This catalog accompanies the Project Approach Study Group's presentation at the year 2000 annual meeting of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) in Atlanta, Georgia. As in the previous two catalogs, published in 1996 and 1998, the project summaries in this issue reflect the range of locations, settings in which Study Group members work, and the variety of age groups and mixes and project topics members have used. In addition to summaries of the 17 projects displayed at the conference, the catalog includes four sections that address a variety of issues of concern to all involved in implementing the Project Approach.
Section 1 provides a brief overview of what a project is and offers some suggestions about how to get started. It includes also how young children's emerging mapping skills can be strengthened during project work.
Section 2 describes some of the strategies used to help teachers and student teachers learn to use the Project Approach. A variety of course structures and support group arrangements are described, and the important role of administrators in supporting teachers' efforts is discussed. The results of a survey of teachers using the Project Approach is also summarized.
Section 3 offers examples of Project Approach efforts that can be accessed on the World Wide Web. Section 4 consists of the summaries of the 17 projects displayed at the conference showing how preschool and primary school children can become deeply engaged in investigating a variety of phenomena in their own environments, and Section 5 lists a range of resources that can support teachers as they incorporate project work into their teaching.
We welcome your comments and suggestions for the next catalog, and look forward to hearing about your experiences of using the Project Approach.
