Category Archives: Science

AVID Summer Institute

Anatomy & Physiology, AVID, Biology, Science, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What a truly great experience.  For the second year in a row, I have been fortunate to be able to participate in the AVID Summer Institute.

In 2016, I took the Science I strand.  This year, 2017, I took the Student Success strand.  If all goes well, I am hoping to continue this year and take the Science II strand either during the year or next summer.

You learn SOOOO much during Summer Institute.  Your brain is on fire trying to soak up every last word, strategy, and technique.

This year I was especially fortunate.  I start at Heritage High School August 9th and the summer institute gave me a great opportunity to also meet some of my fellow teacher colleagues.  Those I met were super terrific.  I can tell the staff and teachers are all about the kids and collaboration.  They made me feel right at home.

Back to AVID, last year I incorporated a number of AVID strategies into my teaching, including using an interactive notebook.  I also began flipping the classes so that the students had an opportunity to review the lesson and take notes prior to our discussing it.  This was great.  The flipped part allowed the class to get much more into detail with the content.  It also allowed the students to come to class having processes the material a bit, and having really thoughtful questions based on that.

I learned what worked best with interactive notebooks, cornell notes, and time strategies.  This year, I plan to take it to the next level.  PUHSD has a 1:1 chrome book policy so I can go virtually paperless.  I am so excited.  I have been designing a digital interactive notebook.  Each day the students will be able to go to Google Classroom and select the links and/or copy into their notebooks the assignments for the day.  I am also going to save a lot of time by using content related material to demonstrate the AVID strategies.  For instance, the students can read a biology related article as we practice marking the text, chunking material, and summarizing material.

Some successful strategies from last year that I implemented were: Gist summaries, Cornell Notes, Interactive Notebook, evidence based discussions, and the Gallery Walk.  I also attempted collaborative group projects with Google Slides presentations using a jigsaw strategy.  I also utilized a ton of different type of foldables requiring the students to think about what they were learning and process it so that it made sense.

This year, I am hoping to build on these strategies to include: Focused science vocabulary instruction, selecting texts / articles specifically related to the phenomena being explored and reinforcing the content being explored, additional options for student choices, Socratic seminars, and Philosophical chairs.

Fair v. Equal

Health, Journals, , , , , , ,

Last week my students in Health cried out in despair at the thought that one student was being treated less “equally” as another.  I brought up the discussion of fair v. equal and after a few minutes it became rather clear that as teens, they were having a difficult time understanding the dilemma associated with these terms.  So, I created a reflective piece for them to consider.  There were multiple scenarios provided and they needed to pick out which would be “fair” and which would be “equal.”  Following that was a series of questions, that I hoped would be considered and answered thoughtfully.  A copy of the assignment is attached for reference purposes (fair-v-equal)

One of my responsibilities as a Health instructor of young 9th grade teens is to impart upon them critical thinking, empathy, perspective, decision-making skills, and responsibility in all things health-related.  All things health-related is pretty expansive and stretches far beyond abstinence from sex, drugs, and other risky behaviors.  Teaching tolerance and understanding are probably the most difficult concepts for concrete teens to wrap their minds around.  They very often do not see the consequences of their decisions or actions until they are experiencing them.  I remember vividly my black and white concrete thinking of my teen years all too well.

Fair

Merriam-Webster defines “fair” in no fewer than ten different ways; most relevant to this post are: “6(a) marked by impartiality and honesty : free from self-interest, prejudice, or favoritism; (b): conforming with the established rules : allowed; 10 sufficient but not ample : adequate.”

Equal

Merriam-Webster defines “equal” in quite a number of ways as well.  Those most relevant to this post are: “(1)(a) : of the same measure, quantity, amount, or number as another (2)(a) : equivalent; (b) : like in quality, nature, or status; (c) like for each member of a group, class, or society; (3) regarding or affecting all objects in the same way : impartial.”

The responses I received were varied, but the gist was that they still believed that life should be equal over fair seemingly because if one person gets treated one way, they want to be treated that way as well.  Yet, when faced with a negatively equal situation, they were quite quick to jump over to the fair side of things.  Sadly, few took the time to consider the many significant considerations that impact whether life is “fair” or “equal.”  For instance, they were quick to argue only students who misbehave should receive punishment in a class, yet they refuse to come forward and report to the teacher who the jokester kids are out of blind loyalty to their peers, leaving the teacher with few all or none equal options, rather than the preferable fair options.

Further, the students have not quite connected with the reality of how deeply some beliefs run, preventing fair or equal treatment for all.  For example, consider the inequality in pay for women v. men.  According to The Gender Wage Gap: 2015; Annual Earnings Differences by Gender, Race, and Ethnicity – See more at: http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/the-gender-wage-gap-2015-annual-earnings-differences-by-gender-race-and-ethnicity#sthash.tBFSYiPv.dpuf:

The ratio of women’s and men’s median annual earnings was 79.6 percent for full-time/year-round workers in 2015. This means the gender wage gap for full-time/year-round workers is 20.4 percent. The ratio of women’s and men’s median annual earnings did not improve significantly during the last year, and has not seen a statistically significant annual increase since 2007.

Economy is another primary consideration that is often unconsidered by teens because they have as yet the experience of pinching pennies to pay this bill or that over something they desire more.  They often still believe money simply arrives like magic from atm machines and there is some never-ending supply for everyone, except them of course. Sometimes this is because the parents are still sheltering the teens from the harsher realities of financial responsibility and sometimes, they are fortunate that they do not have very harsh financial realities.

Interestingly, none of the students to date, even looked up the terms for comparison.  When I began grading their responses this evening, I found myself unable to put in comments playing devil’s advocate to their scenarios – poking holes in their tidy black and white thinking.  I am very fortunate to teach health because so much of life revolves around our social, physical, and mental/emotional health.  Plus, it is just plain fun to provide numerous “real” examples that become teachable moments almost every day.  I have as yet to have any student of mine say they did not learn a tremendous amount in my class, despite the fact that I am neither an easy “A,” and I require them to do multiple research-type projects.  By the end of the semester, they have come to realize that Health was probably one of the most important foundational classes they have or will ever take… not to mention the potential for saving their lives, many times over.

Works Cited

Equal. (n.d.). Retrieved February 1, 2017, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/equal

Fair. (n.d.). Retrieved February 1, 2017, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fair

Hegewisch, A., & DuMonthier, A. (2016, September). IWPR Publication. Retrieved February 01, 2017, from http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/the-gender-wage-gap-2015-annual-earnings-differences-by-gender-race-and-ethnicity

Big Music Experiment

Geoscience, , , , , , , , ,

As a comprehensive performance task, the students were given the task of creating, and running a music experiment investigating whether music with words, music without words, or no music (control group) would do better at a comprehension task, as well as retention task.

It was a nifty set-up.  I randomized the students with an online generator to put students in the control group, five students in the Condition 1 group (music with lyrics), five students in the Condition 2 group (music without lyrics) and the remaining students were the scientist/leader, data analyzer, etc. for their group.

The materials included:

  • five blue thumb drives with 8 songs with lyrics 
  • five blue thumb drives with 8 songs without lyrics
  • Instructions for Condition 1
  • Instructions for Condition 2
  • Instructions for the control group
  • 10 class chrome books for the two Conditions
  • Data sheets
  • Articles for the students to read in each condition, and keys provided to scientist/leader of each group.
  • Timer

Results

Unfortunately, the results were rather inconclusive.  With such small condition groups, it was difficult to generalize the results.  In addition, many of the students were game for the first half of the experiment, but did not put very much effort into the second half of the experiment regarding data analysis, research, and drawing scientific conclusions.

Other issues with the experiment included an extremely small sample size.  For this experiment to be truly accurate it would have to have been conducted across all five of my classes, with the classes each divided into thirds.  As I am currently teaching three separate types of classes, we had neither the technological resources, nor the student resources to complete the experiment properly.

It was successful in that the students realized how much effort goes into making an experiment work and how little it takes to make it inaccurate.  They also showed much more interest because the experiment was about a topic they have a vested interest in – listening to music while they work.  Despite the research to the contrary, many still insist they do much better when listening to music.  It is true there are always outliers, but so far the only exception to the musical rule of thumb is music without lyrics, or music in either form when performing mathematical computations.

Work for a Cause

Biology, Geoscience, Health, Inspirational, Journals, , , , , , , , , , , ,

This particular quote is difficult for many teens to really understand deeply, cognitively, and emotionally.  Teens are at the awkward stage of life where they believe everything they do is being watched, judged, and/or criticized – not just by parents, teachers, and other authority figures, but worse than that – their “friends.”

This was a journal prompt I have used in both science classes and health classes because it serves multiple purposes.  First, the students have to really decode the message.  Most of the time they ask me to explain it without even trying, but I always make them to some time and really think about their lives and how this sentiment applies.

Most of my students will get to the cognitive meaning of the quote because they believe it is like a right or wrong question; they do not yet understand that it is not about being right or wrong, it is about building a philosophy for existence.  It is about self-esteem, belief in your inner self, no matter what anyone else thinks.

My favorite analogy is the story of my four-year-old son who wanted to get his nails polished for preschool because mommy and auntie were getting their nails polished.  Gabriel was so excited.  He picked out a really nice green for both his hands and his toes.  His smile lit the room.  When we went home, my husband pulled me aside and was so worried about my undermining our son’s masculinity.  What if he always wants to wear nail polish and then, what if he wants to wear lipstick . . . oh, my.  He was panicked.  I reassured him we would never have to worry about such things.

I cannot be sure what occurred at preschool the next day, but my beautiful son came home at 11:30 a.m. with absolutely no green nail polish on his fingers.  We had a first talk about individuality and the importance of “owning” who you are.  He had literally eaten off his nail polish from his fingers.  I can imagine the other children were pretty harsh, perhaps even a couple of the teachers as well because despite the literal TONS of famous eccentric individuals out in the world, in the every day life of an every day person, it is NOT okay to be different – our social norms dictate that being different is somehow “wrong?”

This when my teens really start to understand the depth of the message because they realize from this simple story how much of life is just like that, as if we are all square meant to fit in square spaces.  But some of us are MORE.  I AM different.  I own my differences, even celebrate them.  The students get it.  They are at a time of their life when they want everyone to “see them,” and that is where it gets tricky because I have to explain it is not about rebelling just to rebel, doing something just because you are under scrutiny, it is about doing what is right simply because it is right, even if no one else knows about it.

My students always ask who is my favorite student.  I always tell them how can I possibly have a favorite student, they are all unique, beautiful, and talented, it would be like picking my favorite flower amidst a flower garden of the most amazing, priceless, flowers in the world. Every single student knows I care about them.  No the color of their hair, their sandals, their high A’s or low F’s.  I care because my students are at an age when they need to express themselves, but they also need to be accepted for who they are – and they are still trying to figure that out (sometimes, I am still trying to figure me out too).

Once we have reached that depth behind the quote, they are in the cognitive zone for critical thinking, creative thinking, abstract thinking . . . exactly where I need them to be while we discuss science content.  The students need to see the big picture, the little picture, and the phases in-between.  It requires them to think beyond the simple facts you can google, and delve into the phenomena of why something occurs, how it is connected to our planet, earth, and life.  I just use journals to get the students in the right mental perspective, as well as teaching them a little bit about character and citizenship.

 

Gemklocx Lab

Biology, Experiments, Geoscience, , , , , , ,

Thank you AVID Science 1, a summer conference I took recently.  This was a wonderfully ingenious lab I did with my Geoscience students, both periods 1 and 2.  It does require quite a bit of set-up and some rather ordinary materials.  Once you are organized, it works out great, as long as the students follow the rules of the lab.

Materials:

  • 2 small paper plates
  • 4 twist ties
  • 2 straws
  • Aluminum foil 12 x 12
  • 1 small paper cup
  • 2 paper clips
  • 3 rubber bands
  • 1 sheet of paper
  • 8 cm of tape

Procedures

The students each received a handout (provided by AVID)  Think It-Build It-Write It-The Gemklocx, which explained the procedure, in addition to the PowerPoint and my oral directions.

There were two main parts of the lab, which is designed to teach students the importance of following EXACT procedures during lab experiments.

First, each student partners with another student forming a team.  Each team receives one set of materials to create and build a model of their own originality.  The time limit is 20 minutes.  At the same time, each team MUST record their procedure, item by item so that the next team can recreate their EXACT model without being able to see it.  All materials must be used and the students were not allowed to add any materials.

Second, the teams were told to hide their models so the other teams could not see them.  Each team was given the exact same materials as previously in addition to the written procedures provided by one of the random teams.  These teams had only 10 minutes to recreate the original model of the first team.

It was one of the best labs.  It was early in the year, and the students were so engaged in the entire process.  They loved created something their own.  Their follow-up reflections regarding the lab concept, procedures, ease and/or difficulty revealed the majority of the students believed the writing of the procedures specific enough for another team to follow was, indeed, the most difficult part.  I look forward to doing it again next year.

Do Sharks Prefer Red?

Biology, Experiments, Geoscience, , , , , , , ,

My classes tend towards utilizing a lot of “real-life” happenings in the world.  It is no surprise that one of my favorite labs had the students watching a short clip from the popular television show Mythbusters where the team uses the scientific method to debunk the idea that sharks prefer the color red.  To view the video, click here: SHARKS

I honestly cannot recollect where I got this lesson plan or idea from.  I checked all my files and could only find the excel worksheet where I use the Mythbusters: Do Sharks Prefer Red? as the backdrop for the lesson plan on the Scientific Method.  If anyone out there knows where I found it, I would truly appreciate a comment so I can give the proper credit.

I did create or recreate a worksheet that starts at the lower level of thinking.  First, we just watch the short 4 or 5 minute video clip.  Then, the students answer some basic “what did you see” kind of questions.  Then, the students have to watch the video a second time and more carefully detail the scientific method stages as they are being used in the video using the video itself as evidence.  Following that, the students take to the deeper level and are required to come up with their own myth to bust and design a scientific method experiment to test it.

These types of lessons really engage my students because they are so “into” media: music, video, and who isn’t into sharks?

 

Scientific Method Project

Geoscience

So excited, the students and I had been learning all the different parts of the scientific method, analyzing it, dissecting it, and now it was time to put them in the driver’s seat, so to speak.

Each student had to create their own flow chart poster board describing an experimental process, from title, hypothesis, all the way to conclusions.  It was really exciting.  I provided the following example:

Growth Mindsets

Anatomy & Physiology, Biology, Day to Day, Science, , , , , ,

Growth Mindsets is a very hot topic in education these days.  Essentially, individuals who believe they have the power to improve their lives, education, skill sets, and relationships have an open/growth mindset.  Something good happens and it the result of good old-fashioned hard work.  It was not luck.  It was not because they are geniuses (although there are some super-bright individuals in the world).  No.  It is because that personally legitimately decided to put in the effort, follow up, and if that did not do the trick, they sought help.  Eventually, the individual knows they can and will succeed.

This is applicable to everything; at this time I am not an excellent drawing artist.  That does not mean I cannot get better.  I can purchase some books, some artistry tools, watch some online tutorials, or even find a mentor.  Will I ever paint or draw a Picasso?  Probably not, but I bet I could become a pretty good artist.

On the other hand, Fixed Mindsets are very common as well.  These individuals believe that to be good, really good at something (sports, academics, finances, etc.), they need to be talented or blessed with God-given gifts.  If a student gets straight A’s it is diminished by those who consider it due to natural ability.  Students work hard, study harder, and have real strategies for doing well in their courses.  Consider for a second, baseball players in the major leagues.  If a person identifies one of the baseball players as just lucky, being in the right place at the right time, it sort of diminishes all of the hard work a baseball career requires, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, for those that believe you either have it or you don’t, life can be very hard indeed.

Myself, I had a growth mindset before the phrase was even coined.  One of my personal experiences using a growth mindset, without even realizing it, occurred when I was only 15, going into my second semester of my junior year at Westminster High School.  I had moved a lot as a kid, but my parents managed to keep me in the same school district from 7th to 12th grade.  I tested highly in almost everything and was put in the honors/AP tract.  My eighth grade math teacher was not particularly impressed with my math grade in 8th grade.  Of course, I sat in the back, did not wear my glasses, and rarely understood what she was saying.  I did not dwell.  Based on the teacher’s recommendation, I was put in Algebra A, B, C, D.  Each took one semester equivalent to my freshman and sophomore years in High School.  Mind you, all the rest of my classes were honors and AP and I was getting good grades in everything.

When school restarted after Christmas break in my Junior year, many of friends in the honors or AP classes were all lit up about being a “Distinguished Scholar.”  I did not know what this was, and I did not know why I was not in the know.  Being forthright, even then, I went to my academic counselor and asked what was going on with this Distinguished Scholar award, as it was apparently a “big” deal.  I was told I would not and could not graduate with that honor.  You see, only students who took the honors/AP courses AND successfully passed pre-calculus as a Senior could earn the award.  The counselor essentially told me it was an impossibility because as a Junior I was taking Geometry.  As a Senior I would go on to Algebra 2.

I did not even think twice about it.  I asked her to explain exactly what would have to happen for me to earn the award.  She was pretty negative about the idea, but indicated if I took Algebra 2 at the local junior college and passed with an A, and took Trigonometry over the summer at the junior college and passed it with an A, she would agree to put me in Pre-Calculus as a Senior.

That is exactly what I did!  In fact, Algebra 2 at the college was so easy.  I struggled more with Geometry.  Trigonometry was a hoot.  I still remember taking the bus to the beach after my morning class at Goldenwest College.  I brought my Trigonometry book, studied, and successfully passed.  In fact, I passed both of the classes with an “A.”  Pre-calculus was super hard.  My best friend, Mina, tutored me that year and I passed with a C for both semesters, but I passed!  On a side note, because I took those two math classes at a junior college, I did not have to take math in college for my Bachelor’s degree.  Cool, right?

 

 

Learning Styles

Biology, Experiments, Geoscience, Health, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Current research indicates “an individual’s learning style refers to the preferential way in which the student absorbs, processes, comprehends and retains information.”  Essentially, “VARK is an acronym that refers to the four types of learning styles: Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing Preference, and Kinesthetic.”  Many learning style surveys omit the Reading/Writing Preference leaving it the typical three: visual, auditory, or kinesthetic.  It is important to note, although a student or adult has a preference for one particular style over the other, it is also important that they practice outside their comfort zone because there may be times when their learning style may be constrained by outside forces.

Every teacher should, theoretically, strive to adapt their lesson plans to incorporate each of these four areas as often as possible to ensure all students’ learning modalities are covered. In fact, according to Fleming and Baume (2006):

  • Students’ preferred learning modes have significant influence on their behavior and learning.
  • Students’ preferred learning modes should be matched with appropriate learning strategies.
  • Information that is accessed through students’ use of their modality preferences shows an increase in their levels of comprehension, motivation and metacognition.

“Identifying your students as visual, auditory, reading/writing or kinesthetic learners, and aligning your overall curriculum with these learning styles, will prove to be beneficial for your entire classroom. Allowing students to access information in terms they are comfortable with will increase their academic confidence” (“Learning Styles”, 2017).

Vark

Understanding how they learn best, enables a student to adapt his or her current study habits to include methods previously unrealized as potentially successful.  This can be a real eye-opener to a student who has struggled in school academically simply because they are more kinesthetic and most instruction is given visual or auditory modalities.

In my classes, I often use what I call the Around the Room Learning Lab.  It incorporate eight different learning stations: Read It! Write It! Explore It! Organize It! Watch It! Research It! Assess It! Illustrate It! and Write It!.  Credit for this goes to Chris Kesler on Teacher Pay Teachers who introduced me to this idea.  I have used many of his labs, and having become familiar with them, have been redesigning them to incorporate deeper cognitive questions and/or thinking, or to emphasize a different aspect of the content.  Mr. Kesler does an amazing job in creating these learning labs, which are great at getting the students familiar with the facts, simple DOK levels 1 and 2 information.  I have been redesigning some of them to incorporate more DOK 3 and 4 levels of thinking.  What is especially great about the labs is that the students are moving around, collaborating, discussing academic concepts, reading academic material, watching academic videos, and illustrating their visualization of academic content.

Once the students have gone through the basics, I am ready to put them through the paces with a scientific lab set up requiring a hypothesis, materials, procedures, data analysis, and results.

Works Cited

Fleming, N., and Baume, D. (2006) Learning Styles Again: VARKing up the right tree!, Educational Developments, SEDA
Ltd, Issue 7.4, Nov. 2006, p4-7.

Learning Styles. (2017). Retrieved March 25, 2017, from https://teach.com/what/teachers-teach/learning-styles/

Othman, N., & Amiruddin, M. H. (2010). Different Perspectives of Learning Styles from VARK Model. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 7, 652-660. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.10.088