Inquiry and Project-based Learning

Both the National Academy of Science and the NCTM Standards recognize that successful scientific inquiry and mathematical problem solving require that students be critical and creative thinkers.

To make learning meaningful to children, it requires connecting the curriculum to questions they have about the natural world. Children learn best when they build knowledge from their own experiences.  "Hooking" new knowledge to prior knowledge or experience is key.

In inquiry-based classrooms, learners (including the teacher) are engaged in doing. They are making observations; posing questions; examining resources; conducting investigations; reviewing what is already known; gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data; proposing answers, explanations, and predictions; and communicating the results.  In other words:  Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking and Creating (21^st Century Skills).

In a project-based classroom, learning is built upon authentic learning activities that engage student interest and motivation. These activities are designed to answer a question or solve a problem and generally reflect the types of learning and work people do in the everyday world outside the classroom - Sounds like INQUIRY.

Project Based Learning teaches students 21 st century skills as well as content. These skills include communication and presentation skills, organization and time management skills, research and inquiry skills, self-assessment and reflection skills, and group participation and leadership skills.

Both inquiry and project-based learning allows students to reflect upon their own ideas and opinions, exercise voice and choice, and make decisions that affect project outcomes and the 

learning process in general.

As learners actively build and construct knowledge and theories about the world, they gain ideas as well as an understanding of how scientists and other professionals work.  The inquiry is essential to learning.  It provides connection to prior knowledge, a focus on 21st Century skills,  and experiences that is critical for new and deep learning to occur.

Neat

A colleague was reading The Innovative Educator, and she came across a Top Ten list of 21st Century Education Quotes.  I checked out the site she shared with me and one of my favorite quotes was - "If we teach today the way we were taught yesterday we aren't preparing students for today or tomorrow".  Click on the link to read Lisa Nielsen's Top Ten List!

How to create a "My Map" in Google Maps

Google Maps in the Classroom

In my last several blog posts I have shared Google Applications.  Google Apps for Education is a resource within our district that deserves to be looked at seriously. Google Apps provides several possibilities and uses for promoting literacy and 21st Century Skills within any classroom.  I am hoping that you have taken time to explore the links provided in these blog posts to explore Google App and consider the possibilities for your classroom and your students. This entry focuses on Google maps  and introduces “power of place” in a classroom. Google Maps allows your students to visit  places that are otherwise impossible to visit.  From your classroom, you can take a field trip, compare cultures,  through history 
and visit wonders of the world!

To learn more about what Google Maps can offer:

http://maps.google.com/support/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=guide.cs&guide=21670&topic=21676

For Classroom ideas:

http://sites.google.com/site/gonegoog/road-trip

Discover Ancient Rome in Google Earth

Google Earth in the Classroom

Google Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographical information program that is currently available for use on personal computers.  Since its release in the summer of 2005, Google Earth has provided a means of combining satellite imagery with geological and geographic information.

You must have Google Earth installed on your computer to use it. You can

download it for free at earth.google.com. Follow the instruction on their site to

install the program to your computer.

The following sites offer great tutorials and ideas for how to use Google Earth in the classroom:

http://www.google.com/earth/learn/

http://www.associatesdegree.com/2010/03/14/google-earth-for-educators-50-exciting-ideas-for-the-classroom/

http://cnx.org/content/m32195/latest/

Teaching Screenagers

Waiting for me on the counter last Thursday evening was the latest issue of Educational Leadership.  It was a good read.  With each turn of the page, I revisited many of 21st Century discussions I have been frequently involved with over the past few years.
As I reflect on my career as an educator, change has been a constant.  It is the nature of the world we live in.  We are learning more everyday about how the brain works, how children learn and what best practices help us teach the students that come to us.  We also know that students come to us immersed in technologies that no other generation has experienced.
"Screenagers"(know as the iGeneration) have a tech world open 24/7.  Our kids don't question the existence of technology and media.  They expect it!  Their audience is no longer limited to the four walls of a classroom or dining room.  These students are aware of the global audience.  They Google, Blog, Facebook and Twitter all over the world using their iPod, iPad, Wii, or iPhone.  They access iTunes, internet, and applications to interact, entertain, communicate, problem solve, collaborate and create.
Education may be embarking on yet another incredible adventure and evolution.  Yes, change is a constant.  As we move into the future, we have to consider the world our students are engaged in outside of school in order to engage them in learning.  It isn't all about the tools we use.  It is about good teaching, responsive teaching, and engagement.  It's about embracing the learners we have been given the privilege to teach, knowing how they think and learn, and embracing the challenge to make teaching and learning better.

"Teacher's shouldn't be afraid of technology.  Understand that it's how we live our lives.  So don't just push it out.  Learn to cope with us and how we work." (pg. 46)

http://bcove.me/c5x7i4au