Inquiry, SOLE and the future of learning....

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     We decided to sneak in a little bit of "heat" activities.  I thought I would try an inquiry activity with Academic Class.  I posed this challenge...."Can you find the amount of food calories in a food item that I bring in without looking at the lable?"  We talked about any questions they had and what they thought they knew about heat.  It was pretty impressive.  Most kids asked good questions such as "What is heat?  How are calories measured?" and not "How do we do this?".  I then showed them the video chemistry book at VESPR.org (check out this link).  It was perfect.  There was a great video on calorimetry that answered most of their questions.  They had to create a "tri fold" and design the experiment.  Most students did well.....even without this being in the lab manual.  They were fighting over the "hypothesis" and figured out how many chips to burn or water to use.  So why do they need a teacher???.....

    Good question.  What happened was a SOLE or self organizing learning environment.  There is essentially mounting evidence that suggests that kids learn non stop despite our best efforts.  There has been some amazing experiments done on learning with the poorest of the poor kids in India.  They learned with very little help from anyone but themselves and a computer in a foreign language...no kidding.  It was incredibly advanced learning.  It was found that after awhile, they hit a snag.  The key was not having a teacher but instead an adult who did nothing more but continued to encourage them....makes you wonder if sometimes it is all about relationships......  If you want to know more about SOLE or this incredible study...check out this link.  Be prepared to have you mind blown...looking back, I think it is what my kids did when they tried to figure out the calories in some food.  Check out the pics below.