Foundations of Inquiry
The course will provide participants with the tools needed to make science fun, enjoyable learning experience for students while further increasing their competence and confidence in science. The course will include pre-inquiry assessment tools, individual inquiry investigations, interdisciplinary learning and inquiry techniques, and critical thinking skills. Participants will carry out original inquiry investigations.
Required as first course in AIP
3 credit hours
Summer 5-day class with web based participation between 6/12 and 8/15.
Course Themes:
• Conduct a simple inquiry in small groups to review the importance of observation.
• Assess students before beginning an inquiry as step one
• in the inquiry cycle.
• Conduct an inquiry that focuses on critical thinking skills and how a teacher’s language promotes critical thinking.
• Understand the importance of interdisciplinary teaching and learning in science, math, literacy, and the arts.
• Facilitate the steps of the inquiry process in their classroom, leading to the final step: forming new questions for investigation.
Environmental Stewardship in My Community
Participants will investigate conservation opportunities and solutions in their local communities, practice inquiry-based learning, develop a conservation project to be used in their classroom or community, and reflect on their ecological footprint. At the end of this course, participants have a solid understanding of current issues facing local habitats and strategies for empowering their students or community members to generate solutions and take action.
3 credit hours
Fall semester; this class will meet 4 times during the fall semester, with participants completing projects throughout the semester via web based learning and web based participation between 8/15 and 12/10.
Required course
Course Themes:
• Investigate local conservation issues to understand causes and impacts; analyze solutions to these issues
• Strategies for engaging students or community members in local conservation action
• Explore principles of sustainability
• Community-based conservation
Integration Through Inquiry
Participants will learn to incorporate multiple curriculum demands into classroom teaching by effectively incorporating student centered, inquiry–based methods with integrated, interdisciplinary approaches. Participate in activities and develop curricula that can be used in your classroom. The course will include practical applications and hands-on approaches for teaching, developing, and implementing thematic units. Although science content is at that foundation of the activities and curricula explored, it is a fully integrated approach emphasizing literacy and mathematics in particular.
3 credit hours
Summer; 5 day class with web based participation between 6/12 and 8/15.
Course Themes:
• Develop curriculum that incorporates learning strands from math, science and literature.
• Broaden the scope of a current teaching topic to include math, science, and literature.
• Effectively demonstrate the use of integrated student centered methods.
Zoo Expeditions
A cycle of three different Zoo Expeditions will be offered on a three-year rotation.
3 credits
Fall Semester This class will meet 4 times during the fall semester, with participants completing projects throughout the semester via web based learning and web based participation between 8/15 and 12/10.
Required
1) Zoo Expedition: Habitats, Adaptation and Evolution
From the elusive ways of the okapi to the social behavior of Humboldt penguins, the Brookfield Zoo is an ideal place to explore habitats, evolutionary theory, and adaptation. Participants will draw from the Zoo's diverse collection of plant and animal species to explore key questions about why species look and act the way they do and the relationship between species and their habitats. We'll also take a look at the implications of evolution for species survival in modern times. Join us while we investigate the conceptual basis of the life sciences and implement vital lessons in educational settings at home.
Course Themes:
• The history of life
• The theory of evolution
• The relationship between species and their habitats
• Methods for investigating diversity and adaptation
• Curricular development and educational leadership
• Inquiry-based learning
2) Zoo Expedition: Behavior and Conservation
Participants investigate conservation and behavior through direct observation of various animal groups at Brookfield Zoo. Opportunities for comparative studies on topics ranging from social structure to communication. This course will provide a foundation for understanding research methods and conservation issues. We will also examine how course topics can be applied and adapted to teaching in local educational settings.
Course Themes:
• Classification and evolution of (focus animal group)
• (Focus animal group) conservation
• Design and methods of behavioral studies
• Curricular development and educational leadership
• Inquiry-based learning
3) Zoo Expedition: Plants and People
As is evidenced by the schoolyard ecology movement and the popularity of Richard Louv's recent book Last Child In the Woods, educators increasingly realize the power of local environments to engage students in powerful learning experiences that cannot be duplicated in the classroom. Join Brookfield Zoo in an emerging, vital conversation about the role of nature in human development and learning. Explore the power of inquiry to generate knowledge and illuminate the relationships between plants and people. Interact with ecologists, botanists, and classmates, while developing great ideas for using natural and cultivated plant communities in educational programs.
Course Themes:
• Inquiry-based learning
• Relationships between plants and people
• The use of wild and cultivated spaces in education
• Methods of botanical investigations
• Curricular development and educational leadership.
Master Plan In Action
In this course, participants will perform the largest body of work towards their master plan. Although the course is self-led, students will meet four times for morning peer review sessions to discuss their progress and offer advice and assistance with each other’s design and data analysis.
3 credit hours
Summer semester: this class will meet 4 days during the summer semester, with participants completing projects throughout the semester via web based learning between 6/12 and 8/15.
Course Themes:
• Develop a time line for completion of the Master Plan, including inquiry projects, Leadership Challenges, and e-Portfolio.
• Begin developing a cohesive body of work for inclusion in e-Portfolio, potentially design and implement side projects to enhance the overall quality of their Master Plan Project(s).
• Gain an understanding of experimental design and data analysis
• Critical peer review
• Critical examination of research methodologies from published studies
Climate Change
Participants will study the many causes of climate change and investigate potential actions to address global warming. During the class participants will discuss how polls affect public opinion, terms associated with global warming, the affects of the greenhouse gases on oceans, weather and climate, ice caps, the “Six Americans” study, deforestation, and potential affects on Illinois. At the end of this course, participants have a solid understanding of current issues surrounding global warming and strategies for taking action on a local level to address global warming.
3 credit hours
Fall semester; this class will meet 4 times during the fall semester, with participants completing projects throughout the semester via web based learning between 8/15 and 12/10.
Course Themes:
• Investigate global warming issues to understand causes and impacts; analyze solutions to these issues
• Strategies for engaging in local conservation action
• Explore principles of climate change
• Learn about polls, the “Six Americans” study, and how polls affect public perception
• Explore potential effects of global warming on the Great Lakes region.
Inquiry Independent Study
Participants will build on their knowledge of the cycle of inquiry by completing an independent inquiry project that includes developing a question, conducting research, writing a paper detailing the question, methods and results, and sharing the project through the creation of a poster of research highlights.
Required – Fall semester; this class requires individual meetings with the MI advisisor during the fall semester, with participants completing projects throughout the semester via web based learning between 8/15 and 12/10.
2 3 credit hours
Course Themes:
• Inquiry-based learning
• Conduct an inquiry project related to personal area of interest
• Further develop observation skills
• Develop appropriate questions for investigation
• Develop predictions and an action plan
• Gather data an interpret findings