Teacher: “Class, today we’re going to learn another important feature of the Moon called an eclipse.”

Female Student: “I love Eclipse! Edward is so hot!”

Male Student: “Oh sir, I hate that show. I wish I had a stake for that…”

Teacher: “No, no, wait! Not the movie ‘Eclipse.’ I’m talking about the scientific phenomenon in which either the Sun or the Moon seem to temporarily disappear.”

(Cue disappointed groan from entire female class population…)

Going into this lesson, I knew I couldn’t compete with a vampire that shimmers and a werewolf with abs that make washboards jealous, so getting my students to focus on the interactions of the Sun, Earth and Moon during solar and lunar eclipses was going to be a challenge. It’s not that eclipses are boring – quite the opposite – but they are definitely a concept that seems very abstract unless they are seen in person. Since I don’t have time to wait for June and July to view a lunar and solar eclipse respectively, I knew I had to find some way to model this for my students. Of course, the day I wanted to do this demo I couldn’t find my globe and my flashlight was dead. No worries, a teacher anticipates these little problems. I turned to my reliable friend Adaptive Curriculum and was thrilled to find a module on lunar and solar eclipses.

While I have a computer lab in my classroom, I opted to do this activity as a class, hoping to generate some discussion and clear up any misconceptions before they became firmly rooted.

My class is very familiar with Adaptive Curriculum. We do a module about once a week. When I told them we were going to use Adaptive Curriculum, they gave the obligatory “I’m a middle-school student and I’m going to complain about this even though I really don’t mind doing it” groan – you know the one I’m talking about – but any apprehension quickly melted away when they saw what the eclipse module had to offer. My students were instantly transfixed by the animated explanation of various cultures’ beliefs in the meaning of eclipses and were even more interested in the lab-like setting presented in the module.

Learners manipulate models of the Earth-Moon-Sun system to observe eclipses.

Using the SmartBoard, we first modeled the solar eclipse. By manipulating the variable of the distance of the moon between the Earth and Sun, my students clearly saw the result on Earth. By changing camera views, they saw how the eclipse appeared on Earth. The ensuing questions provided by the module were perfectly aligned with what I would have asked myself. We repeated the process for the lunar eclipse with similar success.

Not entirely sure how well my students grasped the concept, I headed into the quiz. After the quick, five-question quiz, I was amazed at how well my students had mastered solar and lunar eclipses. I remember how monumental a challenge teaching this concept had been last year and I never felt my students understood eclipses at a level I expected of them. No problem this year. While I attribute much of that to an especially bright group of students, I know the way Adaptive Curriculum presented eclipses was in a way that was easy to understand and remember. As I asked follow-up questions, my students answered them by referring to the demo in the module.

As a teacher, Adaptive Curriculum is an invaluable asset. Not only does it keep my students engaged and on task, it also hits the objectives I want covered. I especially appreciate how Adaptive Curriculum makes a focus to incorporate process skills that students constantly need to practice.

Another benefit of Adaptive Curriculum is in its modeling of labs. Labs can be expensive, time-consuming to prepare and clean up, and aggravating when students don’t follow procedures. While there is nothing that can replace the experience of an actual lab, Adaptive Curriculum provides many safe and secure lab experiences in which students can manipulate variables and quickly and accurately measure results. Now what’s more scientific than that? Even a vampire would agree.

About the Author:

Mr. Hawkins and his students dissecting a frog.

Seth Hawkins is a 7th and 8th grade science teacher at Besteiro Middle School of Brownsville Independent School District in deep subtropical South Texas. A member of Teach for America, Mr. Hawkins came to Texas to help students realize and achieve their full potential. A self-proclaimed tech guru, Mr. Hawkins enjoys everything technology and also teaches Technology Applications and Web Design courses. When he manages to squeeze away from the classroom, Mr. Hawkins enjoys spending time with his beautiful wife and brilliant daughter. Questions or comments can be sent to him at srhawkins@bisd.us

Lib Guides for the course have been developed and vetted by Dr. Hartwell, as sources for helping teachers teach sustainability better.

Ice Candle and Specific Heat, December 30, 2010

Science Prezi-tations: A Break from PowerPoints, December 22, 2010

Sounds for Science Educators, November 27, 2010

Great Science Teaching: An Iterative Process, October 25, 2010

Report To The President Prepare And Inspire: K-12 Education In Science, Technology, Engineering, And Math (Stem) For America’s Future, October 21, 2010

Engaging Starts and Video of Class, October 1, 2010

Titles for 2010 www.ed-tech-4-science.com placed into Wordle

The Context of Learning and Learning with Style, September 15, 2010

Animals in the Science Classroom, August 29, 2010

What is Science? July 31, 2010

Readers and Science Education, July 12, 2010

Electric Cars, Tesla, and Sustainability, June 28, 2010

Sports Drinks, Young Athletes, and Summer Heat, May 29, 2010

Guided Inquiry and Surface Area to Volume Ratio, May 26, 2010

Happy Earth Day, April 22, 2010

Scale of the Universe, April 10, 2010

NSTA Presentation, March 19, 2010

SMALLab Physics, March 3, 2010

My Mendel Moment and a Review of Sprout & Grow Window, February 8, 2010

Testosterone and Who We Are, January 20, 2010

Science and the Haitian Earthquake, January 18, 2010

Science Shows by Undergraduate Students, January 13, 2010

“After Armageddon” on the History Channel, January 5, 2010

The hottest name in science presentations is Prezi, which creates a non-linear way to depict concepts and multimedia. Prezi calls itself “the zooming presentation editor,” which captures part of it but it really should be called an “animated zooming presentation creator.” The really engaging part is how it zooms to different parts. Take this Prezi presentation that is designed to be an introductory lesson on physics. You can’t appreciate how cool the zooming works until you see Prezi in action. You fly about the word Physics as students are brought to topics they will learn throughout the year.

A Prezi presentation introducing physics.

Great teachers view the world and wonder how can I use this in my teaching. There are teachers who see a tool and instantly think about how they can use it to present science better. Then, there are those that instantly think about how they can put it into students’ hands so they can use it to learn science. Check out this Prezi, which is designed to present info for students to do a “Solar System Prezi-tation.”

Prezis are kept on the internet, so you can access other teacher-created science prezi-tations. Hopefully, they will categorize their site but for now you can do a keyword search. I did a search for “photosynthesis” and found 650 presentations. You can easily have your students go to these websites. I like Adaptive Curriculum because you can embed internet resources with the assigned Activity Objects.

A lesson plan from Adaptive Curriculum includes Activity Objects and Internet resources.

Further, if you believe in the importance of concept mapping in science education (as I do), then Prezi is a great tool for this as well. You can present teacher created or student created concept maps (see below).

But if you are going to Prezi, you better get their quick. This tool will grow in popularity until one day students might say, “I keep getting motion sickness in all my classes from Prezi. Can we please go back to PowerPoints?”

Engaging students’ senses is an important step towards engaging their minds. Sounds can be fun and educational. For example, while studying rain forests or swamps creating the soundscape can get students visualizing the details of the habitat. Sometimes I will do a quick listening exercise to start class; it is a great way to get students quiet, focused, and using their ears. Crickets and the drum rim shot are fun quick sounds that can keep the classroom climate fun and upbeat. Here are some of my favorite sound sites on the web.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/netcommunity/page.aspx?pid=1189

Scene from animation from Adaptive Curriculum's "Hear with the Ear"

http://www.wildlife-sound.org/listen/index.php

http://www.fws.gov/video/sound.htm

http://www.nps.gov/grca/naturescience/natural_sound.htm

http://www.nps.gov/glba/naturescience/soundclips.htm

http://www.azgfd.gov/downloads/ringtones.shtml

http://instantrimshot.com/

http://instantrimshot.com/index.php?sound=crickets

http://instantrimshot.com/index.php?sound=drumroll

http://instantrimshot.com/index.php?sound=downer

Gus Dupuis is a graduate student in ASU’s MLF Teachers College, he will be finishing his semester of student teaching and graduating this May 2011 from the Secondary Education (Teacher Certification) (MEd) program and hopes to start teaching biology in the fall.

(1) STANDARDS: SUPPORT THE CURRENT STATE-LED MOVEMENT FOR SHARED STANDARDS IN MATH AND SCIENCE

(2) TEACHERS: RECRUIT AND TRAIN 100,000 GREAT STEM TEACHERS OVER THE NEXT DECADE WHO ARE ABLE TO PREPARE AND INSPIRE STUDENTS

(3) TEACHERS: RECOGNIZE AND REWARD THE TOP 5 PERCENT OF THE NATION’S STEM TEACHERS, BY CREATING A STEM MASTER TEACHERS CORPS

(4) EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY: USE TECHNOLOGY TO DRIVE INNOVATION, BY CREATING AN ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY FOR EDUCATION

(5) STUDENTS: CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR INSPIRATION THROUGH INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP EXPERIENCES OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

(6) SCHOOLS: CREATE 1,000 NEW STEM-FOCUSED SCHOOLS OVER THE NEXT DECADE

(7) ENSURE STRONG AND STRATEGIC NATIONAL LEADERSHIP

The report begins with this summary of the importance of STEM:

The success of the United States in the 21 century – its wealth and welfare – will depend on the ideas and skills of its population. These have always been the Nation’s most important assets. As the world small measure by the effectiveness of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in the United States. STEM education will determine whether the United States will remain a leader among nations and whether we will be able to solve immense challenges in such areas as energy, health, environmental protection, and national security. It will help produce the capable and flexible workforce needed to compete in a global marketplace. It will ensure our society continues to make fundamental discoveries and to advance our understanding of ourselves, our planet, and the universe. It will generate the scientists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians who will create the new ideas, new products, and entirely new industries of the 21st century. It will provide the technical skills and quantitative literacy needed for individuals to earn livable wages and make better decisions for themselves, their families, and their communities. And it will strengthen our democracy by preparing all citizens to make informed choices in an increasingly technological world.

Chapter 5 focuses on teachers and begins with this statement:

Anyone who has set foot in a classroom knows that teachers make a huge difference in the lives of their students. While not everyone can recall the influence of a legendary teacher like Jaime Escalante, many people have stories about the crucial role that a teacher played in sparking their passion for a subject, teaching them a lifelong skill, or helping them surmount an obstacle. Indeed, most people who work in STEM fields or who simply have an interest in STEM can point to teachers who excited about them about the beauty and power of mathematics, the wonders of science, or the power of technology – and who helped them learn that they could gain mastery of these subjects. Sadly, though, many adults also point to experiences in school that convinced them that STEM subjects were inherently boring, cryptic, or beyond their grasp.

The report correctly points to the importance of STEM for our nation, and suggests compelling steps to improve what we do.

This week I was at Santa Clara Unified School District visiting Kathie Kanavel,  Coordinator for Educational Technology. Kathie told me about her math teachers using their Lumens document cameras to record their lessons, with audio, and then they post them to YouTube. What a great way for students to review the lessons. Parents who are trying to help can also experience the lesson.

Adaptive Curriculum has a different way of engaging students in a lesson on surface-area to volume ratio. They use the discrepant event of cheese cubes in a microwave. Most of us, because of conventional oven experiences, would think that the smaller cubes would melt first. But with a microwave oven, the cheese heats from the inside and the larger cube, because it has a smaller surface-area to volume ratio, retains heat better and it melts first.

Most kids aren’t going to rejoice in this news. They are holding out for the research that says that it helps them to do homework if they are also watching TV. I guess if there are parents who make their children go to some solitary confinement place to do homework, the children might be happy to see this news. My sons seem to enjoy doing their work in the kitchen/family room area, where we tend to congregate, and my wife or I are available to help. They do have a built in desk/office space that has no windows and is cluttered. I was thinking about clearing some clutter so they would actually use their desk area, but now I can point to this 1978 study as evidence that their desk area is perfect. To be honest, I don’t really mind where they do homework and study, just as long as they do it.

Extending this idea, the varied environments created through virtual learning are better than “different rooms.” Students can learn while on Mars or learn while at the bottom of the ocean. Just consider some of the over four hundred Activity Objects of Adaptive Curriculum, students find themselves as mechanics in a car garage, on planets from different solar systems, in Egypt studying mutualism, in a chemistry lab, in a music salon, controlling a reactor in a nuclear submarine, at an amusement park constructing a roller coaster, living in Europe 500 years ago, and producing a theatrical production. Clearly my house doesn’t have rooms that are this interesting, my advertisement might be, “you can wash dishes in the kitchen.” Actually, we do make an effort to have an interesting home environment with interesting décor from different places around the world where we lived, a pool, a trampoline, a basketball court, a lawn, two fish tanks, a reptile tank, two sulcatta baby tortoises, one shelty, and an exercise area. My home, just like most other homes, is more interesting than the typical classroom. The beauty of virtual science activities is that we can take students out of the classroom. I don’t mind an occasional replication of a classroom lab, but the true power of virtual learning is taking students outside the walls of the classroom.

I hinted at controversy in my opening sentence. The Times article also called the whole notion of learning styles a myth; A dangerous statement with so many teachers eating up the invented multiple intelligences of Howard Gardner. I predict in 2020, Gardner will state that there is an intelligence for creating new multiple intelligences. While it is clear that some people are better at some things than other people are, at what point do skills, abilities, and knowledge become grouped as intelligence? I think I should rush to invent “soccer intelligence,” “volleyball setting intelligence,” and “interior design intelligence.”

The great regard for Gardner’s work by teachers is no doubt because teachers see different learning styles. Any teacher who has taught for several years will know that students have varied learning styles. Come on, how obvious, some students learn quite well by reading a textbook and others simply don’t. If you have ever been in school and there was a subject that didn’t come naturally to you but did come naturally to others, you would also realize this. So, I’m not sure how you can state that, “The contrast between the enormous popularity of the learning-styles approach within education and the lack of credible evidence for its utility is, in our opinion, striking and disturbing.”

Color Mixing at a Theater: Paints and Lights

To be sure, a teacher with only a dry-erase marker and a class of 35 adolescent students might have a difficult time adjusting to the learning styles of students, so we might expect little “utility” as he lectures. But if given the training, resources, and a suitable class size, teachers can know their students better, and plan a variety of experiences to help students learn science. One powerful tool for helping students learn at their own pace, and in ways they enjoy, is internet-based science experiences.

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.

References

A Guide to Using Animals in the Classroom http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Portals/9/pdf/pub009.pdf

Animals In the Classroom? A Guide to Decision

Ask Online Guide: Animal Care for Classroom Pets http://www.njabr.org/programs/ask/guide/