Spring break!

So much for writing regularly!  Looking back its been a year since I've last posted. For some reason this is the time of year I get inspired again.  The fall is always hectic and then it is easy to get in a rut in the winter. As the weather starts to get nicer everyone's energy and enthusiasm seems to return.

A lot has happened in a year...
During the fall semester I spent a lot of time on a committee writing new curriculum for Earth Science. We have new standards and as a district we are in the process of converting curriculum into all project based learning units. Its been quite the process! We will implement the new curriculum this coming fall. In the meantime I've been trying to pilot a few of the new units.  Here are some highlights of various activities  I've done this year. Some for Physics 1st and some for Earth Science:

For Earth Science I started the year with my biosphere project, where students design a model of a sustainable biosphere. They are introduced to how the spheres (biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and lithosphere), work together and interact. This unit will be used as the first project in the new curriculum. I did the project similarly to how I did it last year, but instead of painting on boards I had the students build their biospheres in the cabinets under the lab tables.  Overall this went better than last year, but of course there are still some improvements. Each time I implement a PBL I think I do a better job of increasing the content. The first time time doing a unit is always a struggle to figure out how to balance the content and the project.

 When we did minerals for Earth Science I had my students create documentaries about Conflict Minerals and think about "who owns Earth's minerals?" The project was really eye-opening for students. With the new standards this unit doesn't fit into the curriculum. And although I think the students got a lot out of thinking about where minerals and natural resources come from, I think the actual content about minerals was hard to fit into the unit. 

Volcano Board Game

I just finished a pilot for next years unit on plate tectonics/volcanoes/earthquakes etc.
The students created board games for 6th graders. The 6th graders will be starting their unit on plate tectonics so this was an introduction for them. We had a game day where the 6th graders came and played our games. It turned out really well and I will definitely do this again next year. Some changes I might make would be to try to cover more content. I had the idea that I would do mini-lessons/conferences for specific groups. I would like to try to make that happen when I do this project again. What I really liked was that since it was new content for the 6th graders, my students had to come up with a game but then also information so that the kids would be able to be successful at the games.  I think next year I will push the presentation of  information as a part of the grade.

My next project is going to be re-painting my classroom and doing a new geologic timeline. I received a grant so I can paint over my walls white and then have my students create a timeline. I have some ideas to showcase more content this year. I am going to be sure it is in order and give each class one wall. I plan to have students use an overhead projector so they can project better images and one of the requirements will be to include dates and labels.  If this one turns out well I will leave it and do the project a little different. I had an idea to coordinate with the FACs teachers and create quilted geologic time wall hangings. Students could pick out some cool fabrics but also use fabric markers or crayons to write on quilt squares. This is just an idea...but hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures of a really cool timeline mural by sometime in May!

Here's a few things in Physics 1st that I've done. In the fall I wrote a grant with two other teachers to do a generator project. We combined with an Environmental Science class. The students got to tour a coal plant, make generators with kits, and design wind turbine blades. The project was really successful in that it was engaging for the students! In terms of content they really connected with the trip to the coal plant and I will definitely try to do that trip again. I think they could still learn about generators, but I don't think I will build them again. I don't know that they got enough out of it for the cost and the amount of materials needed. I think I will revise and pull pieces from the project, but not all of it. I learned that implementing a unit with another class when the sections don't line up, is really difficult to coordinate. I'm not going to give up on cross-curricular activities, however when I do another project like that I will make sure to focus on the organization part of the planning.

 I am also finishing up the force unit I did last year with the games. Another teacher took the project a step farther and had a local gaming business do a game night for the community and some of the student games were played there. I would like to add in this piece for next year. I did revise how I did the project in that I separated the-building/designing of the game and the video about the game. This helped to get better quality games and allowed the students to better showcase the content they learned about Newton's Laws and forces. I plan to do this project again next year.

This is a long post, but I am making up for lost time! And taking advantage of a clear/relaxed mind on spring break! I'd like to end with a few reflections  on successes and notes for what I want to improve.

Every time I do a PBL project I get better at ensuring the students get the content. The authentic audience piece also gets easier as I make connections. The first time doing a project, you are never exactly sure what the students will come up with and the final result. Every time you do the project again, it gets easier to anticipate students and what directions they need.

One thing that I would like to go back to, is to get back on track with incorporating reading and writing into the projects/content.  When I started teaching and writing this blog, that was one of my main focuses. When I started really emphasizing and trying PBL some of my reading/writing focus has slipped. I would like to add that back into the projects/content. As I do the projects multiple times this should be easy to incorporate back into my lessons!

That's all for today. I plan on relaxing recharging the rest of the break. I will go back recharged and ready to take on the end of the year craziness!

Art and Science

I am just about done with another painting project for Earth Science. This time they painted murals on the walls of the classroom. Not sure what I will do next year....but it looks great! I just have one small section that needs to be finished. At the front of the room above my whiteboard, a group is working on painting the whole geologic timeline in order.

I loved the idea when I started but was a bit nervous. First I had the students get in their groups and do a quick big post it with as many pictures and quick info that they could find on geologic time. They could do pictures/words/or anything that demonstrated geologic time.  I then lined them up and had them look at other groups. They had to place sticky notes on the poster that they thought was the best. I used the # of post it votes to determine the order the groups got to choose their Era for the mural.  The first assignment had students individually research their era/periods. They had to answer specific questions about the climate, animal/plant life, and general landscape during their era. Next in groups the students had to  create a rough draft. Once this was approved they started painting. All was going well and I got excited... but then it started taking a long time, and I started to feel like they were having fun painting... but they were using a ton of paint and I wasn't confident they were getting any content. When we final got to a stopping point and most groups were done, I did a brief notes lecture on major extinctions. I was happy to find that the majority of my students were engaged and following along. And not only that, I could tell that they were starting to grasp the enormity of geologic time. I could see a light bulb go off about what a small piece of geologic time, humans fit into.  By having the Era's around them they were interested and making connections! Success! 

The final piece to the project is an individual research paper on a prehistoric animal. The students got right into it and were immediately engaged in researching their animal. Also they seem to understand where their assigned animals fits into the geologic time scale!  

Continuing on...I am wrapping up the year. In genetics my students are going to create podcasts that answer the question "Why doesn't everyone get cancer?"  Even though I get stressed at the end of the year, I'm happy with how this year has gone and I am looking forward to implementing more PBL into my classes. I think I have a found a good fit for myself with PBL. My major goals are to continue to fine tune making sure content is incorporated into the units and that the objectives are still fully learned by students. Back to work I go! Hooray for the semester coming to an end! 

PBL on Forces and Newton's Laws of Motion

As part of a program/training I am working on, I recently completed a PBL with my Physics 1st classes. It was a co-project with another teacher in the district. She did her project with a group of 8th grade students and I did mine with 9th graders. We collaborated a little and had the final project together. Here is a brief outline/rundown.

Essential Question: How can you design a toy or game to demonstrate Forces and Newton's 3 Laws of Motion to children?

Students were given the role of toy designers and had to design a toy or game and then market it (with a video). The toy or game was supposed to help children to engage in and learn STEM skills.

The kick off event was that I set up a room of games and the students got to play games for the class period. They didn't have to do a whole lot of work, but they were supposed to think about the games through the lens of forces.

The culminating activity was family game night where families were invited to come play the games. And I am taking the students bowling!

Overall, a big success!  As with anything, the first time could always be better. Here are some the biggest successes:

• This was one of the first PBL style projects, I've completed where I felt like I didn't skimp on content. I felt a little rushed because of having to set the date for the family night ahead of time. I could have used another week of content/and building time. However, I felt that the students covered as much content and showed as much knowledge of the content, that they did when the unit was done traditionally. 
• Game night was a success! I loved seeing parents out looking at what their student work. It was fun for the students to be able to showcase their hard work. 
• The students learned the program wevideo. and I learned a lot about editing and using wevideo as an instructional tool. 

Some areas to improve:

• More focus on the design piece. Many of my students focused on physical games such as bean bag tosses and obstacle courses.  I would have liked to see more go into building a toy or game. And coming up with rules etc.
• I was a little rushed to cover the content. I would have given myself another week if not two more weeks for the whole unit. 
• I would have added in more check points along the way for student accountability. 

It was fun to put this together as a showcase because it created accountability for me to have it ready ahead and to put the thought and time into that was needed. From this experience I am motivated to continue working through the lens of PBL projects!  I am excited to come up with a plan for Earth Science next year where I teach all my units as PBL. 

I am currently working on putting my projects into unifying science themed units/issues. I am trying to think about the Next Generation Science Standards, unifying science concepts and issues. It is pretty complex as you can see from my crazy brainstorm session....and this brings me back to one of the reasons I started this blog, To help journal my thoughts and put the crazy all over the place ideas that are in my head onto paper and into coherent ideas! 

Pictures from Biosphere PBL

I finally am remembering to post the results from my Earth Science project. I'm happy with how they turned out. I have some new improved ideas for next time. And I still think there was more content the students could have covered. But overall I'm excited with what they produced. I added in a community piece last minute and brought in some guest speakers. But I would like to explore this part more if I were to do the project again.  If I were to do it again the big things I would do more with would be making sure students added in human component.  And then adding in piece that looks at climate and latitude.

I

So much has happened in my classroom since this project....I am really going to work to try keep this blog more updated.  Even if nobody else reads it, I want to be able to use it as a journal for myself. Every time I finish a project or go to a conference or just do something different in the classroom, I get inspired. I'm thinking that when I'm down on what's happening in education and my classroom, I can come back and re-read some of the things I've done and look at the successes I have had. And just get some new inspiration. 

Its been a while since this project but I thought about posting because we just started a new project and my students are doing murals on my walls of the Geologic Eras. They are super excited and very into it already. I think the first biosphere project gave them confidence to paint. 

One more final thought is that I want a goal for myself for next year to be to go back to some of the stuff I've done with reading/writing across content. I think I've gotten away from that, and I want to add more art into my classes. I think art is such a cool way to show/express content and the students get into it. So more project based learning that incorporates reading/writing, art and science! 

Also one more idea I had was that since I'm going to be teaching mostly Earth Science next year, I want to revamp the class so that I'm still hitting the objectives but that it is set up in units by topic. So for example water, or matter. I think I can pull other sciences into the topics and create more interest. I'll write more as I start to outline what this might look like. 

PBL in progress

Hello! It's that time again! I can't believe how fast summer goes! I am always sad to see the summer end, but there is also something exciting about the start of a new school year. It's nice to be able to have a fresh start and regroup!

I have two sections of Earth Science this year and I am starting with my idea from a few posts ago. The original Buck Institute project is called "A Balancing Act' and was focused on learning about ecosystems in a biology class. I am modifying it for an intro earth science project focusing on how the four spheres are connected. The students will be working in design teams to design a set for a reality tv show where the premise is that people are put into a man made biosphere to live.  Each class is one biosphere and each design team is a different ecosystem. Within each team, each student will focus on one of the following aspects, geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. So far I have done just a few intro activities, including watching the Ted Talk by Jane Poynter on her experience living in Biosphere 2. I ended my last class by giving the students a memo that they have been selected to be on a design team for the new reality tv show and I showed the trailer to the 1996 movie "Biodome." Hopefully they are excited.

Now I just have to plan the next steps. In the original project the teacher had the students do posters and a report. In my previous post I had mentioned possibly having students create a mural in my classroom. Due to how many students are in the class I think a mural may be difficult. But, since we just deployed chrome books to every student I think I will incorporate technology. Maybe I can come up with a 3D modeling program. I still have to think the project part through. The key is going to be chunking the project into small manageable pieces and ensuring that the projects represent mastered content knowledge. So here I go. I will share my results.

Geodes!

For my Earth Science final project I had my students make their own geodes. They had to research and come up with a method of making geodes. They worked in groups of three and they had to have 3 geodes to display at the end. One was supposed to have the smallest crystals, one with the biggest crystals, and one was supposed to be the most natural looking. Here are some of their results. Turned into a very cool project. It took some of the students a lot of experimenting to get what they wanted. How often do students really get to "play"? Usually we just give them a set experiment and they have to follow it exactly. This was an awesome way for them to explore and figure out what worked and what didn't work. 

Idea!!

I am supposed to be grading....but I just had what I think is an awesome idea. If I don't write it down now I will forget it. So I'll put it in here, hopefully this summer I can the details ironed out and then one of my first posts in the fall can be showing some cool results! We'll see!

I found a PBL from Buck Institute (BIE) for a life science project on ecosystems.  The project is set for 7th grade. But after looking at it I think I could turn it into a starting earth science project and make it higher level/more rigorous and add content. I also had a few changes to make it my own.

The original project from Buck Institute uses the driving question "How can we design a completely self-sustaining ecosystem?" The project is for students to act as "set designers" for a TV reality show who need to propose a working ecosystem for an artificial biosphere. You can find the official project in the book, "PBL starter Kit" from the Buck Institute for Education. You can also go to BIE,org and create an account to have access to PBL information and other projects.


My idea is to keep the same concept but have the final project be a movie poster or show advertisement in the form of murals. Each group would do a different ecosystem and paint the murals around my classroom.

So that is my idea in a nutshell. Its just a brain storm now. But I'll let you know as I come up with more ideas and figure out more of where I'm going with it.