Opening day was held at the California Science Center where participants were divided into grade-level groups and introduced to their Problem-Based scenario that was developed by the facilitators, based on themes from the California State Standards for each grade level. The themes were seasons, weather, solar energy, chemistry and plant genetics, for a total of five groups; each embarking on a unique adult-level content research journey to investigate the problem built into their PBL.

As an outcome of the Institute, teachers were charged with developing a unit for implementation in their classrooms that would be disseminated cluster-wide. The Westside Leadership Cohort identified several areas that made up the core of the Institute. They recognized that participants would benefit by:

• adult-level content acquisition
• literature that would support the science
• examination and exploration of instructional materials that could be used in the classroom to bring clarity to concepts
• an innovative pedagogy - PBL as practiced at CCMB
• opportunities to connect other disciplines such as art, music and performance.

"The Udara Tree" Group began their adventure by reading "The Magic Tree" by T. Obinkaram Echewa which is a folktale from Nigeria. This set the stage for their PBL scenario called "Bringing the Udara Tree to Southern California". Teachers identified the facts in the scenario, their ideas and their learning needs. Those learning needs led them to the botanical experts at the Arboretum, and their extensive library; the Internet; the Huntington Gardens and to Descanso Gardens in La Canada for a teacher workshop on "Seasons" designed to follow trees at the gardens throughout the year. Part of the outcome that Lorraine and Mario wanted was that the teachers in their group would become so interested in their research that they would return to Decanso to study the trees.

The "Winds of Change" group began their learning needs by looking at data from satellites used exclusively to track El Niño and La Niña at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. Day two found them at the Southern California Marine Institute looking at the weather station and learning about how the ocean affects weather cycles, and how the weather affects oceanic systems. From there the group boarded the USC vessel "Sea Watch" and went trolling the waters of the Los Angeles Harbor for divergent sea life and collecting water samples. On day three they visited the Ocean Discovery Center to acquire more knowledge and talk about how they could take what they had learned to their students in an interesting age-appropriate curriculum.

The "Y2K Problem" kicked off their investigation by spending several hours with Dr. Werner Dappen, a physicist from USC. Dr. Dappen was just outstanding as he presented what he thought was fascinating about the sun and fascinated the teachers in turn. From Internet research and Dr. Dappen, this group participated in a great workshop on Light, Color and Prisms presented by Chris Holle, Science Advisor for the LA-SI and an inspirational teacher. They visited a solar installation with a Department of Water and Power representative and learned how solar power works in construction. Then they moved on to learn how to construct a solar sundial and do solar graphics with their students with Craig Mishaga.

"A Sweet Note", facilitate by Barbara Felman was an investigation into the chemistry of chocolate. This group worked with Allison Leggett a high school teacher with a degree in chemistry who consulted with the scientist for See's Candy. Their investigation led them to study the plant life associated with chocolate, it's history, and the health effects of chocolate on humans and on animals. Anita Still of State Street School, an elementary teacher with a degree in chemistry, helped them identify ways to take their knowledge back to their students and identifying useful instructional materials such as the STC kit "Food Chemistry".

The high school group decided that they really wanted to grow a maize maze on the grounds of Westchester High School. Their learning needs involved finding out about the growing time of corn, the types that would be best suited for this project and about genetics. They visited the newly opened maze in Camarillo, California, went to Cal State Northridge to visit the laboratory of Maria Elena Zavala, a plant geneticist and researched the many uses of corn with Carol Spoelstra of the Agricultural Literacy and Fairs Alliance.

This was the third summer of The Orchid Project and for the first time it was planned, developed and facilitated entirely by teachers in the Westside Leadership Cohort of the Venice/Westchester Cluster. Participants came from a majority of the 20 schools in the cluster. The Institute was held August 16 - August 20, 1999, concurrent with several other institutes by different entities targeting the same teacher pool. This reduced our participants to approximately 40, including the Leadership Cohort, providing the new teacher-leaders of the Westside Leadership Cohort with an opportunity to use their leadership skills with a comfortable number of participants.
 

Click to return to main menu