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The Zoo Connection: A Cooperative Project Between Formal and Informal Educational Institutions
Author(s) -
Barman Charles R.,
Lessow Denise,
Lessow Barry,
Shedd Jill D.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
school science and mathematics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.135
H-Index - 2
eISSN - 1949-8594
pISSN - 0036-6803
DOI - 10.1111/j.1949-8594.1996.tb10212.x
Subject(s) - premise , session (web analytics) , mathematics education , science education , trips architecture , set (abstract data type) , field trip , pedagogy , psychology , medical education , computer science , political science , medicine , philosophy , linguistics , parallel computing , world wide web , law , programming language
This project was a cooperative effort between university faculty, elementary school teachers, and members of the Education Department at the Indianapolis Zoo. The purpose of this project was to develop, evaluate, and disseminate a set of fourteen K‐6 science lessons that could be used in conjunction with field trips to the zoo. These lessons, titled The Zoo Connection, follow the Learning Cycle teaching model. In addition to following the model, the development of the lessons was based on the premise that teachers should focus on a specific science concept or set of related concepts when visiting a zoo. Workshop sessions were conducted to introduce teachers to the materials and to provide them with strategies for implementing the materials in their science instruction. An evaluation was conducted for each workshop session to determine teachers' perceptions of the materials and to determine whether they felt prepared to use them with their students. The materials were also field‐tested in several elementary schools to assess their effectiveness for presenting science concepts to elementary school children. Results indicate that teachers felt the workshops adequately prepared them to use the materials and that the materials were effective for presenting science concepts.