Cooperative Learning

What a fantabulous summer this has been!  It began with me taking my first two graduate level classes, which in turn, progressed into one amazing summer job as the teacher leader for a summer camp program called, "Project Embrace."
To begin, my job is to create an integrated curriculum plan that ties S.T.E.M. (science, technology, engineering, and math) concepts into the programs weekly themes, AND is diverse enough to effectively reach the zone of proximal development for children and youth between the ages of 5 to 17.  While this has been a challenging task to undertake, it has been one that has, so far, been very rewarding for myself and for the students.

For example, over the past several weeks, I have taken many opportunities to have students work in collaborative groups to complete specific tasks.  This week, we are exploring the solar system, to be even more specific, planets within our solar system that have natural satellites.  After a large group discussion about man-made and natural satellites, the kids were split into pairs (older kids working with younger kids) to research information about their assigned planet and begin working on constructing a 3D model of their assigned planet and all the natural satellites that revolve around the planet. 

Once the kids began working on their projects, I stepped back to observe the learning process. It simply amazed me to see how the older kids were not only teaching their younger counterparts about the "science" portion of the project, but they were also helping them to discover what happens when you mix primary colors together and how adding black or white to a color will make the color appear darker or lighter respectively.  The best part about the whole process, is that every single participant was engaged in the process and having fun at the same time.  At the end of the day, the participants were still talking about their planets by making notes about the differences in size, color and the number of "natural" satellites each of the planets had. Many of the kids also made the connection as to how a planet's natural satellite can act as a sort of "brother's keeper" because of the way it affects many things on the surface level of the planet it is attached to such as weather, tides, and the passage of time.