Community Resource Curriculum Development: Grades 3-4.

This manual was developed by the Community Resource Curriculum Development Project (CRCDP), a cooperative project to develop multi-disciplinary, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural science/social sciences teaching units based upon the Illinois State Goals for Learning. This manual contains seven teaching units that include several experience-based activities using a constructivist teaching model and incorporating local resources. In these units, students approach each activity using skills gained from their own life experiences. Scientific principles and concepts are introduced following active exploration with hands-on models and investigations. Lessons are linked to information available in the local area and teachers are encouraged to utilize resources in their neighborhood communities whenever possible. The units include: (1) "Corn, Canoes, and Ecology: Gifts from the Native Americans"; (2) "Necessity is the Mother of Invention"; (3) "Arthropods and Spiders"; (4) "Plants for Life"; (5) "Zippity Zoo Dah"; (6) "The Green Streets of Chicago"; and (7) "I'm Just Like the City of Chicago." (JRH)