Ed Camps: How They Can Ignite Student Interest and Curiosity

In my mind the best way to collaborate and learn is through a great open-minded, fluid conversation with my colleagues and peers. I learn best when the atmosphere is flexible and friendly but also very engaging and hands-on. Earlier in the year I decided to have an Edcamp in my classroom about the human body and the processes of our body systems. It went really well but it was confined to one classroom with a single class. I wanted to go bigger, I wanted to get all of 7th grade-science classes at least- to mingle and learn with each other. Have them teach and inspire one another. So my team worked together to design and implement Edcamp Ecosystems this year. Today and tomorrow all science classes are rotating on their own at their own individual pace between the four science classrooms: aquatic biomes, desert & tundra, grasslands, and three types of forests: coniferous, deciduous and tropical rain forest.

Each student was given a template of each biome with facts/characteristics to learn and document as they move around. Data collection I call it. Then at the end of class tomorrow we will have a debrief. Then Monday we will have another class Edcamp where each group will take one biome to discuss and students can move about to discover more interesting facts. This is giving students a lot of independence on their time-management, organization, and listening skills. Today went smoothly and most students made it to at least two different classroom investigating various biomes and learning from their peers. Myself and the other teachers roamed around and merely observed. It was awesome to see the initiative of the speakers and the engagement of the learners/investigators. Letting students take the lead is always a great thing and on this level it was truly inspiring to see how respectful they were of one another.

Here are some pictures of the different classrooms. Tomorrow I will write a post blog about the experience and interview some students about the experience.