In our weekly discipline meetings, we have placed greater emphasis on the inclusion of new teachers, the discussion of problems, and the contribution of new ideas. We are reporting back to one another on conferences or visits to other schools. Technology, in particular, has given us common tools and a common language, and we are frequently sharing new techniques or classroom applications for CD-ROMs, MBLs, and other equipment. Another site of pedagogical collaboration is our open lab. With more teachers incorporating student scientific inquiry into their teaching, use of the lab has increased dramatically.
Students work on class experiments, lab-based homework problems, or projects of their own invention.
Teachers are dropping in to observe their colleagues, to glean assignments or technological applications from other disciplines, and to watch students at work. The lab has provided a forum for conversation between students and faculty across disciplines and a rich source of new ideas shared among teachers. Another important area of collaboration has been our detailed discussions about a possible new science facility. Our current teaching spaces were originally designed to accommodate students at individual desks oriented in rows toward a teacher who lectured at a demonstration table. Lecture, lab work, and discussion were discrete activities, occurring at discrete times.