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The Heron Network is a group of teachers working together on developing teaching strategies that incorporate student inquiry. The core group of Heron Network teachers began in 1992 through a grant from the Center For Biology Education at the University Of Wisconsin Madison. At that time, several teachers had already begun to explore an inquiry based curriculum that included annual publications of students investigations in the areas of math and science.
The purpose of the CBE grant was to incorporate watershed issues into the classroom using a similar approach. The Heron Network has continued to strive to include a wide range of scientific and mathematical directions of study. We are just beginning to collaborate in exploring culture and imaginative writing.
An inquiry approach in the classroom gives students an opportunity to construct their own knowledge. The process of writing and publishing the accounts of what the children learned serves several purposes. First, producing a coherent account of a complex process forces the writer to think reflectively and view their own knowledge in a new way. Second, the group of contributing students creates an interested and literate audience for each other. Children respond to each other's work at different times during their investigations, through proposals, class visits, and mid-year conventions. The realization that others are genuinely interested in what is shared in the journal is a powerful motivator for most children. Third, the journals have become a useful text in which children can critique or replicate investigations that interest them or create new directions inspired by earlier works.
As the number of contributors has grown and the volume of paper work increased, using an electronic medium became more and more attractive. The '94-'95 school year marks the first year that children have begun to share their investigations on the Internet. Not only has this provided teachers and students with an appropriate use of the available technology, it has made more information immediately accessible to a wider audience, one of the original goals of the Heron Network.
If you're new to the Heron Network and would like to get involved in this exchange, inquiries should be sent to David Wirth, at his email address, dmwirth@students.wisc.edu. or Robert Wiesner, at his email address, rwiesner@facstaff.wisc.edu. Place Heron Network Info in the Subject box.