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The Think Tank: A Discovery Room for Young Learners
Topics: Cultivating Critical & Creative Thinking
Grades: K-6
The Think Tank: A Discovery Room for Young Learners

A collage of Think Tank activities: a) Students work to figure out why triangles are so strong. b) Students planning what direction to take when making letters. c) Students works to discover a path with ants all headed in the same direction. Overview: A Discovery Room for our School!

The Think Tank is an open inquiry learning center for all students at Kent Gardens Elementary. The purpose of the lab is to serve as a place for open-ended, student-directed exploration. This exploration is supported through a project-based approach to learning. The projects are specifically designed to augment classroom learning and to extend student understanding through cooperative learning and the teaching of critical and creative thinking.

Students come to the Think Tank to restructure, internalize, and apply knowledge and learning they acquire from the classroom, home, and the community. The lab hopes to establish for children what Howard Gardner refers to as "crystallizing experiences." We want kids to long remember the Think Tank, and catch for themselves the inventive and dynamic spark generated by discovery learning.

© Jean Sausele Knodt, Kent Gardens Elementary School, Fairfax County Public Schools, Area III Administrative District, 1998.

More about the Think Tank Putting Thinking Dispositions into Gear Project Sampler
 • The Profile
 • Central Ideas
 • The Community
 • Jean Knodt, Director of
    the Think Tank
 		 • Interview with the Director
 • Action Guide
    - Thinking Gears
 • Instructional Challenges
 • The Approach
 		 • The Nail Challenge
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The Think Tank: A Discovery Room for Young Learners

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© Cognitive Skills Group, Harvard Project Zero. 1998

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