I. ASSIGNMENT: Write a report on the effect that the research and pedagogical experience of RECET has had on instruction in your classroom. Include a unit plan you created that is an example of the inquiry approach to instruction explored in your RECET experience.

The report must include objectives for the instructional unit that are in alignment with the Virginia Standards of Learning - SOLs. Teachers in private schools or other states should align their objectives with their own state standards or the National Science Education Standards. The report must also include an inquiry-based lab that you created, as well as student assessment and teacher assessment of the unit. Tell about the implementation of this lab in your classes - the questions asked by students and students' interactions with each other. Describe outcomes of the lab, including results of assessments of student learning and any performance assessment outcomes. Also, describe your own assessment of the instructional unit: What you will retain, what you will change, and how you propose to change it for next time.

II. TECHNICAL GUIDELINES: Please proofread the paper thoroughly and edit it before submission of the final copy. The main body of the text should have top and bottom margins no less than one inch. All pages should be numbered in the upper right hand corner except the first page. The first page should not be numbered. Double-space the paper. Follow American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines for references and footnotes. Follow guidelines for use of commas, capitalization, paragraph organization, use of complete sentences, and other conventions of written language. Do not depend on your spellchecker program to catch all the mistakes. Choose a standard font such as Times New Roman, and use 12-point font for the text of your report. Minimum length is 10 pages. Follow the format for a title page found on the last page.

III. REPORT GUIDELINES:

A. Introduce the Paper. The introduction should include your thoughts, in a broad and general fashion, on how you used the research and pedagogical experience of RECET to improve instruction in your classroom. Discuss modifications you made to your instruction based on ideas you gained from the RECET experience. Be sure to discuss any philosophical and behavioral changes in your approaches to teaching with specific examples from the classroom such as a lab or a demonstration that you created or modified based on your RECET experience. Also discuss the impact that the change in your instruction had on your students (academic, behavioral, attitudinal, etc.) This section should introduce the reader to a specific unit plan you created as a result of the RECET experience. Summarize what the reader is about to read. Include a section telling when this unit was taught and how it fits into the rest of your class curriculum. If you are a Virginia teacher, report the percent of your current students who achieved passing scores on the spring 1998 science SOL test. Describe your goals for the SOLs in spring 1999.

B. Purpose of the Unit (Objectives). The purpose must include specific objectives from the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs) or other state and national standards of learning if appropriate. Other personal, local, and regional objectives can be added. Persons who do not work in schools using the Virginia SOLs should include the objectives from the appropriate state standards or the National Science Education Standards.

C. Resources: List the resources used in teaching the unit. Include materials used such as text (cite page numbers), WWW sites (URLs), as well as lab materials.

D. Your Plan:

1. Introduction to the chapter or major concept - How did you introduce the unit or the major concept? How did you assess students' prior knowledge? Did you use demonstrations? Did you use a questioning technique like the Socratic method?

2. Inquiry-based laboratory created by the teacher - You may use ideas from published curricula, but these ideas should be modified for your class and your situation. These modifications should in some way reflect the influence of your RECET experience. No curricular materials are to be photocopied from the source and submitted as your product.

a. Length of the instructional plan should be several class periods.

b. Students should gain understanding of a science concept through investigation.

c. Lab should be given at the beginning of the series of lessons, not at the end where the lab merely confirms the information learned from the text.

d. For additional ideas on inquiry learning, teachers may want to refer to the National Science Education Standards.

3. Development of the concept - May include text work, library and World Wide Web research, lecture, and additional activities. What is it that the teacher did or will be doing during this time? What did the students do, or what will they be doing, during this time?

4. Closure/summary of lessons and labs - Describe how you will guide students to a better understanding of the concept explored in the labs, book, and lecture segments. This can be accomplished through a class discussion of the concept, by a version of the Socratic method, and by doing and discussing an additional activity which requires understanding of the concept.

E. Assessment of Student Learning: How did the students react to this type of instruction? Did they understand the materials? Formative assessment (should occur during the unit):

1. Tell what happened during this unit/set of lessons - What questions did you ask? What were the responses/reactions? What surprised you? How did you respond?

2. How did you assess student progress toward understanding on a day-to-day basis? Did you administer any quizzes? Was a pre-test administered? What was the nature of your question and answer periods? What kinds of changes did you make in your unit as a result of formative assessment?

Summative assessment:

1. Include instruments used to assess student understanding at the end of the unit. May include performance assessment, a portfolio, a formal end of unit test, and/or other assessment instruments. Summative assessment must assess student understanding of the objectives named in the Purpose section. You may include examples of student work or statistical analysis of the test.

F. Conclusion and Assessment of the Instructional Unit: Teacher self-assessment. The teacher reflects on the success of the unit by reflecting upon the following:

1. His/her performance and the value of the lesson as a learning experience.

2. Student reactions during the lesson.

3. The extent to which students understood the material based on the student assessment.

4. What was successful in the unit?

5. What might be done differently next year as a result of the student and unit assessments?