education

How does a pump work? Planning also includes considering all the decisions you make within the context of developmentally appropriate practices and your belief system. The decisions you make about how to structure the physical environment of the classroom will be affected by the curriculum you use, specific principles of good design, and aesthetics. Principles […]

What happens to the water in the rain barrels if they get full? 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 project proceeds As this project moved forward, Mary and Jane repeated this cycle of

Organize and reflect on documentation After several days of water activities, in their subsequent discussions with the children, the KWL chart was revised to add: K: Spray bottles are pumps (but we dont know why they work); some water can go up without a pump; we can make water go faster if we make it

Designing a Water-Moving System The challenge of designing water-moving systems was difficult, but the children were very invested in this part of the initial activities and every design presented was subsequently built and tested. Among their observations, they note that: The children are highly motivated to get water to move uphill but realize that without

Week One Water Activities During the first week, as Mary and Jane began predicting the direction of the long-term study, they focused on moving water. Document what happens Mary and Jane review their notes and the drawings done by the children. Place Your Order Here!

Provide materials and resources to support multiple possibilities for directions the inquiry might take As with thematic unit planning, teachers use brainstorming to organize their ideas about potential activities and explorations. Mary and Janes brainstorming included the ideas represented in Figure 6.9 to investigate the questions and theories represented in the childrens KWL chart. Since

Brainstorming for Exploring Power, Force, and Motion This graphic organizer indicates Mary and Jane’s initial thinking about open-ended activities that would help direct the project. Place Your Order Here!

What makes things go fast if they dont have a motor? Chart on Power, Force, and Motion K: What We Know W: What We Want to Know L: How We Can Learn/Find Out Water is strong. Water has invisible powers. Water cant go up. Wind is strong. Wind is invisible, like water, but you can

Choose a tentative topic As the teachers revisited their observation journals and looked back through the childrens writing journals, their insight was that the concepts of power, force, and motion were themes the children had already been exploring for months; but because the contexts for this exploration had seemed so disconnected, they had not recognized