A typical activity session for a
5th or 6th grade class is led by a technical-staff
volunteer from the lab and includes the class teacher and
an "education technician" (a member of the
lab's education staff). Its focus is one of the nearly 20
activities that have been developed by the lab's
technical and education staffs in collaboration with
master teachers from the neighboring school districts. A
session usually last an hour. Detail, Instructional
Materials
During an activity session,
students begin by interviewing the technical staff
volunteer, primarily from an interview chart that
contains four standard questions: Name? Job description?
Education and training needed for the job? Colleges and
universities attended? Each class typically asks
additional questions about salary range, marital status,
children, pets, job likes and dislikes, and so on.
When the students have finished
their interviewing, the volunteer opens the activity with
something designed to gain the students' interest. This
is usually a 5-minute discussion of some aspect of the
lab that begins with "How do we do ...?" The
volunteer tries to keep his or her contributions to a
minimum and to encourage the students to discover as much
as possible on their own.
The activities themselves are
team-based. There are 2-5 students per team. During the
activity, the teams can get quite excited, which can make
some volunteer-leaders uncomfortable. Besides the
volunteers, there are two other adults present to help
the students--the teacher and a member of the lab's
education staff. All three roam the room asking probing
questions to lead the students through the activity and,
in the process, ensuring that they stay on task.
At the end of the hour, students
present their data/results, either orally or on the
blackboard. The volunteer leads a discussion about
"What you've learned," "What skills you've
used," and "How you might use these skills
again in 'real life'." The teacher or education
staff person then expands on the activity or obtains
feedback from the students about the activity and the
volunteer.
