Be Happy! Attend The Private Eye NSTA workshops in Boston
Meet Kerry Ruef, founder and director of The Private Eye, the visionary who twenty years ago introduced thinking by analogy hands-on to the world of education.
Two sessions:
Friday, March 28 8:00–9:30 AM and 2:00–3:30 PM
Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Room 102A
The Private Eye®—Hands-On Inquiry for an Interdisciplinary Mind:
Science, Writing, and Art
Everyone's invited!
Dandelions! Crickets! Eyeballs! Use a jeweler's loupe, everyday objects, simple questions, and thinking by analogy to go REALLY close-up—and develop the essential skills of scientist, writer, and artist in all your students. Explore this acclaimed program for creativity and critical thinking across subjects, K–16 through life. Free loupes, specimens, and lessons
. Critical thinking skills, motivated students, K12 excitement. And did we mention fun?Plus-- inquiry 24/7.
Private Eye materials will be available to explore in the exhibit hall at Educational Innovations Booth #1555. Stop by and say Hi!
Sign up at the NSTA convention site!
Take a Child Outside (T.A.C.O.) with The Private Eye!
We are please to be a partner with Take A Child Outside, an international program designed to help break down obstacles that keep children from discovering the natural world. "You won't bother to save something unless you first care about it. The Private Eye allows you to care quickly and deeply." Kerry Ruef, Founder and Director, The Private Eye Project
Visit the Take a Child Outside website
Preservice Teacher Training – Better Teachers Now
Jeff Self of Humboldt University, California, presidential awardee teacher turned university professor, shares his thoughts on using The Private Eye as the foundation for teaching preservice science methods and critical thinking.
Jeff Self,
Humboldt State University
"Every once in awhile we come across a “gem” in our quest for quality educational materials. The Private Eye is a 'gem of gems'! In my thirty-two years of teaching students and educators I have always searched out the best classroom curricula. The Private Eye program fit my integrated curriculum like a glove. We are always looking for materials to teach critical thinking and higher level thinking skills. The Private Eye “loupe-lessons” have been a major element in my students’ education for over fifteen years.
I wish I had discovered The Private Eye my first year in the trenches. I know I would have developed better teaching skills if I had. I now teach Science and Math pre-service teachers at Humboldt State University. My “big” kids will have that opportunity. The Private Eye is one of the few programs that new teachers (and veteran teachers) can implement on day-one of their school year, focusing on the development of critical thinking and higher level thinking skills at any grade level.
Using the 5X loupes to inspire “thinking by analogy”, every teacher can experience the “Wows” of success. Students develop drawing, writing and calculation skills with cross-curricular lessons. Vocabulary improves through continual dialogue and collaborative sharing. Journals chronicle each student’s writing and graphic growth, art projects display their creativeness and outdoor experiences take on a magical dimension using the 5X loupes.
Providing every pre-service candidate the opportunity to work through The Private Eye program should be the goal of every university Science methods course. Just imagine, what a corps of new teachers, really addressing critical thinking and higher level thinking skills, could accomplish in their careers."
Fingerprints into Fine Art
The Children's Art Institute of Gresham, Oregon, created an art-making strand for adults in the summer of 2007. Artist and teacher Peggy Kelter, of Hood River, Oregon, led participants on a louped-encounter with their own fingerpints (inspired by The Private Eye fingerprint activity on pages 136-137 in The Private Eye Teacher guide). One participant was the police chief of Gresham--who helped the class make official fingerprints! Another participant, graphic designer and illustrator Sherry Wachter, assembled the class's work into a kind of visual quilt for a poster advertising the Art Institute. The results are even more stunning when you click for a larger view.
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Click on image for a larger view. |
Art Infusion and Gifted Education
Diane Rowen Garmire, art and gifted teacher from the Libby Center, Spokane, WA, answers the question “How do we prepare our children—our present students—for life in the near future?” If you know The Private Eye fingerprint activity, you’ll see that she and her students give a whole new meaning to the word “Goldfinger." Read on...
Train the
Trainers Program
Our first Train the
Trainers Program certified the following in-district
Private Eye Trainers for the Modesto
City Schools in Modesto, California: RoseMary Tomb, Terri
Fischer, Janette Schmidt, Cliff Judd, Melody McGill, Bernadette
Galvan, Rose Kahn, Henrietta Sparkman, and Kathe Poteet. Since
then, they've completed their second year training district
teachers in The Private Eye process to enthusiastic reviews. Together they've trained over 330 teachers
Latest
Addition to The Private Eye® Family!
NEW! Team Loupe
Set
6 high quality Private Eye loupes in
poly-grid case, plus microfiber cleaning cloth.
Perfect for table teams and Home School groups!
Guggenheim
Study Suggests Arts Education Benefits Literacy Skills...
Read
this article from The
New York Times to learn more about how this study
shows improvements in a range of literacy skills among
students who were exposed to arts education in the schools. To
see how The Private Eye turns students into artists — connected
to writing and scientific education — see The
Private Eye guide and the student
galleries on this website.
Book
News!
Kerry
Ruef and The Private Eye featured in:
Ecological
Literacy: Educating Our Children in a Sustainable World.
-
edited by CEL senior editor Michael K. Stone and executive
director Zenobia Barlow
This
book presents the Center for Ecoliteracy's conceptual foundations,
from ancient wisdom to contemporary science. It chronicles
some of the most exciting work that the Center has supported
over the last decade, diverse projects that have creatively
put those concepts into practice. Authors include Wendell
Berry, Alice Waters, David W. Orr, Fritjof Capra, Donella
Meadows, and Malcolm Margolin and Kerry Ruef. The book is
published by Sierra Club Books and distributed by University
of California Press. $16.95, 279 pages.
