I chose to research all about awakening student’s interest and motivation in science. The link I found to be beneficial and possibly worthwhile is Van Andel Institute (www.vai.org). This site showed lots of ways for your school to motivate the students and the teachers. It also showed the ways they were implementing and the ways they could help you. Some of the ways they suggested were: Out of school time cohort program, science on Saturdays, classroom science investigations, and partners for sustainable innovation.
All of the tools they offer expose students to a world of science and possibly open up a career for them in the future. The students will become more aware of what science can do for them and what science has done so far. They are hands on fun ways to get students motivated in science and makes science learning fun.
I found the classroom science investigations to be beneficial and I am presenting it to the elementary school and high school here in my town. In this program the teacher identifies the area of focus and the staff at VAI develops curriculum for the teacher’s classroom and instructional assessment. The teacher can come to a 2 ½ day session and VAI will also come to your school to make classroom visits and model the concepts and methods. I think this is a great way to help both students and teachers.
If using VAI, I can pick any physical science activity and they will help me prepare a way to teach and assess the activity. I would pick magnetic because I teach Pre-K. I would call them up and ask for help to come up with fun ways to teach magnetic to my students.
Some complications I might encounter is that that they are located in Michigan and we are in Georgia. I wonder if they would come here and how much it would cost. I also wonder if phone call help from them would be an option.
