小学更新：好奇的头脑

在初级公共场所的午餐闲聊中，你可能听到过一些

今年秋天，五、六、七岁的食客们谈论的不寻常话题。 Words like “force,” “acceleration,” and “mass” peppered the conversations as students shared tales of elaborate ramp building projects, classroom bowling matches, and cars set to crack up on a collision course.

 

今年，整个小学的科学课程都经过了重新设计和调整，所以无论你走进哪个教室，所有的学生都在同一时间，以自己的理解水平探索同一个科学主题。 例如，今年秋天，课程的重点是力、简单机器和物质的性质。 “As 幼儿园ers transition to first and second grade, they will return to the same topics but dive deeper each time,” explains Science Department Chair Tim McCauley.

 

Science in 小学 has also moved to an inquiry-based learning model, where teachers and students start with a question like, “What happens when two objects collide?” and explore it through hands-on learning experiences. “Instead of filling kids with knowledge, we’ve created a science curriculum based on inquiry and curiosity that truly engages children,” says Head of 小学 Teri Lawrence.

 

 

今年秋天，幼儿园的孩子们通过在户外散步来探索推和拉的概念，开始了他们对力的学习。 The children’s observations led to a host of questions: Why can you push a chair but not a building? 为什么远距离抛球比短距离抛球需要更大的推力？

 

Sparking their imagination with a reading of Nancy Shaw’s Sheep in a Jeep, 幼儿园 teachers Anne Canada and Lee Bogaert challenged the children to use ramps and tracks to get a jeep from one place to another without crashing. 孩子们很快意识到斜坡的高度会影响他们的车能跑多远。 孩子们将这些信息应用到第二轮坡道设计中，并使用连接立方体来测量每辆车行驶的距离。

 

当学生们回顾他们的成功和失败时，问题层出不穷。 “As teachers, we facilitated the conversations, but the children were teaching each other rather than just listening to us tell them why,” says Lee. “The whole process was about discovery.”

 

与此同时，在一年级，孩子们探索了更复杂的问题，即如何增加或减少对物体的推或拉。 他们创建了一个由不同大小的瓶和球组成的教室保龄球道，并研究了为什么有些瓶和球比其他瓶和球更难被击倒。

二年级学生通过设置不同重量的汽车相互碰撞的轨道来研究物体碰撞。 根据他们对力和质量影响的了解，学生们对每组汽车做出预测，然后验证他们的假设。

 

“I love that we have the freedom to explore what the kids want to explore,” says second grade teacher Kelly Porter. “They don’t want to sit and talk about what a force is. They want to learn and explore together.”

 

 

虽然老师每学期都有一个主题大纲，但没有固定的教学计划要遵循。 “We know the content we want to get through,” says Tim McCauley, “but the path we take differs based on the students’ questions and interests.”

 

一年级时，一场贝博体育app秋季天气和迁徙动物的讨论变成了对帝王蝶的全面迷恋。 学生们深入研究，发现黑脉金斑蝶的数量正在减少，因为冬季风暴摧毁了它们通常过冬的墨西哥森林。 基于这种热情，这个班今年将在教室里饲养他们自己的帝王蝶，这样他们就可以亲眼看到帝王蝶的生命周期。 One benefit of the inquiry-based learning model is that “science can happen at any moment in the classroom,” says Tim, making the connections to other curricular subjects more visible. In a recent art class, for example, students were painting monarch butterflies while discussing the symmetry of the wings and the scientific reasons behind the butterfly’s distinctive orange coloring. 在那一刻，孩子们把艺术、科学和数学结合成一个有机的、跨学科的体验。

 

The scientific exploration and inquiry taking place in 小学 are providing 贝博体育app’s youngest students with a scientific base of knowledge, experience in the scientific method, and opportunities to document and display their learning. 最重要的是，教师正在培养孩子们对世界的好奇心，这将在未来的岁月中对他们很有帮助。 “The emphasis on inquiry-based learning here in 小学 prepares students for Lower and 上学校 science, where they have to use the content they have learned to answer open-ended questions,” says Tim. “This process helps students become better scientists because, at the end of the day, they are asking the questions that matter.”