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Originator and site sponsor: William B. Fischer, Portland State University Mission Statement: The "Humboldt Project" supports better learning and teaching, for all students and in all subject areas. It does so by developing pedagogically sound and learner-centered curriculum enrichment resources based on the life and work of Alexander von Humboldt, the great German scientist, scholar, pioneer of ecology and environmentalism, explorer of the Western Hemisphere, and early advocate of human rights. The Project's activities are directed primarily but not exclusively at schools in North America named for Humboldt. The Project seeks to network them with each other, and to like-named schools in Latin America and Germany. What subject areas are included: All. Humboldt's interests and accomplishments were so varied that his work can support learning in the natural sciences, mathematics, social sciences, language arts, fine arts, and world languages. Specific subject areas include (partial list): physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology, meteorology, geography, geology, mathematics anthropology, political science, sociology, history, ethnology, folklore visual arts (example: scientific illustration) and music (example: music and dance of indigenous peoples of Latin America) Humboldt conducted his work in German, French and Spanish; he knew Latin and Greek extremely well; he was competent in English; he valued and recorded the languages of the New World. Humboldt's life and work offer obvious opportunities to aim for improved learning outcomes in more general areas: literacy, numeracy, critical thinking, diversity, internationalization How it came about: The "Humboldt Project" originated within several courses taught (2006- ) at Portland State University (Oregon, USA) by Dr. William B. Fischer. The present (Spring 2008): The collection of curricular enrichments has been outlined. Draft lesson plans have been developed. The metaphor of delivery has been determined: "The Humboldt Box," a collection of resources ("boxlets") packaged in a large crate modelled on the crates which held Humboldt's supplied and collections of scientific and cultural specimens during his explorations. Two Humboldt schools (Portland, OR and New York City) have been visited (January and spring of 2007) and have shown an interest in pursuing the Project. The Project has been presented at one international conference and several regional ones. It has also won two small grants. The near future - by Fall of 2008: 1) Establish email contact with the US & Canada schools, familiarize them with the Project, and solicit expressions of general interest and suggestions for conducting an initial project, such as "Earth Day 2009 with Alexander von Humboldt" and a grant application to support development of trial learning modules. 2) Develop the website as a center of information and resources that can be used by the schools on their own to tell their students about Humboldt. 3) Present at 2 state / regional conferences. 4) Attract one small ($1000) internal (PSU) grant and one larger ($5000) external grant. The further future - by Fall of 2010: 1) Try out one AvH thematic unit at one AvH school. 2) Conduct one workshop for teachers at one AvH school. 3) Establish regular working relationship between two AvH schools. 4) Prepare further thematic units (one each in science, social science, humanities, and languages). 5) Present at 2 more state / regional conferences and 1 national conference. 6) Teach Conduct-Based Instruction course at PSU for languages teachers during 2008-09 and 2009-10 academic years, the latter with distance-learning outreach to a site near a Humboldt school. 7) Continue grants as above, and attract one grant in the $25K range. 8) Publish one article in a refereed national journal. 8) Regular contact with one AvH school in Latin America and one in Germany. The overall goal - by 2013: 1) The "Humboldt Project" is maintained and expanded by the schools themselves, but with continuing cooperation with PSU as part of the University's teacher education offering. 2) One exchange of visits between a US/Canada AvH school and one each in Latin America and Germany. |