Chapter 2: Designing a Project 2061 Workshop

Introduction

This Guide allows a great deal of flexibility in planning workshops. Essential components are listed for each stage of the workshop—opening, Project 2061 tools, and closing—and several options are provided for each component. You can select from these options to tailor workshops to the interests and needs of your audiences and the time available. In the list below, the bullets indicate essential workshop components.
 
OPENING

• Introduction
• What Participants Know
• Workshop Goals
• Need for Change

PROJECT 2061 TOOLS

• Overview of Available Tools (ten options available)
• Exploring the Use of Tools to:

(1) Understand the Nature of Benchmarks (five options available)
(2) Analyze Curriculum Frameworks (one option available)
(3) Analyze Curriculum Materials (two options available)
(4) Analyze Instruction (five options available)
(5) Design Instruction (seven options available)

 
CLOSING

• Summary (five options available)
• Evaluation (six options available)

The heart of the workshop is examining "Project 2061 Tools" and, as such, it occupies the majority of time. Its two components offer information on Project 2061 tools (Overview of Available Tools, 10 options) and on how they might be used to help educators improve science education (Exploring the Use of Tools, 20 options). Five possible uses of the tools are explored, each with several workshop options. Typically, a workshop would focus on only one tool use; however, the selection of options for each covers a range of topic areas and grade levels to respond to diverse audience needs.

To design a workshop, first identify the tool use—designing instruction, analyzing curriculum materials, analyzing instruction, or understanding the nature of benchmarks—that corresponds most closely to the interests of your audience. For example, you might focus on analyzing curriculum frameworks with framework developers or on analyzing instruction with a group of K-12 educators. You will build a workshop around this intended use by selecting complementary options for the other workshop components.

Some groups will not be familiar with Project 2061 and will need more background on its strategies, principles, and tools. With these groups, you may wish to spend more time on options in the components "Need for Change" and "Overview of Available Tools." Other groups will be ready to use Project 2061 tools for clearly defined purposes.

Each workshop option is a self-contained presentation or activity to be combined with other options to form a workshop plan. For each option, an overview summarizes the activities and suggests a suitable audience for the option. Following the overview is a detailed plan for using the option, which specifies (a) estimated time, (b) list of materials and transparencies needed, and (c) sample presentation that indicates the sequence of showing transparencies and points to be made about each one. Sample Workshop Agendas for three different audiences are provided in Chapter 5: Selected Readings.

You may find it helpful to use the Workshop Planning Guide as you begin to plan your own workshops. This form can help you keep track of the options you select and how they fit together both conceptually and within the scheduled time.