How to Make Great Teachers

We never forget our best teachers—those who imbued us with a deeper understanding or an enduring passion, the ones we come back to visit years after graduating, the educators who opened doors and altered the course of our lives. I was lucky enough to encounter two such teachers my senior year in a public high school in Connecticut. Dr. Cappel told us from the outset that his goal was not to prepare us for the AP biology exam; it was to teach us how to think like scientists, which he proceeded to do with a quiet passion, mainly in the laboratory. Mrs. Hastings, my stern, Radcliffe-trained English teacher, was as devoted to her subject as the gentle Doc Cappel was to his: a tough taskmaster on the art of writing essays and an avid guide to the pleasures of James Joyce. Looking back, I'd have to credit this inspirational pair for carving the path that led me to a career writing about science.
It would be wonderful if we knew more about teachers such as these and how to multiply their number. How do they come by their craft? What qualities and capacities do they possess? Can these abilities be measured? Can they be taught? Perhaps above all: How should excellent teaching be rewarded so that the best teachers—the most competent, caring and compelling—remain in a profession known for low pay, low status and soul-crushing bureaucracy?
Such questions have become critical to the future of public education in the U.S. Even as politicians push to hold schools and their faculty members accountable as never before for student learning, the nation faces a shortage of teaching talent. About 3.2 million people teach in U.S. public schools, but, according to projections by economist William Hussar at the National Center for Education Statistics, the nation will need to recruit an additional 2.8 million over the next eight years owing to baby-boomer retirement, growing student enrollment and staff turnover—which is especially rapid among new teachers. Finding and keeping high-quality teachers are key to America's competitiveness as a nation. Recent test results show that U.S. 10th-graders ranked just 17th in science among peers from 30 nations, while in math they placed in the bottom five. Research suggests that a good teacher is the single most important factor in boosting achievement, more important than class size, the dollars spent per student or the quality of textbooks and materials.
Across the country, hundreds of school districts are experimenting with new ways to attract, reward and keep good teachers. Many of these efforts borrow ideas from business. They include signing bonuses for hard-to-fill jobs like teaching high school chemistry, housing allowances ($15,000 in New York City) and what might be called combat pay for teachers who commit to working in the most distressed schools. But the idea gaining the most momentum—and controversy—is merit pay, which attempts to measure the quality of teachers' work and pay teachers accordingly.
Traditionally, public-school salaries are based on years spent on the job and college credits earned, a system favored by unions because it treats all teachers equally. Of course, everyone knows that not all teachers are equal. Just witness how parents lobby to get their kids into the best classrooms. And yet there is no universally accepted way to measure competence, much less the ineffable magnetism of a truly brilliant educator. In its absence, policymakers have focused on that current measure of all things educational: student test scores. In districts across the country, administrators are devising systems that track student scores back to the teachers who taught them in an attempt to apportion credit and blame and, in some cases, target help to teachers who need it. Offering bonuses to teachers who raise student achievement, the theory goes, will improve the overall quality of instruction, retain those who get the job done and attract more highly qualified candidates to the profession—all while lifting those all-important test scores.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1713473,00.html#ixzz1SSFmwBXm

THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS

Traditionally, thought experiments are highly-structured hypothetical questions that employ “What if?” in some fashion in the fields of philosophy, physics and other sciences.  I use the term “Thought Experiment” in the broadest and loosest sense of the term.  My thought experiments are designed to:
• Help us understand the way we think through reflection on the experiment.
• Identify flaws in the way we have been educated.
• Help us find the right question.  For example, it does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing.  The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful?
• Show how all things are subject to interpretation.
• Show how to look at the same thing as everyone else and see something different
• Encourage different ways of thinking.
• Encourage fluidity in thought.
• Challenge functional fixedness which is a cognitive bias that limits a person to using an object only in the way is traditionally used.
• Promote thinking beyond the boundaries of already established fact.

resources; http://creativethinking.net/WP07_ThoughtExperiments.htm

creative thinking

  

Definition

A way of looking at problems or situations from a fresh perspective that suggests unorthodox solutions (which may look unsettling at first). Creative thinking can be stimulated both by an unstructured process such as brainstorming, and by a structured process such as lateral thinking.

Leading Innovation

Innovation is a hot topic these days. From what I have seen, organizations have been outsourcing innovation for the last 10-15 years. It began with a reliance on ad agencies and then shifted to “design” companies like IDEO and JUMP. Now the business airwaves and media announce the need for more innovation, faster and more radical than ever before, and the literature of full of “how to innovate” books and articles.

It seems easy to say we want to innovate, but it feels like going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, you are leaving all you know behind for a visit to Chaos. Confronted by all the mystery and disorder that precedes innovation, our challenge as leaders is to help people make meaning of the journey. As Dee Hock describes, “Making good judgments and acting wisely when one has complete data, facts, and knowledge [control] is not leadership. It’s not even management. It’s bookkeeping. Leadership is the ability to make wise decisions, and act responsibly upon them when one has little more than a clear sense of direction and proper values; that is, a perception of how things ought to be, an understanding how they are, and some indication of the prevalent forces driving change.” In this sense, innovation is the end product of a disruptive cycle of Adaptive Change.

To innovate is to intentionally let go of the “way things are” and welcome “the way they could be.” Breakdown is the first step toward innovation, an intentional release of established habits of thought, expectations, assumptions, and beliefs in order to embrace “not knowing”. The concept of surfing the “edge of chaos” sounds exciting until you get there and leave control at the door. In Adaptive Change we call this the Fall.

Fortunately, Breakdown doesn’t last. As we confront the mess, we naturally make meaning of it, allowing order and Breakthroughs to emerge – the “ah-ha” moments that we love to experience. The journey from Breakdown to Breakthrough, the Cauldron of Change, is a period of stress (high enough to motivate and mobilize, and potentially immobilize), uncertainty, and unpredictability. There is no clear way forward, we are reduced to trial-and-error experimentation. This is a period that requires a rapid and straightforward learning cycle, one that encourages experimentation and taking smart risks as you learn your way forward. Sense-Test-Adapt, a biomimetic cycle that is just what it says, propels you forward as order emerges from the chaos. The faster you cycle the faster you learn.

Breakthroughs get you out of Chaos and into Complexity – you are half way home but you are still not “in control”. Complexity requires Imagination, which takes you beyond creativity and taps into mystery. Mystery allows us to explore “things in our environment that excite our curiosity but elude our understanding.[1] In the complex domain hunches and ah-has pull us forward by removing extraneous information and linking up ideas to form a system of inquiry. In this way novelty is morphed into a myriad of possibilities.

With all these possibilities we begin to follow our hunches to their logical conclusions, picking one or two and applying all our knowledge, know-how, technology, etc. to understand them. In this way we make the imagined “real”, manifest as products, programs, services, and art. Making “manifest” is the phase I call Innovation. Innovation without the journey through chaos and mystery is evolutionary at best, incremental most often. Innovation as the conclusion of the full cycle is revolutionary, tapping into our most creative spaces and pulling forth something remarkably different from where we started.
Do’s for leading innovation

Foster an environment of imagination, exploration, acceptable risk, and “what ifs.” Meet the Devil’s Advocate at the door and refuse them entry.
Give people time to think, toys to spark off, and diverse partners to play with. The resource needs and costs of Innovation rise over time. Resources that drive early innovation, Breakdown, Breakthrough, and Imagination, are mainly emotional and psychological support. No leader can afford to ignore these intangible costs for the foreseeable future.

Relax when things seem out-of-control, it is part of the process and can’t be skipped. Focus people on moving their “crazy ideas” forward and making sense of them.
Apply the innovation cycle to your leadership development…hummm, now that’s a thought!

resources; http://managementhelp.org/innovation/

Importance of Critical Thinking Exercises for Children

Critical thinking induces the ability to acknowledge a wide range of subjective analysis of a particular fact. Critical thinking is to evaluate the reason behind a particular fact. It also includes honesty, in the sense that we need not get emotionally biased for some nefarious purpose. When we get emotionally biased, we try to think about all modes of self-deception. Instead, at such times, we must think with open mindedness. All possible perspectives and viewpoints must be thought of before analyzing a fact, and this develops the problem solving skills in the child. A person must have a disciplined thinking and avoid making hasty decisions. Although, this is very easy to say but very difficult to implement. These thinking habits or this mindset is well developed in childhood. Once you are in adulthood, it is very difficult to mold yourself accordingly. Here are some of the exercises with which you can try and stimulate your child to think critically.

Critical Thinking Exercises for Children

Critical thinking skills are nurtured well at home, and parents are the best teachers for this learning activity.

Quizzing Your Child
Critical thinking exercises can be worked on casually by asking you child about daily activities that he/she does in school. Quiz him about certain things that do not have single correct answers. This will increase his ability to think on the things he has freshly learned in class. Or simply buy him some informative books like Tell Me Why. The advantage of these books are that they have colored images of the pictures that can be related easily to real life, and your child develops a better understanding of the subjects that are explained in the book. Keep on telling your child simple information about nature, like the seasons on the blooming of flowers. You can either ask him questions or just explain to him in a casual way. You should try to make critical thinking exercises for children a fun activity so that they will enjoy it.

Recognizing and Classifying Ability
For critical thinking, your child must learn to recognize important information that is relevant to the subject. Classification of things on a certain firm and logical basis of information is included in the critical thinking ability. Colorful toys or images can be included in teaching critical thinking. Ask your child to identify the name of the flowers, fruits and animals from a colorful chart.

Critical thinking exercises are not meant for making your child intelligent, but it is about making him successful in decision making ability and help him make a successful career. They go a long way in improving overall child development. These exercises help to synthesize intelligible data that can develop his thinking skills. Children soon develop the ability to think in a particular manner. Although thinking habits are cultivated in their early childhood through critical thinking exercises for children, they are indeed helpful for a lifetime. 

resources; http://www.buzzle.com/articles/critical-thinking-exercises-for-children.html

How Children Learn By Playing

Instead of having kids cram information and simply talking to them about various concepts, parents, along with several educational institutions are adopting the art of teaching by playing with children. This, they believe, is a better way of inculcating not only concepts but also essential values in life, particularly during the period of early childhood education, in the most formative stages of a child's life. It is human nature to learn by experience, rather than when told or explained by someone else. Certain things are learned only after you experience them yourself. You have to learn from the consequences of your actions, and then realize why you were or weren't asked to do something. Similar is the case when it comes to children learning by playing. Based on child participation and involvement, learning can be made fun rather than a mundane, stressful task, that emphasizes only on cramming as much information as possible.

Let's understand this approach by example. Why are kid's taught mathematics on the Abacus before they are taught it in the classroom? It is because the abacus lays a strong foundation upon which the subject revolves. The basics of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are all taught on this colorful tool, where kids learn by manual movement of beads how these concepts work. This makes it a playful activity that allows learning by playing. Now let's take a look at some board games that implement the concept of learning while playing. Monopoly teaches children how to use money wisely at a young age. It teaches them how to carry out transactions, and the art of decision making. While it is a highly fun and engaging game, it is teaching things that education does not teach. Games, such as Scrabble are designed to increase word power. If you look deeply, that is not all Scrabble does. By having a point system, it enables kids to strategize and make high scoring words by using letters appropriately in strategic locations. All these games in some way are educational games that teach children things that parents and the best education are sometimes unable to do.

In the digital age, kids are more technologically savvy, which is why a lot of educational computer games and video games have been designed to teach children, basic concepts such as strategy, the importance of team work, along with enhancing focus and concentration. No matter how much you may be against it, video games are engaging and increase focus among those who use them. It is this engaging quality that is now utilized by game designers worldwide to impart education by a medium that is fun. Puzzles, games that increase word power, games that improve memory power, that teach complex scientific concepts in a simple manner, are all available to help kids enhance their learning. This may be hard to believe, but some schools in the US have started employing this technique to increase learning ability of children, and have been successful with this method. These schools also help kids design games that allow them to learn in the process of designing. For instance, a detective game based on problem solving will help kids understand how it works while they are designing the game. Though problem solving is subjective and depends on the kind of problem one is facing, there are certain methods of going about solving a problem that can be taught by means of designing these games. This is an interesting learning style for children that has been adopted by some schools.

In the classroom, while going beyond books and all that they have to offer, children are also taught the power of healthy communication, of group effort, and the benefits of team building. This is done by means of various team building activities for kids. It teaches children not only to function as a group, but to lead and manage large groups of people, thereby imbibing leadership skills. Similar is the case with outdoor games and activities. Being the captain of a football team teaches a child how to lead, manage, and achieve goals by means of the aforementioned concepts. In activities like camping, children are taught the importance of nature, and the value of having the comfort of a home and a bed, when they are roughing it up outdoors.

All in all, this idea of 'children learning by playing' can be implemented in different manners. Not all children take to a particular activity and may have other ways of imbibing knowledge and wisdom. Yet, this is a very effective way of laying a strong foundation of concepts that are not taught by books to children. There is a lot for children to learn in life, and though not everything, playing with children, and teaching them in this process will be highly beneficial to all of them. 

resources.; http://www.buzzle.com/articles/children-learning-by-playing.html

Learning Styles and Intuition

Intuition, gut-feel, instinct - call it what you will. We all have it. But whether you pay any attention to the little voice inside your subconscious mind telling you to accept a job or believe a stranger... that's up to your Learning Style.
That's right! Whether you trust your intuition and make impulsive, on-the-spot decisions is dictated by the way in which you process new information, according to the Learning Style Pyramid model advocated by international education expert, Barbara Prashnig.
Intuition has been ridiculed by science for ages. Now it's enjoying a comeback thanks to the excellent book "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell (a number 1 bestseller). Gladwell recounts numerous instances where less information is more and how people from doctors to marriage counsellors only need 10 seconds to determine everything they need to know... provided they listen to their intuition and are happy to make quick decisions.
There are two kinds of people: spontaneous and reflective. Which one are you? Find out today, and discover over 40 other things you didn't know about yourself, using one of our Style Analysis products.

 

resources;http://blogs.clc.co.nz/LearningStyles/Default.aspx

ADHD, Learning Disabled or Gifted - The Misunderstood Learning Style

An academically gifted child is one who has a high aptitude for learning school subjects such as maths, natural and physical sciences, as well as languages. Gifted children's learning style follows a unique pattern of learning preferences, making school work easily accessible. Because learning comes easily to such children, it's almost impossible to believe that they could be misdiagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder). Yet many gifted children go through their school career labelled difficult or inadequate learners.

Through no fault of theirs, many schools fail to address the needs of the gifted child. They:

• Do not support the child's interests.
• Discourage curious questioning.
• Do not value self-expression.
• Lack opportunities for critical thinking.
• Neglect the gifted child in favour of those who struggle to learn the syllabus.

And here comes the problem. A gifted child might become frustrated and start to exhibit the same signs as a person suffering from ADHD. Worse still, gifted children may even have learning disabilities, concealed by the fact that their superior reasoning ability enables them to cope with school in the first few years. Such overcompensation requires more energy and ultimately becomes demotivating. Is your child gifted? Use our Learning style Analysis to find out.

resources; http://blogs.clc.co.nz/LearningStyles/archive/2011/06/09/adhd-learning-disabled-or-gifted---the-misunderstood-learning-style.aspx

"There's Only One Answer. It's At The Back. Don't Look."

At Creative Learning, we are fully behind the concept of paradigm shifts in education. Our Learning Style Analysis tools are poised to place a higher value on creativity and to challenge people's thinking about teaching our children in standard batches that resemble a factory process instead of a journey of discovery.

This is why we're delighted to bring you the video by Sir Ken Robinson about the paradigm shift in education. It's not enough in today's world, he reasons, to work hard, get a good education and a good job. A university degree no longer guarantees financial success. We should concentrate more on the individual (see his reference to learning styles on the 7th minute of the video) and on nurturing creativity in our children.

Now that you've seen the video clip, are you keen to discover your child's learning style? Click here. 

resources;http://blogs.clc.co.nz/LearningStyles/archive/2011/06/16/theres-only-one-answer.-its-at-the-back.-dont-look.aspx

Dealing with non-conformist Learning Styles

Is your child's Learning Style non-conforming? The dictionary defines a non-conformist as a person who refuses to be bound by accepted customs or rules. Applied to parenting or teaching, this means a child who finds it difficult to respect boundaries at school or at home. Such children are a bit different. Raising a non-conformist, therefore, requires methods not usually found in traditional parenting textbooks focused on discipline and compliance.

The problem is, if you force a non-conformist to comply, you may be raising a rebel. Ask yourself what's more important: that the child obeys your every command or that they grow up to be responsible, well-adjusted individuals? Alfie Kohn, nationally respected educator and author of "Unconditional Parenting", has moved away from asking how to make children do as they're told. Instead, he asks, "What do kids need - and how can we meet those needs?"

What follows from that question are ideas for working with children rather than doing things to them. He notes that while externally-motivated children respond to rewards and punishment in the short term only, internally-motivated children don't respond at all.

Kohn's solutions?

• Offer unconditional love.
• Respect your children.
• Listen to their issues.
• Try to say yes. Think how often you've said no to your child simply because it was easier. Or to save face. Or to pretend you have control.
• It is better to give your non-conformist some space and not try to dictate every aspect of his or her life.
• If their learning style indicates high responsibility, make them accountable for their behaviour.
• If your child is holistic, give them outlets to express themselves creatively.
• Remember that they will grow up before you know it.

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. summed up why we need to raise non-conformists: "The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood." Do you know whether your child's learning style is a non-conformist, internally motivated, holistic and responsible? Find out here. 

 

 

Resources; http://blogs.clc.co.nz/LearningStyles/Default.aspx

Teaching Love by Hand

This afternoon, Mckenzie and I made a steamed pudding together. It was the perfect day for it – cold, grey, rainy with wind howling in off the Southern Ocean – the perfect time for a mother and daughter to engage in the time-honoured transfer of knowledge that isn’t in a book or on the internet.

I know she’s only two and a bit, but I also know that I never really cooked until after I left home. The kitchen was my mother’s domain. Although my father cooked from time to time and I baked endless chocolate cakes to avoid having to write lines for forgetting to take my books to class, my mother cooked most efficiently alone. I would sit on the kitchen counter and read poetry to her while she cooked and she would narrate what she was doing, only occasionally requiring me to hold a pan while she scooped the contents into a bowl, or stir the gravy while she added stock. The rest of the time, I watched, and read, and learned.

In this way I learned not recipes, but what food looks like, smells like, what the texture feels like as it progresses from raw ingredients towards the table. This afternoon, as I worked around Mckenzie’s fluffy little head, helping her hold the beater, showing her how to cup the egg in her hand and how to time that sharp little blow with the back of the knife, I realised how much knowledge is contained in the simple act of making a steamed pudding.

Yes, there was a good description on the internet of how to tie the foil over the bowl, and that the bowl should be greased, but nothing about making a pleat in the foil to conduct the moisture away, how to make two straps of foil that intersect at the bottom of the bowl to ease the finished pudding out onto the plate, nothing about lining the bottom of the bowl with paper-thin slices of lemon, or dipping them in sugar so that they taste like marmalade or how to overlay them in a beautiful pattern like scales on a fish.

All this knowledge is contained in me. It exists, dormant, while I am driving on the freeway, teaching, sleeping, skydiving, but it is always there. It was planted there over a hundred chilly evenings, watching the smile on my mother’s face as she lifted the bowl off the pudding and said “Dad loves this” and many Christmases when either my mother or my grandmother would call on me to supply the pressure of one finger (oh hallowed moment!) as they secured the string on the pudding bowl before committing it to the water, followed by the patient tending of the pudding, topping up the water until it was done.

Over the years I have added my own variations and discoveries and of course, none of it is written down. I wouldn’t know where to begin. I will have to wait a few years before Mckenzie is old enough to supply that finger pressure on the string. It takes two women to do it. The string came off today when time came to lift the pudding from the pot. On your own, you just can’t do it.

In an age when many women’s cooking skills go as far as heating microwave dinners, I wonder whether Mckenzie will grow to love food in this way, not just as nourishment for the body, not just as a list of ingredients and instructions, but as communal enterprise, and the communication of love from the cook to those she (or he) cooks for, and from generation to generation. Her apprenticeship has started. She touches and tastes freely at every stage of the process (“Mmm… taste like egg”) and delights in her handiwork when the finished product appears, but still asks “Where come from?” In part, she’s right. A cake is more than its ingredients. There’s a kind of magic that happens and there are spells that bind generations together.

I would like to think that one day, in another kitchen, far, far from now, another woman, maybe Mckenzie, or maybe her daughter will work patiently around a little head, teaching things that aren’t written down, but written on the heart. 

RESOURCES; http://blogs.clc.co.nz/LearningStyles/Default.aspx

Parent-Teacher Interview Tips

To a teacher in the first year on the job, few things are as scary as speaking to The Parents. Some will tell you their child is not stimulated enough in class. Some will say the work is too hard. There should be less homework. More homework. Some want to know whether Johnny behaves at school, others whether he's made friends, surprisingly few ask about the actual learning.

It all depends on the type of parents you're dealing with. Here are some useful definitions to help you make sense of it all:

• Helicopter Parents are over-involved parents who hover over their children offering to help you with every aspect of teaching their offspring.
• Lawnmower Parents run ahead of the children, smoothing away obstacles in their path and sometimes even doing their homework.
• Tiger Parents pressure their children into overachieving, sometimes at the expense of social and physical development.
• Grasshopper Parents think there are things more important than working hard at school: sports, parties, holidays, family reunions, watching TV....
• Vacation Parents steer away from the responsibility of parenting trusting somebody else will do it for them.
• Groupie Parents treat their children like rock stars.
• iParents try too hard to be cool.

Determine the parents' priorities and address their concerns according to the type of parents they represent. Even if you're a holistic thinker, add a few details to demonstrate how well you know the child. If you're an analytic, it may help your confidence to compose a list of salient points about each child, something the parents can take away with them from the interview.

Best of all, you can impress the parents - as well as help the student - by mentioning their learning style. "Annie benefits from doing her homework in the lounge on the floor," or "Ben needs to chew on something, physically, in order to chew on a complex homework problem" is exactly the type of thing most parents need to hear. 

resources; http://blogs.clc.co.nz/LearningStyles/Default.aspx

Advice on Working with Teachers

These resources help prepare scientists who want to work with teachers. It is especially important to understand teachers' professional needs, work culture, and communication styles, and the ways in which these differ from those of scientists.

This article highlights some differences between the professional cultures of scientists and K-12 teachers, including differences in language, and encourages an approach that fosters mutual learning rather than expectations of one-way benefit. The introduction references some existing models for scientist-teacher partnerships.

"Approaches to Biology Teaching and Learning: Science Teaching and Learning Across the School-University Divide--Cultivating Conversations through Scientist-Teacher Partnerships." Kimberly D. Tanner, Liesl Chatman, and Deborah Allen. Cell Biology Education Features 2, 195-201, Winter 2003. DOI:10.1187/cbe.03-10-0044 [ 

resources; http://cires.colorado.edu/education/outreach/rescipe/collection/teachers.html

Advice on working with students

These resources help prepare scientists who want to work with children directly. Most focus on giving a presentation to a school class or after-school group and give advice to make these interactions more effective.

1. The "Sharing Science with Children" guides from the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science are outstanding resources and quick reads. They may be reproduced: you can download just the text, or a nice color versions that you can print in brochure form and hand out to colleagues, or you can order brochures from the museum.
   
   1. Survival Guide for Scientists and Engineers—written for scientists and engineers interested in making effective classroom presentations. [ noao.edu ]
   2. Survival Guide for Teachers—written for teachers interested in linking students with scientists and engineers. [ noao.edu ]
   3. Guide for Parents—written for parents interested in science learning in their home and community. [ noao.edu ]
2. Community Resources for Science is a community organization that matches scientists with elementary classrooms. These two one-pagers from their scientist training sessions will help you plan an inquiry-based science presentations for young children. [ crscience.org ]
   The ABCs of Classroom Science for Kids [ PDF ]
   Essential Elements of a Classroom Presentation [ PDF ]
   
3. Sandia Laboratories compiled this useful guide, which may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment. The section on "Working Effectively with Students" gives background information on child development and principles of learning, and advice for planning your presentation and coordinating with the teacher.
   "Science Education In Our Elementary and Secondary Schools: A Guide for Technical Professionals Who Want to Help." [ nas.edu ]
   
4. These materials from the NIH Human Genome Institute apply to any topic, not just genetics. They apply primarily to older students (high school) where an interactive lecture may be appropriate.
   
   1. Get inspiration and tips on organizing a presentation for high school students.
   
   
   resources; http://cires.colorado.edu/education/outreach/rescipe/collection/students.html

Inquiry

Inquiry—active participation in the process of science—plays a central role in the NSES, in both the science content standards and the science teaching standards. In the science content standards, the "abilities" of inquiry are skills and procedural knowledge that all students should be able to use in "doing science"--designing and carrying out an investigation.

The "understandings" of inquiry include ideas about science as a human process for constructing knowledge—that scientists use mathematics and technology, for example, or that they undertake different types of investigations to answer different types of questions. In the science teaching standards, inquiry teaching and learning strategies are recommended as especially effective for learning the "big ideas" or important concepts of science.