gifted students and inquiry science

[GARY HEMMINGER <Hemmig@D-E.ORG>]

>         I am interested in any research which might have been done
>         concerning
> specifically the academically gifted student and his/her
experiences
> with activity-based, inquiry, discovery, modeling, constructivist
> science activities.

I can't offer anything more than anecdotal tid-bits, but as a user of
many Workshop Physics labs for many years I have often felt that
these may be too simple and plodding for the brightest students.
To my knowledge these sorts of labs are not found at MIT or
Caltech, they were designed for middle of the road college
students.  In my classes, because I must teach at a pace that
suits the average kid, (who is very average), I can't really challenge
the brightest.   And it's always seemed to me that we kid ourselves
if we think that we have anything much to do with what a very bright
kid learns.  There is of course the story of Feynman's high school
science teacher giving him a calculus book and sending him to the
back of the room.  It is also my experience that the creators of
activity or inquiry based curricula don't really want to hear about the
possibility that the brightest are bored.  On the other hand, just
handing a kid the book or lecturing exclusively is manifestly bad
teaching.  Arnold Arons had a very nice chapter in his book on
teaching physics which made suggestions for exercises for gifted
students.


*****************************************
  Gary Hemminger
  Dwight-Engelwood School
  315 E. Palisade Ave.
  Englewood, New Jersey
             07631
  e-mail: hemmig@d-e.org
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