CHAPTER 3 DEVELOPING THE PROJECT

The first part of phase II begins with the teachers review of the list of questions that are displayed in the classroom or in the children´s web. The teacher shares with field site personnel and experts visitors. Children are learning through the project approach and the particular questions the young investigators are asking.

Teachers have to do that because students or children are not able to be good readers or speakers to recall information .  Teacher some times has to add graphic representations of the questions during preparation time.

See Figure 3.2

The purpose of revisiting questions is to encourage children to think greater in the topic.

Sometimes revisiting and doing more questions can produce that students would like to start with other different project , and for me this must be problematic so students start with a project and finish with something different that is not appropriate.

At the beginning of phase II parent involvement is more helpful so teachers can send letter to parents announcing the project topic and describing the plans and questions children are going to answer.

This kind  of work looks like too much teacher's work and also is not appropriate for classrooms with 40  or more students. I think here in Colombia it couldn't be applied  because in the first place in our families there are not two parents. In many cases there is just a mother who has to work all day long and come to class tired to start working on her children projects.

See Figure 3.3

One good thing about this thing is that children can be in contact with nature and learn by touching and seeing the animals, the plants, etc.