While there are many powerful tools in the science teacher’s tool chest, one of the most potent is the word processor. This is because lesson planning is an iterative process; we write what we think is an effective lesson plan, then teach it, then modify it, then teach it, then modify it, etc. Although taken for granted now, we forget how easy it is to open a file and make some modifications that enhance what we do as science teachers.
Science teachers should have a template that they use in their day-to-day lessons. A template reduces the need to re-type information on a daily basis, and a template is a reminder of important areas for the teacher to include.
I have been using a Microsoft Word template for about seven years now in my preservice teacher classes. Overtime, I have modified the template, adding sections and deleting others. On a recent assignment in my elementary science methods class, I had a lot of strong lesson plans submitted by my students. Paige Hogg wrote an excellent Parachutes, and I am attaching her lesson plan as an example of a strong lesson and the use of a lesson plan template.
A recent New York Times article (September 8, 2010) created a stir by suggesting that the old advice to do homework in the same spot in the home was incorrect. Benjamin Carey summarizes the findings of cognitive scientists as “instead of sticking to one study location, simply alternating the room where a person studies improves retention.” Providing evidence that takes to task the one study place idea, Carey writes: “In one classic 1978 experiment, psychologists found that college students who studied a list of 40 vocabulary words in two different rooms — one windowless and cluttered, the other modern, with a view on a courtyard — did far better on a test than students who studied the words twice, in the same room. Later studies have confirmed the finding, for a variety of topics.”
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.
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.
Both of my sons are competitive soccer players. When you live in Phoenix, AZ and you see young athletes running and sweating on a hot day for a prolonged period of time, it is easy to conclude that they would benefit from a beverage with electrolytes and some sugar. The electrolytes replenish the salt that is lost in sweating, and can thus prevent muscle cramping, with the most important ion being potassium. Young competitive soccer players also have very little body fat, so the sugar gives their body energy.
I confess, I went through a Gatorade, PowerAde, and Propel stage for our boys. My oldest son prefers Gatorade, my youngest Propel, and PowerAde was often the least expensive. When I would grocery shop I would always stop on this aisle to see if there were bargains to be had, and then I would stock up. The drinks, made by either Coca-Cola or Pepsi, contain electrolytes and sugar so they seemed to be meeting these basic needs. I like the clearness of the Propel, in that I prefer to not have artificial colors sweating out of the pores of my children (which I never understood why Gatorade thought this was an appealing commercial). Tedd Gorden, of MSU, describes the pros and cons of different formulas for sports drinks.
On hot days with long games or practices, we would send our sons with a large water container and a bottle of a sports drink. Their bodies seemed to tell them what was best, and they always drank far more water than the sports drinks. I have now moved to natural alternatives, so our oldest son is drinking Martinelli apple juice (which he says is the best tasting and comes in a fun round bottle) and our youngest Welch’s grape juice from 10 oz containers. The juices are about the same prices as the 32 oz bottles of sports drinks. So per volume, they cost three times as much, but per outing they are about the same.
If you could design your own sports drink what would it have in it? This intriguing idea is used by Adaptive Curriculum to engage students in the Activity Object “Osmosis.” From this engagement, students examine red blood cells in isotonic, hypertonic, and hypotonic solutions. Then students place raw eggs with the shell removed into different unknown solutions and then label what the solution must be based upon the weight gain or loss in the eggs. The Activity Object has a great engagement with multiple strong interactions. And when it comes to sports drinks, hypotonic solutions are best, whether it is made by Coca-Cola, Pepsi, or grown on a tree.
One of the major themes that runs through many facets of science is the notion of surface area to volume ratio. I remember being a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kenya and using an experimental, guided-inquiry curriculum, inspired by the British Nuffield science program. Students made plasticine cubes of various sizes. I’m not sure why British people have an aversion to clay, but plasticine seems to be their school sculpting material. Then students measured the surface area of the cubes and calculated the volume. Then they calculated the surface area to volume ratio and discover that the larger the object, the smaller the surface area to volume ratio.
Which helps to explain many types of adaptations in biology and why individual cells can’t be the size of houses; they would simply not have enough surface area to absorb the materials they need, like oxygen, or to expel waste. From villi in the intestines to convolutions in the brain, our bodies have many adaptations to increase surface area.
Adaptive Curriculum has a guided inquiry Activity Object called “Surface Area to Volume Ratio in Organisms.” A clever engagement draws the students into the interactive experience. You have a plate of cheese with different size cubes that you are going to put into the microwave. But first, learners predict whether the large cubes or the small cubes will melt first.
Obviously, the small cheese cubes will melt before the larger ones. If you thought this, you have experienced a discrepant event. In actuality, the large cubes melt first. Since the microwave heats from the inside, the smaller cubes lose their heat faster than the large ones. The larger cubes, thus retain more heat and melt faster. Discrepant events are powerful, because learners want to know why they were wrong.
From this, learners virtually change the size of cubes and see the changes in surface area, volume, and surface area to volume ratio. Then body sizes and shapes of animals are explored, as students learn about the implications of size and shape for heat loss.
My Peace Corps teaching and Adaptive Curriculum are different modes of guided inquiry and discovery learning, but both can help produce deep and life long learning.
Back in 1985 I was fortunate enough to visit George Awad’s New York studio where he was using his architectural skills and space interests to construct a scale model of the universe. Awad used one million of his own dollars to make this and it was very impressive and enlightening.
This is how Carl Sagan (1997) described it in his book THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD: Science as a Candle in the Dark:
Perhaps the grandest museum exhibit can’t be seen. It has no home: George Awad is one of the leading architectural model makers in America, specializing in skyscrapers. He is also a dedicated student of astronomy who has made a spectacular model of the Universe. Starting with a prosaic scene on Earth, and following a scheme proposed by the designers Charles and Ray Eames, he goes progressively by factors of ten to show us the whole Earth, the Solar System, the Milky Way and the Universe. Every astronomical body is meticulously detailed. You can lose yourself in them. It’s one of the best tools I know of to explain the scale and nature of the Universe to children. Isaac Asimov described it as ‘the most imaginative representation of the universe that I have ever seen, or could have conceived of. I could have wandered through it for hours, seeing something new at every turn that I hadn’t observed before.’ Versions of it ought to be available throughout the country – for stirring the imagination, for inspiration and for teaching. But instead, Mr Awad cannot give this exhibit to any major science museum in the country. No one is willing to devote to it the floor space needed. As I write, it still sits forlornly, crated in storage.
In my office, I have the model of the Big Dipper that George Awad gave me during that 1985 visit. After seeing so many 2-dimensional drawings of the big dipper, the model is a 3-dimensional view that shows how relative size and distance influence what we see in the night sky.
Then there was the famous Powers of Ten Video (or applet) that gave us the broad view of the universe and kept on magnifying by ten, until we arrived in Florida, and then descended into a plant.
Now the folks at Primax Studio have done their own Scale of the Universe with drawn images, instead of partially using photographs, but the music and the interactive aspects make it delightful to explore.
The scale of the universe is difficult to fully appreciate but we are getting closer due to multimedia tools. A 3-d Imax movie will soon be in theaters.
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
One of the many reasons I value living in other cultures, is that when I am removed from my culture, I have greater insight into my culture’s affect on who I am.
There is a fascinating radio show produced by NPR’s “This American Life” that explores the impact of testosterone on us.The first segment is a man who lost the ability to produce testosterone. In those four months he describes his loss of desire, not just the desire that we would suppose, but the desire for anything. To be sure , there was peace in not continually wanting, there was however also a sense of dismay in how much who he was dependant on testosterone.
Image from Adaptive Curriculum's "Human Body Systems"
The second segment was from a man who was born as a woman. Except for the growth of side burns and losing the ability to have a cleansing cry, this man didn’t describe how testosterone injections changed him physically. Perhaps it was assumed that almost everybody knows it can lead to secondary sexual characteristics, including bigger bones, stronger muscles, and a deeper voice. The change he described was on viewing women in a different way, and regrettably not being able to be as close to women any more.
Then in what seems like it could be fodder for afternoon TV, the folks at NPR sent in saliva samples to see who had the most testosterone. There was one group of five males and one group of four females. They all predicted relative levels first. Everybody thought that the woman in the office who made decisive decisions and spoke her mind would have the most testosterone. She even thought so, but hoped she was wrong. They were all right. There were differences in opinion for the males, as they displayed various tendencies, interests, and characteristics.The male who had the least was somewhat dismayed by the results. He said something like this, “I could have accepted this if I worked at ESPN’s Sports Center. But I work at NPR.” Then the “winner,” a balding, muscular, gay man (with almost twice as much testosterone as everybody else) wondered aloud, what is Sports Center? Which the least testosterone man took as another wound—he has more testosterone than me but doesn’t know what Sports Center is!It was a very funny radio moment.
The show ends with a mother reporting on and interviewing her very quiet 15 year-old son. In the process she presents how different her son and daughter are.
In high school biology we talk about hormones in general, and delve lightly into sex hormones. If you want a more interesting assignment (than answer Chapter 4 questions) for mature students, assign them this one-hour broadcast to listen to and ask them to write a one-page reflection. Lots of themes will emerge, and as you read your students’ work, you will have insights into who they are.
The show can be accessed or downloaded for free at: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1230. It can also be purchased at iTunes for 99 cents.
Entries (RSS)