This week…

This week we have our CBA (curriculum bundle assessment) for bundle 2 on Tuesday…which I know we will ROCK! My agents absolutely know so much about physical and chemical properties and changes.

We will also begin bundle 3. The major focus of this bundle is ENERGY! There is so much about energy and how we use it and how it transforms. Be sure to check back and see what we discover about energy.

Oh the amazing things we learn…

It is official! I have THE BEST STUDENTS EVER!

This week was awesome. My “agents” (aka students) were to create a lesson plan to teach the vocabulary for this bundle. They worked on them in groups on Monday and presented them on Tuesday. I had groups that not only presented their words, but also created work pages, study guides and pre- and post- knowledge assessments for their fellow agents! They took to mind all of the strategies I have talked about and used with them and USED them in the way the strategies are meant to be used. This is great for me, because it shows me that the ways I assess them fits, it works for them.

Wednesday was spent in the lab, as usual for us at the OBSI. We made raisins dance…well we played with the idea of density. Using baking soda and vinegar, we create CO2 to see what effect the density of the gas had on the density of the raisins. This was definitely on the Einstein-side of our spectrum. We discussed the results and made sure we had our observations written out…I decided against writing a full conclusion in this lab. This was due to the fact that the discussions we had were sufficient and I want to compare this lab with next week’s lab. The next write up will include the observations from this lab.
Thursday was spent with a lecture. One of the first true lectures I have presented. This bundle is on physical and chemical properties and changes. Physical properties are something the agents have encountered before and they are fairly well understood…some agents even have had experience with the idea of chemical properties, however the idea of changes in physical and chemical properties is a fairly new and difficult idea to conquer. I wanted to be sure that I had presented the information in multiple formats to be sure that I had incorporated all learning styles.

We had a video on Friday that was helping us understand the differences between physical and chemical properties and changes. Oh the notes that were taken! The video was quite possibly the cheesiest video out there on the topic, but it used the language closest to our vocabulary and it gave some excellent examples, some that we had experienced in the lab and some that were common enough for the agents to connect to everyday experiences. At the end of the video, I asked for them to share their notes with one another to make sure that they had gotten everything…and they ended up quizzing each other!!!!

And on top of that, one of my blocks who were having a rough time of it completely turned their behavior around this week! In fact they may have been the best class this week!

Well…it’s been a while, but OH the PROGRESS!

Okay I know that I haven’t written in awhile, but we have been very busy at the OBSI. In just four weeks of school, my new “agents” are becoming old hats at the scientific method. They are moving through the process and learning how to write full lab reports. Yes, my students are writing FULL lab reports. They are analyzing errors, discussing the concepts and then writing it all out.

I have started a second blog that is on my school site. (I can’t get to this one with the school’s internet filter, but they are trying to figure something out for me.) I have been having a hard time choosing which students to feature on the blog! I have so many that are so good!

We have discussed Einstein and Edison, astronomical physics, and all sorts of other amazing topics and still get through the curriculum too! We have even come up with a scale of sorts to decide what type of lab report we will need. “Edison to Einstein” Edison-type of lab report being the error analysis and what to do better (since he was “the 10,000 ways that did not work”, hands-on, figure-it-out kinda scientist) and Einstein is the “thought, what is going on in the experiment, what was I supposed to learn with this”-kinda lab report. And they GET IT! They are understanding how to PROCESS all this information and they are talking with each other and coming up some of the greatest thoughts!

My kiddos are amazing! Absolutely amazing. Tonight I go to sleep a very happy director of the OBSI. It is really hard to get this smile off of my face…

🙂

Ms. O

What do you think…

I am thinking that I would like to use Twitter in my classroom. I am thinking that if my kids can summarize what we are doing in 140 characters or less, we will be doing amazing things. Think of the power of being able to boil a lesson down to that kind of summary. Think of the understanding that you would have to have in order to effectively do that…

Well my brain is going…let’s see what happens.

~Ms. O

Learning can be frustrating…

Okay, I have been working on just two chapters of my Physics for a week now. And I am still having issues understanding. This got me thinking…I am always wanting to share with my kiddos how I learn and how I got to where I am. This frustration I am suffering through is just such an opportunity.

I am frustrated. I cannot speak with my professor (since it is a holiday, the best I can hope for is an email…not too easy to explain Physics in that format). I am having trouble finding something that will help me to understand. I am at the point of just staring…which doesn’t get me anywhere.

As you can guess I am stopping putting away the physics for a minute and typing this blog…BUT I know that I have to go back to the physics and I need to try again to figure it out.

This is the part that most people have trouble with, I myself struggle with this. The first time I found myself in the position of “giving up and staying that way” was in high school. And here is the kicker, I didn’t even go to the class before I gave up. I decided that Chemistry, Physics and Calculus were just too scary to even try. So I didn’t I gave up before I even started. Now I see the problem with this…first off I wouldn’t be in this quandary of trying to figure out circular motion and angular measurements. Second, while all of those subjects have been challenging and have given me those “staring at paper, hair-pulling” moments. I have and will conquer those moments.

I truly believe that you have to have those moments to truly appreciate your knowledge. Typically, when I have suffered through these moments, I have come out on the other side with a better and a longer standing understanding of the topic. I know that will happen here also…now to just get to that AHA moment!

~Ms. O

Sheila Tobias at TRC Conference (LINK Updated!)

Sheila Tobias spoke to us this morning at the general session. She has a new book “Science Teaching as a Profession.” I will post the link for it later when I get back to my regular computer. ( no wifi at the hotel, bleck!!!)

She discussed how teachers face a very unique challenge in being individual professional that are also employees. This is an area that is currently growing with doctors being employed with HMO.

One thing she mentioned that really struck me was the lack of collaboration between science teachers and scientists. I realize that I saw this and have been actively seeking out that connection through my studies and “extra” classes that I have been taking. But I never thought of seeking out a local scientist or researcher and teaming up with them.

Here is a new project for me. Find a research scientist and see if there is opportunity for me to learn from them. It definitely fits with my personal goals and would allow me to bring a better and more realistic experience into my classroom.

Let’s see what happens.
~Ms. O

Finished with Summer Institute

I am finished with the TRC Summer Institute and although I needed the weekend to catchup on my sleep…WOW! I learned so much! I am very excited to go and implement this knowledge into my classroom.

The final day was the Biotechnology Conference at Collin College. It was quite interesting. I was able to listen to a lady who has successfully implemented a biotech program into her high school. She is sending me info on how to start my own…of course I will have to modify to make it fit with the 6th grade curriculum. But if I get it going I could possibly get some other high grade teachers into it with me and get a whole program going! Which would be awesome, especially since there is a great program in place at Collin College and we could possibly work together with them to have students better prepared for their program.

I also learned some very interesting things about recent gene studies and how science is using them to learn more about cholesterol and obesity. There are amazing things out there! I learned about a group that builds these amazing models and LOANS them to teachers! How awesome is that!!! I don’t have their info nearby but I will be sure to post it soon.

Well I am off to pack for the TRC Conference in Austin. I leave tomorrow…I will be sure to tweet the goings-on there and blog when I return!

~Ms.O

Super Cool Websites

Today during the Collaborative we looked further into the technology that we started working with early last week. As I mentioned before, we were learning how to use Google Earth 5.0 (GE5) with our eTrex Venture HC GPS units to create the field trip videos. Today we discussed some other ways that Google Earth can be used.

There are quite a few add-ons to GE5 that are useful, not only for science but I could see them being used for Social Studies and even math class! You can find them in the Gallery on the GE5 site or here.

We also found the Dynamic Planet map site. Here you can work with several different overlays and even print out the different maps. There is also this site , National Atlas. Here is where SS and Math can find population maps and election maps. Just a lot of cool maps to use and print.

Finally, there is the Earth Science World Image Bank. This is an awesome site for any and all science pictures. This will be really useful in getting illustrations for videos and power points.

There were a couple of other sites but I haven’t had a chance to really explore them much. I will post about them once I do.

Tomorrow is the Biotechnology Conference at Collin College. I am excited to see what I learn!

~Ms. O