Ross + Group 1/29

Group:

Our group today discussed what we're going to be doing for the next PLC showcase.  Our current plans is to have a discussion of the evidence behind student-led activities and two example classroom activities that observers can try out.  Two possible activities are the isolation of DNA and an inquiry investigation into what causes color changes in a solution.

Me:

My chemistry classes have been working on their projects to show orders of magnitude, and it has generally been more organized than the last time.  Giving the students smaller "chunks" of projects to work on at a time has helped make immediate goals more obvious, and has seemed to somewhat increase student creativity, since they are more comfortable once they know what they're doing.

My next major project is measuring velocities with my physical science classes.  They seem to be getting a good grasp of the ideas behind velocity and acceleration.  My changes for this year will be to include more background research and brainstorming, as well as looking at the relative speed of different objects and phenomena.

1-30-2013
Goal:  This semester there will be more hands on activities for student-led investigations.  Yesterday Mary Ann Coleman from Schlegel library came to help with a hands on lesson with microscopes.  The objective was to introduce students to microscopes, how to use them and what microscopic parts looked like.  Next week with plasma membranes and transport we will do an osmosis lab.  Where students will observe the movement of water through membranes.

Kluthe - 1/23

In my environmental science class, we've been discussing the problem of human population growth. Students have been using the obituary section of the KC Star to collect longevity data on people in our area. They have been calculating average lifespans of people born in different decades and graphing survivorship curves of men and women. They've been asked to apply what they know of the time periods to try to figure out why the numbers came out like they did.

Ross 1/23

I plan on building on last semester's work with inquiry projects in the new year.  I have a perfect chance to revisit last year's project organization and address the problems that came up before they reoccur. 

My first two projects:
Chemistry is going to work as a group to present an informational graphic or video about scales in the universe.   Last year I got some high quality work, but many groups had trouble narrowing down the options on topics.  This year I'm going to increase guided brainstorming time, so that each group ends up with a little more detail before working independently.  I also have past examples to show my students now, which should help.  The students will also have more background in "Fermi problems," which we've been working on more strenuously, which will help to incorporate the project more firmly into the rest of our class content.

Physical Science gets to work together to examine various types of writing on science, analyze the reasoning behind them, and come to conclusion as to reliability.  My main issue last semester was reading level- it was difficult to find writing samples that were not overly involved.  I've found a few more since then, and I plan to do a little more guided reading in preparation for independent work.

Overall, the first revision I'm making to a lot of my student-led investigations is to provide a little more background and guidance before students start to work on their own.

Jasmyn 1-23-13

In Biology, I have been working with my students on the characteristics of life and the scientific method.  After introducing the 8 characteristics, I gave the students a list of 18 "things". I also passed around a few of the items.  They had to decide if they were living or not living.  Then I had the class discuss each "thing".  I did not tell them whether they were right or not. I just let them talk about them.  Then after they went through all of the "things", I let them know the correct answers. It was interesting to get their ideas and have them debate a little bit. 

We haven't done anything exciting in Environmental Science yet.   Soon we will be heading to the more exciting chapters and I am looking forward to some new activities. 

Steve Di Obilda, 23 January 13. This semester the classes started out learning to take more effective written notes on classroom instruction, later to be used for essay writing and study for quiz and test's. Efforts are made to direct students on what is important to include in note taking and what to leave out. Students are engaged in writing and often ask the significance and importance of a historical topic.

In my Graphic Photography class my advanced students are using tutorials that they find or sometimes that I assign to create works of art.  The students are using the internet to enter some of the pictures in contests and for scholarships.

My drawing classes are utilizing the internet for source material.

My media class are creating blogs about digital citizenship using Glogster.