 |
To
participate in an ongoing discussion of the Parachutes
Activity, or to read what other people have said, click
here. |
|
Parachutes
Learn
how to infuse kit based activities with inquiry. The Parachutes
Activity helps teachers analyze and adapt existing structured
activities into more open ended investigations.
For the
full text of the Parachutes Activity, click
here.
For the Parachutes
Criteria for Evaluating Activities sheet only, click
here. For the Parachutes Activity Task Card(figure
2), click here. For the Adapting
and Improving Children's Activities (figure 3),click
here. For the Sample Student Work on Questioning (figure
4), click here. Then, you
can print them out as you would any other document on
your computer. |
Why
do it?
This
is a good activity to do if your teachers are trying to
implement an inquiry approach to teaching using variously
structured curriculum materials like kits. It creates a
reference point against which to judge and compare the
effectiveness of classroom activities and provides a method
of designing a template for adapting existing materials
towards a more inquiry-based approach. |
How
to do it?
This
activity takes 3 hours, requires staff (ideally 1 for each
10-15 people) to facilitate discussions, a room (or two
if crowded, ideally with high ceilings for throwing parachutes
in the air), and requires the following materials: plastic
sheets (such as trash bags), string, tape, various weights
(such as washers), and copies of the Criteria
for Evaluating Activities sheet (figure 1). |
Doing
it:
This
activity consists of five steps including a group discussion
where participants can analyze and reflect upon their work.
Step
1
Teachers discuss and add to the Criteria
for Evaluating Activities (Figure 1) to evaluate an activity's
ability to advance children's understanding while investigating
their own questions.
The final
list can be edited and compiled at the end of the activity
so that the teachers can use it in future evaluations and
adaptation efforts. |
Step
2
 |
Teams
of four teachers build and test parachutes following the
directions outlined in Figure 2.
To see
what this looks like in action, click
here. |
Step
3
Each team systematically evaluates the parachute activity using
the group's agreed-upon list of criteria. |
Step
4
 |
Then,
each team works to redesign the parachute activity to meet
more of the criteria on the list. Participants move back
and forth between planning ways to adapt the parachute
activity and testing out the possibilities through actual
experiments.
To see
groups developing and testing their expanded curriculum
adaption ideas using the parachutes, click
here. |
Step
5
Participants share their re-designs with others in order to
reflect upon the adapting process and to discuss how this new
activity might be useful in their classrooms, and in helping
to adapt other activities.
At the
end, the whole group revises and adds to the criteria list
developed in Step 1 and retains this list for future work.
Having
done it:
After doing
this activity, teachers will have an agreed upon set of criteria
that can be used to evaluate existing curriculum and adapt
it if neccessary so that it supports a wider range of aspects
of inquiry teaching than is provided by prescribed kits or
other curriculum materials. |
To
participate in an ongoing discussion of the
Parachutes Activity, or to read what other
people have said, click
here. |
|
For
the full text of the Parachutes Activity, click
here.
For
the Parachutes Criteria for Evaluating Activities sheet
only, click here. For
the Parachutes Activity Task Card(figure
2), click here. For
the Adapting and Improving Children's Activities (figure
3),click here. For the Sample
Student Work on Questioning (figure 4), click
here. Then, you can print them out as you would
any other document on your computer.
|
Institute
for Inquiry Home
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