One of the most challenging daily experiences of teaching young adolescents is helping them transition from Piaget's concrete to the formal operational stage of cognitive development during the middle school years. Students who have reached formal operations can design and test hypotheses, engage in deductive reasoning, use flexible thinking,…

Describes how 40 middle-school students and 2 teachers design a curriculum integration program centered on student-generated learning, characterized by strong student-to-student and student-to-teacher relationships. Covers choosing the students, setting the stage, and determining what to study. Provides examples of student-developed themes. (PKP)