Team Learning

This article does a great job at giving ideas of how to incorporate team learning. Elementary students pair up with middle school students and they learn together. The great thing about this... See More

This article does a great job at giving ideas of how to incorporate team learning. Elementary students pair up with middle school students and they learn together. The great thing about this is that the older students are being reminded of basic science concepts that will help them build a foundation for harder concepts. This also helps the younger students learn these basic concepts. They have a buy-in because they feel like they get to be the teacher in some instances. I would like to see how this could happen first hand!

Collaborative Learning

explorations. The purpose was to introduce and reinforce science concepts that matched the national science standards for both grade levels. It also provided the lower grade students to w... See More

explorations. The purpose was to introduce and reinforce science concepts that matched the national science standards for both grade levels. It also provided the lower grade students to work on hands-on activities. The balance of the article describes how it was developed and describes several of the activities students engaged in. This is an interesting approach to collaborative learning.

Sounds Great !

I love this idea of Science Buddies. Although in her school they put a 2-3rd grade class wth a 7th grade, she did say a 5th grade class would work as well. I can see a 5th with a 2nd grade c... See More

I love this idea of Science Buddies. Although in her school they put a 2-3rd grade class wth a 7th grade, she did say a 5th grade class would work as well. I can see a 5th with a 2nd grade class or 3rd at my school.. This article definitively started me thinking of some possible ways..It would be a great way for 5th graders to review those 3rd grade TEKS that are tested in 5th.

Students as teachers

This article describes a program where older students partner up with lower elementary students to do inquiry science. This program is a little different from others I have known, as the stu... See More

This article describes a program where older students partner up with lower elementary students to do inquiry science. This program is a little different from others I have known, as the students are actually doing science together, while each collects and analyses data appropriate to their grade level. Previous programs I have worked with taught the older students the lesson and then they retaught it. Great idea! I would have liked to have seen more information provided on how to organize this program - when was time provided for coordination, were students in a k-8 school? if not how did the middle students get to the younger students? But the way lessons were selected and organized was well explained.