Tag Archives: Learning Cycle

In this video series Chris Chiaverina discusses the details of the "Learning Cycle" phases of this teaching model. Watch as his guest teachers describe their experiences and methods.The Learning Cycle is an approach to science instruction first developed by Atkin and Karplus in 1962 while working on the SCIS (Science Curriculum Improvement Study) project.

This exploratory’s emphasis is on the introduction of Newton's 1st, 2nd and 3rd laws. At each station students are asked to perform one or more activities and answer questions based on their observations. These stations use a variety of manipulatives. Some stations feature common household items; others use either commercial devices or teacher-produced apparatus. I would like to share some of our students’ favorite stations with you. During the last 30 years, Dr. James Hicks and I have assembled exploratory activities that we’ve used to introduce each major topic (for example, forces, energy, optics, wave phenomena, electricity, magnetism, etc.)

In this issue of CoolStuff, I would like to expand on the Concept Development stage of the Learning Cycle. From the last issue of CoolStuff, many of you know the Learning Cycle is an approach to science instruction developed by Atkin and Karplus in 1962.