. How do the design,
the contents and the routines of your classroom affect students’ learning and influence their behavior? The physical design of the space,
the qualities of the materials available, the evidence of previous activity, and the actions of staff all play important roles in support of learning.
How to Put on
a Science Fair
This workshop prepares teachers and administrators for the logistics of putting on a science fair. Leave this workshop with a manual of everything you need to know, from judge/student ratios to criteria-based scoring sheets. Teachers also will run through a practice fair, setting up actual projects and judging them.
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Inquiry-Based Science
What is inquiry, really? This workshop will examine how teachers can support their students’ movement from a condition of doubt, puzzlement or wonder to one of understanding and appreciation. We’ll discuss and practice the roles of questions, suggestions and inference in inquiry, and model how teachers can adapt existing curriculum to allow for inquiry.
Question Types and Sequences
This workshop addresses the types of questions teachers use in their classrooms and the questioner’s role. How can teachers use opening questions to allow for varied responses and invite broad participation? With which questions should you follow up to support generalization and application? What types of questions support cognitive growth? Leave this workshop able to encourage and support “what if” questions.
Uses of Identity and Analog in Learning
This workshop investigates practical ways to use continuities in learning between past and present experiences and between present and future knowledge. Analog is a type of continuity associated with functions that vary over time and that are essential elements of creativity and the expansion of learning. Participants develop classroom activities that encourage children to make connections among past, present and future.
Using Discrepant Events
Teachers experience first-hand the motivation and curiosity generated by the twenty-five discrepant events in this workshop, events that challenge everyday assumptions and create doubt about what we think we know. Through discussion and practice, workshop participants prepare discrepant event ideas for various content areas, and develop
activity sequences that lead from curiosity to investigation.
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