This week I witnessed the possibility and perils of animals in the classroom. I was observing a fourth grade classroom as part of a grant where I RTOP the instruction. Prior to the students walking in, I looked at a couple of tanks, and saw one full of green plants in a moist environment. I looked carefully for the critters inside. The classroom teacher saw me looking and told me that unfortunately the district had turned off the air conditioning in the summer and the tree frogs had died. Same thing occurred with the snake tank on the counter to the left. How sad.
The lesson commenced and it was on tadpoles and toads. It was clear that they had been following the rapid life cycle of some tadpoles and really tiny adult toads, taken from a mud hole after an Arizona rain. Using a document camera the progress of the tadpoles and different sizes were shown. Students were asked to come up with possible reasons why the tadpoles were different in size, which was an excellent way to induce critical thinking. There is no doubt, that the students were engaged in this lesson because they had been following the progress of the real living tadpoles and the toads.
Back in 1986 I was teaching in the Bronx, and I had my Madagascan hissing roaches and a tropical fish tank. For a while, I even had a salt-water tank in my classroom. The fish and especially the roaches (this was before they became popular) were excellent for engaging the students in various life science topics. At various times, places, and levels, I have had
Our new family sulcata tortoise: Not a classroom pet.
mealworms, earthworms, crickets, and other living animals in the classroom. I haven’t been a fan of the macro size animal because of the easier care requirements of the smaller animals. Animals in a classroom do add interest, but they are also a lot of work for the teacher and they can cause problems. With school vacations and so much happening in the classroom, it is difficult to always ensure a healthy animal environment. Also, it seems interest would be best kept by having a variety of living things cycle in and out of the room. An enterprising pet store and school district could partner, so the pet shop has living organism kits that teachers could check out for one or two week periods. This would help ensue that the animals are properly cared for and that the children experience a richer segment of the Earth’s biodiversity.
I had the opportunity to vacation and to visit the Chautauqua Institution, a most interesting place if you are interested in teacher education, the fine arts, religion, day camps, the history of education, and lake fun. Mayville, NY was having their book sale, and I was delighted to purchase a Union Fourth Reader by Charles W. Sanders (1877) for $1.00. A couple of months (May, 2010) ago I had my journal article published (The Rise and Fall of Science Education: A Content Analysis of Science in Elementary Reading Textbooks of the 19th Century) that looked at the science in 19th Century readers and analyzed how it changed and suggested possible reasons for the change.
Readers, such as the famous McGuffey Readers, were THE education book in the 19th Century and they were the curriculum, and the science in these books were most likely to be students first exposure to formal science education. To summarize quickly, science rose to a high level in the middle of the 19th century and then declined. Some evidence suggests that there was a backlash to the amount of science covered, and that the goal of making reading literary was pursued. Also, science as a separate subject in the form of object teaching and nature study became more established.
Of course, many people incorrectly delimit the term technology to devices that have integrated circuits in them. But technology includes many items present in the classroom from white boards to textbooks. With the vagueness of many state standards, it is natural for science teachers to use textbooks as guides for the level of content to help students master. So textbooks continue to influence the curriculum, as defined as “what a teacher does with students when the door of the classroom closes.” But as all experienced teachers know; trying to cover an entire textbook is folly. Authors and textbook companies pack lots of content in them so nobody will say, “I’m not going to buy textbook z because it doesn’t have [obscure] content p and q.”
I have co-authored several textbooks, including Biology the Dynamics of Life, Ecology, Glencoe Life Science, and some others listed in the references. It is sad to see the textbooks misused in classrooms. They shouldn’t be used in class but they should be used as a compliment to instruction at home. I think the worst thing for science education is the teacher who tells students, while they are in class, to read chapter x and answer all the odd questions at the end of the chapter. From discussion, interactive didactic lesson, demonstrations, to hands-on experiences, classroom learning can be so much richer. The textbook at home serves as a strong compliment—another opportunity to build conceptual understanding.
Yet many schools struggling to make ends meet, don’t have one copy of the textbook for each student—they only have one copy for each desk in their room. Thus teachers are forced to have students read the textbook in class if they want students to read the textbook. Relief is on the horizon, as most textbooks are now online and students can read them at home if they have an internet connection. Even if there are student copies of the textbooks, chiropractors will be relieved that students don’t have to lug these hefty books home anymore. But alas this might hinder the development of the next UFC Brock Lesnar.
The problem coming down the pipeline is that poorer schools in high-poverty areas may not have the textbooks for each student and the students may not have internet access. It is and will be a double whammy. Perhaps the “Kindle versus other e-reader” battles will lead to disruptive technology that is low cost and that all students can have at home for their textbook reading. Amazingly enough, Sanders’ Fourth Reader is available for free on the Kindle but as expected it is also available at Google Books.
References
Biggs, A Feather, R. M., Jr., Rillero, P., & Zike, D. (2008). Glencoe Science Level Blue:Student Edition New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill (ISBN: 978-0-07-877811-7, 815 pages).
Biggs, A., Daniel, L., Ortleb, E., Rillero, P., & Zike, D., (2008). Glencoe Life Science:Student Edition. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill (ISBN: 0-07-877800-X, 960 pages).
Latourrelle, S., Laub, A., Rillero, P. & Schick, R. (2007). The Living Environment (New York Regents Review Series). New York: Glencoe/ McGraw-Hill (ISBN: 0-07-879731-4, 269 pages).
Biggs, A., Daniel, L., Ortleb, E., Rillero, P., and Zike, D., (2005). Glencoe Life Science:Student Edition. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill (ISBN: 0-07-861702-2, 960 pages).
Rillero, P. (2010). Early Science Education: A Content Analysis of Science in Elementary Reading Textbooks of the Nineteenth Century. School Science and Mathematics, 110(5), 227-237
Rillero, P. & Zike, D. (2005) Ecology:Student Edition. New York: Glencoe/ McGraw-Hill (ISBN: 0-07-8617-464, 209 pages).
Biggs, A., K., Hagins, Kapicka, C., Lundgren, L., Rillero, P., Tallman, K., & Zike D (2004). Biology the Dynamics of Life: Student’s Edition. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. (ISBN: 0-07-829900-4, 1190 pages)
This month I was invited to work with Lee Hartwell (Nobel Prize winner for his work on cells that had important implications for cancer research) and his team at the Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. While not as important as cancer research to save individual lives, our work can contribute to the goal of helping to sustain an individual planet. We are developing a sustainability course for Arizona State University that will be taken by all elementary education students.
Getting to Seattle early, I was able to walk around Lake Union, take a short boat cruise, and find a neat coffee house. As I was enjoying my coffee and the cool air from the open windows, I noticed a very sleek red sports car and then a sign that said Tesla. I had just read an article about the two electric sports cars trying to survive in the US and this was the showroom for one. I bustled over with my coffee and found that they were selling for $108,000. I asked if it was okay to take some photographs, and the receptionist said, “If you put down your coffee, you can get in, and I will take your picture.” Which was an offer that couldn’t be refused.
Sitting in this car, and thinking, “Wow, I am here to work on sustainability and here I am in this brilliant electric sports car.” Perhaps it was the forces of karma that seemed to bring these two events together, my mind actually started thinking of scenarios for me to purchase this car! If you know me, this is so far from who I am; I am a “buy and hold” car person (my small 1999 Acura, that I bought used, has 136,000 miles), who always pays cash for vehicles, and who treats cars as means to get from point A to B rather than as adornments. But the karma and sitting in this awesome vehicle contributed to a flight of fancy, that has now landed. Just as the fox called the grapes he couldn’t get sour, it was tempting to disparage as I walked away: “I could buy three foreclosed houses in Phoenix for this much money,” “It was kind of difficult to get into the car,” and “I want a car that I can drink coffee in.” I do, however, admit that I really hope this company succeeds, and electric cars become more than just curiosities. And to be honest, I don’t really want three foreclosed houses, I need to get more limber, and drink less coffee. I do also hope that you buy this car, keep it in great shape, and then sell it to me in five years for one-quarter the original cost. Today is also the IPO of Tesla, I hope they are successful in raising capital for this venture.
As we move to sustainable ways of producing electricity, electric cars will be a much greener alternative. We need to capitalize on the interests of young people and help them understand how these cars work and why electric cars can contribute to cleaner environments and less use of fossil fuels. Adaptive Curriculum has an Activity Object on solar cars, which improves on the Tesla design by having solar panels. It is difficult to imagine solar panels on the Tesla, but I’m sure in the not-too-distant future we will be seeing paints that are embedded with hidden electronics that convert sunlight to electricity.
Today, I am at NSTA in Philadelphia. A great city, and we have been having fabulous weather. My presentation today is on the Standards Based Science Fair. I am posting the PowerPoint for this presentation. NSTA 2010.SBSF
In a semi-darkened classroom at Coronado High School, the recessed computer projector shined down upon a slightly cushioned floor. David Birchfield, politely told me, “We only walk on that after we take our shoes off.” So I quickly jumped off. Ms. Mills and her physics class came in, and the students sat in chairs around the perimeter of the square mat, almost as though they were there for a martial arts exhibition.
Then the physics began. There was a handmade object that when you pushed a button it dropped its bottom. It had reflective tape so the mini-cameras around the room could pick up its motion and transmit it to a computer, which interpreted the data and then created dots on the mat to show the motion of the large object or the separated objects.
A student spun around in a circle and then pushed the button. The bottom sphere dropped and fell away from the object. From the dot pattern it was quite clear, and one student even said it spontaneously: “It moved away at the tangent.” No longer would these students have the misconception that a moving object would still hold the circular force because of its prior motion. Indeed, from Newton’s first law, it was apparent the straight-line motion of the object.
Students took turns trying it. Then to keep them engaged in their free exploration, there were a number of challenges issued, starting with “Let’s aim at Justin.” Then they aimed at a fixed target. Then at a target moving the same direction they were spinning, with a student walking and holding the target, and then at a target moving in the opposite direction.
After the class was over, I tried it as well, this time sans shoes. I have experienced the future, and it is on the floor. There is more power in an experience that is whole body, rather than just fingers on a keyboard or a mouse. Watching the physics class, there is also the learner interactions that make this a potentially powerful learning environment. To be sure, we will see applications like this in museums before it makes it into regular classrooms. Because it can be used with many content areas, some schools might have a SMALLab (Situated Multimedia Arts Learning Lab) for all their teachers to share. And no doubt the 3-D tracking system can be brought to use with interactive white boards, making their use more economical.
My thanks goes to Arizona State University’s David Birchfield, Kelly Phillips, Tatyana Koziupa, Mina Johnson, and Leanna Archambault for letting me experience the future. This will be a tool that will help students overcome misconceptions and experience science in a different way.
When it comes to science supplies, you can be sure that measuring devices such as stop watches, scales, rulers, and graduated cylinders will be useful. There is risk however in purchasing other materials, as you wonder will they work.
It all started well with my Sprout and Grow Window kits that I purchased for my elementary sciencemethods classes. They planted the generous supply of pea plant seeds that the kit provided. And in 5 of the 6 windows we had healthy germination. The plants looked neat growing up out of the thin plastic container housing the roots.
But the window idea paid no dividends. Although it was possible to see some small roots amid the very dark soil, it was disappointing how little you could actually see. I took one of the kits home to care for the plants. About one week after we started the kits, I planted the same pea plants in my home garden. Last week I took pictures of pea plants in the kit and in my garden. Our home telephone is put into each picture for scale.
Garden pea plants with phone at bottom
I know this is not a carefully controlled experiment. Nevertheless, clearly the outdoor garden plants did much better than the window indoor plants. Most people would guess that would be the case, even in a “winter” in Phoenix (where we have so far managed to avoid a seriously deadly frost). But without the benefit of being able to view the roots well, you have to wonder, why would you want to use the Sprout and Grow Window kits? So this review, gives these kits a rating of only 1 out of 4 test tubes. In other words, I don’t recommend that you purchase the product.
But it is nice that the pea plants they supplied grew so well outdoors. I have never grown peas before and I must confess I felt a connection to Gregor Mendel as I saw my plants rise up and flower. I even have pea pods starting to form. I think I will hold off on any genetic crosses for the time being but I think I might be up for a virtual experience at Adaptive Curriculum’s “Mendel’s Experiment.”
From the Activity Object "Mendel's Experiment" by Adaptive Curriculum
The videos on television show some of the massive destruction and the human toll of the recent earthquake in Haiti. It is difficult to imagine the suffering of the Haitian people. It is an unfortunate example of the devastation of a magnitude 7 earthquake.
It is natural to wonder why or how. When students are ready, teachers may want to discuss earthquakes and their causes.
The folks at IRIS have a website with a PowerPoint presentation and Quicktime movie that explain a lot of details associated with this particular earthquake and earthquakes in general. The PowerPoint has excellent pictures of the destruction to buildings, without presenting images of human suffering that would be difficult for some students. The image to the right is taken from the PowerPoint.
IRIS (AKA the Incorporated Research Institutes for Seismology) has lots of resources for learning about earthquakes including SeisMac 2.0 which allows Macintosh computers to become seismographs.
In the quest for Science Literacy, we strive to give students an understanding of natural events before they happen. Adaptive Curriculum has two strong Activity Objects, one is on determining the magnitude of an earthquake and the other is determining the location of the earthquake. The image below is from “Earthquakes: Measuring Magnitude.“
Berg (one of the really great guys in science education), would have the undergraduate secondary education science students put on physics and chemistry demonstrations for the local school children. It was a delightful way to give them experience teaching and expose children to the interesting world of science. In the picture, two of my students demonstrate their fire tornado. (See http://www.west.asu.edu/rillero/philippines.htm for more of my photographs from the Philippines.)
In this YouTube video below, a similar program is described called “The Little Shop of Physics.”
The electronic Ohaus scales that I ordered a few years ago are slowly dying. Only half the digits are readable on the numeric displays or in some cases there are no readable numbers. At NSTA in Phoenix, I stopped by the Ohaus booth and the representative was not surprised when I told her this. Unfortunately, she informed me, the scales have only a one-year warranty. From the initial lot we bought, half are unusable.
Using the scales in our science methods classes at Arizona State University, shouldn’t be taxing compared to ordinary high school, middle school, or elementary school use. So it surprised me that the LD50 (a biology term for half a population dying) was achieved so quickly. But maybe my expectations are out of line, our Honda Odyssey, my wife informed me today, has 170,000 miles on it. But a one-year warrant, really? That makes me wonder how confident the manufacturer is in their product.
I like how fast the electronic balances gave readings. No longer were drafts, fast walkers, or table shakers an issue in our classroom, as compared to the old reliable triple beam balance scales. I predicted the end to triple beam balances at the high school and an even quicker death to the elementary level pan balances. But, perhaps I was too hasty.
I am not sure if Ohaus scales are worse then others. The sales rep informed me that in the newer models, the problem has been addressed with the displays. That won’t benefit me; I will put my next order in with a different company. But she also told me of another issue that seems likely to affect most scales that are not top end. Adding too much weight can permanently damage the weighing device. Yikes! It seems like a common occurrence, especially when doing full inquiry experiences, that students would add too much weight. Indeed, it seems like there should be warning signs on the scales about maximum loads.And this brings up a final issue. Why is it that we can’t find good reviews of science apparatus? I have bought things that are great and things that are lousy; wouldn’t it be nice to have a place like CNET that helps us tell what is good and what is not. But if you have scale advice, please do leave a comment.
We all want to avoid having children get hurt doing school science. We also don’t want teachers to avoid doing hands-on science because of fears related to safety issues in the science classroom. For the elementary school classroom there are a couple of valuable resources that can help teachers and administrators develop safer practices for science instruction.
Many of these practices have been written with common sense in mind. And if you are safety minded, you are on the lookout for all the potential things that can go wrong and ways to prevent these accidents. Unfortunately, K-5 classrooms would not have some of this safety equipment, such as eyewash fountains, fume hoods, and safety showers, and probably most middle school science classrooms would come up short in these areas.
While going all virtual to avoid safety problems may be tempting, a more pragmatic solution is to avoid dangerous hands-on materials and be very careful to try science activities before hand, and monitor student behavior.
Technology For K-6 Science Safety
While technology is often thought of as electronic stuff, a better and wider view is that it is any human made products that make our lives better or safer. With this in mind, I present my top ten safety technologies.
1. Teacher Developed Safety Rules Contract: A teacher and students who are safety minded is probably the best defense against accidents. There should be no toleration of inappropriate behavior when doing hands-on science.
2. Goggles: Chemical splash safety goggles should be worn whenever what you are working with has the potential to hurt or damage eyes. Please don’t adopt the view, such as, “I use ammonia at home without goggles, so it is okay to use it in school without goggles.” An adult can decide not to use goggles at home and it is at their peril. If a teacher decides not to have students wear goggles with materials that could harm eyes, and eyes are damaged, the teacher will probably be held culpable, as will the administrators, the school, and the district.
3. Disposable Nitrile Gloves: From dissections to handling chemicals, these can prevent problems. And if a student is bleeding for any reason, an adult should put on gloves to help with the situation.
4. Locked Chemical Cabinet
5. Fire blanket and extinguisher
6. First aid kit
7. Proper waste containers
8. Rubber covered muslin aprons
9. Safety posters and signs
10. Non-mercury thermometers
Teachers should be urged to provide hands-on experiences for their students. But teachers are also responsible for the safety of their students.
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