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How to Turn Your Science Class into a “Choose Your Own Adventure”
Read more…: How to Turn Your Science Class into a “Choose Your Own Adventure”Imagine a high school science classroom where the teacher refuses to hand out a rubric. Where students roll a 20-sided die (D20) to see if they can get five extra minutes on a quiz. Where the curriculum isn’t a rigid checklist, but a quest driven by the students’ own curiosity. In this episode of Dragonfly…
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How to Redefine “Wilderness”: From the Bronx to Mongolia with Dave Johnston
Read more…: How to Redefine “Wilderness”: From the Bronx to Mongolia with Dave JohnstonImagine driving a van across a landscape so vast it’s called the “Land of the Big Sky.” You have no GPS coordinates and no specific destination. You simply drive until you spot a white felt tent—a ger—on the horizon. You pull up, knock on the door, and ask a complete stranger, “Can we come in?”…
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Barking Up Our Trees: How 3rd Graders Debunk Common Tree Myths
Read more…: Barking Up Our Trees: How 3rd Graders Debunk Common Tree MythsBy Cheryl Cowan’s Third-Grade Students, Mayflower Mill School, Lafayette, Indiana Editor’s Note: Originally published in Dragonfly Magazine in the late 1990s, this investigation reminds us that the best science starts by testing the things we think we know. Our Spark When we started our tree unit, we looked at the pictures in our textbook. Based…
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Sweating Trees: Which Leaf Wins the Transpiration Race?
Read more…: Sweating Trees: Which Leaf Wins the Transpiration Race?By Georgia Brown’s Fifth-Grade Students, Sanibel Elementary School, Florida Editor’s Note: Originally published in Dragonfly Magazine in the late 1990s, this timeless and inspiring inquiry was created by young investigators on Sanibel Island, Florida. It remains a perfect example of how local landscapes spark big questions. Our Spark Our school is on Sanibel Island, a…