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"If you've ever complained about the way things are in schools today, now's your chance to stop talking and start acting by participating in the Reinventing School Challenge. The challenge is a program that begins with a simple mission: Encourage life-long learning, promote alternative learning environments and equip learners with 21st Century skills. It takes a fresh and different approach to school reform in the following ways. Inviting the whole community to get involved. Giving the community a framework to collaborate and fashion solutions for their own school communities. Providing a platform to present, share and celebrate what's possible and what really works."

"Thankfully, the public understanding of science is part of the core mission for many science centers, zoos and aquaria, botanical gardens, and natural history museums. These institutions, collectively known as informal science centers, are taking a leadership role in ensuring that students get quality instruction in the sciences. Perhaps the most exciting programs coming out of these institutions are initiatives related to the professional development of new teachers (or teachers new to teaching science). These programs mentor novice science teachers in inquiry-based approaches to science learning. They also provide ongoing support and access to experts in various scientific disciplines."

"With assessment and content standards at the forefront of learning, teachers use project approaches to engage students in authentic work and develop 21st- century skills of collaboration, problem solving and critical thinking. When well-designed, project-based curriculum can yield high quality results for students and a rewarding experience for teachers."

"The project-based methods used in the Digiteen Project are teaching students about digital citizenship by immersing then in authentic research and student-designed action projects. The DigiTeacher workshop is modeled after the principles used in the Digiteen Project and will use a wide variety of Web 2.0 research and collaborative tools in conjunction with project-based methods. Understand why this method works by experiencing it!"

Enjoy these 6 strategies for encouraging the development of critical thinking skills in your classrooms.

Project-Based STEM & Ocean Education for K-12

Thanks to Sue Sheffer for sharing!