PBI+Examples

=Science, Social Studies, Language Arts: Journey North  = = = =Creating a climate for inquiry = In an inquiry-oriented classroom, the teacher is a co-explorer and guide who cultivates curiosity and challenges students to think and act like scientists as they explore intriguing questions. It is a place where diverse ideas are valued and students feel safe taking risks to "think out loud" as they share, debate, and justify emerging ideas. Students have time and opportunities to explore, experiment, test and refine ideas as they collaboratively build understanding. But it takes time, practice, and sometimes, a shift in teaching strategies, to create a classroom where inquiry can flourish.

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/inquiry/menu.html

**Shifting Control: Students as Decision Makers**

When students are able to influence the direction of their learning and their opinions and ideas are valued, motivation, reasoning skills, and confidence flourish. Some activities in Journey North prescribe questions, procedures, and data for students to interpret; others challenge students to ask their own questions and design investigations to try to answer them. This reflects the continuum of classroom-based inquiry. Most Journey North classroom science explorations fall somewhere in between.



[|Polar Husky Expedition]
=Social Studies: [|The Star Spangled Banner Project] =
 * || **Skill Building

Level: Upper Elementary and Middle School

1. You Solve the Mystery (suggested classroom use)** This activity is designed to teach the process of discovery that a historian goes through while investigating the history of an artifact and conducting historical research with primary sources. The three questions posed within the activity are mysteries that historians at the National Museum of American History have researched and are included in the exhibition //Preserving the Star-Spangled Banner.// Research on the Star-Spangled Banner continues as our historians and conservators work to learn more about this national icon.


 * Student Activity:** This activity could be expanded for student use by asking students to use the section of the Web site called "Story of the Flag" to conduct both primary and secondary research on each question presented in the activity.

Students should choose one of the three questions and investigate the three primary sources provided within the activity.

Before examining the final section called "What the Historian Says," students should compare their answers to their chosen question by conducting additional research using both primary and secondary sources throughout other sections of the Web site. (In this way students will learn how complicated historical research can be. Some mysteries about artifacts are not readily and sometimes never solved.)

Once students have completed their research on the question they selected, they should return to the "You Solve the Mystery" activity and read the section labeled "What the Historian Says" to compare their results to those of the Smithsonian historians.


 * Level: High School

1: Test Your Knowledge (suggested classroom use)** This multiple-choice quiz is made up of ten questions related to the history surrounding the Star-Spangled Banner.


 * Student Activity:** The quiz could be used as a warm-up exercise before a unit about the War of 1812 to build curiosity about the topic or it might be a fun follow-up to a lesson. Students can compare their results to all visitors who have taken the quiz.

How did the American flag become the primary U.S. national symbol?
 * 2: You Solve the Mystery (suggested classroom use)**

Trace the importance of the American flag from the Battle of Baltimore and Francis Scott Key's penning of the poem that eventually became the national anthem. Use the primary source material provided in the "You Solve the Mystery"activity as well as the primary and secondary source material in the "Story of the Flag" section of the Web site.

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|| =[|Kidproj]= [|Kidlink] Communicate with students around the world. [|Multicultural Recipe Book] || ||