IO Inquiry Projects

What we liked...

Loved the Mutant Nation project, very engaging topic
Assessment rubrics that require students to justify their reasoning
Voxopop as a way for students to receive/submit verbal feedback
Project overview can be a great way to really grab students attention, draw them in
Strong cross-curricular connections
Got students to really role-play, very believable
Peer review is of great value
Authenticity
Student choices



Feedback:

"Pendulum isn't just a pendulum anymore, its so much more"
"Liked the history as a way to make the science real and contextual"
"Made students consider how science exists; i.e a real science lab isn't just fill in the blank"

Are students expected to present results once the project is completed. For those that chose to complete a written report-- would they also be expected to present?
Perhaps every group could complete a written report and an oral presentation (depending on time?)
This project covers many Science topics in interesting and creative ways! In high school curriculum is there any other connections not included under the "Science Umbrella"? Some were touched upon in the introduction i.e. History/explorers/geography. Could these be expanded upon?
These activities would help with understanding the subject matter, rather than simple regurgitation of formulas. We really liked that students would have to "figure it out for themselves" rather than being told.

How do you make this engage this to individual students? How do you differentiate instructions so that all your students, even the ones who aren't good at science but need to get into univeristy, can succeed in this task?
I think the "hook" needs to be better. For me, i need something stronger to get me engaged in the project?
I could see this unit being successful in a science school with gifted learners. But we have difficulties picturing greater success with the learning audiences of other less "talented" schools.

I think you both would be great science teachers, but I think I would be bored with writing a lab report. Is there anyway to make this thing sexier? More pimpin?

I don't know if a simple machine is considered technology, but I personally think you could do more. You show videos, you use a google.doc, you use technology to keep track of progress of the experiment, you use skype to bring in a professional, but I don't know (and it might be that I am underquailified to judge) what technology you are using in your Simple Machine Experiment?

Friday thoughts

iPhone apps for a better self: apps to promote health and wellness

The Wii for fitness and learning
-Wii Fit
Assessment practice with Evelyn Hickey
-can get students to create amazing things but how do I assess them?
-need to establish assessment so I know what to assess and so students know what to produce
-making the learning visible

Would love to see an example of this in a diploma level class. This seems really cute for 7 year old's but how does it look for 17 year old's learning to balance redox reactions?

Some assessment loops I drew in paint. Loops above the line can represent feedback provided by the teacher. Loops below the line can represent feedback or assessment from outside the classroom like peers, parents, self, etc. Multiple levels of continuous feedback here is ideal.

March 19 SIPS Class

Started the day with a showcase on Social Media by Kate, Chloe and Sandra.
(designed on prezi.com, great presentation tool) Slide show found here.
-ethics and responsibilities
-many possible uses for social networking
-FOIP, concern with unintended sharing of personal information
-can be a source of great distraction to users
-write a rough draft in txt msg shorthand, then edit the essay later wiv proper English
-alternatives to the big public networks
-www.elgg.org requires some programing background, powerful
-www.edmodo.com easier to use but a little more limited
-www.socialmediaclassroom.com
-www.ning.com can block specific things, free and web-based

Blocking sites...
-distraction
-teaching responsibility versus forced responsibility
-we end up blocking useful sites

Last week in Pro Sem a group presented on social media and its implications. It was really interesting to me because the majority of my Pro Sem class was actually dead against the use of things like facebook or twitter in the classroom. They claimed these networks (possibly societies) had no place in the classroom; they were inappropriate, immature and unregulated. This came as a shock to me because in SIPS we have 25 people all thinking about how we can use these technologies, not how we can avoid them.

Web 1.0: broadcast, one-way, reader separate from publisher
vs
Web 2.0: interactive, sharing, collaboration, reader is publisher

Wiki: anyone can edit.
On a side note, I previously wrote about my observations around the Chilean earthquake and its flooding of the net. I looked back at the history of the 2010 Chilean earthquake page edits on Wikipedia and not surprisingly, the page developed in less than an hour of the first rumble. Throughout the day the wiki grew from a simple two line news post to a full on encyclopedia article as new information was announced and users created and published visual documents related to the quake.


Questions and Googling.
To whom were these questions asked to before Google? What's after Google?

Great Task Reflection

I was a little disappointed in the lack of projects relevant to high school physics available on IO or the Galileo network. These sites were made out to be the mecca of inquiry projects that I can use but it seems that most of the projects were not designed for the high school science curriculum.

Jason and I both have a background in physics so we wanted to find a project that was applicable to us. IO and the Galileo network were unfortunately completely bereft of projects that had any relation to the grade 11 and 12 physics curriculum. We found a basic project outline that we were able to adapt from the Alberta Learning's ICT Illustrative Examples website. The projects listed on the ICT website uses very limited technology, our example simply encouraged the use of computerized spreadsheets. Luckily Jason had an idea (and a previous knowledge) to bring some simple circuitry and programming into the project. We were able to combine the project idea with technology and I'm really happy with the results.

We setup the pendulum apparatus in class last week and immediately saw that people were interesting in what we had. In my opinion, this is one of the greatest things about science; the ability to gather and captivate an audience with nothing more that a ball hanging on a string! Our peer feedback was invaluable for the continued development of our project. We found that some of our directions were too vague. Last semester I learned (the hard way) the importance of giving clear and compete directions to students. As we work this projects into the IO template for our IO inquiry project, we will develop clearer instructions for students as well as make a good set of instructions for other teachers that might want to use the project in their classroom. A good IO projects is one that anyone could use, regardless of their educational background. If I were asked to teach grade 4 social studies, I'd look to IO or Galileo for some ideas.