Interested in creating a more hands on learning environment for your students but do not have the resources to provide the enrichment? At Fair Oaks, a few teachers have gotten together on Donors Choose to ask for science equipment and over the past 3 years we have acquired a wealth of material to enhance science education for our school. Materials like digital microscopes, safety goggles, bacteria growth dishes, human anatomy figures, board games and more are just some of the things that have been donated to make a more engaging and hands on experience for our students. All the items are equally shared between the upper grade teachers and everyone benefits.
Hands on realia is one way to engage students but it is not the only. At an elementary level it is important to know that their interest in the science fields and understanding that all of them are scientist is the number one goal for STEM. Many believe it is too hard and the vocabulary is too much of a barrier to pass. But when you approach science from their interest levels, they often forget they are doing science.
Recently, students in my class, who are all highly interested in soccer, had to build a soccer kicking machine. They worked together to engineer a machine that could kick a Ping-Pong ball various distances accurately and effectively. Many had no idea they were applying science skills to the task. But when reflecting on the lesson, they then discovered that the process of collaborating, building, and replicating a procedure over and over was in fact the scientific method.
Lastly, students need to understand that they can be successful in the field, otherwise they will never apply themselves for the skills will seem useless to learn. Students need to be taught a history of science that we as educators never learned before; a cultural perspective. When students learn that people just like themselves, who grew up in similar ways, with similar families became famous scientists, they then have hope for themselves. For all teachers out there, I wish you to try this as a first step in building a STEM classroom.
To help you, here is a list of a few scientists who students may be interested to learn more about. I recommend a weekly scientists that students learn about who did not come from a rich affluent family and may have a handicap with socially or mentally.
Alexander Graham Bell - learning disability Thomas Edison - slightly deaf Albert Einstein - Aspergers Henry Ford - dyslexic Stephan Hakwking - motor neuron disease Dr. Temple Grandin - Autisim
I know there are many minority scientist as well that should be shared and discussed. Please share your favorite scientist that you think students should learn about and tell us why? Together we can create a list of scientist for students to explore.
Fifty years ago, The Russians launch of Sputnik propelled our nation to do something great; send a man to the moon. It awoke a passion and vision in our citizens and leaders to not only surpass a satellite in orbit, but to invest in our nations infrastructure, something we have declined to do lately. Education is Americas best tool to stay competitive (Aarons, 2008). But for this movement to take off a fire needs to be lit. “Our response to sputnik made us better educated, more productive…and more ingenious” (Friedman, 2010). What will Americans respond to today, to make them come together to rebuild America’s infrastructure and instilling in our children the importance of STEM careers?
If you were thinking China, you may
be right, but China has been surpassing us for years and nothing has
changed.Our nations capital is still
spending more overseas than it is at home.It may frighten you to hear this, but Al-Qaida has won.It’s sole objective was not invade America,
it was to bankrupt it.Spending hundreds
of billions a year on foreign investments and military defense, borrowing
trillions from China to fight a war on credit, this nation has stopped
investing in itself and instead gambling on other lucrative ventures
abroad.Waiting for the government to
shift focus from drones to homes is not going to happen anytime soon.A grass roots movement from the people is the
only way tomorrow’s course will be altered.
It is the private sector that has
been taking the lead on this so far.Programs like the EXXON
Mobil STEM Educational Initiative have been the face of STEM and the lead
in awakening our culture to the importance for our nation to stay competitive.It is the teachers who discuss the vast
potential and opportunities with their children that these fields hold.It is the companies like Apple and Google who
invite students to their studios to engage them in the tech world.It is the parents who give them an iPad to
explore their curiosities and not just play games.
Rebuilding America starts with
rebuilding our youth and investing in the infrastructure of our schools that in
turn defines us as a nation.The importance
of teachers focusing on STEM education is widely important because it gives our
next generation the greatest opportunity for potential success.Taiwan has no oil, natural resources, and is nothing but barren rock, but
because they have invested in themselves and their infrastructure they now have the worlds 4th largest monetary reserve (Friedman, 2010).As other countries surpass us, America needs to wake up and prepare our
future leaders for the 21st century world.
Once the nations people have taken wind of rebuilding our infrastructure, they will pressure our leaders to bring our troops home. More importantly, that pressure should continue to invest in all of our troops to re-acclimate them to society and become leaders in the job sector. It starts with scaling down our military and focusing more on our own nation, than on those abroad. History has shown that societies are not built from foreign entanglements. That money spent abroad can not be focused on what makes this country great, our children, our troops, and our ingenuity.
References:
Aarons, D. I. (2008). New skills seen essential for
global competition. Education
Week, 28(4)
Friedman, T. L. (2010, January 17). What’s our Sputnik?
[Op-Ed]. The New York
Directions: Take notes from the links. Use those notes to convince your group the disaster you choose is the deadliest of all! Include: 1. How/why does it start? 2. What would it look/feel like? 3. What long-term damage would occur? 4. How could we be prepared?
They use three colored highlighters to answer three Common Core questions
Example:
Use the yellow highlighter to highlight any confusing or outstanding words.
Use the pink highlighter to show where the author is comparing a _____ to a ________.
Use the green highlighter to show the main idea.
When finished, continue the academic conversation from Tuesday.
Friday - Open Inquiry
Students who have completed weekly work will research, take notes, and prepare to present their findings to the class on a question or topic of their discovery.
Students with incomplete work will finish their assignments and then continue to their open inquiry.
Students, especially boys, love to see something destroyed. Not knowing the consequences behind such destructions make the experience more enjoyable. So, when they get a chance to learn about tsunamis, asteroids, volcanoes, and earthquakes they are jumping out of their seats with excitement.
Taking the students down to the computer lab to research is not always a fun, quiet, and calming experience. Yet, when we researched natural disasters, not a distraction graced the classroom in over an hour. Every student was engaged in the videos, interactive games, and kidrex safe search engines.
To make this empowering, I wanted the students to become the experts. In groups of 4, students studied their own natural disaster and had to prove to their group it was the deadliest of all. The notes, and evidence they found were amazing. They enjoyed discussing these and soon realized the scary effects these "cool" destruction's could have on the world.
The mood grew more somber as they became aware of the consequences of each disaster. In one hour, students took something the saw and loved and saw it in a different light. It was a very empowering experience I wish all teachers to do with their own classrooms.
5th grade blogger example - 3/19/14
A tsunami is the worst thing that can ever happen. It is caused by a earthquake off shore. The bigger the earthquake the bigger the tsunami. A tsunami is a giant wave that can flood a lot of areas and life. The waves can bring cars, houses, and other items down with it. More than 150,000 people can die from a tsunami. It could take years to repair a very deadly tsunami. People are trying to prevent or prepare for tsunami. They prepare for one by building stations to see if a tsunami is coming with a detector. But they don’t give enough time to let people evacuate.
Vimeo is a great tool that allows you to share your students work with parents and family by publishing password protected videos. I was able to get permission to share this video publicly.
iPads break down the 4 walls and let students show their learning in ways that works best for them. Students are not only able to communicate their knowledge to the inbox of the teachers desk, but now to the world. Technology is not killing student writing, it's redefining it.
Digital Portfolios can be carried from grade k-5 and up. Students can create a blog that all of their work goes to (writing, videos, pictures). Teachers can view student blogs to see what they have accomplished. Students can keep track of their work and celebrate their accomplishments.
Digital Citizenship
Click here to see how the Lester B. Pearson school board rolled out iPads in their district.
Click here for how they mapped out curriculum in the fields of communication, awareness, information literacy, and safety.
K Cycle 1 - Kindergarten
Cycle 2 - 1st & 2nd grade
Cycle 3 - 3-5th grade
Secondary Cycle 1 - Jr. High
Secondary Cycle 2 - High school
Lesson Plan to introduce digital citizenship in your classroom
So, why is this important?
The world we know made of post offices and phone calls are long gone. Face-time, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are the new norms of communication. We need to teach students to be safe online and protect their digital identity.
What must teachers cover?
False perception of privacy - just because privacy settings are on, doesn't mean they are private. Anyone can screen shot and reuse.
Before posting anything just ask yourself:
Would your mother approve?
Would it embarrass your grandma?
Could it hurt you from getting a job?
Their Google name from now on will be their future resume.
We need to create a culture of kindness online.
Outreach to parents is important to teach about their child's digital footprints.
No sharing passwords or any personal information (full name, phone number, address etc.)
Creating Independent Learners
Teachers will be replaced by robots if all they do is teach content. Any iPad or iPhone can do that. We need to teach students to build relationships and engage in meaningful ways with the world.
Digital Haversack - have a class site (google sites) that does everything from giving students directions, syllabi, list of resources, announcements, how-to videos, and wish lists for parents.
Easy to access. Have the website bookmarked on the iPad with expectations students go straight to it from class and get started. Keep all the links for their searches here so they do not have to google.
Calendars lets students and parents have access to important dates as long as save the dates to their devices.
If students are absent they may see what was done yesterday and the day before. Even do it from home!
An agenda may look something similar to:
1. Welcome - important info and sign in at google form
2. Independent activity - come in and get to work, no down time.
3. Research activity - we can't always be the sole provider, we need to teach them to look up what they are curious about. Google is the new literacy. Share daily tips on digital citizenship.
4. Collaborative activity - what do you want them to do and how do we want them to interact?
5. Discussions - students can do this if no one is ready to collaborate.
Lastly, take pictures of students success and celebrate them on your website!
Inquiry and iPads
30-45 minutes a day:
1. have students ask questions about a new topic or theme. Hint: They will not be able to ask good questions without knowledge.
2. Read a story / teach a lesson and ask students to take notes, along with and questions or thoughts gained.
3. With their knew knowledge, have students deepen their questions. Group students based on similar inquiries (3-4) and have each group become experts in their area of study. Groups can research then share information found on a blog to compare notes.
4. Demonstrate understanding. Students will take their discoveries and create a media project to present to the class.
5. Go public! share learning with families, friends, and other students interested in the topic.
Find more information on running your inquiry class on Mrs. Wideen's Blog
Lesson plans of primary grades animal inquiry project on the iPad
Story Telling
This is the modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling that weaves images, music, and voices together to give a deep dimension to characters, situations, and experiences.
Framework- Collect, relate, create, donate
Students have different set of standards when they know their work will go out past the teacher. Active learning environments are not a carrot and stick method. A cognitive activity may end up something like this:
Story telling begins with a script, its personal, uses readily available material, includes universal story elements, and is published to the world.
CCSS: Construct a story, sequence and summarize, edit and proofread, use descriptive words, use words to create imagery, understand copyright.
App Smash
Defenition: using multiple apps to create a multimedia project.
Why? To ont limait students curiosity to one medium. Take fractional thinking and create coherent shareable stories. Don't let their ideas die out on paper or in the app. Send them off to the world.
Start to create something
Export to camera roll
Push it into another app
Export to a camera roll
push the project into another app.
Final destination - online!
Explain Everything makes Visuals
iMovie adds music and voice
Helpful Apps
Chirp - Sends out a quick message or URL to all iPads in the class ("5 minutes left")
Easybloggerjr - takes projects and converts them to your blog
Evernote
Wordpress
Bookcreator- great way to make and publish ibooks
Paper53 - turns anyone into an artist (great for making books and backgrounds)
Telegami - makes a mini avatar that talks
Vimeo - a user protected Youtube
Garageband - customize music
Issuu
Green Screen
PuppetPals 2 HD - create a puppet show to tell a story. Can use students as puppets.
News-o-matic
Pocket zoo
Brainpop
Animal Planet
InstaGrok Wonderopolis
Skype - Especially if you are away for the day to communicate with your class!
All of this could not have been discovered without the help of Alice Keeler, Kristen Wideen, Samantha Mora, Greg Kulowiec, and many others at the EdTechTeacher iPad San Diego Summit 2014.
After spending 2 days listening to wonderful presentations by keynote speakers has really helped me redefine my vision of the future of education. Like many teachers, I want to bring technology into the classroom but not sure how to integrate it in a successful manner with minimum support.
Breaking down the fear that teachers and parents have may be the first step. Teachers need to understand that technology is not destroying writing (i.e. cursive) its giving them a more accessible way to communicate their voice. The iPad itself gives students a chance to voice their opinion in a ways they never could before. Instead of 3 students raising their hand, 30 students can publish their identity anyway they want and teach the entire world. Students will hold themselves to high standards when they know their work is going past the teachers desk. The same media becomes transformative to them. "Technology isn't killing their ability to write, it's defining it!"
Next, to calm the fears, students need to be taught digital citizenship. From making school rules, to understanding their identity online. The new résumé in this world is a google search. Having no identity online is just as bad as having a bad identity. Students need to discuss safety and the importance of their digital portfolio. Practicing taking pictures of students, asking the student if its okay to keep or delete, will help students know what is safe to display and what is not.
Moving forward, the school needs to communicate their plan and the importance of the digital world with parents. Technology nights with open forums to help parents connect with The digital classroom. Being able to view their children's success online would make any parent proud.
Teachers are relationship builders. Students know they can get their information from a google search. Teachers will become absolute if we continue to do the same thing machines can do. Teachers need to become facilitators land teach kids how to access and use the digital world correctly.
There is so much positive attributes in teaching students to conduct a positive digital role in this world and create media instead of consume it.
I would love to discuss ideas and ways to transform your school. Lets collaborate!
As an aspiring science teacher to elementary students, I rarely know everything about the subjects I have yet to teach. While text books are a great source of information, sometimes the best learning comes from ones peers.
We are finding out in school now how important academic conversations are having on students abilities with content. So in learning myself, I asked an open-ended question to my colleagues that may not be answered with a simple yes or no from a google search. I asked, Could cancer cells adapt to the point where it infects bacteria and therefore become an airborne agent? Cancer is a very important issue as it is taken the lives of many in my family, including my father. Growing up not knowing how hereditary it is has made me lean towards science in my youth for answers.
After discussing with my colleagues and professor I have realized that a healthy persons immune system would be strong enough to attack any bacterial cell invaders. This idea that a healthy person could fight it off is reassuring, but it led to deeper questions from my colleagues who asked, "What about the exploding number of people who are not considered unhealthy and have compromised immune systems?"
These hypothetical questions really help develop our critical-thinking and is something very important for our youth to develop. Some colleagues even developed thick plot lines for movies based on this idea. I like knowing that all it takes is to be around the right person when ideas are being shared for something remarkable to happen; whether it is finding the answer, or simple making a movie to entertain. When questions are asked, things are put into motion.
Prezi is a new generational platform that uses the cloud to save your powerful looking presentations. Instead of creating hundreds of slides in PowerPoint, Prezi uses one large canvas that lets the user zoom in and out, almost infinitely. This lets people tell a story across a landscape of infinite space.
While fonts are limited and it takes some time getting used to, the benefit of using google image search to easily input any picture desired makes this program a goldmine. There is no copying or pasting in this program, just simply drag the image from the toolbar and you can have your way with it.
Many videos show a wheel that is used to help guide your editing. However, in the program I could never get this magical icon to pop up. I had to use everything manually, and with some time, was able to produce the same results without it.
Creating my first presentation, I was not able to use all the features Prezie offers, yet, I was still able to create a spectacular and captivating presentation that I believe is an accurate description of how the Americas became populated. The idea stemmed from questions my students had during a history lesson.
What the program did best was to allow me to use a map to tell a story. Often this is difficult when students have limited experience with the geographical references. Prezi becomes even more powerful in describing things in relation to each other. It is hard to describe a molecule or how infinite space is. This platform would be excellent at showing the planet and then zooming out to see the sun, solar system, milky way, next galaxies and so on. Working backwards one could show a human, then zoom in to the fingernails and show organ systems, organs, tissues, cells, molecules and then finally atoms. This process would really help students visualize how small/big things can be.
I truly think Prezie is a highly engaging tool that could be used in a wide variety to teach all kinds of concepts as well as have students make their own masterpieces. With the use of cloud technology, these student presentations can be shared more easily than a PowerPoint on a flash drive.
Lastly, I am using blogs in the classroom, and this format allows my students to create Prezies and post them to our class blog. I am really excited to see how this works out in the class. If you have any experience with this please let me know, I would love to hear your experiences and ideas!
The United States History - shortly told to explain the overall picture to my 4th / 5th grade combo class
