707 Child Study Lab

Gr 10 - 12 | 3 Credits |Semester-Long |5x per Cycle

 *PREREQUISITE: Completion of either Introduction to Child Development, Teaching Young Children, or approval of the Department Head.

The Child Development Laboratory program offers students who have completed an introductory child development course an opportunity to combine classroom instruction in child development along with a practical experience in the Child Study Laboratory School. This course will examine the development of the physical, emotional, social, cognitive and language growth of preschool children. In this laboratory each student will participate in planning, organizing, implementing, and evaluating the laboratory school activities. For the student who elects this course more than once, many opportunities are available for more in-depth work with the preschoolers. Students may be assigned as team leaders or head teacher. Team leaders are responsible for organizing a teaching team. This includes planning, implementing, and evaluating lessons that are taught by the team. Head teachers act as the Family and Consumer Science teacher’s assistant. They are responsible for classroom management and overall guidance of the preschoolers. The head teacher also aids the teaching team with their daily lessons and helps to critique lessons being taught. Further opportunities afforded seniors is the intensive component. Intensive students plan the classroom environment, develop newsletters, create web pages, and organize other major components of the class.

Essential Skills

1. Plan, organize, implement, and evaluate creative and enriching preschool activities that promote learning through action, inquiry and exploration.

2. Support each child to develop management and understanding of their body, emotions, social relationships, interactions with their classroom environment, materials and equipment.

3. Create and maintain a healthy, safe and secure environment in the classroom both physically and emotionally by managing group dynamics, fostering the development of routines, and organizing and cleaning classroom materials and space.