According to Hockett (2009), the starting point for selecting high-quality curricular content is the disciplines themselves. The curriculum should emphasize knowledge as a whole and be organized around a few core ideas at the heart of the discipline. The heart of this third grade science unit is the concept of adaptation. By using a concept map and organizational strategies to teach vital process skills, students gain a solid foundation for the habits of mind utilized by professionals in the field of zoology and the discipline of science as a whole. It is this method of curricular development that ensures quality and authenticity of content, provides students with discipline-relevant knowledge and understanding, and employs materials and
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Their intellectual abilities allow them to analyze, evaluate, and create knowledge, and it is in these realms that gifted students must be met in order to scaffold authentic and meaningful growth. The analysis of new information must provide opportunities to explore relationships between concepts, categorization of information, and close examination of relevant topics within a discipline. In this unit, through lessons designed in alignment with the Core Parallel, students will use concept mapping techniques to explore intra-disciplinary and interdisciplinary connections, and will employ structured and open-ended observation strategies to categorize, compare/contrast, and decipher the physical and behavioral characteristics of animals in relation to specific …show more content…
Here again, Core Parallel lessons in this unit that include structured scientific process skills and investigations allow students to delve into specific features of adaptation, and personally test and expand upon research methods. Lessons aligned with the Parallel of Identity provide opportunities to meet with and learn about professionals in the field, examine the habits of mind of those professionals, and begin to critically examine themselves in similar roles.
Finally, gifted and high ability students must be provided with experiences that encourage them to create and construct new knowledge. With a solid foundation of process skills and investigative strategies formed within Core Parallel lessons, and working through a final unit lesson aligned with the Parallel of Practice, students will design, conduct, and present their own research projects with the potential for expert-level
Their intellectual abilities allow them to analyze, evaluate, and create knowledge, and it is in these realms that gifted students must be met in order to scaffold authentic and meaningful growth. The analysis of new information must provide opportunities to explore relationships between concepts, categorization of information, and close examination of relevant topics within a discipline. In this unit, through lessons designed in alignment with the Core Parallel, students will use concept mapping techniques to explore intra-disciplinary and interdisciplinary connections, and will employ structured and open-ended observation strategies to categorize, compare/contrast, and decipher the physical and behavioral characteristics of animals in relation to specific …show more content…
Here again, Core Parallel lessons in this unit that include structured scientific process skills and investigations allow students to delve into specific features of adaptation, and personally test and expand upon research methods. Lessons aligned with the Parallel of Identity provide opportunities to meet with and learn about professionals in the field, examine the habits of mind of those professionals, and begin to critically examine themselves in similar roles.
Finally, gifted and high ability students must be provided with experiences that encourage them to create and construct new knowledge. With a solid foundation of process skills and investigative strategies formed within Core Parallel lessons, and working through a final unit lesson aligned with the Parallel of Practice, students will design, conduct, and present their own research projects with the potential for expert-level