Cell structures made of clay

Students worked in small groups to make clay cell models. Hands on work with clay is good for learning and creativity! Students also had fun tweeting their cell pics to friends using their own devices.

Fail Forward!

Do you learn more from success or failure? Does it matter? And are we preparing our kids to fail? We should be.  I have often said that in STEM education we don’t have an engagement problem we have a “stick with it” problem.  Students so often quit when they can’t do something, they don’t stick with it, they don’t continue to try their best till they get it right.  Educators need to give students opportunities to try and try again, to fail and learn from their failure. Think about how you support your students when they fail. What do you do well? what can you do better? what will you change in your future practice as a STEM Teacher? 

A few more resources on the subject:

The Growth Mindset: http://mindsetonline.com/

New York Times Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/what-if-the-secret-to-success-is-failure.html?_r=2

Drawn to Science Website

I was recently made aware of a great teacher resource that would support anyone teaching in the STEM fields.  The drawn to science web site provides examples and information about how to use and analyze student drawings to examine how students are learning science.  

According to their web site the Drawn to Science website is part of Project Nexus, a National Science Foundation supported project in the Teacher Professional Continuum Program. The full title of the project is The Maryland Upper Elementary/Middle School Science Teacher Professional Continuum Model.  A major resource  of this website is to provide an example of how drawings can be used as evidence in science education research.

At Weaver Lake every student in grades K-6 uses a science notebook as a science tool, students collect data, sketch experiments and use it as a nature journal when out in our nature area. Teachers use authentic activities to demonstrate the need to keep an accurate science notebook.  There are many great books you can purchase about how to start using science notebooks in your classroom:

• A great website http://www.sciencenotebooks.org/ 
• the Book: Science Notebooks: Writing About Inquiry 

  
Happy Notebooking!! 

Addressing a wide range of skills and abilities in your classroom

A teacher must first know his/her learners. By establishing meaningful relationships and being culturally competent, a teacher will gain an understanding of individual learning styles, passions, motivation and ability.  Teachers need to include pre-assessment in order to understand a student’s prior level of knowledge and potential misconceptions.  This pre-assessment allows teachers to flexibly group learners by shared interests, topics or abilities (depending on the activity and learning goal).  Teachers then need to focus on the essential ideas of the curriculum (standards) and eliminate unnecessary tasks or activities.  Curriculum can then be adapted to include manipulatives, visual aids, charts, technology tools, and hands-on activities to meet the needs of all learners.  Teachers need to manipulate and mold the learning environment to create opportunities to work intensively with individual students who have not yet mastered the gatekeeper skills of reading and writing, as well as maximizing each student's learning potential by developing customized strategies. Finally, teachers need to integrate ongoing and meaningful formative assessment and adjust and modify their instruction as needed. 

As a professional development coordinator it’s important to note, that this is a goal which requires a long term commitment from teachers, schools and districts and it does not happen easily or quickly.  There is no 'one size fits all' model for differentiation.  Districts and schools can support differentiated instruction by first ensuring that administrators have a clear understanding of the practice so that it can be presented and supported in an ongoing manner.  Districts should strive to provide high quality on-going professional development and be flexible and understanding while providing creativity and choice to teachers as they move along the continuum of learning.    

The Value of Assessment

The April/May issue of Science Scope includes a great article on Assessment in science. But that’s not what has me thinking about assessment.  I’m taking an online teaching class through the Powerful Learning Practice  http://plpnetwork.com/  . and let me say it’s been awesome learning, but this week I get to teach others about authentic assessment.  I have spent the week re-reading and learning all about the topic, one of my favorites.  I think the big reminder for me was how much assessment; especially authentic assessment is a part of the learning process.  So while you’re out there designing your higher level thinking assessments for your project based learning don’t forget that the assessment is really just another learning tool in your awesome teacher toolbox.  

and here are a few resources to keep you motivated:

Websites:

Dylan Williams http://www.dylanwiliam.net/

Rick Stiggins http://ati.pearson.com/authors-consultants/rick-stiggins.html

Grant Wiggins http://www.authenticeducation.org/

Authentic assessment tool box http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/index.htm

Free Resources and Tools for "Authentic" Assessment http://www.edutopia.org/stw-assessment-resources-downloads

Testing out a new web 2.0 tool

The MoonKam crater team is using thier crater investigation knowledge to help me test out a new mind mapping tool

Red-tailed Hawk Nest on live WEBCAM

Cornell Lab
LIVE: Red-tailed Hawk Nest

A new nest camera high above a Cornell University athletic field is streaming crystal-clear views of a Red-tailed Hawk nest via the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds website. The new camera stream puts viewers 80 feet off the ground and right beside the nest, where they can watch the hawks arrive, see them taking turns incubating the eggs, and compare notes on the two birds—the male has a more golden-tawny face and is slightly smaller than the female, who has been nicknamed "Big Red" for her alma mater.

Inquiry Circles in Action

Today Dr. Cathy Kindem, from Cedar Park Elementary presented to our staff about Inquiry Circles, the work of Stephanie Harvey and Harvey Daniels.  Teachers were led through the 4 stage process of: Immerse, Investigate, Coalesce, and Go Public. teachers were excited and motivated to try this activty wiht their classes.  for more information check out Barbara Bray's Blog- Rethinking Learning or this scholarly article in JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE AND LITERACY EDUCATION Two for One: Authenticity and Standards Through InquiryCircles

for more information on purchasing the boob click here. 

Owl Pellets and Inquiry

Owl pellets are an awesome jump into inquiry, but teachers often miss the opportunity.  Rather than telling your students what an owl pellet is and having them break one apart to find the rodent bones- why not leave a little mystery to the topic.  Allow students to investigate the mystery rock you’ve found, using a hand lens and a tooth pick.  If they need a little guidance ask them if they can break the rock apart or open it up, once one student does this, others quickly follow.  It won’t be long till your class realizes that this rock is full of bones.  What could it be? Why does it look like that? What does it remind you of? What other “rocks” do we learn about with bones in them? 

After students are done let them learn a little from each other as you create a class list about what they have learned about these new and interesting “rocks”.  Now is also your opportunity to correct any misconceptions and clear things up- no they are not fossils.  You can even show them a quick video clip of an owl casting a pellet for a deeper understanding of what this strange object is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUU895J6Vu0

Kindergarten STEM day a huge success

Our Kindergarten students participated in a STEM day of activities on January 31st.  Over 10 parents volunteered to run science, engineering, math and technology stations for our classes.  children explored gears, magnets, Ipod touches and much more. Our STEM day activities were funded by a grant form the DIstrict 279 Foundation.

Second Grade Fish Painting

our second grade students practiced Gyotaku is a traditional form of Japanese fish printing or rubbing, dating from the mid-19th century, a form of nature printing used by fishermen to record their catches. Students completed this integrated art & science activity as a part of their Ocean Unit of our STEM curriculum