It is a pleasure to join with teachers and parents in the development and use of hands-on, challenging learning opportunities for their young scholars. We have many happy memories of students caught up in the excitement of experiential projects that had them (and us) involved in the use of real (not “virtual”) materials and their thinking just seemed to soar!

Sometimes we could have been found constructing a space flight simulator (wood, cardboard, and homemade special effects) or simply working with dice to see why the number 7 comes up so often. Either experience taught through discovery and made for conceptualizing that would not only be retained, but immediately available for further application.

In our 59 combined years in public education, ten summers of the Interaction Factory’s Learning Adventure Camps, and some twenty versions of Summer Challenge programs we never found ANY substitute for getting the active material into the hands of students to see them reach those priceless, insightful, and personal concepts in their heads. It is great fun to be active advocates for “Motivation Based Learning” because IT WORKS.

Easily made paper models of bioluminescent fish glow in black light!

Photo of a special effect for Operation Nemo: Some very young oceanographers looked over illustrations of just a small sample of the creatures that live in the dark depths of the ocean. Pictures of fish that produce their own light to attract prey or mates led to the development of paper models.  We found that simple high lighter markers could be used to color the typical locations of bioluminescent production.  When the models were suspended against a black background and exposed to an inexpensive source of black light the high lighter colors glowed with intensity. The models appeared very like the photos of animals that inspired them.

Continuing Education Credit (CEU.

Teachers can obtain .5 CEU for each workshop or field trip experience. For more information click here.