Solorio Academy Community Walk

The VoiceThread presentation:


A link to the personal reflection.

ZooBURST!

A Little TPACK Review for All of You

Critical Science-Instruction Strategies

Guided Inquiry
Tutorials
Hands-on Experimentation

UbD: Learning Vernier

Learning Vernier

Summary of Curricular Context:

The learners in this scenario are high school science teachers.  The department has been applying for grants to fund the acquisition of a new collection of Vernier LabQuest interfaces, probes, and Logger Pro data analysis software.  None of the teachers are familiar with this software or hardware but are all computer literate.  The teachers are effective lesson designers but are unsure how the new equipment can be integrated into their classes.  For these two reasons, a department inservice is being hosted that will teach the teachers how to use the new technology and how to implement it in their classrooms.

Standard / Objectives for Unit or Lesson:

·      The learner will be able to connect all hardware and run the Logger Pro software.

·      The learner will be able to collect a series of data, graph the data, and run an appropriate regression within the software.

·      The learner will be able to incorporate the technology into a content-based lesson—this includes teaching students how to use the technology.

Lesson Goal:

The teachers will be able to take advantage of the new software and use it in their everyday lessons.

Stage 1

Enduring Understandings What are the overarching enduring understandings for the unit/lesson? (big ideas that transcend the unit)

1.  Technology can be used as a tool to facilitate effective instruction.
2.  Students learn best when they are given they discover and uncover their own knowledge and understandings.

Essential Questions What are the essential questions you can ask to guide inquiry?

1.  How do students learn and how can technology hinder or assist that process?
2. How can the new Vernier technology help our students without becoming an overbearing feature in class?

Knowledge & Skills

                                                                      

Knowledge	Skills
Technology has its place in the classroom but should not be the defining feature of a lesson (unlike this one) How the technology works	Properly connect hardware Use software to detect probes, collect data, analyze data, and various other things Incorporate Vernier technology into content-based lessons.

Stage 2 Performance Task

(Make sure your performance task is authentic and real world based.)

GRASPS. The goal states the purpose of the task; the role explains student involvement in the scenario; the audience identifies the people the students address; the situation explains the scenario; the product is the tangible evidence of student understanding; and the standards/criteria describes how students can complete the task successfully.

G	The teachers’ goal is to be able to implement the new Vernier technology into a content-based lesson.
R	The teachers will be the lesson designers as they may actually be using these lessons in their classes in the upcoming week.
A	The audience consists of the students enrolled in the teachers’ science classes.
S	The science teachers are science teachers who need to teach science classes to science students through effective science lesson planning which utilizes science technology.
P	As an end result, the teachers will produce completed content-based lesson plans that incorporate Vernier technology along with a self-assessment.
S	The completed lesson plans will teach students how to use the new equipment, it will teach students subject material, and it will be based on “best practice” methods.

 Performance Task Narrative:

The teachers/learners will arrange themselves by subject area and, in small groups, develop a content-based lesson to implement in their classrooms that will teach their students how to use the new technology, as well as teaching a content-based goal.  The lesson should reflect best practices.  Teachers will evaluate themselves.

Facets of Understanding Use of Facets in this Unit / Lesson

(discussion of how the students will be able meet the 6 facets through your performance task)

Explanation- theories which provide justifiable accounts of events, actions, and ideas	Teachers will be able to explain the technology to others.
Interpretation Interpretations, narratives, and translations that provide meaning	N/A
Application Ability to use knowledge effectively in new situations and diverse contexts	Teachers will create their own lessons.
Perspective Critical and insightful points of view	Teachers will incorporate best practices into their lessons.
Empathy The ability to get inside another person’s feelings and worldview	N/A
Self-knowledge The wisdom to know one’s ignorance and how one’s patterns of thought and action inform as well as prejudice understanding	Teachers will evaluate their own work.

Rubric Template

	Needs Improvement	Meets Expectations	Above and Beyond
Content-Oriented	Does not address state standards	Teaches state mandated content standards	Addresses state standards but also includes social justice education or benchmarks from other subjects
Teaches Technology Skills	Students do not learn how to setup the hardware or use the software	Teaches students how to setup hardware and use software to collect and analyze data	Students learn how to use the technology, but go beyond merely analyzing data, e.g., analyzing video, creating multimedia reports
Facilitates Student Understanding	Both content and technology instruction are “cookbook” style	Content instruction takes a guided-inquiry format	Both content and technology instruction are inquiry-based or content instruction is open-inquiry

Other assessments:

Formative assessment will be used frequently to ensure that all participants can set up the equipment, collect and analyze data using the software, and have discovered new features of the technology.

Stage 3

Use the WHERETO to help build you lesson plans.

W	To enable teachers to teach more effectively by incorporating new technology in their classrooms.
H	The teachers will all be hooked already, of course, because they participated in writing the grant that paid for this technology.  Teachers will also be exposed to a rockin’ demo that shows off the utility of the Vernier equipment.
E	Teachers will be shown how to connect hard ware and use basic features in software.
R	Teachers will practice setting up, and using hardware and software.  They will also explore the potential that the technology has to offer.
E	The teachers will evaluate themselves on the performance task from above (writing a lesson plan).
T	The teachers will have time to explore features of the technology that are relevant for them and their classes.  They will also have the freedom to write a lesson on whatever they wish (within content area).
O	Starting with the basics, teachers will first be shown how the technology works; they will then have a chance to practice it.  This will build up to independent investigation of the features offered by the technology.  Finally, teachers will display their prowess by designing lesson plans.

Lesson plan:

·      After being reminded of their role in the grant writing process that paid for this equipment, the learners will witness a demonstration of the utility of the new technology: two force probes will be attached to one another, no matter how hard they are compressed or pulled apart, the computer will read the same force on each probe, supporting Newton’s Second Law.

·      Teachers will be shown how to connect the hardware in the proper order: probe into interface, interface into computer, and power to both interface and computer.

·      Learners will do this on their own and display their competence.

·      Participants will be shown how to run the Logger Pro software, use it to detect a probe (or two), collect a series of data, and run a regression on the graph of that data.  They will then do this on their own and show their success.

·      Learners will be given the opportunity to explore the features of the hardware and software freely and independently, they will each discover at least four heretofore-unknown features to share with their comrades.

·      Teachers will separate themselves into subject-area groups and each small group will create or adapt a content-based lesson for their classes that also teaches their students how to use the new equipment.

·      Once complete, the participants will individually assess their own lessons via the provided rubric.

Required Materials:

·      “Teacher computer” with projector and screen

·      Student laptops for each participant

·      Set of various probes (force-, temperature-, pH-, O₂-, and conductivity-probes, among others)

·      Set of Vernier LabQuest computer-probe interfaces

·      Site license of Vernier Logger Pro

·      Lab equipment (steel ball bearings and track, ice and Bunsen burners, and plants with grow lights, etc.)

·      Paper and pens/pencils

Teacher Identity Video

Here we have an example of a university math professor. University math? Sounds boring. Not with this professor. Matthew Weathers captures his students attention periodically throughout the year by playing a bit of a prank on them. He has been organizing and performing these video escapades for a few years now. The performances can get a little drawn out but what I like about this one in particular is that he relates the math content to the joke. His students were learning about complex numbers so the lesson was taught simultaneously by the real professor and the imaginary professor.

I appreciate professor Weathers as a teacher because he cares about his students and his content area, he is can laugh at himself, he puts ample time into planning lessons, and he uses creative methods to incorporate humor and content into his instruction.

Check out some of his other videos on his YouTube channel, MDWeathers.

Xtranormal

Gagne's Events

I am not sure how to make this bigger, if anyone does, please advise.

ADDIE Instructional Design

My Philosophy of Education

The only way to have an effective classroom is to foster a warm, comfortable climate and a friendly, accepting culture. Students will not learn if they do not feel safe—physically or emotionally—in the schoolroom. This responsibility also falls on the teacher. Through classroom management techniques, the teacher can assume a kind but firm manner that keeps students under control but allows them to feel comfortable in the class. Once a solid foundation has been established in the classroom, learning can occur. I follow a constructivist approach to science education.

Science is a dynamic process that requires continual challenging of the status quo. My approach to science education mirrors this by encouraging students to develop their own understanding of scientific concepts by replacing previous beliefs (misconceptions) with the accepted view. “Learning science” must include learning to question current theories and understanding, along with learning what those theories are. Physics’ long history of radical paradigm shifts shows us that if we keep pushing and questioning, we can always find a better description of what we observe around us. It is important for students to understand that this is part of science itself but also part of their own science education.

One of the primary tenets of constructivism is that students enter the classroom full of scientific knowledge and ideas about science. Some of these ideas are things that they have learned, correctly or not, in previous science courses and some are observations or “common sense” gleaned from everyday life. Students are not the blank slates that teachers sometimes wish they were; instead, teachers must address students’ prior knowledge before they can teach them new material. Constructivism reminds us that we must be aware of students’ prior knowledge and how it might affect our teaching. We must always be on the lookout for misconceptions and be ready to address them.

As a teacher, simply monitoring for misconceptions will not make your students successful learners. Lecturing at the students and assigning textbook readings will not graft information onto them. Instead, students must be actively engaged in their own learning—forming (constructing) their own ideas. Constructivism suggests many alternatives to the traditional lecture and textbook method (although lectures and textbooks can sometimes be effective). It is the teacher’s responsibility to scaffold students’ learning and help them develop their own knowledge.

One research-based practice for inducing student learning is the use of predictions and discrepant events to challenge a student’s thinking. This method helps teachers debunk student misunderstandings by providing an example that contradicts their understandings and providing an opportunity to replace the misconception with the currently accepted model. This also involves students in their own learning so that they are more likely to remember it past the next quiz.

Inquiry-based activities are also an effective way to produce student understanding. When we require students to develop their own laboratory procedures or derive the formulas and relationships presented in the textbook, it requires them to think at a deeper level and it results in increased understanding. In physics, it is very useful to use an inquiry approach to labs so that instead of the typical cookbook instructions, students decide how and why they are performing the experiment and with support and minimal direction from the teacher, they are able to confirm historical findings and laws of nature. This not only increases understanding (with respect to cookbook labs) but it also gives students a feeling of accomplishment and empowerment because they are in charge of their own education.

Sonic Boom Video

Here we have a video about sonic booms.

Inaugural Post

This is the first day of TIE 535.

Two time free standing tower champions!