The THINK BAG provides a structure for the development of thinking skills from year 5 through to year 10. Expected achievement profiles have been developed at two key transition points.

Welcome to the THINK BAG

The THINK BAG has being developed as a place to store some of the thinking tools that are used by teachers and students in the EBIS ICT PD cluster. Year 5-10 students in the cluster will use these strategies to help them think during the various stages of problem based inquiry learning. Students use the same strategies as they move through primary, intermediate and secondary school. They become increasingly more independent and sophisticated in the use of these strategies as they move through the year levels.

The THINK BAG contains thinking strategies that can be used during each of the six different stages of an inquiry. Simply choose an inquiry stage from the navigation bar and see what is available.

Opening the THINK BAG

On the left hand side of each screen of the THINK BAG you will find a navigation bar.

The THINK BAG link will always bring you back to this page.

The Defining link will take you to a list of resources which can be used by students to help them plan an inquiry.

The Locating link provides access to resources which can help students to gather information from a range of sources.

The Selecting/Analysing link provides access to resources that students can use to help them analyse information during an inquiry.

The Organising/Synthesising link takes you to a list of resources which help students to organise information.

The Creating/Presenting link provides teachers and students with resources to help with the presentation of new information generated through an inquiry.

The Evaluating link provides resources that can be used to evaluate student performace at vaious stages of the inquiry process.

The Whakaaro-Hia THINK! link takes you to the research data which has been generated by teachers in the EBIS ICT PD cluster.

Contents of the THINK BAG

In each section of the THINK BAG you will find a collection of resource summaries, similar to that depicted in the following graphic.

Each resource summary includes an icon which provides an idea of what the resource does. It aslo provides a brief summary of the resource followed by a hyperlink that takes you to the resource itself.

If you follow the hyperlink then you will be provided with a detailed outline of the resource as depicted in the following graphic.

Each outline provides an overview of the information skills that the resource helps to develop. It then lists the files that teachers can download to help students to develop these skills. Each resource has a description of how the file can be used. Teachers can preview a screenshot of each file to get a better idea of how the resource works. They can also view information about the degree of student independence in the use of the tool that is anticipated at a range of achievement levels.

Taking resources out of the THINK BAG

Each resource has links to files which are downloadable. Each of these files is identified using one of the following icons. When you see one of these icons on the site then you will be able to download the file that it represents to your computer for use by your students.

Access Database

PowerPoint Presentation

Word Document

Zipped File

Claris Works Database

Inspiration Document

Hyperlink

Excel Document

Flash Movie

Image file

Downloading resources

To download a file .....

Windows users click on the icon with your right mouse button and choose 'save target as' from the menu that appears. You will then be able to choose a file location on your computer and start the download process.

Macintosh users click on the icon and hold the mouse button for a few seconds until a menu appears. Choose 'download link to disk' from the menu and identify a file location on your computer, then start the download process.