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Are Hats Here To Stay?
The hat has once again emerged on the fashion scene and the
reason may be due to the dramatic increase in the skin cancer
known as melanoma, the deadliest of the known types of skin
cancer.
Prior to 1950, melanoma was rarely diagnosed. In...
Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Mudslides: Extreme Events - What do they Mean?
In lieu of recent, tumultuous occurrences, people are more compelled than ever to discover the mystery of these modern-day, earth-changing events. One day, Earth is experiencing the fourth largest earthquake in a century - a 9.0 tectonics...
Geography Comes to Life in a Big Way
(ARA) – Remember the frustration you felt when you had to squint to see the tiny world map on the wall at school? That problem will soon be a thing of the past for both teachers and students at schools around the country. There is a new trend...
My secret formula for a healthy relationship
How many times have you despaired of being understood?
How many times do you repress your despair at being rejected by the person who is supposed to love you more than anybody else?
And why do you keep those feelings inside you?
Because you are...
New MSN search engine: How good is it?
If you have an online business or you just use Internet as one of your marketing tools, you know that how important are the search engines in your quest to get more targeted visitors to your website. The changes in search engine field can have...
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Teaching Outside the Box: Tough Times Require Extraordinary Creativity
(ARA) - Teaching is now competing with testing, leaving less classroom time for hands-on, experienced-based learning. With record debt -- upwards of $200 billion -- and school funding dependent on compliance and performance, programs promoting creative thinking have become unaffordable luxuries.
“It’s not just P.E. hours and pencil allotments being cut,” says Susan Singer, president and founder of Field Trip Factory (FTF), a company which provides free, experiential learning adventures to U.S. schools. “We’re seeing less active learning in classrooms despite research showing a direct correlation between the learner’s involvement and learning retention.” Studies have demonstrated 40 to 60 percent increases in retention when students have an opportunity to test previously learned facts and theories, revise assumptions, and derive new and first-hand knowledge.
The growing success of Singer’s company is a testament to the overwhelming demand for creative, affordable ways to reinforce curriculums and engage all kinds of learners. Last year, Field Trip Factory took 200,000 pre-K through 8th grade students out of the classroom -- into the field -- to teach lessons in nutrition, fitness, creative problem-solving, teamwork, eye science, biology, recycling and geography.
Students were able to taste their way up the Food Pyramid, suit up with sports safety gear, plan birthday parties using time and budget allotments, examine the similarities linking living beings, and much more. According to Chicago public school teacher and field trip
participant, Mee Soohoo, “The interaction between the students and the community professionals on-the-job had a real impact on students’ learning and behavior.” In a survey done following a recent nutrition field trip, student participants reported eating 38 percent healthier and increasing their consumption of nutritious foods by 12 to 18 percent.
This past spring, 600 schools signed-up for FTF’s new in-school Creative Break program, which promotes self-expression and creative problem-solving, while supporting cross-curricular instruction. Teachers embraced the Break’s art-based, “no wrong answer” activities and students eagerly exchanged their number two pencils for colored markers.
Interest in experiential learning has ebbed and flowed since the late 19th century, but is growing by leaps and bounds today. Cost has always been a consideration but now Singer and Field Trip Factory have taken that consideration off the table. Educational psychologists support hands-on learning not only for learners who’d be left behind by traditional classroom instruction, but for all students. In an ever-changing, highly competitive global market, children must be readied to apply flexible, creative strategies to practical, real-world problems.
For more information about any of Field Trip Factory’s programs, call (800) 987-6409 or visit the website at: www.fieldtripfactory.com.
Courtesy of ARA Content
About the author:
Courtesy of ARA Content
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