Before this projects the fifth grade students did a social studies unit on Native American tribes from each area of the United States. The students read their texts and the few related books in the learning center. They took a field trip to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and then made a cardboard model of the housing of a tribe in one area of the U.S. There were many scenes of plastic cowboys or soldiers fighting Indians. The assigned reports were clones of articles in Compton's. When we started to include the building of the structures in science, the buildings got a little better.With the use of technology and the excitement of seeing actual structures via virtual museums and other sites, the projects and learning is multiplied. Web pages, art works, models,slide shows and other means of assessment and evaluation, have motivated the students to stretch their learning styles and continue to learn long after the unit is finished.
Created for the Fermilab LInC program sponsored by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Education Office, Friends of Fermilab, United States Department of Energy, Illinois State Board of Education, and North Central Regional Technology in Education Consortium (NCRTEC) which is operated by North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL).
Author(s): Carolyn C. Dunmore e-mail dunmore@aol.com School: Braidwood Elementary School Braidwood Illinois Created: October 18, 1997 - Updated: October 18, 1997 URL: /lincon/w98/projects/yourfolder/pre.html