Lee Graham
Scholar
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2006
- Messages
- 100
Hi everyone,
This is just a general call out for some of your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions. Between May 7th and 11th of this year, I'll be teaching a course on skepticism, pseudoscience, and critical thinking to a class of about 20 students from grades 8 through 12 (in Canada that's roughly ages 13 to 17). The program is called EMCP, the Enrichment Mini-Course Program. Particularly bright students from schools in the Ottawa area get selected to take part, are presented with a large selection of courses to choose from, and get assigned to a course for a single week. This course will be at Carleton University, in Ottawa, Ontario.
I created this course and taught it for last year's EMCP program, and it was pretty successful. Based on feedback, the students enjoyed it very much. I would have liked to have included some more hands-on activities, though. Here's the catch - I have almost no budget for travel or purchasing props and materials (less than $100, and those are Canadian dollars).
So, I'm wondering if you folks on the forum might have some suggestions.
Also, if any of you live in the Ottawa area and would like to come in as a guest speaker to talk to the students about some aspect of skepticism, pseudoscience, and critical thinking, or to do an activity, please let me know - I'd be very open to that. Last year Greg Winslow came down from Montreal and talked to my class about his experiences testing Penta Water by growing beans, plus a couple other interesting things, and the students were enthralled.
I'm curious to see what y'all might suggest!
-Lee
ps. EMCP link:
http://www.emcp-pmce.org/home.asp
This is just a general call out for some of your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions. Between May 7th and 11th of this year, I'll be teaching a course on skepticism, pseudoscience, and critical thinking to a class of about 20 students from grades 8 through 12 (in Canada that's roughly ages 13 to 17). The program is called EMCP, the Enrichment Mini-Course Program. Particularly bright students from schools in the Ottawa area get selected to take part, are presented with a large selection of courses to choose from, and get assigned to a course for a single week. This course will be at Carleton University, in Ottawa, Ontario.
I created this course and taught it for last year's EMCP program, and it was pretty successful. Based on feedback, the students enjoyed it very much. I would have liked to have included some more hands-on activities, though. Here's the catch - I have almost no budget for travel or purchasing props and materials (less than $100, and those are Canadian dollars).
So, I'm wondering if you folks on the forum might have some suggestions.
Also, if any of you live in the Ottawa area and would like to come in as a guest speaker to talk to the students about some aspect of skepticism, pseudoscience, and critical thinking, or to do an activity, please let me know - I'd be very open to that. Last year Greg Winslow came down from Montreal and talked to my class about his experiences testing Penta Water by growing beans, plus a couple other interesting things, and the students were enthralled.
I'm curious to see what y'all might suggest!
-Lee
ps. EMCP link:
http://www.emcp-pmce.org/home.asp