Thursday, September 27, 2007
All about cells
This site is fabulous. It contains lots of great ideas for demonstrations and experiments and lots of links Cells
Diffusion and Osmosis
We are working on diffusion and osmosis in grade 7 and 8 and this site provides a good visual for understanding osmosis in terms of the particle theory of matter. Osmosis
Watch diffusion, it may take a while but its inevitable Diffusion
Diffusion and Osmosis are also described well here
Diffusion and Osmosis
This link takes you to an ideal interactive model for osmosis on the molecular workbench site
Osmosis
Watch diffusion, it may take a while but its inevitable Diffusion
Diffusion and Osmosis are also described well here
Diffusion and Osmosis
This link takes you to an ideal interactive model for osmosis on the molecular workbench site
Osmosis
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
The inner life of the cell
This 8 minute animation from Harvard allows students to go on a 3D journey through the cell "The Inner Life of the Cell" takes undergrads beyond textbooks and vividly illustrates the mechanisms that allow a white blood cell to sense its surroundings and respond to an external stimulus. This animation explores the different cellular environments in which these communications take place. "The Inner Life of the Cell
Cells Alive!
If you are learning about cells in your classroom this is a great site for cell animation and relative sizes of cells. If you cannot use microscopes maybe you can take the children to the computer lab. and they can use this interactive site to get an idea of relative sizes!Cells Alive
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Children's Literature and the Environment
I love to use a picture book to open a discussion on environmental themes with young children. Here is an example and a link to many more.
Cherry, Lynne. The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest. New York: Gulliver Green Book/Harcourt Brace, 1990. "A community of animals and a native child speak to a man while he sleeps, convincing him of the interdependence of living things in the forest and the disadvantages of cutting down trees. Many animals make their home in the Kapok Tree."
ecopicbks
Cherry, Lynne. The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest. New York: Gulliver Green Book/Harcourt Brace, 1990. "A community of animals and a native child speak to a man while he sleeps, convincing him of the interdependence of living things in the forest and the disadvantages of cutting down trees. Many animals make their home in the Kapok Tree."
ecopicbks
Epistemic Games
"Epistemic games are computer games that can help players learn to think like engineers, urban planners, journalists, architects, and other innovative professionals, giving them the tools they need to survive in a changing world.Epistemic Games
General Teacher Planning Strategies
There are so many resources out there for lesson planning, its hard to know what to choose. Through this link you can access an excellent resource that takes you step by step through the stages of Teacher Planning. general teacher planning strategies
Free interactive simulation software
"The Molecular Workbench (MW) software offers interactive, visual simulations that have been widely used to teach and learn science and engineering at all levels of science education. As a free, open-source and extensible modeling platform, it provides not only a powerful environment for creating interactive molecular models and performing dynamical simulations, but also an easy-to-use authoring tool for building user interfaces and writing guided activities.
The goal of the NSF-funded Molecular Workbench has been to provide a rich environment that makes the atomic level familiar, predictable, and connected with the macroscopic world, and to understand the effect of such an environment on student learning."
Strategies for developing lessons in ecological literacy G.R.A.S.P.
The lesson plan for the project "The impact of human activities on natural systems" was developed following the Grasp strategy from Ecoschools at the Toronto District School Board. If you go through this link Ecoschools Toronto District School Board you will see the pdf that you can download called Grasp: A tool for developing ecological literacy through rich performance tasks.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Arctic Play
Through this link Arctic Play you can access a play adapted from the picture book "Arctic Summer" by Downs Matthews. Children in grade 2 and 3 created the play. Each child played the part of an arctic animal. They made arctic animal masks. They studied the interrelationships within this natural system and the human impact from global warming. I am currently working on writing up this project. The goals and objectives were the same as for "The impact of human activities on natural systems project" but the style of the project and method of assessment were very different.
Goals, Objectives and Assessment
Last week in class we worked on preparing a rubric chart to use as a guide for assessing the project "The human impact on natural systems". On the blog I had posted several posts about linking assessment to goals and objectives and an example of how to do that for the project. These took up a lot of space on the blog so I have put them together into a document that you can access through the link here. You will need the same username and password that we used on the blog for the new curriculum documents. I have also uploaded the Goals, Objectives and Assessment doc to the e-campus site for science 24. In the document I have included a rubric chart as an example. I made it for part of the project we looked at. I will spend some time on this in class next week.
Carol Goals, Objectives and Assessment
Carol Goals, Objectives and Assessment
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Planning Lessons - Objectives and Goals
The first thing to do when planning a lesson is to think about the goal and objective of the work that the students are going to engage in. Your goal is directly related to the curriculum expectations.
The draft document (2008) grade 7 Life Strand (Ecosystems unit) states:
"Humans have an impact on the environment. Students will analyse these impacts and their consequences while reflecting upon their personal responsibility."
"Fundamental Concepts
- Systems and Interactions
- Sustainability and Stewardship"
The project we looked at in class was called "The Impact of Human Activities on Natural Systems" the GOAL was to help students understand 'interrelationship' in the context of 'natural systems', the impact of 'human systems' upon natural systems, and the importance of 'sustainability and stewardship'.
The objective is a statement of what a student will know or understand after the work is complete.
The objective for the "The Impact of Human Activities on Natural Systems" project would be:
"At the end of this project the student will describe the interrelationships involved in a natural system (e.g. living and non-living components of an ocean ecosystem) and a human system (e.g. whalers, research scientists, ecotourism operators), and the potential impact that human systems can have upon natural systems (e.g. dessimation of whale populations). They will problem solve to come up with solutions that demonstrate sustainability and stewardship."
Once the goal and objective of the work is clear to you the next step is to think about what you are going to look at to assess the learning that has been achieved.
If you go through the link in the next post you can access an example and a rubric chart for assessment of part of this project.
The draft document (2008) grade 7 Life Strand (Ecosystems unit) states:
"Humans have an impact on the environment. Students will analyse these impacts and their consequences while reflecting upon their personal responsibility."
"Fundamental Concepts
- Systems and Interactions
- Sustainability and Stewardship"
The project we looked at in class was called "The Impact of Human Activities on Natural Systems" the GOAL was to help students understand 'interrelationship' in the context of 'natural systems', the impact of 'human systems' upon natural systems, and the importance of 'sustainability and stewardship'.
The objective is a statement of what a student will know or understand after the work is complete.
The objective for the "The Impact of Human Activities on Natural Systems" project would be:
"At the end of this project the student will describe the interrelationships involved in a natural system (e.g. living and non-living components of an ocean ecosystem) and a human system (e.g. whalers, research scientists, ecotourism operators), and the potential impact that human systems can have upon natural systems (e.g. dessimation of whale populations). They will problem solve to come up with solutions that demonstrate sustainability and stewardship."
Once the goal and objective of the work is clear to you the next step is to think about what you are going to look at to assess the learning that has been achieved.
If you go through the link in the next post you can access an example and a rubric chart for assessment of part of this project.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Useful charts for building your teacher portfolio
On the site of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association you will find five charts that might be useful to you in creating your teacher portfolio
Relating Goals to Philosophy
Some students may be wondering how their philosophy of education relates to the goals and objectives for their teaching portfolio. Other students may feel that they are only beginning to grasp some of these various philosophies of education. When they read a statement like "Our goals and objectives are shaped by our philosophy" they may feel unsure about what their philosophy is exactly.
We all come to education with underlying attitudes, values, and understandings. Some of these we have learned about in class and some we carry with us from our own life experiences. Together they form our 'philosophical position'.
When we say "our goals and objectives are shaped by our philosophy" we mean that, whether we like it or not, the attitudes, values and understandings we hold drive our ambitions and our actions.
Our philosophical position will change and so will our goals and objectives. At this point it is important to uncover your starting 'philosophical position'.
To help you develop your philosophical position try answering these questions, many of them come to us from the previous instructor of the course and I find them very thought provoking and useful. I have added some questions that are directly related to what we have been talking about in class:
What do you believe about young learners?
• In what ways might they be similar to one another?
• In what ways might they be different from one another?
• What attitudes might they have about learning?
• What pressures might they be under?
• What might motivate them?
What are your views about their learning?
• What is the constructivist model of learning?
• How will the world change by the time these children graduate?
• What will the children need to know?
What are your views about teaching?
• What do you believe are your priorities as a teacher(what kind of teacher do you want to be)?
• What kinds of teaching strategies will you employ (at this point you may just be beginning to think about strategies, what general ideas do you have about strategies?
• What qualities will you build into the learning environment (again think in general terms, what would you like the environment to feel like for the students)?
• How will you determine (assess) the learning that is going on and how will that assessment be linked to your work as a teacher?
What are your views of the classroom in the wider context?
• What is authentic assessment?
• How will you bring your community to your classroom and the classroom to your community?
• How will you bring environmental education into your classroom?
What are your views about teaching science and technology and their relationship to society and environment?
• What do you believe science is?
• What is technology?
• How will you help children relate science and technology to society and the environment?
These questions are presented to help you develop your philosophical position to inform your goals and objectives as you begin your portfolio. They are a guide.
We all come to education with underlying attitudes, values, and understandings. Some of these we have learned about in class and some we carry with us from our own life experiences. Together they form our 'philosophical position'.
When we say "our goals and objectives are shaped by our philosophy" we mean that, whether we like it or not, the attitudes, values and understandings we hold drive our ambitions and our actions.
Our philosophical position will change and so will our goals and objectives. At this point it is important to uncover your starting 'philosophical position'.
To help you develop your philosophical position try answering these questions, many of them come to us from the previous instructor of the course and I find them very thought provoking and useful. I have added some questions that are directly related to what we have been talking about in class:
What do you believe about young learners?
• In what ways might they be similar to one another?
• In what ways might they be different from one another?
• What attitudes might they have about learning?
• What pressures might they be under?
• What might motivate them?
What are your views about their learning?
• What is the constructivist model of learning?
• How will the world change by the time these children graduate?
• What will the children need to know?
What are your views about teaching?
• What do you believe are your priorities as a teacher(what kind of teacher do you want to be)?
• What kinds of teaching strategies will you employ (at this point you may just be beginning to think about strategies, what general ideas do you have about strategies?
• What qualities will you build into the learning environment (again think in general terms, what would you like the environment to feel like for the students)?
• How will you determine (assess) the learning that is going on and how will that assessment be linked to your work as a teacher?
What are your views of the classroom in the wider context?
• What is authentic assessment?
• How will you bring your community to your classroom and the classroom to your community?
• How will you bring environmental education into your classroom?
What are your views about teaching science and technology and their relationship to society and environment?
• What do you believe science is?
• What is technology?
• How will you help children relate science and technology to society and the environment?
These questions are presented to help you develop your philosophical position to inform your goals and objectives as you begin your portfolio. They are a guide.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Portfolio
During the course of the year you will be putting together a teacher portfolio. This is an opportunity for you to reflect upon your development as a teacher. You are free to be as creative as you like and develop your own personal style for your portfolio.
For example you could create a blog-style portfolio over the course of the year where you add pictures, links to google documents with papers you have written, links to interesting articles, lesson plans etc. that you have discovered on the internet and personal reflections that you write in your posts;
or
you could create a 'treasure chest' of memorabilia from your year.
I am so looking forward to seeing what you all develop!
Some people in our class have asked me what they should hand in as their goals and objectives for their portfolios. Goals and objectives are due on September 25th.
In this post I want to give you a suggestion for structuring your thoughts. However this is only a suggestion and you are free to present your goals and objectives in your own way.
You could think about goals and objectives in each of the following areas:
professional development (becoming the kind of teacher you want to be - your vision);
teaching competencies (developing the skills you think you will need);
knowledge of children's learning (e.g. children construct their own learning within a social framework);
getting to know the children you aim to teach;
teaching in the science area;
and developing your own personal strengths that will contribute to your development as a teacher.
(These headings are adapted from a paper by Windsor 1995 p.72)
For each section you could think about the following questions:
What do you want to learn?
What do you expect to learn?
How will you go about reaching these learning objectives?
What evidence will you collect to demonstrate your development in each area?
To learn more check out the example and site given below.
"A teaching portfolio is the structured, documentary history of a set of coached or mentored acts of teaching substantiated by samples of student work and fully realized only through reflective writing, deliberation, and serious conversation. (p.64 Norma Lyons (1999) uses the above definition from an article by Shulman (1998)
(Lyons, N. (ed) (1998). With Portfolio in Hand : Validating the New Teacher Professionalism. New York: Teachers College Press).
In her paper about the usefulness of teacher portfolios (Nancy Coquard gives us an excellent example. She tells us about Connie Barr, a kindergarten teacher who struggled to come to terms with bringing technology into her kindergarten classroom. She gives us the following quote from an interview with Connie:
"Well, what amazes me is that I knew nothing - absolutely nothing. And I think that the whole fact of it is that I was terribly afraid of computers. Really, really afraid of them. And, once I got just a little taste, that’s when it happened. It was just like: ‘I can do this, you know, and maybe next year I’ll be able to do this.’ And I started making it sort of my objectives, for the year. I’ll add one more little skill so I’ll get a little bit better each time. And I move very slowly. My letters, I started with writing letters home to parents. How could I add a little picture with the parent letter." (Personal interview, October 22, 1990.
Connie set herself the goal of getting technology into the classroom. She used a teacher portfolio to help her. She set up her portfolio as a narrative journal within which she set goals and reflected on her evolving use of the computer skills she was slowly developing.
I am beginning a teacher portfolio for tracking my development as a teacher educator. I will bring my goals and objectives on Tuesday.
Carol
For example you could create a blog-style portfolio over the course of the year where you add pictures, links to google documents with papers you have written, links to interesting articles, lesson plans etc. that you have discovered on the internet and personal reflections that you write in your posts;
or
you could create a 'treasure chest' of memorabilia from your year.
I am so looking forward to seeing what you all develop!
Some people in our class have asked me what they should hand in as their goals and objectives for their portfolios. Goals and objectives are due on September 25th.
In this post I want to give you a suggestion for structuring your thoughts. However this is only a suggestion and you are free to present your goals and objectives in your own way.
You could think about goals and objectives in each of the following areas:
professional development (becoming the kind of teacher you want to be - your vision);
teaching competencies (developing the skills you think you will need);
knowledge of children's learning (e.g. children construct their own learning within a social framework);
getting to know the children you aim to teach;
teaching in the science area;
and developing your own personal strengths that will contribute to your development as a teacher.
(These headings are adapted from a paper by Windsor 1995 p.72)
For each section you could think about the following questions:
What do you want to learn?
What do you expect to learn?
How will you go about reaching these learning objectives?
What evidence will you collect to demonstrate your development in each area?
To learn more check out the example and site given below.
"A teaching portfolio is the structured, documentary history of a set of coached or mentored acts of teaching substantiated by samples of student work and fully realized only through reflective writing, deliberation, and serious conversation. (p.64 Norma Lyons (1999) uses the above definition from an article by Shulman (1998)
(Lyons, N. (ed) (1998). With Portfolio in Hand : Validating the New Teacher Professionalism. New York: Teachers College Press).
In her paper about the usefulness of teacher portfolios (Nancy Coquard gives us an excellent example. She tells us about Connie Barr, a kindergarten teacher who struggled to come to terms with bringing technology into her kindergarten classroom. She gives us the following quote from an interview with Connie:
"Well, what amazes me is that I knew nothing - absolutely nothing. And I think that the whole fact of it is that I was terribly afraid of computers. Really, really afraid of them. And, once I got just a little taste, that’s when it happened. It was just like: ‘I can do this, you know, and maybe next year I’ll be able to do this.’ And I started making it sort of my objectives, for the year. I’ll add one more little skill so I’ll get a little bit better each time. And I move very slowly. My letters, I started with writing letters home to parents. How could I add a little picture with the parent letter." (Personal interview, October 22, 1990.
Connie set herself the goal of getting technology into the classroom. She used a teacher portfolio to help her. She set up her portfolio as a narrative journal within which she set goals and reflected on her evolving use of the computer skills she was slowly developing.
I am beginning a teacher portfolio for tracking my development as a teacher educator. I will bring my goals and objectives on Tuesday.
Carol
Monday, September 10, 2007
The Engineer-in-Residence Program
The engineer in residence (EIR)progam began in 1998. Through the program engineers volunteer their time and spend a few hours each month in schools supporting educators in teaching science, technology and math and in providing positive role models. This program is offered for elementary and secondary schools. You can access more information through the following link
Engineer-in-Residence
Engineer-in-Residence
STAO conference in November
The Science Teachers' Association of Ontario holds a conference in November. This year the dates are November 15th to 17th. November 17th is a Saturday and it may be possible for some of you to attend. There will be many great sessions to choose from. The general theme for the conference this year is "Making Connections for a Sustainable Future".
I will be giving a presentation in the afternoon of November 17th 2.30 to 3.30pm entitled “The Augmented Reality Game Heat: an affinity space for scientific literacy”.
The STAO conference will be held in Toronto at the Doubletree International Plaza Hotel. If you are interest in attending the conference you can go through the following link for information and registration
STAO conference
I will be giving a presentation in the afternoon of November 17th 2.30 to 3.30pm entitled “The Augmented Reality Game Heat: an affinity space for scientific literacy”.
The STAO conference will be held in Toronto at the Doubletree International Plaza Hotel. If you are interest in attending the conference you can go through the following link for information and registration
STAO conference
Ecoschools
The Ecoschools website is a great place to look for strategies to get environmental issues into lesson and unit plans while working within the curriculum guidelines.
"Ontario EcoSchools is an environmental education program that addresses both how the schools are run and what students learn. It has been designed collaboratively by school boards for school boards to incorporate environmental education as well as environmentally responsible action into the school setting. Student success—in both academics and positive contributions to society—is the focus of Ontario EcoSchools. The program aims to influence young people during a formative period of life, and affect an exponential impact as children take a culture of conservation home with them."
ontarioECOSCHOOLS
"Ontario EcoSchools is an environmental education program that addresses both how the schools are run and what students learn. It has been designed collaboratively by school boards for school boards to incorporate environmental education as well as environmentally responsible action into the school setting. Student success—in both academics and positive contributions to society—is the focus of Ontario EcoSchools. The program aims to influence young people during a formative period of life, and affect an exponential impact as children take a culture of conservation home with them."
ontarioECOSCHOOLS
Commitment to students and student learning
Commitment to students and student learning is the central guiding force for us as teachers. Our ethical standards incorporate care, respect, trust and integrity.
Care:To me this means being empathetic, trying to place myself in the students' shoes; trying to understand where they are coming from. Students come from different backgrounds and have different strengths. When the strengths of others match our own it's easy to be encouraging and caring. We need to find ways to recognise the value of strengths that don't match our own. We need to find ways to see the good qualities in all our students and nurture the development of those qualities.
Respect: To me this means realising that everyone's opinion matters and everyone should have a chance to voice their views. It means really listening to each student. It also means self-reflection to discover whether my expectations are giving everyone a fair chance. It means observing whether what I am doing is working and adjusting my practice to enable the learning of each particular group of students.
Trust: To me trust means believing that students will do the best they possibly can if they are given the freedom to develop their own learning within safe constraints appropriate to their age and level of development.
Integrity: To me integrity means taking care of the trust that has been placed in me; being discrete,only sharing information about students when that sharing is professionally called for; always portraying students in the best possible light.
To me there are no bad kids only kids that I have failed to understand. No-one is perfect; our ethical standards are our vision and guide. I often make mistakes and fail to live up to my vision. The important thing to me is to remain open enough to see my mistakes and flexible enough to make the changes needed to correct them.
Please add your comments, stories, memories of teachers who were there for you as a student.
The link below is to the Ontario College of Teachers flyer on ethical standards and standards of practice.
ethical standards and standards of practice
Care:To me this means being empathetic, trying to place myself in the students' shoes; trying to understand where they are coming from. Students come from different backgrounds and have different strengths. When the strengths of others match our own it's easy to be encouraging and caring. We need to find ways to recognise the value of strengths that don't match our own. We need to find ways to see the good qualities in all our students and nurture the development of those qualities.
Respect: To me this means realising that everyone's opinion matters and everyone should have a chance to voice their views. It means really listening to each student. It also means self-reflection to discover whether my expectations are giving everyone a fair chance. It means observing whether what I am doing is working and adjusting my practice to enable the learning of each particular group of students.
Trust: To me trust means believing that students will do the best they possibly can if they are given the freedom to develop their own learning within safe constraints appropriate to their age and level of development.
Integrity: To me integrity means taking care of the trust that has been placed in me; being discrete,only sharing information about students when that sharing is professionally called for; always portraying students in the best possible light.
To me there are no bad kids only kids that I have failed to understand. No-one is perfect; our ethical standards are our vision and guide. I often make mistakes and fail to live up to my vision. The important thing to me is to remain open enough to see my mistakes and flexible enough to make the changes needed to correct them.
Please add your comments, stories, memories of teachers who were there for you as a student.
The link below is to the Ontario College of Teachers flyer on ethical standards and standards of practice.
ethical standards and standards of practice
Sunday, September 9, 2007
New Curriculum Draft copy
Chris from our Science24 afternoon class has made the draft docs. available to our class through this link. You need a user name and password to access them. These will be sent to you.
Thanks Chris!
new curriculum draft copy
Thanks Chris!
new curriculum draft copy
Shaping our schools: Shaping our future
The McGinty government plans to implement the recommendations of the report: "Shaping our schools: Shaping our future". This report is the result of a study done by the Working Group on Environmental Education chaired by Roberta Bondar. The report makes the following recommendations and it is these that the McGinty government plans to implement by January 2008:
- Integrating environmental education into all subjects in all grades
- Developing a new optional Grade 11 course focussed on environmental education
- Increasing experiential learning opportunities for students
- Creating and publishing an environmental education policy by the fall to ensure high quality and relevant learning
- Establishing environmental education standards to be applied to current and future reviews of curriculum
- Working more closely with community partners and other government ministries to enhance environmental education
- Providing training and resource guides to teachers.
The full report can be access at:
shaping our schools
- Integrating environmental education into all subjects in all grades
- Developing a new optional Grade 11 course focussed on environmental education
- Increasing experiential learning opportunities for students
- Creating and publishing an environmental education policy by the fall to ensure high quality and relevant learning
- Establishing environmental education standards to be applied to current and future reviews of curriculum
- Working more closely with community partners and other government ministries to enhance environmental education
- Providing training and resource guides to teachers.
The full report can be access at:
shaping our schools
Accessing curriculum documents
You can access all curriculum documents on the Ministry of Education web site. The new science curriculum is as yet unpublished. It will be available for the 2008/2009 school year. This link will take you to the curriculum documents.
Curriculum
Curriculum
Monday, September 3, 2007
The Nature of Science
To be scientifically literate means to be able to interpret scientific knowledge. To understand scientific knowledge requires knowing something about how that knowledge is generated.
Science students of all ages need to understand how scientists work: that they seek explanations for the observations they make of the natural world; that to do this they create hypotheses about these observations that they can test by making predictions with outcomes that can be measured; that hypotheses can eventually be developed into robust theories that can be used to build machines like airplanes and washing machines that we know work reliably most of the time; and that even though science does not produce certainty we can still trust airplanes!
There are lots of opportunities for misunderstanding the nature of science and part of our job as teachers of science is to help students avoid these pitfalls. Please read the STAO (Science Teachers' Association of Ontario) position paper on the nature of science at:
Link to the SSCAO Position Paper on the Nature of Science
Questions and comments are strongly encouraged!
Science students of all ages need to understand how scientists work: that they seek explanations for the observations they make of the natural world; that to do this they create hypotheses about these observations that they can test by making predictions with outcomes that can be measured; that hypotheses can eventually be developed into robust theories that can be used to build machines like airplanes and washing machines that we know work reliably most of the time; and that even though science does not produce certainty we can still trust airplanes!
There are lots of opportunities for misunderstanding the nature of science and part of our job as teachers of science is to help students avoid these pitfalls. Please read the STAO (Science Teachers' Association of Ontario) position paper on the nature of science at:
Link to the SSCAO Position Paper on the Nature of Science
Questions and comments are strongly encouraged!
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Young Children Doing Science
“Why are day lilies called day lilies?” asks Sean, 6 years old
“I think it’s because each bloom only lasts for one day”, says his teacher.
That day Sean goes home and marks one lily flower in his garden.
Every day for the next three days, without his teacher’s knowledge,
the first thing he does is check that flower.
On the last day the flower dies. Sean comes to school and tells his teacher
“Day lilies last for three days not one!”
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