Science as Interactive, Interdisciplinary Inquiry

USING THE SENSES TO DEVELOP WRITING SKILLS

The science/descriptive writing activity on using the senses is most appropriate for my 4th graders. The children, as well as adults, can learn alot by using their senses to help them associate words with their experiences. I can utilize it in my class as a group activity to facilitate cooperative learning. This activity - USING THE SENSES TO WRITE A DESCRIPTIVE ESSAY - will allow students to enjoy writing down what they think and experience.

The activity this morning on using the senses is very appropriate for my class. I discovered that children, just like us adults, can learn much from using their senses to help them associate words with their experiences.

With the project I did in the Brain & Behavior institute 2008, students need help verbalizing their thoughts and experiences. With this type of activity {USING THE SENSES TO WRITE A DESCRIPTIVE ESSAY.}they will find it a breeze to write down what they are thinking or experiencing.

Also I can use this in my class with students in groups to facilitate cooperative learning. My BLOG has a lesson on USING THE SENSES TO WRITE A DESCRIPTIVE ESSAY.

I have enjoyed computer technology to a llarge extent in thhis global society.However,it has its' ups and downs in education.The computer is a needed tool to enhance our experiences.I would like to explore the possibilities of developing computer skills as it relates to inquiry.

The sorting activity with the animal pictures is a very useful tool for my classroom. Young children eagerly organize photographs and objects into groups. I cannot predict how they would sort the pictures, but I am sure they would, with great confidence, sort the photos into "the ones that are the same."

Counting the number of different plants is a harder project, it mandates 1:1 number correspondence and the ability to count. Given thiese skills, the children would most likely just have fun running around picking every plant they could see saying, "Here's one. Here is another one." Once we got ALL the picked plants inside, a sorting activity could begin. My guess is that sorting the plants would be harder than the photographs.

Young children do naturally sort items; it takes time to sort items that are similar and different in multiple ways. That learning curve seems to be a slow one that much education and modelling cannot rush to maturity!

I don't have a lot of experience in inquiry -based education.I would like to gain some knowledge about how to better increase the inquisitiveness of younger students in this arena.