PROCESS SKILL CIRCUS
/ HELPFUL STEPS (2 1/2 hrs)

draft

Step 1 (10 min)	Setting the context. (Why we are doing this)
	To reflect upon the process/inquiry skills within each activity.
	To begin to agree upon a shared general meaning for each process/inquiry skill
	To help teachers and professional development specialists to translate process skills for teachers and students.

The purpose of this activity is not to arrive at a "correct" categorization...but to try to uncover the differences in understanding and to look closer at the ambiguities.

Step 2 (40 min)	Partner groups visit the twelve process Stations that have been set up around the room. They record on the handout Process Circus Activity Sheet which of the five process skills they are using at that station.They identify the "main" process skill used at that station with a circle or a star.
Step 3 (40 min)	Discuss the stations in groups of four. (It is helpful to give the participants a handout showing the wording of the station cards.) After the participants have talked for 25 min, handout the Indicators of Process Skills sheet. Allow 15 min more time to discuss their findings with this indicator sheet.
15 min break
Step 4 (40 min)	Large group discussion of process skills.Table groups share out which process skills as a group of two or four did they agree or disagree with? Did they add any other categories to the sheet?
Step 5 (5 min)	Synthesis of discussion and read quote from Wynne Harlan's book Teaching of Science in Primary Schools, page 26, second and third paragraphs.
Step 6 (5 min)	Use the EXCERPTED National Science Standards "Science as Inquiry" section on the overhead projector and read the ABILITIES NECESSARY TO DO SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY K-4 AND 5-8

HANDOUTS:

• Process Circus Activity Sheet
• Process Circus Station Tasks
• Indicators of Process Skills