Nine Thousand Straws

Based on nine years of design, research, and open-inquiry lab teaching experience with over 600 children annually, Nine Thousand Straws presents an inquiry instructional approach that engages the inquisitive energy children naturally bring to the learning table. It offers practical methods and concrete guidance that will enable you to open, employ, and guide this energy towards developing productive and globally applicable thinking skills and dispositions. Along with a full review of objectives and foundational theories, the book presents thirty-three hands-on projects, and thirty-three Focus Theme discussions. The Appendix presents sixty-six additional inquiry project possibilities. It also guides various application formats, from individual teachers developing lab time in their own classrooms to specialists establishing centralized labs in their schools, children's hospitals, or community centers