Alaska Science Consortium
Learning Cycle Model
Gear up:
- Mentally engage and motivate student (e.g. local expert or Native
elder)
- Preasses students’ prior knowledge and alternative conceptions
Explore:
- Use hands-on, minds-on activities that provide a concrete opportunity
for the students to explore materials, ideas, or phenomena in order
to construct an explanation that is closer to the one that is currently
accepted by the scientific community
Generalize:
- Use questioning and other strategies to help students make sense of
their new discoveries, connect what they are learning to previous understandings,
build more advanced conceptual understanding, and identify questions
for further inquiry/exploration or testing
Inquiry:
- Have students design and conduct an inquiry or experiment (fair test)
Interpret:
- Have students analyze and interpret the data that they have collected
from the experiment and develop explanations for what they observed
Apply:
- Students apply their understanding of the newly learned concept in
some new way that connects, supports, and extends understanding.
- Activities should help the students to recognize the universal nature
of the concept.
- Most apply activities/projects make excellent authentic assessments
