I thought I’d start off the conference with a session by a Philadelphia-ite.  Stephen Wade, a Board-certified teacher, is a science specialist for the younger grades at William Penn Charter School. He shared several ideas for helping students design, conduct, and share the results of their science investigations. These ideas include modeling inquiry behaviors, providing some sample topics for projects (especially for the primary grades), and completing most of the work in class. He recommended not only providing a rubric, but having students score projects from previous years using the rubric to show they understand it. He showed examples of how students summarized their work in posters and wikis. Note in the picture that some of the students used manilla folders instead of the large (and expensive) tri-fold poster boards.
Rather than a competitive science fair, his school holds “symposia.” Younger students are the audience as their colleagues describe their investigations. And this year, fourth graders from several other schools are joining their symposium on “mold.”