Islands of Expertise

I published an article in the September, 2002, issue of Chicago Parent called, 
"Islands of expertise: Why do children become such specialists?"  Here's 
an online version of the article:
   < http://saltthesandbox.org/ChicagoParentArticle2.htm >

The Chicago Parent Web site is here:  < http://www.chicagoparent.com/ >.  

If you're interested in islands of expertise (or in dinosaurs), 
here are a few other resources that may be useful:

To learn more about the research on islands of expertise, visit Kevin Crowley's
Web site at: < http://www.kevincrowley.com >  If you go to his publications 
page, you can download a PDF version of the following article:

Crowley, K. & Jacobs, M. (2002). Islands of expertise and the development 
of family scientific literacy. In G. Leinhardt, K. Crowley, & K. Knutson (Eds.) 
Learning conversations in museums. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum 
Associates.

I've developed a few Web sites about my kids' islands of expertise:

  
I published an article about kids' passion for collecting, which also plays a role in 
their development of islands of expertise.  It's called "Aaron's Treasures: How 
to nurture your child's urge to collect (without letting it drive you nuts),"
and it was published in the July, 2002, issue of Chicago Parent.  Here's an online 
version of that article:
   < http://saltthesandbox.org/ChicagoParentArticle1.htm >
  

If you'd like to e-mail me, here's an address:  < Webmaster@SaltTheSandbox.org >