This week we investigated student response system. Specifically the Turning point response system. The system operates off of radio transmitters and receivers. A receiver is plugged into the computer and is connected via a software interface. Each student receives a radio transmitter. The transmitter is mostly just a numbered keypad. By pressing the different response keys the student can “vote” on an answer chose that they collectively see. This can be done using the interface software or any other presentation software… like PowerPoint. We worked through several physics based problems getting to actually experience the response systems in person. The output can be varied based on need but is usually displayed as a bar chart. We worked on our own presentations for the rest of class.
April 8, 2009
This week was pretty uneventful in term of new things around the classroom. I setup a twitter account and hooked it up to my cell phone. I then embedded it into my blog so the students had one place to get a lot of info. I also setup my blog so that I can blog from either my email or my cell phone. I have a smartphone (the EnV2), which has the capability of unlimited amount of characters, but the blogger system has some sort of limit so that you can only send 160 characters at a time…. so this doesn’t seem like a very productive use of technology.
However, within 3 days of setting this up, the school had blocked twitter (so it doesn’t show up on my blog page). They also strongly recomended that the student change all their blogs and wikis to private. This infuriates me! I refuse to make this change without a good reason (which the district has none) and to waste a whole day in class making sure the students changed them. What a waste of electronic possibilities!
April 1, 2009
Below is a video of me dissecting a cow’s eye as I guide students through the activity. This was an authentic application activity of the optics unit and a way to get students to transfer their physics knowledge into a biological context. My specific learning objectives are below:
- Students will dissect a cow’s eye into each component part
- Students will relate the concepts of reflection and refraction to biological structures in the eye
- Students will identify how structures (form) of the eye follow its function
- Student will explain how light reflected off an object travels and is interpreted by the brain
This was made using my Macbook cam. The point of this was that I want to have something that the students could watch as they were working (real time streaming video) as well as something that absent students could watch to accomplish a similar task that was covered in class.
In addition to the objectives above, some students have expressed a written objection to working with and dissecting animal due to religious and personal beliefs and view. This video allows to students to accomplish the class goals while still holding their beliefs in tact.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI1scQDOv94
Students will be assessed on whether they correctly dissected the cow’s eye into parts. They will also be assessed on their ability of making a flow chart tracking the path of light as it moves through the eye. Finally, they will answer and submit an essay relating the concepts of reflection and refraction to the dissection.
The most important thing that I learned was that YouTube movies can only be 10 minutes long otherwise the video is declined. When you have a solid lesson its hard to cut it down to ten minutes. I actual had students use my extended version versus the youtube version because of the difference in video quality and length.
April 1, 2009
You Tube is definitely needed in education and is a “trick” that we need to have in the classroom. The problem is that if we want to make the most of this resources there is a lot of problems that we must solve. For example, You Tube is often blocked or in a poor format. Some resources that solve these problems are the following two websites:
www.keepvid.com : for saving You Tube videos
www.zamzar.com : for converting files
From here we went on to playing around with our own video editing software. I used iMovie on my Macbook. From here we posted it onto YouTube. I am very familiar with all of these skills but it is definitely nice to get practice with it. There really is endless amounts of possibilities you can do with digital video in education.
April 1, 2009
While I did not notice any teachers implementing anything cool in their classrooms, this week was a great week for student technology use. As part of a genetics project that the students were working on, they had to create wiki pages. Each student was assigned a genetics disease. They were responsible for researching the disease and posting the answer to three questions that focused of the “big ideas” behind the disease. I also said that they had to include a picture that best represented the condition they researched. Well, I was pleasantly surprise by what I got. Many of the student really out did themselves including many graphics and citations to accompany their research. Several students in each class also included videos they found on youtube. This added an extra layer to there presentation but also showed me that the student really were engaged in the project and in the process were learning the many possible ways to gather information from the internet. All-in-all, I was extremely proud of my students’ work!
March 27, 2009
Today we worked on using simulations and their application for education. We began by examining many of the simulations that I was previously exposed to. These are many of the items that are offered on the PHET website. This website originally started as a project by the University of Colorado Boulder that offered free web-based physics simulations. Since their humble beginnings they have expanded to include biology and chemistry sims. From here we began investigating the NetLogo program. With this open source program you are able to not only create your own original simulations, but you can also download simulations and alter them to fit your means. The program offers a very basic coding formate that echos back to the original Logo program developed in the 80s. Here you dictate directions to either patches or turtles, depending on whether you are directing the background or the moving items on the screen. Finally, we shared the different simulations that we have had access to and began following Chris’ twitter page. I’m not sure that I’m on board with the whole twitter application, but I’m willing to try!
March 27, 2009
9.A:
Here are some simulations that I really like (and are a little more cool for the students) can be found below. All of the simulations require java and flash, internet access, and of course… a computer.
This site have a ton of biology based simulations, including tours of a cell with audio and video displays, and more complex processes like protein synthesis. I have students use this to test their hypothesis about
what they think each of the cell part does.
This is a Earth, Sun, Moon, system analyzer. The students have the freedom to alter several different factors (within the realm of reality) in order to discover the relationships between them. This is typically an observational lab.
This is a great way to help student develop a sense of exponential growth in bacteria and works as an actual lab. The student develop an understanding of variables, graphing, and functions on top of the biological aspects.
Meiosis and Mitosis Comparisons
Once you enter this site, click on the link on the right hand side of the page. Once you enter the flash site you can click though the simulation to compare the two process. In biology, these two processes generate many student difficulties, so it is important that students face this head on and contrast the two processes.
This is a simulation of the famous Mendelian experiment that first introduced the world to inheritance patterns. I have the students use this as an observational experiment (and testing experiment) to get them to construct these concepts.
March 27, 2009
Unfortunately, I got to see the darker side of technology over the last week at school. I am currently having my students blog each week in order to get them to reflect on their learning. I feel that this aligns with much of the metacognitive research that is currently out there. Each week the students have to answer three questions on their blogs: What did we do? Why did we do it? and What did you learn? It really has been working well and I feel that it is a great we to promote technology and reflection. Not to mention it gives quieter students an outlet for expressing their ideas. This has been working well for months now, that is until this week. A concerned parent of one of my students attended a workshop where they suggested that she regularly google her children’s names in order to know what kind of information is available on them. Sure enough, the first thing that came up was her son’s blog. This was very disturbing for her, despite the fact that she was aware of the assignment. It turns out that many of the student chose to put their first and last name online without me knowing. Since then I have been trying to rectify the situation. The problem is that since she found this on google, it means the page has been cached and will be saved in that state (with the students full name) until it is updated. argh!
March 26, 2009
1. Below is a breakdown of what I learned in each of the subsections of the FICSS study:
Advanced math: advanced math background is a large factor in predicted college students success in science.
Projects: only help advanced students and can actually be detrimental to students of mid to lower academic levels.
Technology: Does not seem to be a factor one way or another in predicting student success, and should therefore be considered a useful tool.
Stoichiometry: To my surprise this was a factor that had a significant positive impact. and related to the findings in the mathematics section.
Hand-Graphing: Had very positive effects and should be encouraged in the same way that other basic skills are encouraged.
Block Scheduling: had little effect in either direction on student achievement. teachers should make sure to vary instructional practices in these longer class periods.
Memorization: While their was some evidence that memorization was important, their was no correlation to student achievement when memorization was conducted in the classroom.
Encouragement: All successful students had high school science teachers that encouraged them to continue their progress in college science.
Teacher Personality: Plays no role in predicting student success in college science classes.
2. As the project supervisor said at the beginning of the activity, it is better to experience than to be told. This study’s presentation format is a dramatic method by which researchers are starting to really utilize the information we know about learn. I feel much more likely to remember the material and in large group settings, it can promote discussion of the ideas and topics introduced (more so that just reading an article). On the down side, it is difficult to navigate if you are looking for a specific aspect of the study to reference.
3. The study utilized the following: pre-assessment, guided constructivism/inquiry, technology usage, post assessment, differentiation, and authentism.
4. Since this activity is a game it is important to include a goal or objective the user must obtain. It presents the user with a need to know. Much in the same way, our lesson impliment a “need to know” to get the students to progress through the material and construct bigger ideas on the foundation that was just created.
5. The designers of this activity wanted you to think critically. Just because an advisor is present, doesn’t mean that they have the correct answer. Similarly, we want our students to have the same experiences. We want to promote communication between students but also develop skills that allow them to evaluate ideas and even change them as they begin to learn and construct new concepts.
6. I think it all depends on the circumstances, the teacher, and the student. Excusing students from work as a reward is not beneficial (in the same way that using reading as a punishment is extremely negative). However, excusing students from work is not all bad. Coursework is an extremely important learning opportunity, however, much to often in the college classroom I find professors unable to differentiate to meet student needs. We all come in with different backgrounds and knowledge bases. Having a student do an assignment just to fulfill an objective will be pointless. Yet, if you can identify the area the student really need to develop skills then excusing an assignment could be beneficial (especially if it means that they are going to now have more time to devote to the areas that need developing).
March 25, 2009
http://www.addictinggames.com/pandemic2.html : This game helps students understand how epidemics spread both locally and globally. In addition, students begin to understand the factors and variables that lead to the rate of spreading. I would use this game during our unit on infectious diseases
http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/gravity_master: This game is a great way for students to have fun with Newton’s Laws of motion and force. The objective is to draw difference shapes to manipulate the motion of a ball. I would probably use this as a homework assignment and have the student evaluate the accuracy of the game based on what they have previously constructed.
http://www.notdoppler.com/infect.php: Much like the pandemic game, I would use this during the epidemics unit. Students can once again see the different factors that can change a virus but the focus is more on the effect on an individual than on a large scale. Additionally, with this representation the students get a much less realistic feeling.
http://biologyinmotion.com/cell_division/: Here students focus on the difference between Mitosis and Meiosis in terms of how genetic information is passed. This helps students to focus on a very small and specific part of cellular reproduction. I’ve used this in the past as a way to help struggling students understand the difference between the two processes.
http://flashgamesite.com/play671game.html The archery game is definitely the least educational of all the games listed here, but this is a good way for students to get exposure to the concept of projectile motion. I would probably use this activity as an introduction to projectile motion.
http://www.kongregate.com/games/Zyzic/n3wton: Another game that focuses on Newton’s Laws, specifically his 1st and 3rd Laws. Once the students have experienced a couple boards they will quickly get the idea. I believe this would be another good assignment for students to analyze in terms of the realistic Newtonian concepts.
