Meaning-making strategies help children to make sense of what they are reading, watching, hearing, and doing during Phase III of the I-Search process. The strategies are aimed at helping them to connect ideas and see relationships between different pieces of information. The goal is for them to expand their knowledge by developing understanding in their own way. This helps them in Phase IV to convey what they are learning using their own words.

STRATEGIES

Keeping a Journal: In their journal, online or paper-based, children can keep a running record of what they are learning, draw pictures, include diagrams, and comment on their reactions. If they find they hit a writers block, children can talk about what they will write before they start writing. They could also write together, taking turns speaking and taking notes.

Marking Text: In gathering information, children often download text from the Internet and/or photocopy pages from books. They need a strategy for marking the relevant ideas, concepts, phrases, or sentences in the larger text. One way to mark the text is to indicate relevant bits with highlighter pens or by writing marginal notes. One extension of this is to use sticky notes (e.g., Post-It Notes). By adhering sticky notes to the side of a page, a child can re-write an important idea in his or her own words.

Talking: One tried-and-true way to make sense of new information is to talk about what you are learning. Coaches can try one of the following approaches to stimulate the conversations, or invent your own!

• Grab-Bag. Have each child put a piece of information on an index card. Place all cards in a bag. Have each child select a card. The person who wrote the card needs to explain the idea. The child holding the card can ask additional questions to elicit more information.
• "And" and "But" Stories. Sitting in a circle, one team member starts off talking about a fact or piece of information he/she found. The next child continues the conversation, using the word "and" as the connector if his/her information is similar or the word "but" as the connector if the information is different.
• Send an email. Ask children to send each other emails that describe something they learned. (Note that we are working on developing a youth bulletin board as part of the ScienceQuest web site where youth can post information and read postings from other teams around the country.)

Displaying Information: Asking the team to make their ideas visible to all can help them connect ideas gathered from one meeting to the next. Making a wall chart is one good strategy. The chart could contain pieces of information, the source and the name of the child who found it.

Graphic Organizers: Graphic organizers are a way to place information in a graphic to show relationships and connections among ideas. Below are four ideas for graphic organizers.

• Webs. A web contains the main idea in the middle, with links to related ideas.
• Timelines. This helpful tool, organized by years, a month, or the parts of a day, helps children understand the sequence of events. One team used this to understand the phases a tadpole went through as it became a frog.
• Venn Diagrams. A Venn diagram, helps children make comparisons between two ideas. For example, imagine they were comparing cars and airplanes. They write what is the same about these two modes of transportation in the overlapping center circle. In each outer circle they write what is unique about cars and what is unique about airplanes.
• Trees of Knowledge. Children can use a picture of a tree, with a trunk, branches, and leaves. The trunk would have their main idea. Each branch would contain a related, supporting idea. The leaves on the branches would have details. The tree could "grow" over the life of the project.

Sorting and Coding: Sometimes children collect information on note cards, and they need a way to sort their information and put cards together that go together. In addition, they need a way to connect ideas within these cards with related ideas on other cards. They can use colored pencils, using one color to circle all of the ideas that are on the same topic. They can also use icons, drawing a triangle, square, or circle next to ideas that seem similar.

Glossaries: As the team gathers information, they are likely to encounter unfamiliar words. A good way to promote meaning is to have them find definitions for these words. Each child can keep an individual glossary or the group can create a glossary, or both. Glossaries can be kept online, in books, or on the wall for all to see.

Back to Phase III "How to Do It" Guide.