Free Curriculum on Investigating Systems
Friday, March 27, 2009 - by CFertig - Category:
Parents and Educators,
Reading-Writing-L.A.,
Science,
Social Studies,
Gifted Education,
Parenting Gifted Children,
Teaching Gifted Children,
Homeschooling,
Language Arts
In past blog entries, I have talked about the importance of teaching universal themes and using essential questions. (Use Search Entries button on the right to find and read these previous entries.) I continue that discussion here.
Marion Brady who, over the span of his career, has been a teacher, administrator, and author, is a person with strong ideas about what our educational system should look like. He feels that traditional curriculum is fragmented, emphasizing the need to "cover the material," without providing an umbrella under which students can understand and apply their learning. Brady offers this umbrella through his curriculum titled,
Investigating Systems (IS).
In the spirit of the current movement to offer open sourceware (free classroom materials online), the author provides IS for download. (You do have to register, listing personal identification information, to be able to download the curriculum.)
To give you an idea of the content of the curriculum, I am including its Table of Contents.
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Organizing Information (Investigating Patterns, Investigating Relationships, Analytical Categories)
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Analyzing Systems (Systems with Human Components)
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Major Human Systems: Societies
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Investigations of Structure
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Investigations of Environment
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Investigations of Patterns of Action
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Investigations of Shared Ideas
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The Dynamics of Change
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Change and Stress
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Constructing New Knowledge
In addition to the free curriculum, there is also a place for online comments and discussions. Rather than viewing this curriculum as fully finished, Brady sees it as a work in progress; therefore, input from those who use the material is valued.
Whether you are a teacher or a parent, whether or not you choose to use the curriculum in its entirety, you will find that this curriculum will help you better understand the concepts of universal themes and essential questions and how to use these in the education of students at home and at school.