CD 173 Curriculum for Young Children: Math, Science, and Technology - Fall 2006

Tuesdays 4:00-7:00pm
Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development Curriculum Lab

Prof. Marina Bers Marina.Bers@tufts.edu 627-4490

TA: Keiko Satoh

Students:Alaina, Alex, Ana, Eva, Jo-Ellen, Kirk, Lindsay, Maggie, Micela, Mirit, Natalie, Patrick, & Sarah

Course Description

This course explores how to create and implement curriculum for young children, with a focus in the areas of math, science and technology. It also pays special attention to their integration with other areas of study and with everyday experience. The underlying philosophy of this course is that people learn better when engaged in making and designing their own meaningful projects; therefore, we will become designers of curriculum and technological tools to be used in the classroom. We will also observe how children play with these materials and we will learn how to use on-line tools to document the learning experience. This course has three pillars: observation and evaluation of math, science and technology curriculum in the classroom, design of innovative curriculum and technological environments, and documentation of the experience using new technologies.

Required assignments:

· Readings. All students are expected to do the readings, and to participate in discussions of the readings in class. Students will purchase a reading packet.

· Class presentations. Class time will be organized as discussions, not lectures. To help get discussions started, each session a student will be asked to summarize the readings and describe one question or issue that he or she found particularly provocative in that week's reading. They will post it in their personal homepage with a link to the class web-site.

· Design studio. Students will work individually and in teams to experience different educational software and to design interactive projects. These experiences are aimed at connecting the readings and the theory with hands-on practice.

· Web-site documentation: Students are expected to become familiar with on-line authoring tools. Through the semester they will create their personal web-pages and they will link to them their learning experiences, their projects’ documentation and their papers.

· Empowering ideas (September 17): Students will choose a "powerful idea" in the areas of math, science or technology, that empowered them to think in new ways when they were young. They will write a three page report describing what is the powerful idea, a personal recount of how they first encountered it, the struggles to grasp it and the tools, people and related ideas that helped them understand it. They will also specify if and how, it relates to the MA curriculum frameworks.

· Mid-term paper (Due October 8): This paper consists of two different observations and analysis of classroom settings in which children are exploring math, science and technology. Students must schedule these observations early on in the semester with Prof. Bers to be assigned to two classrooms based on student’s interests. The paper must include a report on the activities going on in the classroom, as they relate to the content areas, a description of the curriculum, an analysis of the role of the teacher and an analysis of the children’s learning experience. The paper should also link the empirical observations with the theoretical framework provided by the course readings.

· Final project proposals (Due October 22 ): Students will choose a "powerful idea" in the areas of math, science or technology and design a technologically-rich curricular activity or set of activities that helps studnets in any of the different age-levels to explore and understand it. For their final projects they will implement the curriculum, so its feasibility should be kept in mind while proposing the project.

· Software Evaluation (Due November 5): Students will write a two-page software evaluation.

· Research survey (Due November 12th): Students will write a paper (approx. 15 pages) that reflects the current state of the art in one of the three early childhood content areas this class focuses on: math, science or technology. The paper should include a description, discussion and evaluation of current curriculum models, materials, software, and conceptual issues in the chose content area.

· Presentations (Due December 3): students will present their final projects to others and will incorporate the feedback into the final papers.

· Final paper (Due December 9): Students will report on the results of the experience of implementing and testing out the technologically-rich curricular activity or set of activities to help young people explore a powerful idea in the areas of math, science or technology. The paper (20-30 pages) should include: a description of the powerful idea and its relationship to the curricular frameworks, the curriculum designed, a description of the technology used as part of the curricular activity they presented earlier, observations of a small group of children going through the curricular activity and documentation of their learning process. The final paper must also be put on-line.

Day 1 (Sept 3): Introduction and course overview

Design studio: Students will start to make their own personal web pages..

Day 2 (Sept 12): Learning by doing, learning by designing

Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas (introduction and chapter 1). NY: Basic Books

Resnick, M., Bruckman, A., & Martin, F. (1996). Pianos Not Stereos: Creating Computational Construction Kits. Interactions, vol. 3, no. 6, pp. 41-50.

Papert, S. (1999). Papert on Piaget. Time Magazine, special issue on "The Century’s Greatest Minds,"page105, March 29.

Papert, S (1993) The Children's Machine: Re-thinking school in the age of the computer (Chapter 7)NJ: Basic Books

Bers, M, Ponte,I, Juelich, K, Viera, A, Schenker, J (2002) "Teachers as Designers: Integrating Robotics in Early Childhood Education" Information Technology in Childhood Education. (2002), AACE 123-145

Design studio: Students will make a Logo project and document it on-line. Microworlds Logo tutorial (see LCSI website)

Assignment due:

Class presentation. Students will show their personal websites

Day 3 (Sept 17): Powerful ideas; empowering ideas

Papert, S. (1991). What’s the big idea: Towards a pedagogy of idea power. IBM Systems Journal, vol. 39, no. 3-4.

Duckworth, E. (1972). The Having of Wonderful Ideas. Harvard Educational Review, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 217-231.

Elkind,D (1999) Educating Young Children in Math, Science, and Technology . In Dialogue on Early Childhood Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education. American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Bredekamp, S, Copple, C (1997) Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs: Serving Children from Birth to Eight. NAYEC Position Statement NAYEC, Washington, D.C.pp.3-30.

Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas (preface, chapter 6). NY: Basic Books

Frameworks and Standards:

Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks

NCTM standards (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ website)

National Science Education Standards

Benchmarks for Science Literacy (American Association for the Advancement of Science’s website)

Assignment due: Class presentation. “Empowering ideas” paper. Students sharing each other’s powerful ideas. Students showing their logo projects

Day 4 (Sept 24): Documentation, observation and assessment

Helm, J. Beneke, S. & Steinheimer, K (1998) "Chapter1: The Value of Documentation" (pp.13-44); "Chapter 2:Windows on Learning: A framework for decision Making" (25-32); Chapter 3: The Documentation Web: Proving a Map for Documentation" (pp33-38) In Windows on Learning: Documenting Young Children's Work. NY: Teachers College Press.

Chittenden,E &Jones,J (1999). Science Assessment in Early Childhood Programs In Dialogue on Early Childhood Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education. American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Jonassen, D (2000) "Chapter 15: Assessing Learning with Mindtools" in Computers as Mindtools for Schools. Engaging Critical Thinking. NJ: Prentice Hall

Press

Seefeldt, C (1998)”Chapter 15 Assessing Young Children” In Continuing issues in early childhood education, NJ: Merrill, Prentiss Hall.

Guest Speaker: Van Stefanakis, Director of the Eliot-Pearson Curriculum Lab

Design Studio: Learning how to use digital media for documentation (cameras and video camera, editing software).

Day 5 (Oct 1): Mathematicians in the early childhood classroom

Dehaene,S (1997) Chapter5: Small Heads for Big Calculations (pp118-143) In The Number Sense. How the Mind Creates Mathematics. NY: Oxford University Press.

Ginsburg, H (*) “Chapter 1: Learning to Count” and Chapter 3: “Learning Practical Arithmetic” In Children’s Arithmetic. NY: Van Nostrand

Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas (chapter 2). NY: Basic Books

National Research Council. “Chapter 5:The mathematical knowledge children bring to school.” In Adding it up. Helping children learn mathematics.

Campbell, P (1999) Chapter 5: Fostering Each Child’s Understanding of Mathematics. In The early Childhood Curriculum: Current Findings in Theory and Practice. (Ed. By Carol Seefeldt) NY: Teachers College Press

Design studio: Students will work in-teams to implement an activity proposed by one of the available math curriculums in the Lab

Assignment due: Class presentations.

Day 6 (October 8): Teaching and learning math

Smith, S Early Childhood Mathematics In Dialogue on Early Childhood Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education. American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Taylor-Cox (2003) Algebra in the early years? Yes IN Young Children January 2003 Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Cople,J. (2000) "Mathematics Processes in the Early Childhood Curriculum" (pp29-45); "Chapter 5: Patterns, Functions, and Algebra in the Early Childhood Curriculum" (pp83-104). In The Young Child and Mathematics .Washington, DC: NAEYC

Bickart,T., Jablon, J & Dodge, D. (1999) "Mathematical Thinking"(pp304-341); In Building the Primary Classroom: A complete Guide to Teaching and Learning" Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Richardson, K & Salkeld, L "Chapter 4: Transforming Mathematics Curriculum" (pp23-42) In Reaching Potentials: Transforming Early Childhood Curriculum and Assessment Vol. 2 (Edited by S. Bredekamp & T.Rosegrant) Washington, DC: NAYEC.

Guest speaker: Analucia Schlieman - Early Algebra Site: http://www2.earlyalgebra.terc.edu/publications/

Assignment due: Class presentation. Mid-term paper due

Day 7 (Oct 15): Little scientists

Lind,K. Science in Early Childhood: Developing and Acquiring Fundamental Concepts and Skills In Dialogue on Early Childhood Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education. American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Landy & Forman (1999)“Chapter 6:Research on early science education” In The early Childhood Curriculum: Current Findings in Theory and Practice. (Ed. By Carol Seefeldt) NY: Teachers College Press

Holt, B (1989) "Chapter 2: Getting in touch with Science: What Children Do"(pp15-26) In Science with Young Children Washington, DC: NAYEC.

Design studio: Becoming a scientist: a hands-on experience

Guest speaker: Ron Thornton, Tufts Center for Science and Math Teaching

Day 8 (Oct 22): Science in the classroom

Holt, B (1989) "Chapter 4: Getting in touch with Science: What Teachers Do. Part 2"(pp. 55-89) In Science with Young Children Washington, DC: NAYEC.

Kilmer,S. & Hofman,L "Chapter 5: Transforming Science Curriculum" (pp43-63) In Reaching Potentials: Transforming Early Childhood Curriculum and Assessment Vol. 2 (Edited by S. Bredekamp & T.Rosegrant) Washington, DC: NAYEC.

Bickart,T., Jablon, J & Dodge, D. (1999) "Scientific Thinking" (pp.372-401); In Building the Primary Classroom: A complete Guide to Teaching and Learning" Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Chille, C & Britain, L (1997) "Chapter 2: A Constructivist Curriculum Model for Science" (pp21-31) "Chapter 5:How can I make it move?" (pp75-104) In The Young Child as Scientist: A Constructivist Approach to Early Childhood Science Education.

Assignment due: Preliminary proposal for final project (2 page summary) and class feedback

Day 9 (Oct 29): Technology & Young Children (I)

Resnick, M. (1998). Technologies for Lifelong Kindergarten. . Educational Technology Research and Development, vol. 46, no. 4.

Papert,S (1987) Computer Criticism vs. Technocentric Thinking. In Educational Researcher (vol. 16, no. I)

Bickart,T., Jablon, J & Dodge, D. (1999) "Technology" (pp. 403-425). In Building the Primary Classroom: A complete Guide to Teaching and Learning" Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Clements, D (1999) Young Children and Technology In Dialogue on Early Childhood Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education. American Association for the Advancement of Science.

NAYEC position statement: technology & young children.

Library visit

Day 10 (Nov 5): Technology & Young Children (II)

Bers, M. & Urrea, C (2000) "Technological Prayers: Parents and Children Working with Robotics and Values" In Robots for Kids: Exploring New Technologies for Learning Experiences. Edited by A. Druin & J. Hendler. NY: Morgan Kaufman, pp. 194-217.

Bers, M & Boudreau, L Project Inter-Actions

Lego Mindstorms tutorial (see Center for Engineering Outreach Education at Tufts, Robolab tutorial)

Video Project Inter-Actions

Design Studio: Robolab (Meredith Portsmore, CEEO). On-line project documentation

Assignment due: Software evaluation

Day 11 (Nov 12): Technology & Young Children (III)

Assignment due: Class presentation and discussion of robolab project

Assignment due: Research Survey

Day 12 (Nov 19): Integration of Content Areas

Bredekamp & T.Rosegrant "Transforming Curriculum Organization" (pp167-176) In Reaching Potentials: Transforming Early Childhood Curriculum and Assessment Vol. 2 Washington, DC: NAYEC.

Rinaldi, C (1995) The Emergent Curriculum and Social Constructivism: An Interview with Lella Gandini. In The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Apporach to Early Childhood Education (Editors Edwards, C; Gandini, L and Forman, G) Ablex Publishing:NJ pp.101-111.

Cutler et al. (2003) Developing math games based on children’s Literature. In Young Children (January 2003) Washington, DC: NAEYC