In our continuing series of teaching styles, our Faculty was posed the question, "How do you exercise the teaching methods of project based learning, debates, and Harkness and Socratic style discussions in your classroom at The Founders Academy?"
Today we'll learn from Mrs. Moore who teaches Science 1, Health, and Physical Education at Founders.
Mrs. Moore:
Science is one of those subjects that makes project based learning easy and cooperative. One of the students’ favorite activities are Station Labs. Station Labs involve rotating from station to station (table to table), performing the activity described at each station, and answering the questions on the activity card about what they just did. They work together as a group to answer the questions which leads to further discussion and understanding of the concepts. Each student is still responsible for answering the questions on their own in their lab book which helps with accountability of their own work and understanding.
The next station lab that the Science 1 class will be working on is about simple machines. Each station will have various pieces of equipment with instructions on how to build a specific simple machine. The directions card will also include questions for them to discuss and answer about the simple machine they will have just built.
Station Labs are a great way for students to discuss with each other their thoughts and ideas. Students can get help from each other to understand the different concepts and the hands on activity helps the students understand the concepts in a more concrete manner. The Science 1 students have done quite a few Station Labs this year. They work diligently at each station and have been a wonderful job with them!