In-Touch Science: Foods
& Fabrics
Cornell Cooperative Extension
Summaries
| Front-end | Pilot Project | Summative
| Supplemental
In-Touch
Science: Foods & Fabrics is a science program
to help children in grades 3 to 5 (approximate ages 8 - 11) learn
more about textiles and nutrition. The program encourages each
child to manipulate materials and equipment, to test ideas, and
to explore their interests in a relaxed learning environment.
It is built on strong collaborations between research and extension,
campus and counties, and nutrition and textiles.
Pilot
Program
The program
was piloted by 4-H volunteer leaders and school-age childcare
staff in Monroe, Onondaga, and Tompkins counties in the spring
of 1995. Twenty adults and two teens, representing 14 sites, completed
a 4-6 hour training session. These workshops modeled the use of
the Learning Cycle teaching strategy and provided hands-on practice
for participants. Handbooks were given to each educator and teaching
kits were distributed to each site.
The program's five 1-hour sessions were introduced to approximately
100 children. Educators submitted written evaluations of the sessions;
a few recorded the actual science experiences on audio-tape. At
a post-implementation mini-conference, they also shared experiences,
provided feedback, and received additional training on other experiential
science programs.
Evaluation data from the pilot project indicated that the children
were engaged by the hands-on, fun aspects of the experiments,
which they readily discussed with the educator and other children.
Based on their questions and "I wonder..." statements,
most connected the experiments to the science in their daily lives.
On a scale from one (low) to five(high), 80% of the children expressed
interest at the 4 or 5 level. Another descriptor of interest was
the amount of communication among children and between the children
and the adult facilitator. Facilitators stated that 75% of the
children interacted with one another at levels 4 or 5 and 70%
of the children interacted with the facilitators at levels 4 and
5.
Project
team: Carole Bisogni, Tracy Farrell, Patricia Thonney, and Margaret
Connors, Division of Nutritional Sciences; Charlotte Coffman,
Department of Textiles & Apparel; Margaret O'Neill, Kathleen
Healey, and Bernadette Heffernan, CCE of Monroe County; and Barbara
Schwarting and Evelyn Dankovich, CCE of Onondaga County.
June,
1996
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Want
to know who has taught In-Touch Science in your state?
Click
here for a list of trainer grant recipients.
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