EDIM 508 - Supporting the Synthesizing Mind

One of Howard Gardner's Five Minds for the Future is the synthesizing mind.  A mind that has been exercised to synthesize is one that questions the norms, locates valuable resource to validate and refute, digesting the information, and creates connections to other valid points. For educators, synthesizing minds are the ones the create and innovate when we least expect it.  Educators are responsible for providing opportunities for synthesizing minds to excel through projects.  A self-created digital resource and project that encourages and helps develop this mindset is a Landforms Tour on Google Earth.  Check the pinpoint file out at http://nesd.k12.pa.us/Page/2149. Students spend 3 days on this introductory activity.  During this time they are expected to explore 20 pre-selected stops.  At each stop there are guiding questions to help lead students, and students are required to create a sketch of what they see and shade relief, use tools to zoom in and out, assess the climate, and measure distances and height above sea level.

One of my favorite comparisons, that really has the students synthesizing, is a gorge and canyon feature versus a meandering stream.  Both of these features are created through the passing of water from the land to the oceans.  During these stops students differentiate between the shape, structure, and depth of the rivers.  Students greatest "Ah-ha" moments come when they use tools to determine the ratio or slope of the height above sea level divided by the length of the river.

Most student can relate stream gradient to the landform structure before fully divulging in a lesson later in the unit.  They can also conclude that white water rapids carry very little sediment in them compared to slower lazy river like the muddy Mississippi.

So many valuable observation and inferences are created during this three day introductory lesson.  These lessons are carried and revisited throughout the unit and provide an effortless mound of questions from the students.  Their level of inquiry is through the roof during this project!  Their minds are vastly expanded as they travel on Google Earth and "play" to determine answers to questions that do not always have a right or wrong answer.  Digital resources like these allow some students to excell and even possibly admit that they may like science, even if it is just a little bit :)


References:
Gardner, H. (2009). Five Minds for the Future [Kindle DX Version]. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.