I have been a teacher for a long time, long enough to know some teaching strategies that work. When you have to teach others about what you know, you truly learn.

    So my science club kids are learning all about the Bering Sea and the research done onboard the Healy during the Spring of 2007. They are learning through activities that I have created for younger students. My science club kids are my cognitive guinea pigs.

    We meet every Tuesday for two hours after school, crazy Mrs. Prevenas and her eclectic tribe of science quiznos. As we do the lessons, I ask them what they think about it. Are they learning? What works and what doesn't? What needs to be added so that it is a good learning experience? After three weeks of science club, we are making progress.

    We have sung songs and jumped up and down with our puppets as the creature is named. We have made aleut sun visors, and made hypothesis and data tables for shrunken ice seals. We have recycled presentation boards that are now ready to be filled with their words and pictures. We have made great progress.

    Our next step is to connect with elementary schools that host after school programs. The plan is for my students to come visit the elementary students and teach them what they have learned about the northern Pacific ecosystem and the cultures that dwell there.

    And in doing so, it is my hope that the science club kids will truly learn and inspire others to learn as well. For it is in teaching others that one truly learns.

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