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.
When I was a doctoral student at Ohio State University, my advisor Stan Helgeson would tell us that the simplest questions were the most difficult to answer. “What is science?” ranks right up there for simplicity and difficulty. This week I had the good fortune to be invited to the “Teachers as Investigators” conference at Northern Arizona University. Todd Wojtowicz, a doctoral student in biology, really got us thinking with his presentation, “What is science?”
Todd agreed to my request to post the PowerPoint in this blog. I think that “What is science?” has many potential answers depending upon your education and experience. It is, however, important for science educators to converse with our science colleagues to understand current views. So without any other introduction, I present Todd’s Presentation: What is science_ Wojtowicz.
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
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.”
Tonight, as I understand it, “After Armadeddon” will air at 8 PM on the History Channel. It does present interesting opportunities for science teachers to talk about student ideas and feelings related to future and past disasterous conditions on Earth. It is part of a week of disasters at the History Channel. Here is a description of the show:
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
After Armageddon: – 08:00-10:00 PM
What have past acts of destruction taught us about what will happen to mankind after the apocalypse? Is it inevitable that disaster will someday strike America on an unprecedented level? How has history prepared us? History’s most dramatic events–Hiroshima, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and others–are examined and analyzed with hard data gathered from their massive aftereffects. The disappearance of water and food supplies, the effects of deteriorated sanitation and health care on the remaining population, and the increased use of violence as a means of survival–all illustrate how societies have responded and survived.
I have an especially keen interest in this show as my son, Hy Rillero, spent just over two-weeks filming his segment, with many long days of work. I am hoping that much of his vignette survives the editing process for this two-hour special. No matter what happens it was a great experience for Hy to work with Director Stephen Kemp (Raw-TV). In Hy’s section, a respiratory virus has wiped out 80% of the US population and he chronicles his family’s quest to survive. The photo is of Hy and his film mom and dad.
I had the good fortune last week of being a conference presider for Irfan Kula, a talented educational designer. His session was “I Love Symbiosis.” He emailed me his PowerPoint presentation, and I am presenting this here: i-love-symbiosis-kula.
One of the experts they interviewed was Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City Department of Education. He said the following: “we’ve got to use technology differently. In any field but ours, if you fell asleep 50 years ago and woke up today, you wouldn’t recognize what’s going on. In education, if you fell asleep 50 years ago, you still have the same discussions.”
While classrooms have changed, the major change seems to be whiteboards for chalkboards and not big technology gains. The power of technology has not been used to greatly improve math and science education. Nor has technology been fully utilized to make it easier for teachers to help students learn and assess learning. Joel Klien suggests New York City schools are starting this process. As a former New York City teacher (Lehman High School in THE Bronx) I hope he is right, and that other school districts fully embrace technologies, like Adaptive Curriculum, that can help all students learn science and math.
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.
Angie, one of my science methods students shared this article with me. ScienceDaily (2009-03-28) — Self-led, self-structured inquiry may be the best method to train scientists at the college level and beyond, but it’s not the ideal way for all high school students to prepare for college science. That’s according to findings of a new study. See: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090326114415.htm#
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