Big ideas curriculum?

[EKS]

Have any of you heard of or used a curriculum that explores big ideas/concepts? Some examples that I can think of off the top of my head might be be a hands on lesson about place value (the big idea) and different number systems and another could be a lesson where kids invent their own grammar by attaching various made up word endings to words to English words to create an inflected version of English (I stole that particular idea from MCT).

I'm wanting to propose doing some sort of weekly or monthly class along these lines to my homeschool group, which seems to be becoming a gifted kid magnet these days. I'd rather not reinvent the wheel. It seems like there must be something out there like this for gifted pull out programs but I'm not coming up with anything in my searches.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks!

[KarenAnne]

I haven't heard of anything but what people have put together on their own. My daughter briefly attended a private school last year whose overarching "big idea" for eighth grade was "Why do we govern?" For ninth, it was "Who owns water?" and for tenth, power and the issue of whether might makes right.

From what happened during the first several months of the school year, I'd say that when this comes together or works, it is brilliant. But it is hard to do. This school had what I consider middling success: moments where it came together, lots when it did not. I think this was partly because they were attempting it across the curriculum rather than in one or two intensive cross-curricular courses -- two very different things.

Another way to find possible materials is to go onto the websites of some of the elite East Coast schools: Andover, Exeter, Phillips Academy, Deerfield. They tend to have intense seminars in the later high school years on various topics, some of which are along the lines you're thinking about. You can often then follow links to their course syllabi and get all kinds of information: books used, types of essay question tests, etc. It can be intimidating, though.

[Gratia271]

That sounds neat!