Monday, December 15, 2008

My Visit to Newark to Start my Research






Method of Research

I started my research project by reviewing several articles that covered similar is-sues of the importance about teaching science in urban schools. I needed to start to be-come familiar with the community and get an idea of where the schools were located. I went to the Newark Broad of Education web site to print a list of schools and their ad-dresses. While I was on the website, I wanted to know what the district philosophy is for the science curriculum. I continue to glance at some other locations on the web site. I needed to get the address of a schools that I could visit while I was in the area. I printed the addresses of all of the schools so that I could put them in my GPS system.
I went to the area of the website that would tell me what type of materials were used in the classroom. I discovered that FOSS curriculum (Full Option Science System) materials were listed on the web site and when I do my interviews I will ask the teachers about the materials. I started my Research at the Newark Museum. I wanted to see what cultural activity’s there were in the area that a science teacher might take a field trip to. I had heard about the Newark museum from others and then I was reading the news-paper and spotted information about an exhibit that was there.
After my visit to Newark, I had lots of questions. My next steps was to talk to some teachers working in the middle school and ask questions about the curriculum, the material used and the lack of green space in the area. I needed to go back on line and
this time I started to look through the Star Ledger newspaper for articles on communities in Newark using or creating green spaces. I went to the web to research an organi-zation that donates fruit trees to schools and though that may be a future project. This organization prepares activities on gardening and creating food by growing plants.

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