SCI3660: Critical Thinking, Collaboration and Science Inquiry for 6-8

Overview

Have your science students lost the “wow” factor? If the answer can’t be found in the text, do they seem lost? Critical thinking, collaboration, and inquiry skills are critical components of a science classroom. Finding and incorporating the appropriate, grade level web resources into class projects can foster these skills. The proper use of technology can reinforce basic skills and help to build a mental scaffold that ultimately has students analyzing and evaluating data, questioning each other, and collaborating in a way that promotes higher order thinking. In this course, we will explore the components and benefits of functional cooperative learning groups and inquiry learning. As an outcome of this course, we will create a web-based project that employs collaboration, critical thinking skills, and inquiry.

Goals

• By the end of this workshop, learners will gain the skills necessary to identify the components of cooperative groups, analyze grouping strategies, and recognize the benefits of using learning groups in the science classroom.
• During this course participants will analyze existing web enhanced projects and for evidence of critical thinking and cooperative strategies.
• As participants learn from peers in discussion groups and weigh the value of inquiry in the science classroom, learners will apply this knowledge and evaluate web-based inquiry activities.
• Participants in this course will practice higher order questioning skills in order to help students create a mental scaffold and then assimilate these skills into a web based project.
• Learners completing this course will use technology to create a web enhanced project that requires students to use critical thinking skills, cooperative learning, & inquiry.