Earth Science Webquest: What Causes Seasons?

Would you like to learn more about what causes the seasons?  Check out my webquest!

http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=301423

This webquest is appropriate for middle grades (6 - 8) science.

Hour of Code

Today I participated in the Hour of Code.  It was recommended to me by one of my professors at the University of Montana.  Many (many) years ago I enrolled in a coding class and I'll admit it wasn't the best experience for me.  I decided that source code and I mix like oil and water!  With this in mind I embarked on my hour of code with a bit more trepidation than some other activities. 

I'm happy to report that I had a really good time coding!  I was excited to see many options for coding (all of which are appropriate for anyone age 6 to 106):

• Star Wars
• Minecraft
• Artist
• Anna and Elsa (From "Frozen" movie)
• Make a Flappy Game
• Infinity Play Lab
• Play Lab

I chose to be a digital artist for an hour.  The program led me through nine tutorials before I was able to create my own drawing.  Here is the link to my finished product:

https://studio.code.org/c/149796943

I'm excited to try coding with Anna and Elsa next because I want to try to build a snowflake! 
I'll update again when I'm finished!

Prezi: Check It Out!

Two summers ago I had the opportunity to catch up with an old friend at Yellowstone National Park.  We were both raised in Illinois...we met in Florida...then she moved to Tennessee and we moved to Montana.  We hadn't been together for a long time and we had the very best time getting caught up with each other on the trails of Yellowstone!

In the time since we last saw each other my friend moved from being an elementary classroom teacher to a technology specialist within her district.  I am always fascinated by the use of technology in the classroom so I asked her for a few tips.  Check out Prezi was her first recommendation.  Actually, I digress...it was her second recommendation.  Use technology whenever and wherever it's applicable was the first.

With this in mind I was eager to explore Prezi as an option for some of my coursework.  I completed my first Prezi as a part of a project for a class called Authentic Assessment.  Here is the link to my work:

http://prezi.com/gvpvhlnywctu/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Action Project: Gifted and Talented Program Model

I recently finished my action project for the Winter Edufest conference.  It's a bit too long to be useful as a blog post so I've attached a link for a Dropbox folder for your review.  In the folder  (upper right) you will find my piece as well as the folder which was shared during the session I attended called The Pivotal Role of Administrators in Supporting and Advancing Comprehensive Services for Advanced Level Students with Dr. Jan Leppien and Dr. Gail Hanninen.  The information from Dr. Leppien and Dr. Hanninen is labeled as "The Pivotal Role of Administrators" and shared with their permission. 

Happy Pi Day and Happy Birthday Einstein!

 

According to Sir Ken Robinson (who is one of my favorite people):

Creativity is as important as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.

If you're not prepared to be wrong then you'll never come up with anything original.

We are educating our people out of their creative capacities.

Common, Standardized, and Missing!

This week, in my Curriculum Design course, we were asked to provide a brief news report from a current/recent education news article.  We were asked to limit our writing to 20 minutes...

Upon reviewing the requirements of this assignment, I determined in advance that I would log on to www.edweek.org, glance briefly at the contents, and quickly choose the first article which “struck me”.  I made this decision in order to prevent any over-analyzing on my part and with the hopes of expediting the selection process.  I was immediately drawn to an article entitled “Did the common-Core Math Writers Accidentally drop a Standard?”  It had all the makings of an article which would fit nicely in my wheelhouse.  This particular article was a short follow-up to the original piece “Common Core Seen Falling Short in High School Math” and since the original article had a little more meat on its bones I decided to proceed with the dissection.  

“Common Core Seen Falling Short in High School Math” details the shortcomings of the Common Core State Standards for High School Math…but on polarizing sides of the fence.  Some experts argue the standards are too dense while others claim the standards are too thin on content.  Everyone seems to agree that the Common Core State Standards for High School Math were rushed.  “As some experts see it, the high school standards were shortchanged because reviewers were rushed looking over them.” (Heitin, 2015, para 4).  As a result of being rushed, Richard A. Askey, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and member of the math standards’ feedback group, said 

the process toward the end was so hurried that an entire high school standard was left out of the final draft…’it’s mentioned in Appendix A but isn’t in the standards,’…’and it was there in one of the drafts’ (as cited in Heitin, 2015, para 24).  

What I found most alarming about a documented process that was meant to be “standardized” and “common” is this:

There’s no formal mechanism in place for a wholesale review of the common core, but it’s likely that states will – as they always have – review their standards at times and decide whether they need to be altered. (Heitin, 2015, para 28)

For the sake of high school Geometry students (and all math students) in the 42 states and District of Columbia which have adopted the Common Core Standards, I hope states will review and consider adding the geometry standard “one that explains that, under similarity transformations, area scales by squares and volume by cubes” because…it’s kind of important! (Heitin, 2015, para 6 and 24).

Please look here at the map of Common Core State Standards adoption, and if you have an extra three minutes, watch the video in the upper right-hand corner of the page.  It seems to me the "staircase" (from the video) is broken in one or several places. 

Heitin, L.  (February 24, 2015).  Common Core Seen Falling Short in High School Math.  Education Week.  Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/02/25/common-core-seen-falling-short-in-high.html

Singapore Math

The other day I shared an article from PBS.ORG on Facebook entitled "Instill a Love of Math" by Laura Lewis Brown.  The article details the importance of instilling a love of math early, to "make math 'real' and meaningful by pointing it out in the world around you" (Brown, n.d.).  Parents are also urged to encourage children to work hard at math  by practicing their math skills but also to have fun with math by playing games which involve math.  Perhaps the most important suggestion, and one I echo as a math fanatic, is that parents should always "avoid talking negatively about math, even if [they] have no need for Trigonometry in [their] daily life" (Brown, n.d.).  Speaking negatively about math can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy which could potentially hinder student learning in the future. 

The article I shared brought about a question from a parent (and friend) of two students in one of my first Math and Science enrichment classes years ago.  I thought I would share the question (and my response) here as a part of the Monday Math series.

Question (names, except mine, and locations are changed/omitted):
Thea, I enjoyed reading the article about math that you posted on Facebook. I was wondering if you have recommendations about math enrichment programs (workbooks, computer programs, etc.). Our new state's real estate is a lot more expensive than our old one was. We do not have expendable income to invest in tutoring, and our son could benefit from extra help. A tutoring company was helping him a lot with his non-verbal learning disability in our old city. Our daughter could also use a little enrichment. I don't want to go nuts and overwhelm them. There is no homework here at all, so a few minutes of math activities in the evening would be OK. Our son needs a math curriculum that reinforces what he is supposed to be getting at school. Repetition, "tricks," and learning strategies help him a lot. To be honest, I don't know what our daughter needs. The gifted math class in our old city was great. It challenged her problem solving skills within skills expected for her grade level. They're doing some great stuff in her new school too, but not so much in math. I want her to continue to be challenged and love math. Any suggestions? Thanks.

My response is first, to have a look at marcycookmath.com as I discussed previously here.  Secondly, I'd like to recommend having a look at the Singapore Math curriculum for its flexibility, affordability, and ease of use.

Let me begin with some background...

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study TIMSS highlights in Table 2 the average math scores of fourth grade students.  Table 3 highlights the average math scores of eighth grade students.

Please also have a look at this NY Times Article as well.

Start by visiting Singapore Math.  I recommend reading through the site at your convenience.  Then, administer the placement test for both children.  From there, you will be able to determine which of the books to order.  Currently, our son is in second grade and we are using the Singapore US Edition Primary Math Book 2B for his enrichment at home.  I have also used the Math Sprints series as well as the Challenging Word Problems series for my own children as well as tutoring and enrichment students.  

I hope you will find this information helpful, please let me know if you have any more questions!

Brown, L.L. (n.d.) Instill a Love of Math.  Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/math/math-tips-for-parents/instill-a-love-of-math/

The Arts - Greek Amphorae with Diane Garmire

Recently, I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in the North Idaho Winter Edufest for Gifted and Talented educators.  I was thrilled to leave the conference having received both personal inspiration as well as a wealth of knowledge for my toolbox.  I’ll be sharing much, much more about the conference during my upcoming Sunday Summaries posts.  For now, I’d like to highlight what I learned from an amazing artist and teacher - Diane Garmire – who taught a session called “Get Into The Arts, Get Into Creative”.

First, let me say that Mrs. Garmire possessed all the wonderful qualities of an art teacher.  She wore a long sparkly tunic, jeweled shoes, (probably) hand-made jewelry, and a dazzling hair bauble.  What she wore best, in my opinion, was an inspiring calmness that, along with her artistic prowess, makes her a wonderful art teacher and respected colleague in the field of education.  I was very eager to soak up everything she had to say. 

My project is about S.T.E.A.M. education and Gifted/Talented students.  The Arts play a very important role in the way all children learn.  In her session, Mrs. Garmire asked the following what ifs:

• What if we actually accepted the research? 
• What if we believed that the arts help students learn and are the reason that many students succeed in school and later life? 
• What if we paid attention to studies that prove arts education improves test scores?

Mrs. Garmire maintains that the arts are grounded in Science, History, and Mathematics.  She insists that the Arts should be a part of every classroom.  Diane was careful to remind us that an activity printed from Pinterest is not equivalent to a fully-vested art lesson.  To highlight her point, she shared with us a project she was working on this year – archaeology – with her group of gifted and talented students.  One of the stops on the year-long journey was Ancient Greece.  Mrs. Garmire shared her lesson methods with our group.

First, we watched a video from Khan academy which provided necessary background knowledge for the project: 

Next, Mrs. Garmire explained to us how the students used their projects in their creative journals.  Students first discovered the meaning of an anachronism (a chronological inconsistency).  After, they utilized their chosen anachronism to create Greek Amphorae upon which they created scenes starring their anachronism and mythological heroes and heroines.  Students were limited to using only shades of red or black on their Amphorae because those were the two shades discovered and used by the Greeks.  Although, Mrs. Garmire showed us an image of one student’s work which included a drawing of a horse with pink nail polish because the heroine in the story finally succeeded in creating pink nail polish (the anachronism)!  How funny!

After the Amphorae were done, students wrote creative passages highlighting the depictions on the front.  The Amphorae were mounted into student creative journals with the writing included on the next two half-pages as shown:

It was absolutely amazing to see art, history, archeology, and creative writing all knitted together around one project.  I was inspired to learn more about Greek Amphorae and try this project for myself:

Mrs. Garmire led us through cutting out our amphorae out of manilla file folders (which took the remaining time in our session at Winter Edufest).  I brought my plain cut-out home and began to think of an anachronism.  I chose triathlon racing as my anachronism and decided to use Ionic Greek Letters to represent the first Roman letters of Swim (Sigma), Bike (Beta), and Run (Rho) on my amphora.


I sketched my design and tea-stained the manilla paper...I used camomile tea bags but might consider a red tea, such as cranberry or raspberry, for next time:

I decided to use chalk pastels for color:

We had these pastels on hand from a previous project which encompassed the study of Earth's Magnetosphere and Aurora Borealis. 


Voila!

There are two extra anachronisms in my amphorae...can you spot them?  

I plan to use this project for a summer vacation study with my own children (always a teachers best laboratory test subjects!)

Next time, I’ll be talking more about the creative journals pictured here.  After receiving a grant from Crayola, Mrs. Garmire and several of her colleagues initiated the use of creative journals.  Somewhat serendipitously, I started my own creative journal this year (which I used to house my Amphora)!  See you next time for more about creative journaling across the curriculum!