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Hi,

I'm also taking this workshop alone, so it's good to talk to someone else!

I used to teach in a much more open-ended, inquiry-based school system, and
did a few units where kids were given materials and "let go" to develop
their own experiments. (I think I did this during our "forces" unit - I'd
give them balls and metersticks, etc., and let them develop an experiment.)

But I am also having a hard time seeing how this fits in with the very
formal Earth science curriculum I have at my school now. There are so many
concepts to cover before the state test, and it's pretty tough to teach
about rotation and revolution of the Earth by letting the kids experiment.
I think I'm going to try to do some individual mini-units where the kids
free-explore. For example, when we do Newton's laws and the forces that
explain planetary motion, I'm going to have the kids build tops to see what
makes them spin longer. I've always done this lab, but I'm going to do it
as an inquiry-based one, instead. It'll probably take a week of my class
time rather than a day, and then more time for the kids to play around and
design at home, too.

But again, we run into the time problem! There's a week I would have been
spending on something else.

What curriculum and grade do you teach?

Mary Beth Clark
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kimberly Minton" <kmintyfresh@msn.com>
To: <channel-talkinquiry@learner.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2003 7:50 PM
Subject: [Channel-talkinquiry] Taking this workshop alone!

> Hello,
> Is anyone else out there taking this workshop alone? I wanted to ask
> someone about "letting go." I am finding it hard to let go of the
> curriculum that I am accustomed to teaching! It is a whole new way of
> thinking for me. Does anyone have any suggestions for getting started on
a
> new unit? How do you start out? Do you just throw materials out there
and
> let the children lead the way? It seems so foreign to me...
> Thanks,
> Kim
>
> _________________________________________________________________
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