Workshop Slides Posted Soon

I will be posting the content slides from the Inquiry workshop soon. Many thanks to all of you who gave up your Saturday to be part of this learning community and improve your professional practice.

Workshop Resources

Here are some resources on inquiry teaching:

• Bransford, J, Brown, A., & Cocking, R. (eds.). (1999). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, School, and Experience. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
  
• Estes, F. (2007). Inquiry Science for Young Gifted Students: The Pleasure of Finding Things Out. Gifted Education Communicator.
• Estes, F. & Dettloff, L. (2008). Inquiring Minds: Reaching Gifted Students with Challenging Science. Understanding Our Gifted, Fall 2008.
• McTighe, J. & Wiggins, G. (2004). Understanding by Design: Professional Development Workbook. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.
• Ostlund, K. (2005). Scaffolded Inquiry. Journal of the Council for Elementary Science International. CESI Science. 38(1), pp. 30-32.
  
• Tomlinson, C. (2004). The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.
  

Slime Receipe

This "slime" is easy to make and fun to investigate.

Materials:

• White Elmer's school glue
• Borax (found in the laundry section of your grocery store)
  
• Water
• Food coloring (optional, but fun)
• Plastic baggie
  
• Mixing container and stirrer
  

Steps:

1. Make a Borax solution by mixing one tablespoon of Borax in a cup of water.
2. Make a water and glue solution, using slightly more glue than water. A ounce or two of glue is a good amount to start with.
3. Add food coloring, as desired.
   
4. Add a couple of tablespoons of Borax to the water-glue solution and mix until the consistency changes.

Your slime is ready to play with. Store it in the baggie when you are done.

Variations:

• Try different proportions of glue, water, and borax
  
• Try a 4% polyvinyl alcohol solution instead of the white glue
• Add shaving cream or baby powder to the mix
• Add some glow-in-the-dark paint

What did you find? What other variations can you create?

Workshop on Inquiry Learning for Gifted Students

On Saturday May 30th, I will be presenting an one-day workshop on learning though inquiry and how to apply inquiry methods in science, math, and across the curriculum in Riverside, California. This workshop is co-sponsored by the California Association of the Gifted (CAG) and the University of California Riverside Extension. You can get more information by clicking here.

First Things

I am a learner and a teacher, probably in that order. This blog is about learning science, helping others learn science through reflective teaching, and learning about how people learn science.