Inquiry Based Teaching and Learning

If you are looking for K-12 science lesson plans, web resources, and references to support inquiry based teaching and learning, you have probably found this search difficult. Like other web resources it takes time to surf the web and find them. What is needed is a directory of science inquiry based resources categorized into topics that support K-12 science teaching and learning. What is needed is for someone to do this for you.

Directory resources that are most valuable to K-12 science educators include lesson plans, assessment guides, curriculum guides, standards guidelines, search engines for science, and more. Also there is a need for online resources that support all science content areas.

Teaching Science using Technology

There are many types of technology strategies for teaching K-12 science. These include the use of web resources, online simulators, WebQuests, real-time data bases, online interactive websites, and many more options. A website that provides a directory of a wide variety of web based resources is very helpful to K-12 educators.

This type of website would be used to support their teaching strategies. Actively engaging students in learning, instead of being passive learners. You can take students on virtual field trips to places all over the world: zoos, volcanos in other countries, and more.

Additional Resources

Other K-12 online science education resources needed by teachers and parents include access to journals, current science news topics, and online science teaching research books. One particular resource that is needed is a guide for recommended reading books to support science at all grade levels. Reading is stressed even more today to meet state and national education requirements and an online resource would help educators save time trying to find books that meet content standards.

Because of the emphasis on standards and testing today, teachers do want to go to a website that waste their time. All resources need to be pre-screened to ensure that they meet national science standards’ guidelines for teaching science using inquiry based practices. Also, that the technology based resources on the website meets national technology and science standards.

A directory that has updated links is especially important to provide resources. Teachers and parents are tired of going to science directories that are full of dead links. It wastes their time and frustration sets in, because more valuable time has been wasted.

What is needed is an online science education resource website that is specifically designed for K-12 science educators and home schooling parents.

Science Inquiry and Technology website: http://www.science-inquiry.org

Technology and Writing Blog: http://drwetzel.wordpress.com

David R. Wetzel, Ph.D. – Currently a FreeLance Writer, Retired Science Education University Professor and Public School Science Teacher.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Wetzel

I don’t think that education for sustainable development is just another buzzword forgotten in a few years. From a global perspective as well as a local perspective we have to direct education toward what will be truly useful for each child and for each society in the future.

To have a fulfilling life should be within reach for all children whereever they are born. In too many parts of society and of the world children grow up in hazardous environments with very poor conditions for basic requirements and bleak prospects for their future.

Education for Sustainable Development is derived from the Brundtland report’s focus on Sustainable Development (SD). The Brundtland report requires fundamental changes in the society and its institutions, in politics and in our individual family life styles. Economic development cannot be separated from social development and a concern for the environment.

ESD for child development Educational research can tell us a lot of how to make use of education for sustainable development for child development.

The most important fact might be that ESD is an excellent frame for the empowerment of children. When we respect each individual child for its ideas and opinion, and at the same time bring the child into challenging learning situations we facilitate empowerment of the child.

Developing self esteem and empowerment goes hand in hand in education for sustainable development. A proper self esteem is such an important part of successful child development.

Another important fact is that ESD is a productive frame for meaningful learning. Opposite to rote learning and the acquisition of facts without much understanding meaningful learning situations help the child to engage fully in the teaching. By working with real problems the child can develop much better understanding of concepts and skills from the schools core curriculum in a meaningful context. The key to that is the opportunity to use and reflect on these ‘traditional’ ingredients of classic schooling in the meaningful contexts derived from the focus on sustainable development.

Education for sustainable development and schools Some schools have focused on the beautification of their school environment. This might help the school’s prestige in the local society but it isn’t helpful for education for sustainable development unless it happens as the students’ project.

Similarly some schools have put a lot of emphasis in making the school buildings more ‘green’ with solar power panels, recycling systems, water conservation measures and tree planting around the school. Again, such initiatives are only valuable for the learning of the students if they are planned as student projects. You cannot evaluate the quality of a school’s work with education for sustainable development from a picture of the school.

Concerning a better approach to ESD, headmaster and teachers should ask questions like: – How can we challenge students’ thinking on the future and how to make use of parts of the core curriculum in a meaningful way in combination? – How can we teachers cooperate to create stimulating activities and plan the teaching in such a way that the self-esteem of the students will benefit from it? – How can we help students to investigate local people’s concern for the future and how to make sense of such results? – How can we help students to try to make a difference according to their wishes and visions?

Education for sustainable development will gain increasing publicity as the picture of environmental degradation, energy shortage, climate change, increasing poverty mixed with increasing wealth and the overall picture of globalization becomes more evident.

We cannot blame our children for these issues but it is our duty to educate them to be able to cope with such complex and controversial issues and to live a decent life with a belief that it is possible for everybody to make a difference to the better.

Soren Breiting is an educational researcher that has traveled worldwide and experienced the challenges of sustainable development combined with the beauty of the world. You find his pictures from many countries at A-Z Fotos http://www.azFotos.com and basic information and resources about Education for Sustainable Development at http://www.EducationForSustainableDevelopment.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Soren_Breiting