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Inquiry

Our Papermaking Activity

Submitted by Barbara Kauffman on Wed, 07/30/2008 - 9:21pm

Our Papermaking Activity

Submitted by Barbara Kauffman on Wed, 07/30/2008 - 3:01pm.

I believe that Wil's Papermaking Activity would fit in very well with my elementary school students. Actually, teachers could create a unit that incorporates several subjects (such as science, reading, writing, social studies, and math) so that we'd be teaching across the curriculum.

Making Paper: A Hook for Plant related Topics?

What is paper made of?

Let's Make Paper!

Paper Making;

Dna, Heredity and Mutation

Submitted by Babtunde A Oronti on Tue, 07/29/2008 - 9:42am

TOPIC: DNA, INHERITABLE CHARACTERS AND MUTATION

OBJECTIVES:

Physiology Exercises

Physiology is often presented as if 'everything' is already known about the subject. Students then feel that they just have to 'know' the parts and their interactions to understand physiology. Is there still room for inquiry in physiology?

What is physiology?

Why study it?

Some interesting hands-on activities by Ingrid Waldron

Regulation of Human Heart Rate

baroreflex

dive reflex

Breathing and Holding Your Breadth

American Physiological Society: K-12 education resources

Similarities and Differences

Great work so far. By Friday it was more clear to me how inquiry is common to all human understanding/exploration/generation of meaning. Each domain can be characterized by a process of inquiry that continues to give birth to revised and novel stories, some about ourselves, our emotions our hopes and fears, some about the external material world that we live in as well as stories about our emotions, hopes and fears. Many comments to this effect in the online forum as well.

But what about the differences between the Humanities and the Sciences.

Judith's Watershed Presentation

Submitted by Barbara Kauffman on Fri, 07/25/2008 - 7:41pm

Submitted by Barbara Kauffman on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 2:04pm.

It was refreshing to hear about the environmental learning that goes on inside (and outside) Judith Odom's classes in Chester High School. My co-worker, Tola Oronti & I have covered some of the basic concepts that Judith offered her 8th graders in our SDP Land & Water unit. Our students & I were especially enthusiastic about working in cooperative groups. We have a spiraling curriculum and students can build on their learning more and more each year.

Video Gallery

Raw Video Clips (Click on link and download with "save to disk" option, then import into Movie Maker)

Strawberry Activity Clip 1

Strawberry Activity Clip 2

Strawberry Activity Clip 3

Strawberry Activity Clip 4

Videos by Institute Participants:

Franklin, Wil

Student Research Summer 2008

Critique of Biology Labs On-Line as Open Ended Inquiry

Submitted by Susan Dorfman on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 4:18pm

I chose to use a Biology Labs On-Line activtiy because I have used The Fly Lab in the past and the company claims that these virtual labs are inquiry based. Initially, the Fly Lab seemed exciting in that it was a virtual lab that permitted an investigation into the genetics of the Drosophila melanogaster without using the flies and in a time frame possible with our schedule. After several years, I noticed thet students were easily frustrated by the technical difficulties of doing a lab online and became bored with the tediousness of the activity. I decided to investigate another online lab, Population Genetics, according to the criteria we set in this Institute for open-ended inquiry exercises.

Critique a lesson

Submitted by Deesha Lockett on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 3:25pm

Inquiry

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/scientificInq1/

Here is a website for a lesson on pollution:

how people affect the environment

how pollution affects plants and animals

how to get rid of waste at school

I think this is a topic of interest that students would have a lot of thoughts and questions about

It gives students an opportunity to share what they currently understand about pollution and discuss the different experiences they have with litter and pollution in regards to the different environment they live in. The activity of collecting samples of trash around the school gives opportunity to make surprising observations of items they might not expect to find at school.

Edutopia as a source for inquiry and project based learning

Submitted by bronstein on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 3:16pm

Inquiry

For a year or 2 now I have subscribed to edutopia, an organization started (or at least funded) by George Lucas. It's stated purpose is to further the use of inquiry-based and interdisciplinary methods of education. Each month (or several times a month by the # of emails I get from them) they find or create and disseminate ideas, suggestions or plans for project based lessons for all age groups. One article I just came across that had meaning for me can be found at:

http://www.edutopia.org/no-books-no-problem