Laura
Forum Replies Created
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This would be fun! I love ladybugs and this would work for lower and upper level students.
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@Sara This sounds fun, even for high school students! I will look into it!
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I agree- rubrics eliminate that element of surprise- students can easily see why they lost points where they did so it reduces complaints about grading.
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My Honors Biology students complete independent research projects so I am accustomed to assessing variable work. I give a general rubric so they clearly know my expectations. For example, for their log books I look for 20 specific criteria and this is easy for me to grade. Their research papers also have a rubric but the quality varies much more. They have to meet a bare minimum and then differentiate themselves by their attention to detail and content. I think I would do something similar for an inquiry-based project.
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I have completed some brief inquiry-based activities but I want to incorporate more. I am very interested in PBL and would like to incorporate more open-ended inquiry projects with my students. Sometimes it is difficult to fit everything in with special schedules, assemblies, state testing, etc. but this year will be a game changer. If I can't do many of my standard labs and activities I have some more flexibility to incorporate some new activities. Since my students are at a private school, they live in very different areas in our community so if they can collect some data in their own yards, we could have quite an interesting sample. I am a little nervous about the less structured learning environment but from this course I learned that it isn't really unstructured, just a different style of teaching than what I am used to.
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I agree with the time restraints, especially with state testing looming. Possibly this year testing will be waived and I will have more time and flexibility with my lesson planning!
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I explored Project Bud Burst. It provides activities for citizen science for individuals as well as simpler options for families. The database is accessible to anyone- new participants are welcome and students can easily access information. I liked the Phenology project described. I completed a workshop on climate change earlier in the summer and I would like to incorporate some of the concepts on global warming and climate change to assess their impact on the timing of falling leaves from silver maple trees in our schoolyard. This would involve multiple years of data collection to see the impact.
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I thought I had already posted this but oops, I did not! I thought it was interesting to focus only on sounds. I think it would be interesting to do 10 minutes on sound and then 10 minutes on vision. Maybe smell too but not for long. This would be great for introducing observation as part of the scientific method.
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OOOH, I like the prompts too! I will use these!
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Interesting points! I am going to incorporate more outdoor teaching this year so I will test it out! :)
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My new strategy for this year is to get outside! I have learned a great deal from my local park district, professional development, and this course so I feel more prepared to encourage questions. I love the idea of classifying types of questions and encouraging students to do so. I work with students who complete independent research projects and sometimes they come up with just a general area of interest and I ask questions of them- what else do you want to know about this topic? If they find a similar study I ask how they could formulate a new question based on current research. The whole scientific method process causes them to analyze their steps- what do they want to know, how can they learn or test that, and once an experiment is completed, what other questions pop up. Initially questions are very basic but students do develop much better questioning skills as the year goes on.
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Yes! I teach high schoolers but could see this as something that my students would share with their families and I love that! People of all ages could use Seek and have fun with it!
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I had been introduced to iNaturalist before but tried out Seek for this assignment and loved it! I scanned several plants around my yard. I earned two new badges, one for Common Lamb's-quarter and one for my dog!!! One problem was that sometime species were hard to identify, possibly because there were many other overlapping species. Another was that the identifications varied in terms of their specificity. However, my students would love using this around the schoolyard and could learn more about making observations, classification terminology, local species, etc. Super fun!
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I have not taken my students outside much for various reasons but think this will be my year. Good social distancing is enabled and I am feeling more confident in my abilities to use different apps and instructional techniques to maintain focus AND fun.
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This was really enlightening to me in terms of asking students open-ended questions. When students come to me with a research topic, sometimes it is just something like basketball or algae- very general. I could do better at asking them some open-ended questions and in turn, guide them to ask their own open-ended questions as possible research starting points. This will also work well with my lower level biology students when I first introduce the scientific method. We could go outside (to promote social distancing) and incorporate both the I Wonder post-its and open-ended questioning to understand the purpose of observation and how it leads to questions to investigate.
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In the past year I have gotten more involved in my local park district and I have been amazed at the resources and guidance that they can provide so thank you for doing what you do- it matters!
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I would love to do what was discussed in Lesson 1 with observations and development of the I Wonder board. I had an opportunity to experience this first-hand through a Project Wild workshop through my local park district. We walked around the park, came up with several questions, and then chose one to study. It was very open-ended and would easily work in my suburban schoolyard. I also like the drawing of a scientist even for my high school students. I think it is important to encourage students of all types to consider themselves capable of becoming scientists and their stereotypes may interfere with that. From the webinar last week I think it would be great to incorporate guest speakers of all types so students can meet real scientists and recognize their diversity.
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Position youth as people who do science- my students complete independent research projects. We start in August and they present their findings at our school fair in February. We have great expectations for them and although there is some whining and drama along the way by late February the students realize that the process made them grow. Frame the work globally and locally- In doing their projects they gather peer-reviewed journal articles. I teach them how to properly cite their references and explain that in their conclusions they should explain how their (local) research fits in with the (global) studies they cited. I try to emphasize that each contribution has an impact and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Attend to the unexpected- At times their clearly designed projects don't operate as planned. Seedlings do not germinate or snow days limit access to human subjects or the results are completely contrary to their hypotheses. That is all OK! Modifications can be made and students need to be flexible in doing so. This is good life lesson as well- thing won't always go as planned and it's not the end of the world.
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So many good suggestions in all of these posts! I will need to make a master list and explore them all! Thanks for the suggestions.
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I have not used any citizen science projects but have learned a bunch about them this summer through my professional development. One course I tool through Indiana University on Educating for Environmental Change and another one hour workshop with my local park district. I am extremely excited to try citizen science this year especially since it fits right in with remote learning and would offer lab activities since I will not be able to do traditional labs. I am interested in a bird monitoring program through the local park district but also programs through Cornell, Monarch Watch, Project BudBurst and iNaturalist. These would work well with all levels of students. I would like to introduce my students to several options and then let their interests guide them to what they choose. The timing is perfect for me to be learning about all of these options and my local park district naturalists are tremendous resources and very approachable so I think I can make this work!
