Spiraling Curriculum

Creation, development, and evolution of curriculum can only occur in a classroom. Over a period of a dozen years, we have spent hundreds of hours in classrooms in half of the states in the country.  We have worked directly with thousands of teachers and students, creating and developing the LabLearner curriculum. Over the years, we have listened to teachers and school administrators, observed LabLearner classrooms and labs, and consistently updated  curricular CELLs and equipment.

Over 60 CELLs (Core Experience Learning Labs) are strategically inserted throughout the PreK-8 educational experience for a truly spiraling curriculum (see below). At each grade level, developmental and academic skills are accounted for. These skills range from mathematical, reading, writing, critical thinking, and fine motor skills, among others.

In addition, LabLearner CELLs have been designed so that essential scientific themes spiral throughout the curriculum from PreK through eighth grade, taking  into account the neurocognitive processing mechanisms of elementary and middle school students, while remaining perfectly correlated with academic standards.

 

 

Spiraling Curriculum Example: Developing a Concept of Heat Through Hands-On Experiments

LabLearner students learn about heat by doing experiments using thermometers, ice, water, and steam. They record, plot, discuss, and analyze temperature changes as chemical reactions occur. They observe cold air sinking and hot air rising. They measure the increase in air volume as its temperature increases, record its mass at the different temperatures, and relate temperature to the density of gas molecules. Ultimately, by performing diffusion experiments, in which the spread of a drop of dye in water at different temperatures is measured, they develop the concept that warmer molecules move further and faster than colder ones. They even use this principle to make, calibrate, and use their own thermometers. In kindergarten, students feel substances of different temperatures and learned to use terms like cold, colder, warmer, and hot.  By the eighth grade CELL, Heat and Heat Transfer, they test various metals to determine their specific heat capacities and solve materials engineering problems.

To perform these experiments, providing students with related hands-on experience over the course of 9 or 10 years, LabLearner provides all of the materials and equipment required. All experiments are performed in the LabLearner lab. Students learn more and more techniques and skills as they progress through the curriculum.

Educators and cognitive scientists see the hands-on nature of the LabLearner system as engaging, interactive, and consistent with the literature and best practices. Students see LabLearner much more simply – it’s interesting and FUN!