Planning+Stage

This stage is crucial to the whole exercise and should last about two hours. After selecting a topic or issue, the activities to be carried out must be clearly defined before moving from the planning stage to the action and evaluation stages. A possible strategy is that students define specific tasks for themselves, either individually or as members of groups, and investigate various aspects of the chosen topic. At this stage, if the project is to be experimentally based, apparatus should be specified so that there is no delay in carrying out the action stage. Contact with other schools, if a joint venture has been agreed, is an important consideration at this time.
 * The planning stage could consist of a single session, or two or three shorter ones.
 * This stage must involve all group 4 students meeting to “brainstorm” and discuss the central topic, sharing ideas and information.
 * The topic can be chosen by the students themselves or selected by the teachers.
 * Where large numbers of students are involved, it may be advisable to have more than one mixed subject group.

Wednesday 16 May:
Introduce the Group 4 Project Get students into groups Brainstorming

Wednesday 23 May:
Choose idea Further Planning

Wednesday 30 May:
Orders in to Van and Lien Further Planning

Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a non-judgmental group creative process in which group members are encouraged to give voice to any ideas they personally consider relevant to the group exercise. In a face-to-face meeting, a brainstorming facilitator will usually stand in front of a big piece of paper and elicit ideas from the participants in the room. An online version of this process can be created by setting up a wiki for the entire class or for smaller student groups and asking people to submit ideas around a brainstorming topic. People can add ideas as they occur and link to other pages for elaboration.