Today is Wednesday, 13th of July. There are only 10 days left in Chicago... Our time here is coming to an end... :(
To leave these sad issues aside, let's concentrate on our journal task for today. Yesterday we went to the Children's Museum, at the Navy Pier. This Museum offers a wide array of exploring activities aimed at children's integral development. The offer catters for a a high variety of learning styles and levels. The majority of these experiences are science-based.
What we were supposed to do in the Museum was to explore the different activities in there to pick up those which were most appropriate to be incorporated to our lessons. As I have mentioned in class this afternoon I don't think Children's Museum is the most inspiring place for lesson planning in a secondary education context. I think we have many other alternative resources but, of course, we could find a way of adapting the idea to our students' age and level.
One good example would be the Dinosaur Expedition, a re-creation of the real Saharan expedition where Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno discovered a new type of dinosaur. It contains a life-size skeleton of the dinosaur, and children must dig for bones to learn what it would be like to be part of Paul's expedition team (http://www.chicagochildrensmuseum.org/index.php/experience/dinosaur-expedition). Bearing in mind that our students are aged 12-18, we should enrich it. I would use different types of fossils, distributed in different soil layers, set one above the other. Students would have to dig for fossils, identify them using a key and relate them to the nature of soil layers and to the way they are arranged, or in other words, to their age. They also would learn about paleontologists' working methodology.
As a second idea I would choose from what I saw at the Museum is "Waterways", where children can feel the power of water as they control the flow with pulleys, wheels, and pipes.I would make my students to build a water power station, so that they can go into renewable energies and specifically into the potential energy of water.
I'm looking forward to reading your WONDERFUL ideas...
Irene! Thank you for really thinking about how you could possibly adapt the activities at the Children's Museum for your older students. There was an area of C.M. where children could try to build strong structures. This could be adapted into Physics in trying to make a strong bridge out of toothpicks. Just an idea... by the way I can't wait to read your persuasuve piece. :)
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