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A. Estoril, Portugal Agenda—Thursday, November
4, 2004 |
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1. |
Common Session 9:30-12:00 This Common Session
included two groups of teachers, Project Inquiry teachers and
Project SMART teachers. The groups were joined for the morning
session because of the important stress on constructivist
teaching and science and math process skill development. |
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9:30 Welcome, program
Overview, Introductions -
10:00 Constructivist
Teaching: Trees are Terrific!
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10:30 Round-robin
Science/Math Process Stations
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(Ken)
(Bruce)
(Vickie) |
| (Two of each station is
set up. Participants work in pairs to read the Task Cards,
spending no more than 15 minutes/station. They complete the Task
Cards/Data Sheets and Process Analysis Sheets. Participants
should complete 4 to 6 stations.) |
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1-11 Foil Boats
2-12 Drops on a Penny
3-13 Reaction Time
4-14 Button Sort
5-15 Body Parts
6-16 K-NEX
7-17 Bubbles
8-18 Pendulums
9-19 Magnetic Fields
10-20 Probability
11:30 Discuss Round-robins; Identify process skills |
(Amy)
(Bruce)
(Amy)
(Ken)
(Bruce)
(Bruce)
(Vickie)
(Ken)
(Vickie)
(Vickie) |
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12:00 Lunch |
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2. |
Inquiry |
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12:45 Archibald Frisby
1:00 Owl Pellets
1:45 Paper Airplanes
2:30 Break
2:45 Learning Investigation
3:15 Egg Drop
4:00 Electricity
4:45 Leadership, Summary and Evaluation
5:00 Close |
(Amy)
(Amy)
(Ken)
(Ken)
(Amy)
(Ken)
(Ken) |
B. Estoril, Portugal 2004 Inquiry and SMART
Project Participants
The following teacher/administrator leaders
were participants in the joint MAIS Pre-Conference in Estoril,
Portugal on November 4, 2004. Participants included Grades 3 to
6 teachers in the MAIS Inquiry, Investigation, and Design
Technology Project (Project Inquiry) combined with K-3 teachers
in the MAIS Science and Mathematics Activities for Region
Teachers (Project SMART). A total of 22 teachers participated,
representing 10 international schools from 7 countries. |
| Name |
School |
| Linda Franco |
American School of Paris, France |
| Lynn Talamini |
International School of Trieste, Italy |
| Tica Echols |
American School of Madrid, Spain |
| Sally Cameron |
Marymount International School, Rome, Italy |
| Jessica Neal |
Carlucci American International School of Lisbon,
Portugal |
| Ted Neal |
Carlucci American International School of Lisbon,
Portugal |
| Lizzy Mayer |
Casablanca American School, Morocco |
| Niki Strickland |
Casablanca American School, Morocco |
| Susanna Fajardo |
Casablanca American School, Morocco |
| Eli Bradshaw |
American School of Barcelona, Spain |
| Mary Prisco |
American Overseas School of Rome, Italy |
| Jan Williams |
American School of Paris, France |
| Christy Niemeyer |
American School of Barcelona, Spain |
| Stacey Kutschke |
Asir Academy, Saudi Arabia |
| Carla Menard-Beltramini |
International School of Trieste, Italy |
| Carol Vaughan |
American School of Madrid, Spain |
| Rosa Maria Rodriguez |
American School of Madrid, Spain |
| Christina Ridley-Thomas |
Carlucci American International School of Lisbon,
Portugal |
| Lucy Marra |
American Overseas School of Rome, Italy |
| Melissa Sentman |
American School of London, United Kingdom |
| Heather Craig |
American School of London, United Kingdom |
| Jennifer Rawlings |
American School of Madrid, Spain |
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C. Estoril, Portugal 2004 Participants in Action
Twenty-two (22) teachers from 10 different MAIS schools in 7
countries participated in the MAIS Pre-Conference on November 4,
2004 in Estoril, Portugal. The sessions began with introductions
and a program overview by Dr. Ken Mechling. Participants were
quickly engaged in an tree growth activity called "Reading the
Rings" from a book Trees Are Terrific. Dr. Bruce Smith
led the group in a lively mystery of interpreting tree growth
from the study of annual rings. Dr. Smith modeled and explained
constructivist teaching and its benefits for children’s
learning. Next, Dr. Vickie Harry explained a "round robin"
activity that had been previously set up in an adjoining room.
There were 10 pairs of activities, ranging from sorting buttons
to constructing pendulums. All included science content
information plus varying science process skills. Participants
were challenged to engage in the activity that was described on
a Task Sheet and, particularly, to analyze and describe the
science skills inherent in it. After about an hour, in which
teachers did 4 to 6 different activities, Dr. Harry drew the
group together to discuss the science process skills they had
teased out of the activities---skills including observing,
classifying, predicting, measuring, designing investigations,
formulating and testing hypotheses, and so forth.
During the afternoon session, Dr. Mechling focused on inquiry
and investigation, what it is and how to do it. He cited
descriptions of inquiry in science standards and gave examples
of children’s perceptions of inquiry. He then engaged the
Project Inquiry participants in various investigations as
models. Examples included experiments with paper airplanes,
electricity investigations including design technology, and owl
pellet mysteries. In all cases, participating teachers received
appropriate references, children’s books, and science supplies
for use in their own classrooms.
Following are photos of participants engaged in various science
experiences. |
Dr.
Bruce Smith challenging participants to interpret the mysteries
of tree rings. |
Carol determines the age of a tree by counting its annual rings. |
Dr. Vickie Harry describes the analysis of science process
skills in upcoming investigations. |
Here participants construct aluminum foil boats to determine how
many coins a particular shape and design will carry as cargo
before sinking. The content focus is on design technology and
buoyancy. The processes are observation, measurement,
prediction, communication, and design-redesign. |
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Estoril Training Session - Page 2 -> |
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