The Center for Inquiry-Based Learning

Classroom Kit Provision CIBL provides STEM curriculum units filled with hands-on materials that promote creativity, collaboration and critical thinking. We have several different products that include 1 SCIENCE KITS - Each unit serves one teacher and up to 32 students K-5 or 125 students 6-8 for a 9-week instruction period. At the end of each instruction period, the kit is returned to CIBL for refurbishing and reuse, eliminating storage and replenishment issues for teachers. 2 STUDENT ACTIVITY PACKSSAP - These are individual student bags with STEM design challenges. Each pack serves 1 teacher/35 students. During the 2023-24 school year, CIBL provided approx 1315 kits and 1625 SAPs, serving approximately 175,000 students. 3 CUSTOM PRODUCTS AS NEEDED - CIBL supports the NC Science Festival by packing the Science Night kits. These kits are supplied to teachers throughout the state through the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center located on UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Last year CIBL provided 346 of these kits which served approximately 70,000 students.

Curriculum Development CIBL staff are engaged in developing curriculum to meet the NC Essential Science Standards. During the 2023-24 fiscal year CIBL developed additional Student Activity Packs SAP which are designed to be used by students in any type of learning environment such as virtual, in-person, or hybrid. CIBL designed additional teacher resources such as teacher videos, slide decks, teacher tip documents and student activity sheets for our kits and SAPs to help teachers with the successful implementation of the kits/SAPs. These can be found on our website.

Consulting Professional Development CIBL offers professional development to its clients at no charge as part of its mission. During the 2023-24 fiscal year, CIBL provided charitable consulting and professional development workshops with approximately 1200 teachers in attendance. All of these sessions were for K-8 classroom teachers and were focused on student acitivity packs and specific science kits with a 9-week kit use. In addition to the full day professional development sessions, CIBL offered online sessions for the new Student Activity Packs SAP created during the 23-24 school year. CIBL also led sessions at Bridging the Gap and NC Science Teachers conferences. CIBL also consults with school systems at no charge about science implementation for their schools/districts. In addition, in an effort to incentivize teachers to learn more about CIBLs mission, SAPs are given out to teachers during professional development sessions or conferences in which CIBL is presenting.