Not all topics are equally promising in terms of their educational potential. Consider the following (deliberately a very mixed bag!):

Food    Valentine's Day     trees    fairytales    conflict     animals    going shopping   the senses     rain    bears    dinosaurs     water    roads

Some of these topics may seem to offer more opportunities for children's learning than others. Considering the enormous range of possible topics for study in school, teachers have to be selective.

Criteria used to discriminate among different possible topics of study in school depend on how children learn best, the basic social values we expect children to live by, and what we understand the role of the school to be in educating children. Here is a set of criteria which teachers may wish to add to for themselves. They are expressed in the form of questions which can be asked about the value of studying any given topic.

How can a study of this topic...

• build on what children already know?
• help children to make better sense of the world they live in?
• help children to understand one another better?
• enable children to understand the value of literacy and numeracy in real life contexts?
• offer children ideas for dramatic play/representation?
• encourage children to seek sources of information outside school?
• facilitate communication with parents?

It may be of interest to teachers to take the above list of 13 topics and...

1. to apply the criteria suggested here to these topics
2. to put them in order from those which have the most (1) to those which have the least (13) potential for children's learning.

Criteria Checklist

Some criteria for choosing a good topic from the Projects-L Listserv April 10, 1996:

1. How interesting is the topic for the children?
2. Is it a real world topic?
3. Is there a certain amount of personal experience they already have with the topic?
4. How easy will it be for them to have hands on, first hand experience (field work)?
5. How dependent will they be on adults or books for information?
6. Who can come in and tell about their first hand experience with the topic?
7. Will there be many different questions the children will want to ask about the topic?
8. Will there be opportunities for the children to investigate their own questions actively?
9. Will there be many different ways the children can be helped to represent their findings?
10. Will there be opportunities to take roles in dramatic play?
11. Will there be any large constructions for the children to build and play with or in?
12. What will there be to count, measure, and compare?
13. How are shape, color, texture, or size significant variables in a study of this topic?
14. What expertise can I draw on from among the parents of the children?
15. If the topic is of short-lived interest is there a natural follow on for a new project?

This list emerges from watching projects and analyzing with teachers what seems to attract and sustain children's interest for a substantial period of time. One overriding principle seems to be that children's interest can most easily be developed and sustained when topics have direct connections to local people, places and events.