Encourage tinkering with ideas, relationships, connections. Set up situations where students have to find information not readily available in school texts. Provide opportunity for students to design open-ended explorations of the concept. Provide multiple options so students can plan a unique "proof" of learning.

Begin planning projects

Objective: To personalize students' learning by allowing them to choose an activity that explores some facet of insect life.

Activity: Do a sketchbook of various insects. Do sculptures of various insects. (Teachers should use some of the excellent experiments listed in various science texts.) Invent and build an insect, using what you now know about insects. (Have various materials: pieces of styrofoam, toothpicks, remnants of cloth, colored paper, pipe cleaners, etc. Consider an all-school display.) At this step the students turn in a project plan for teacher and (where necessary) parent approval. They write a contract specifying: the project, the materials needed, the resources, the concepts to be examined, worked through or tested, and the date of completion.

Assessment: How well the students go about the task of planning their projects and the scope of their activity.