most real experts agree...

This morning the nation's report card indicated some minor growth at certain grade levels (4th and 8th) in understanding science, but most experts in the sciences agree that standardized testing is a rather poor way to measure science understanding, and that rote memorization is a p-poor way to learn. The following is from an article on NPR:

Carl Wieman is a Nobel Laureate who teaches in Stanford University's physics department and Graduate School of Education. He's an advocate for quality active learning in science classes: limiting lecture and textbook time in favor of small-group problem solving, with the teacher as coach.

He took a look at some sample questions we sent to him, saying many of them are shallow, asking for recall of terminology or facts.

In fact, woodworking was begun in schools to give students a leg up in the understanding of math, and engineering, and children benefit most from those things that cannot be measured in standardized tests. For examples, art and music, instrumental or otherwise, offer opportunities for growth that classroom learning does not.

Yesterday in wood shop, one of my 4rd grade students made one of the cutest toys, as you can see in the photo above.

Today I am spending time writing, and designing a new dining table for a friend.

Make, fix, create, and extend the opportunity to learn likewise.