Fermilab LInC Online

A School of the Future

Unit Description before LInC

Summary

Scenario

Student Pages

Rubric

Index of Projects

 

Grade Level:

Adult-Teachers

Subject:

Creating a School of the Future

Learner Outcomes:

Participants will be able to:

  1. Compare and contrast alternative ways of educating students with more traditional methods of instruction
  2. Investigate progressive teaching methods
  3. Research alternative learning environments
  4. Design a new environment incorporating the best of these ideas

Student Task:

Cooperative groups of teaches generated ideas for a school of the future. Orally they described the ideas they would want in their new school. After narrowing down the one particular trait they were interested in investigating the particpants picked partners to work with.

Using the PDA resource center and the local library the teachers located journal articles and books on the topic they were interested in. These topics included: curriculum, teaching methods, school buildings.

Once each team of teachers finalized their reserach they would put together a poster or mobile identifying the key traits. This, along with, an oral report defined their vision.

Teacher Role: The instructor handed out two product descriptors at the beginning of the activity. One described what was needed for the process of research (number of sources, time period, quotes from experts, etc) and the other defined the product itself (poster or mobile)

Grouping:

The teachers worked in teams to brainstorm initial ideas. No jobs were assigned and only one report-out was needed. The rest of the project was done in self-selected pairs with only one product produced.

Hook:There was no hook-just an assignment distributed.

Student-Directed Learning: Pairs of students could determine what to choose as their topic and whether or not to do a mobile or poster.

Use of Technology: The only technolgy used would have been the computer for word processing the final product. Presentations would have been made orally with visuals created with posters or mobiles.

Assessment: Teachers would have been graded on their effort in researching information for their project and on the final presentation. A product descriptor distributed to the teachers by the instructor would have given them the expecations.

 

 

Created for the Fermilab LInC program sponsored by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Education Office and Friends of Fermilab, and funded by United States Department of Energy, Illinois State Board of Education, North Central Regional Technology in Education Consortium which is operated by North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL), and the National Science Foundation.

Gina Keifer

Lockporty High School District 205 Lockport, IL
Created: February 15, 2001 - Updated: April 18, 2001
URL: /lincon/w01/projects/yourfoldername/pre.html