Adjust future planning to adapt to the direction of the inquiry
\To proceed with the inquiry, Mary and Jane decided to focus on three things based on the interests represented in the childrens observations and questions: (1) how the water harvesting system works, (2) how pumps work, and (3) how vertical drop affects the descent speed of objects. Their next stage of planning included:
- Consulting with the environmental science graduate students who installed the rain-barrel water collection system. The students suggest painting a mural on the wall behind the rain barrels to diagram how the system works and collaborating with the children on a book about water harvesting.
- Identifying resources providing information about how pumps work. They printed off images and diagrams of different kinds of simple pumps to add to the classroom library and share in group discussions.
- Bringing in the bicycle pump that they use to blow up playground balls and let the children use it.
- Bringing in several different common items with simple hand-pumping (nonpressurized for safety purposes) mechanisms including toothpaste, hand lotion, insect repellent, sunscreen, and a variety of squirt guns, including a supersoaker.
- Adding flexible plastic track to the block center that the children can build elevated systems for their small cars.
- Adding wood panels on the playground to be used with the large interlocking playground blocks for constructing larger ramps.
- Continuing with waterfall exploration by building a water wall, providing recycled bottles and funnels, tubing, and a flexible dryer duct that the children could attach in different ways to a wood panel to channel water.
- Encouraging children to use paper and markers to make large diagrams of the systems they are constructing to show how they work.
Account for learning standards as the pr
Adjust future planning to adapt to the direction of the inquiry To proceed with the inquiry, Mary and Jane decided to focus on three things based on the interests represented in the childrens observations and questions: (1) how the water harvesting system works, (2) how pumps work, and (3) how vertical drop affects the descent speed of objects. Their next stage of planning included:
- Consulting with the environmental science graduate students who installed the rain-barrel water collection system. The students suggest painting a mural on the wall behind the rain barrels to diagram how the system works and collaborating with the children on a book about water harvesting.
- Identifying resources providing information about how pumps work. They printed off images and diagrams of different kinds of simple pumps to add to the classroom library and share in group discussions.
- Bringing in the bicycle pump that they use to blow up playground balls and let the children use it.
- Bringing in several different common items with simple hand-pumping (nonpressurized for safety purposes) mechanisms including toothpaste, hand lotion, insect repellent, sunscreen, and a variety of squirt guns, including a supersoaker.
- Adding flexible plastic track to the block center that the children can build elevated systems for their small cars.
- Adding wood panels on the playground to be used with the large interlocking playground blocks for constructing larger ramps.
- Continuing with waterfall exploration by building a water wall, providing recycled bottles and funnels, tubing, and a flexible dryer duct that the children could attach in different ways to a wood panel to channel water.
- Encouraging children to use paper and markers to make large diagrams of the systems they are constructing to show how they work.