Science Center

(due Oct 20/23)

A center is a place for doing things in a classroom. In most cases it's a place where students can work independently, but it can also be a site for carrying out a specific experiment or lesson under teacher direction.

Some classrooms are organized entirely with centers, for reading, writing, nature, mathematics, history, and so on. In other classrooms teachers bring out materials for specific lessons. Our room 4 is a classroom in which the whole room is a science center.

You should imagine that you have a classroom in which you have the space and the materials to set up a permanent place for doing science. In that ideal, what would it look like? Would it be along one side of the room? In a corner? In several places? Would there be pictures and charts? Would you have boxes with supplies? Would you want tables? What kinds of things would you include? An aquarium? A rock collection? Running water? Would the materials be organized around a theme, or be very general?

Now, some students will be in classrooms where they can work with the teacher to implement a version of this ideal center. But in others, the teacher already has centers set up, or doesn't use centers at all. In those cases, you won't be able to describe how your center design actually works, but you can describe how science learning is supported without using centers.

The topic you wrote about could be the basis for the center design. The center can also be used for the mini-unit lessons you'll carry out in the classroom.

You will turn in both a plan for your ideal science center and a description of how it is used in the classroom. If you are unable to implement the center, describe instead how science learning is generally supported in your co-op classroom.