November 1, 2016 found iCons students, Kiki Carey, Rebecca Howard, Erica Light, and Corrine Losch, and iCons instructor, Stephanie Purington standing in front of 60 or so participants in the Massachusetts STEM Summit 2016. And they were smiling. They were happy to be there, and as Erica Light said, they were "really interested in getting these case studies out to students" -- their enthusiasm was clear.
For the next 50 minutes, the participants were guided through the five steps in the iCons case study: Inception, Engagement, Research, Create, Reflect. Their guides stopped along the way to model strategies, such as the systems diagram, which is used to generate thinking and interest on a topic, in order to help teams narrow down to a good research question. And in full iCons fashion, the participants did just that -- they participated-- by making their own systems diagrams in teams and ultimately generating their own research questions.
The case studies that Erica, Corrine, Kiki, Rebecca, and Stephanie are so eager to share were created by their team over the summer. They researched, wrote, and even facilitated their case studies with four chemistry classes in the Chicopee School District. After integrating the feedback from these high school students, they adjusted their work accordingly and packaged them to be published on various websites for use by teachers around the world!
Case Study materials for teachers: https://spark.adobe.com/page/MgkGm/
A student-driven case study: https://spark.adobe.com/page/lmNQi/
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