The 5E Learning Cycle Model

Engage

• Object, event or question used to engage students.

• Connections should be made between what students know and can do.

The 5E Learning Cycle Model

Explore

Evaluate

Introduction

• Students work with one another to explore ideas through hands-on activities.
• The exploration provides a set of common experiences for all learners.
• Under the guidance of the teacher.

• Students assess their knowledge, skills and abilities.
• Activities allow for evaluation of students' development and the effectiveness of the lesson

EDG 4410

By: Jane Ash, Andrea Carreno, Kristen De Guzman, Mary Estep, Ali Renda, Shelby Sawyers, Vanessa Zapata, Michelle Gille

The learning cycle consists of 5 stages: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. This model is based on the constructivist theory of learning, which expects students to use prior knowledge to build new knowledge. Therefore, students, not the teacher, identify their conceptions and change them where appropriate.

The 5E model can be used in many situations. It was primarily designed for use in a science curriculum but could be useful in any other area that requires discovery or schema expansion.

Engage

-Ask students to name the shapes that they know. Make a list of what they say.

-Ask students if they think they might find those shapes in their outdoor classroom.

-Review expectations of working in the outdoor classroom.

Explore

Evaluate

-Repeat activity for different 3-dimensional shapes. It is likely it will be easiest for students to

find cylinders, rectangular prisms, and spheres in the garden.

-Encourage them to think big and

small… a cylinder can be the rain barrel or a small, straight stick.

-Choose a 2-dimensional shape that everyone will look for, such as a circle. Send students outdoors to look for circles.

-Once they have found the shape, they should stand next to it and put their hand on their head as a signal that they are ready to be checked. If they are correct, ask them to describe where the shape is located (for example, is it over, under, above or below the tree?), then ask them to return to the central gathering area to wait for the class to start again with a new shape.

-Repeat this with rectangles, triangles, squares or any other 2-dimensional shape students should

know.

Explain

Elaborate

-Hold up one of the shapes (such as a cylinder) and tell students that they need to find a cylinder in the outdoor classroom for them to stand next to.

-Ask student that has accurately identified a cylinder, invite him to find another one or return to the central gathering area to wait for the class to start on the next shape. Students may be asked again to describe the location of the 3-dimensional shape

-Bring group back to central location. Ask students where they found some of the shapes they were looking for. Were some shapes easier to find than others?

-Explain to students that the shapes they were looking for were all flat, or 2-dimensional.

-Show them models of 3-dimensional shapes. Ask students if they know what any of them are called. Explain that while the square, rectangle, triangle, and circle were all flat, these shapes

are things that they can hold.

Student vs. Teacher Roles

Student Roles

Teacher Roles

Teachers will...

Students will...

• View Themselves as Active Participants in the Process of Learning

• Model Behaviors and Skills

• Plan and Carry Out Investigations

• Support Content Learning

• http://enhancinged.wgbh.org/research/eeeee.html
• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2931660/

• Raise Questions

• Use Multiple Means of Assessment

• Communicate Using a Variety of Methods

• Act as Facilitators

• Propose Explanations and Solutions and Build a Store of Concepts

• Use Observations

Frank Lyman, Maryland Department of Education workshop handout, Baltimore, MD, 1980.

Explain

Elaborate

• Activities allow students to apply concepts they learn to context.

• Students build or extend their understanding and skill.

• Students explain their understanding of concepts and processes.

• New concepts and skills are introduced while conceptual clarity and cohesion are sought.