The Language of Projects: A Glossary of Terms Used in the Project Approach

Culminating activities or culmination: A variety of activities during Phase 3 of a project, through which children summarize and explain their work and their findings to others.

Documentation: Processes of record keeping and samples of children's work at different stages of completion that reveal how children worked and the learning involved in the processes.

Field Visits: Planned visits to sites under investigation during a project.

Observational sketches: Drawings and sketches made while observing actual objects or places as a means of gathering descriptive and quantitative data.

Problem-solving: A process employed by all people at all levels of maturity of discovering or deducing new relationships among things observed or sensed. A method involving clear definition of the problem confronted, formation of hypothetical solutions, and tests of the hypotheses, until evidence warrants acceptance of a hypothesis.

Project: An extended, in-depth investigation of a topic, ideally one worthy of children's attention and energy. Projects involve children in conducting research on phenomena and events worth learning about in their own environments.

Web or Topic web: A graphic representation of the ideas associated with a topic.

Webbing: The process of discussion among teachers and children as they create a web.

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