Whitney Pomeroy
UMBC
MD

The Tree of Life

Sun, Nov 13, 2016 4:52 PM
interactive lesson allows critical thinking

This article showcases a great lesson that integrates art, science, and inquiry based learning in elementary school. Pre-planning is explained, co-operation with multiple teachers is delineated and the benefits of such work are clear. The children can certainly gain more information from the approach taken in the article than another text- based approach where the students complete worksheets individually and only learn the broad scope of information. I liked that the students continued learning how elements of the environment around the Baobab tree were dependent on one another after seeing the placement of their own artwork and captions with those of their classmates.

The Solar System

Fri, Oct 28, 2016 12:33 AM
Informative and interesting

I could recall some of this information from my own elementary school experience, but some was new to me as well! I found all of the videos and images interesting, and the descriptions were well thought out and beneficial. The 3 star rating is because the multi-part questions made the assessment very frustrating. Even after going back and reading the suggested areas, I got 69.2 twice and then 65.2, so I think for me the review made me second guess on the wrong questions rather than help correct misconceptions. Either a poor design, or maybe I really didn't grasp certain concepts.

Inspired Inquiry

Tue, Sep 27, 2016 9:58 PM
expanding teacher and student horizons

Previous reviewer, Adah, summarizes this article nicely. I found it interesting and helpful because of the teacher's admission to not knowing much about inquiry based learning, but trying it out anyway. The students in her class as well as her future students will benefit from her challenging herself and stepping into the unknown. This is an excellent example of science and teachable moments being anywhere and with any materials!