Tag Archives: Science

Designing a meaningful warm-up

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

Back in the block schedule day, I had an opportunity to provide students with 15 minute warm-ups.  Students were presented with a controversial video, ethical or moral quote, growth mindset message, or a simple question.  The students were required to write one-half page in their interactive notebooks.  Many wrote more.  Then, we had a class discussion about the topics.  Science students are amazing.  They quickly realized they had to really think about the topic.  I often said I did not want the superficial “skipping a stone across the creek” thoughts, I wanted their “throw a large rock into a lake and watch it sink way down” thoughts.  Of course, giving the students examples like this often led to deep thinking as well.  These warm-ups were deeply philosophical, ethical, created moral dilemmas, and essentially great for scientific argumentation, creative and logical critical thinking.  I miss them.

I digress.  Currently I am teaching in a traditional schedule environment, with two late starts: Mondays and Fridays.  Clearly, with such a shortened schedule I do not have time to divert from essential content if I am to meet the students’ learning goals, and daily objectives.  It was about this time that I was found a website Effective strategies for teaching science vocabulary.  There were many, many tips, strategies, and techniques.  I had an idea that became a great warm-up.

It is no secret that the amount of science vocabulary students must learn in a year is incredibly large; far too large to accomplish easily, especially for the EL students.  After brainstorming, I realized that perhaps it would not be so difficult if the students were given a cipher, so to speak.  I had learned about this website called desmos, typically used for math students, but easily modified for my purposes.

The first iteration involved students matching concentration style six prefixes with their meanings.  The second iteration included prefixes, suffixes, or roots with their definitions.  The third iteration added more rigor; students had to match their terms and then google a new word with the same prefix, suffix or root.  Once the students had mastered these different levels (naturally scaffolded as it went through different iterations), I added another step: a collaborative connection.  Now the students had to turn to their elbow partner and share the new words they had found for the same prefix, suffix, or root, and make a connection back to the original meaning.  Most of the time the connections were clear and obvious, but some of the time they were more difficult and required some creative, out of the box thinking.  The last iteration was simply to reduce the number of terms from six to three so the warm-up could be completed in approximately five minutes.  Then, the students stamp them.  We turn them in once a week.

At first, I was not sure this would work out well.  Then, I noticed that some of the students who usually require prodding were enjoying it.  Now, the students come in quickly and immediately look for the desmos code on the screen.  I have time for attendance and to walk around and help those who are having difficulty.  It is flexible enough for me to customize for a particular lesson.  For instance, when teaching photosynthesis, the desmos warm-ups had terms such as photo-, synthesis, chemio, and chloro-.   Yeah me, this was a big win.  It checks as lot of those instructional boxes: vocabulary, collaboration, critical thinking, creative thinking, utilizing technology for research, and all within about five minutes.

 

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References

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/7079?style=print

https://teacher.desmos.com/

 

 

Digital Notebooks . . . not yet

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

I was super excited joining Heritage High School this year, part of the Perris Unified School District.  They have a 1:1 chrome book program, an excellent “Legacy” motto, and a principal that believes teachers, parents and administration should do whatever it takes to reach the students.

The first month did not go as well as I would have liked.  Although the students had chrome books, they were very resistant to the idea of a digital notebook.  I was positive, I was organized, and I held many in-class technology training programs, all to no avail.  I asked the administration about it and they were supportive, and believed the students would come around.

After several weeks, the digital notebooks created a polarized atmosphere in the classes.  The students either liked it and got into it or they were violently opposed, claiming they “could not work that way.”  It felt to me that the students had taken a stand.  If they had to use the digital notebooks, then they just would not do the work.  Period.  At that point, I decided I would go back to the traditional notebook.  The courses are about content first, method less so.  It meant more to me that the students be a unified group and learning community.

I went back to traditional interactive notebooks.  Again, Heritage High rocks.  They provided each one of my students with a notebook.  The students still have access to all assignments digitally, but the work is typically done in their ISN.  I was concerned about grading 220 notebooks, but I created a system for the students to exchange notebooks and grade them.  The students are happy about the change and I have high hopes for rallying them together.

 

AVID Summer Institute

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

I have been very fortunate to have attended AVID Summer Institute, not once, but two summers in a row.

The first summer I was registered for Science I, which was a great match because I was teaching Earth Science, Biology, and Health Science.  I learned so much.  I incorporated a great many AVID strategies that year, including the interactive science notebook.  It was my first year using one; there was a steep learning curve.

That was the first year I ran a Gemklocx lab for procedures and fell in love.  Hands-on, collaborative, and fell perfectly within the scientific method unit.  It helped meet the students’ learning goals for understanding the importance of following procedures.

In June, 2017 Heritage High hired me to teach Anatomy and Physiology, and Biology.  What I did not realize at the time was that Heritage High is a demo school for AVID, which I have been actively trying to use their strategies in the classroom.  It has been truly impressive to see teachers school-wide on board with AVID strategies.

Heritage High graciously sent me to summer institute where I was registered to attend Student Success.  Another terrific series.  Again, the strategies were amazing, some review and some new.  I have implemented many this year.  I use a Student Choice series of strategies from AVID that students use to choose how they want to express their understanding of a topic.  I also use Learning Logs, Quickwrites, Reflections, and just recently graduated to Philosophical Chairs.  After the Philosophical Chairs (rough draft – first time), at least one student from each class asked if we could do more of them.

I indicated to the students I was in the process of gaining access to a Science Case Study database, so it is very likely we would be doing them more in the future.

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.

Truth

Character, Inspirational, Journals, , , , , , , , , ,

The students struggled mightily with this quote.  Some of the more flippant students tried to take the easy way out and claim that the truth is the facts and facts are the truth.  Rather than dissuade them immediately, we moved onto on regular science lesson (this was just the journal to capture their mindset).

The rest of class went by without any issues.  During the next class I broached the topic again of when it would be possible that the truth is more important than the facts.  I prodded them with a few examples because ultimately it becomes about semantics, vocabulary, ethics, character, and even social norms in some instances.

Example 1: A young couple adopts a baby boy, and were then subsequently surprised by their own bundle of joy, a baby girl about a year later.  These siblings were raised their entire life as brother and sister, fighting over television shows, arguing through their teens, and enduring puberty as teens attending the same high school.   When the girl reaches 18 and the boy just a year older, they decide to run away and elope.  Is that okay? Why or why not?  

The students were enraged at the idea that this could happen, but I calmly countered with why?  They may be legally brother and sister, but biologically they are not.  Why does it matter so much?  Then, the students realize, they have to look deeper into the meanings of what is really being asked.  In this instance, because the children were raised together, their eloping would be a violation of our social norms against incest within the family.

Example 2: Teachers in the hotseat.  I ask the students how do they know I am a teacher? Their initial responses are weak and tired.  I get paid to teach them.  I show up to work every day.  I help them learn.  So, I query . . . should teachers be compassionate? flexible? kind and generous to the students? come to school voluntarily? passionate about what they are teaching the students that day?  Then, I ask them, how many “teachers” are there and how many people are just working a job?  How do they know the difference?  In this instance, teachers are paid to teach, that is a fact.  The truth is that children, teens, and adults have “teachers” in their lives every day, in every way, that are not paid for being “teachers.”  In fact, I would argue that some of the most important “teachers” in a student’s life do not have a teaching credential at all.

Now the students are really excited and engaged.  They are realizing truth does not always look like facts.  Just because a person is paid money for a job does not necessarily mean they are doing their job to the best of their ability, for whatever reason.

Example 3: Students in the hotseat.  I ask how many of the students come to school voluntarily?  How many would attend if there were no mandatory attendance laws for schooling in this country?  How many of the students come prepared, passionate to learn what the teachers have to offer each day?  How many of the students go home and google something about their lesson that the teacher did not ask them to do?  How many students joyfully prepared for the lesson of the day?  How many students spent the night before socializing, texting, skating, boarding, or playing video games instead?  How many students stayed up too late not because they had too much homework, but because they did not start their homework until it was already late?  The students immediately understood where I was going.  They openly confessed that the fact is many of them go to school and “pretend” to be students.  The truth is there are many “real” students who enjoy learning and academia; however, the other truth is there are also many students apathetic toward school, and would rather be anywhere else. 

It was a great character lesson that morning that only took about 15 minutes.

 

truth is powerful

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.

 

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