My son just came back from a full week of science. He was in a really cool hands-on STEM camp (closer to STEAM or maybe even SHTEAM). He was in a classroom that didn't feel like a classroom. In his off time, he helped take care of the neighbor's horses, ran around the farm and went hiking with his grandpa all around Colorado. I am often amazed by the science of summer and the spaces outside of classrooms. It's a time of inquiry, observation, hypothesis-making, tweaking data collection through one's own eyes and fuzzy conclusions that often lead to more questions. It happens without ActivBoards or anchor charts or objectives on a wall. This isn't a slam on science classrooms and certainly not science teachers. Some of my favorite bloggers are science teachers who somehow manage to bring that world from the outside into the classroom and find ways to get the students out of the classroom and into the world.
