The kids wouldn’t stop rapping “Made of Cells”, an educational song I threw together to reinforce vocabulary, even a week after the exam.It actually got to the point where I had to settle them down each time they walked into my classroom.
Auditory comprises the “A” in Fleming’s VARK model for different styles of learning (others are Visual, Reading and Kinesthetic) and can explain why we remember things more easily if it encompasses a rhyme or a melody.Recall when you were first introduced to the alphabet song: “a, b, c, d, eee, eff, geeee…”It was easy to memorize 26 separate sequence specific letters as a preschooler when it took the form of music.This technique is also implemented in learning the names of the continents (sung to the tune of “Frère Jacques” a.k.a. “Where is Thumbkin?”):
“There are se-ven, there are se-ven,
con-tin-ents, con-tin-ents:
Europe Asia Af-ri-ca
North and South Amer-i-ca
Austral-i-a, Antarc-tic-a.
Advertisers have been using the power of jingles for decades in both private
“You deserve a-break-to-daaayy.”
and public sectors:
“Be…All That You-Can-Be.”
Many scientists credit neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) for how the mind processes information.The theory states that we can potentially incorporate all of our senses during cognition of a word, idea, or set of specific tasks.The more senses bombarded through VARK when attaining that piece of information, the easier for it to “stick” in the brain and recall later.
Whether you call it an earworm, a jingle, or a catchy tune, using educational rap in the classroom is extremely effective.This is especially true in a subject area like science where much of the terminology is derived from Greek and Latin.So start formulating rhymes in your classroom today so your students can memorize that:
“All plants and animals are made up of cells.
Each is made up of parts called organelles.
So tiny you need a microscope to see.
About 100 trillion cells make up you and me.”
Guest Post by Joseph Ocando, who was an 8th grade science teacher in New York City as a member of Teach for America.He has started a business called Rhyme ‘n Learn.His raps can be ordered from http://cdbaby.com/cd/rhymenlearn
With a partner, my secondary science methods students selected a tree and then combined their ample knowledge, creativity, and critical thinking and came up with several methods to determine the height of the tree.
Linda Dee and Karen Schedler were helping my students learn about Project Learning Tree (PLT) and its many science activities. My students now have the assignment to develop a lesson plan using a PLT activity and then teach a high school or middle school class using this lesson plan.
This class of students has already earned my respect for their knowledge, abilities, and great attitudes, but it was still exciting to see them apply what they know with their creativity and critical thinking. Indeed the process was just as important as the result. Their tree-height-measurement methods included (a) having a partner of known height stand by the tree and estimating how many of them it would take to reach the top of the tree; (b) measuring the shadow length of the partner and the tree and using ratios; (c) holding a vertical ruler up, with the partner at the tree, and using the marking of the ruler to determine ratios for the heights, and (d) comparing the tree height to a building and then counting brick segments on the building to determine height. Of course, if a protractor was on hand we could have used the distance from the tree, angle to the top of the tree, and some trigonometry to make this estimate.
The tree height estimates were compared to a value found by using clinometers. These nifty devices, we were told, give a pretty accurate reading. You measure off 66 feet and look through the viewer with one eye and line up a horizontal line with the other eye. There were two scales for viewing the height of the tree, one in feet and the other in meters.In many cases, my students’ estimates were pretty close to the clinometers’ readings.
I was glad to see my students using metric measurements because we had talked about this before our spring break. My advice is to have their future students do all their measurements using the metric system and NEVER convert back into the imperial system. But with the “66 feet” distance and foot scale on the clinometer, it seems like our forestry colleagues, at least in the US, are not fully metrified. Prior to this, I had thought that the only people of science who were not completely immersed in the metric system were US meteorologists. It is obvious that some science traditions don’t change easily.
The Texas Computers in Education Association conference just ended and I am on the plane heading home. It is a nice conference, with lots of exhibitors, presenters, and attendees. I am going to infer that Texas loves science, because at my presentation, which had a narrow niche of middle school science, critical thinking, and state standards, I estimate there were 300+ people.I posted the PowerPoint for this presentation on the last blog.
I thank District Administration’s Kurt Dyrliand Scholastic Administrator’s Ken Royal, who did one of the first articles about Adaptive Curriculum after interviewing me about two years ago at FETC. Ken really enjoyed the Activity Object on Francisco Redi, who helped disprove the idea of spontaneous generation. When Ken was a former science teacher he did this science experiment in class, replete with decaying meat and putrid smells.
It will be interesting to see if the idea of video blogging takes off. I suspect that it will do well as a medium, as long as it has either more attractive or loquacious people than me!
I have the good fortune to be in beautiful Austin, Texas today for the Texas Computer Education Association’s (TCEA) annual convention. Austin is a delightful city, and this conference is huge. In a couple of hours I am going to be doing my presentation “Critical Thinking and TEKS Science Content Via Online Activities.”
I am placing the PowerPoint file here for participants and anyone else interested in this topic. Below are some titles and resources from the presentation.
demonstrate basic relationships between force and motion using simple machines including pulleys and levers (TEKS: 7.6)
http://2dboy.com/games.php
Creature Creator
prelude to Spore
Free trial edition
How can students making creatures
Develop science content?
Develop critical thinking?
Or both?
Adaptive Curriculum Activity Objects
Dancing with the Bees
TEKS 6.12: responses to external stimuli
Determining Planet Layers from Seismic Waves
TEKS 6.6 identify forces that shape features of the Earth; 7.2: organize, analyze, make inferences, and predict trends from direct and indirect evidence
Groundwater
TEKS 6.1: make wise choices in the use and conservation of resources; 6.14 groundwater
In my “Physics for Teachers” class, when student groups present hands-on lessons, they sometimes start with a YouTube video. They are usually well selected and they turn out to be interesting and short. These videos are easy to find and in a university setting easy to display. While some schools have blocked YouTube as a website because of some content, there are workarounds for downloading the videos as .flv files (such as TechCrunch) and playing or converting them with flv players (my favorite for the Macintosh is the free iSquint.
On August 12, 2008, Smartteaching.org posted their 100 top YouTube videos for teachers. Below, I present their science list.
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