Amy
Forum Replies Created
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AmyParticipantRubrics are a great way to assess projects. I like for students to assess themselves and also have some peer feedback. My feedback (incorporating self and peer review scores) end up being "the grade". I do not always think that everyone needs to have the same rubric- This allows some flexibility for circumstances and/or learning differences.
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AmyParticipantSometimes as an end of marking period activity I ask students to pull 3-5 pieces of the best quality work that they completed. They are asked to reflect on the work (what made it good quality work) and summarize what they learned from the activity.
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AmyParticipantI think this is very hard to do- students take different amounts of time to get to a similar endpoint. Sometimes I have an early finisher look for ways to help a fellow classmate or use a class camera to take pictures of people working and create an article/blog post about the activity for our school website.
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AmyParticipantWhen we are doing inquiry-based activities I find that the buy-in from students can vary wildly from extremely invested and actively engaged to rushed, mindless "hurry and finish". Sharing a rubric at the start, and using it as a reference while in process helps students flesh out what they are working on. I think that knowing ahead of time that their peers (and not just the teacher) will be looking at and evaluating the finished product. I have always found organization difficult, so I have a great empathy for students who struggle with organization. Having smaller, incremental goals (that are evaluated as they are completed) helps move those students along and minimize some of the sense of overwhelm that can happen in a longer project.
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AmyParticipantLaura- It looks like you did a great job of addressing the challenges this activity presented. How early in the school year did you present this challenge? I really like the S'more activity- what a great way to clarify those pronouns!
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AmyParticipant
@Stephanie Here is a link to the debris tracker. In the video they mention that everywhere is impacted by the water cycle- I think this would be a great way to connect a lot of science topics with a real life connection. https://debristracker.org
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AmyParticipantI took a look at eBird which allows you to collect data about birds that you see and also allows you to look at data collected by other. It was free to sign up and was able to use the data even though I have not submitted any bird data. Students would be able to access the data. I had fun looking at sightings near my home for turkey vultures. I narrowed the time to just this year. Students could look at the changes in time by comparing data from different years. I also looked up a place that I plan to travel to an was looking for hotspots and sightings for goldfinches. Students could also research some of the hotspot locations to see what about the environment makes them a good place to see birds (Montezuma Refuge is a great spot close to me!)
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AmyParticipant
@Darlene I think that mistakes are amazing opportunities....I always try to model a relaxed attitude to my own mistakes to help students value the risk that they take with they try.
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AmyParticipantEncouraging curiosity and questions gets supported when students have something that they can have in their hands. I find many of my students are very tactile in their approach to the world - having a hand lens helps focus their vision, having a sample that has an odor contained in a box, concentrates the smell; having something physical that they can touch or make a sound with helps give them more information that they can observe and wonder about. Inspiring deeper observational and experimental questions will be something I want to work on this year. As I work to keep questions more open ended, and then follow up with "how could we find out" I am hoping that we will be able to move the thinking (mine & theirs) in a deeper direction!
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AmyParticipantThanks for the reminder about being flexible and having a back up. That always helps even if it is for an individual student that needs something different!
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AmyParticipantSince the start of this course I have used Seek to identify plants and animals with my grandchildren. Sometimes the identifications were very specific and sometimes pretty vague. One of the challenges was getting a good photo- especially with any animal. It was helpful to look at what we might expect to encounter in our area and look for those species. I think that all of us got better at observing and identifying common organisms around us. In particular- I am trying separate the "good weeds", ones that are native and supportive of bird and insect diversity, from the invasive plants that I am trying to get rid of.
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AmyParticipantOutside always provides a lot of things to wonder about. Having some tools like magnifying glasses and digital cameras sometimes helps my student look at things more closely and stimulates more observations and "wondering".
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AmyParticipantI think that an educator's willingness to be a co-learner and model for students can help students see how they too can observe and wonder. The educator's willingness to not be the expert and instead to ponder questions that they do not have the answers to creates a safe environment for students to do the same. We are all so used to needing to have (or find) the answer that we have forgotten the importance of taking the time to observe and then formulate questions without an attachment to how they will be answered.
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AmyParticipantI was surprised by how many different sounds there were to hear- they all just stay in the background for me most of the time. It was nice to turn my attention to noticing for a few minutes!
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AmyParticipantI agree that making the connection locally and globally gives a greater sense of purpose to the science being done. I feel like we as humans do not always recognize that we are a part of the world and nature...not just an observer.
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AmyParticipantI enjoyed looking at the zooniverse.org website- I thought the highlights of the projects (pdf) looked interesting and maybe something I could use with kids (and not be on a computer).
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AmyParticipantThis makes me think that maybe I could look for ways to do a short, limited time part of a larger project so that students could have the experience of a being a citizen scientist without an ongoing, long term commitment. Thanks!
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AmyParticipantI haven't really used any citizen-science projects in the past. I've signed up for project Feeder Watch for this year. I had some GLOBE training a long time ago as a part of another program.... it might be something I would revisit. The CoCoRaHs program looked like it would be pretty fun for kids to keep track of precipitation and make a hail pad. Because they want the data in a particular time frame, I am not sure how to include all classes.
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AmyParticipantThank you for the Bolus Program information- looks very interesting. Are they still distributing boluses?
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AmyParticipantI like the idea of a "Wonder Wall". I always want to encourage questions, but I need to not get too distracted in the limited time we have, but still want to honor the inquiry... just at some other time.