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You are here: > New Teaching Methods |
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Learning through Inquiry
Educators generally agree that children learn best by doing. It is puzzling, therefore, that this awareness is only rarely translated into classroom instruction methods. Amazingly, rote learning techniques are still prevalent in schools. Children are often moved through the same pre-fabricated curricula while the creative and highly effective talents of mentor level teachers are often ignored or stifled. Rigid curricula (be on this page on this day) are neatly aligned to standardized tests but do the children (and society) really benefit from this one size fits all approach? Even the test scores themselves are providing some answers - that rote learning may produce test-takers but it does not produce critical thinkers or even the next generation of creative, enthusiastic scientists. This, at a time when critical thinking skills are increasingly in demand. Research continually validates hands-on inquiry-based learning as an effective teaching methodology for nurturing the future inventors and scientists.
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Science Teaching Methods and Resources
In this section you will find science teaching methods resources and assessment guides along with scientific method problem solving kits, lab safety manuals and creative interdisciplinary exercises.
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Connecting with the Environment
Included in this section are a number of resources to help children and adults connect with their local environment, in other words to develop a sense of place. In so doing, individuals often come to understand that their efforts really do make a difference and that their interactions with both natural and built communities influence their emotional and intellectual growth in a positive manner.
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Center for Gifted Education Publications
The Center for Gifted Education at The College of William and Mary was established in 1988 to provide services to educators, policy makers, graduate students, researchers, parents, and students in support of the needs of gifted and talented individuals. Their science and nature publications are found in this section.
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GEMS Curricula
Great Explorations in Math and Science (GEMS), developed by educators at the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley, offers a wide array of activities for enhancing science education for students in grades K-9. The GEMS guides undergo extensive field testing and are filled with effective, creative exercises for enhancing student interest in and knowledge of math and science.
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Standardized Testing - Problems and Issues
In education, decades are often defined by movements such as the open classrooms of the 1970's. Recently, testing mania has taken over the schools, much to the delight of the corporations that make produce "standardized" tests and the rigid texts and curricula that feed into them. Research suggests that there are a number of problems with this approach, not to mention the stifling impact these programs have on creative, mentor teachers. This section contains resources that suggest alternatives to the current system of producing standardized minds in a world that increasingly demands creative thinkers.
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Alternative Assessment Techniques & the Standards
This section includes the latest resources addressing science standards along with suggestions of alternative methods of meeting those standards.
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SALE ITEMS: Science Teaching Methods
The teaching methods and educational theory resources on sale here are from catalog overstock and special purchases. All of these products are in new, mint condition at prices ranging from 35-65% off. New sale items are constantly being added (and removed when gone).
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