As I speak with more and more teacher-teams, I am becoming more and more
"charged" about the institute and what we should hopefully be able to
accomplish. It occurs to me, however, that there is still some confusion on
the ways that projects -- faculty-suggested and team-suggested -- will work
at Princeton, and how insights, experience, and techniques learned there
will be transferred back to your home districts. I thought a few words
might be in order.
Our vision for the July institute is for an inquiry-based experience, in
which teacher teams have the opportunity to explore active learning and
research methods by designing and carrying out their own research projects.
This experience will be augmented by the "visiting experts" who will
provide lectures, workshops, and one-on-one sessions at the same time that
you will be working (independently) on your projects. Some of the topics
covered by the "visitng experts" will pertain directly to your project;
some will not. We will offer a smorgasboard (three-ring circus?) from which
you can choose--it will be impossible for everyone to attend all of the
sessions.
The faculty-suggested projects are ones that we know (or think we know) are
do-able at Princeton in a month, make use of the expertise of the faculty
and visiting experts, and are, we think, transferable to RELATED but not
identical projects that you can undertake with your students in a similar,
active-learning based mode back at home. They ARE NOT intended to be
projects in which you create a set of materials to be used in the
classroom; rather, the experience at Princeton will hopefully help you to
develop your own teaching modules throughout the next year. Both the
project at Princeton and your own spin-offs will be shared and desseminated
through our web-based institute module, both during and after the
institute.
We decided to allow teacher-teams to suggest their own projects as well.
Some teams have chosen very specific projects relating to their own, home,
environment. This is fine, but in some sense it is putting the "cart before
the horse." Rather than think of what spin-offs you will produce from your
Princeton experience, you need to think about what skills, knowledge, and
approaches you would like to learn at Princeton to facilitate those
spin-offs. If your ultimate goal is, say, understanding a marsh system near
your school, you need to develop a research project for July making use of
a marsh in the Princeton area. So, for those teams that are developing
their own projects, please think in the next few days what types of
projects you can undertake during July that will further your ultimate goal
back at home. And remember that these July projects have to be done at
Princeton!
I Hope that helps clarify any confusion. There will be some growing pains
as we develop these ideas--but that's all part of the research (and
teaching) experience! I'm truly excited about what should be a very
challenging and helpful experience for all!
See you soon!
Mark
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Mark J. Johnsson Phone: (610)526-5110
Department of Geology Fax: (610)526-5086
Bryn Mawr College johnsson@brynmawr.edu
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Geo/Tierra/Tierra.html
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