We choose our science themes similarly to the way we choose our art themes. We do a lot of idea sharing and brainstorming to come up with new ideas. Our unique approach to teaching science dictates the focus of our science curriculum. Since we concentrate on the design challenge approach to learning, in which campers are presented with a real-world problem they need to solve by building something, we lean toward topics that are oriented to physics, design and engineering. We also believe that collaboration is an essential skill for campers to learn, so our science projects bring campers together to brainstorm, design, build, test, redesign and test again. Hence, we choose themes that are conducive to collaborative projects.
Some of our favorite themes, such as Building Big and Amusement Park Engineers, lend themselves perfectly to the design and build approach. Newer topics like Green Design and Flight help our campers stretch in their ability to use their imaginations to create as they build. In addition to teaching campers engineering skills, all of our topics emphasize basic science concepts such as Newton’s Laws of Physics, science related to energy and natural resources and principles of flight.
In accordance with our educational philosophy, most of our science projects are open-ended. There is no one correct answer and there are definitely multiple ways to approach a problem. This approach encourages campers’ imaginations to go wild; anything is possible. It also requires that they think and plan, collaborate and trust one another, and that they fail. We embrace failure at Galileo because this is how we learn. We encourage campers to come up with new ideas, to expand their knowledge and to be resilient to things not going just as they had planned. As you can see, life lessons also come into play. Speaking of play, fun is also an essential element to all that we do at Galileo!
This post was written by our Curriculum Manager Joyce Friedrichs.
