Catia

Clear directions that outline the learning objectives of project with a rubric are needed as a foundation so that projects are done with integrity.  It is valuable for students to have examples of previous submissions so they are able to understand how the grading is done.  It is important to encourage students to bring their talents into the project such as music or other artistic expressions.  When students present their projects, I have students share something they really liked about their peer's project and something they wished they had seen.  The positive affirmation of their effort is appreciated as well as the constructive criticism as they understand that school is a place to continuously improve upon our skills.

When giving students choices of what they want to research, some students embrace the opportunity to learn about something they are really interested in while others often procrastinate and have a hard time getting started in the challenge of developing their research project.  I have found that for these students, it is helpful to provide choices and examples of projects.  It is very important to have a rubric for grading the various projects that will be presented in class.  Allowing students to self assess as well as peer reviewing keeps grading honest.

From looking at all the projects, I am excited to offer my students the choice of researching and questioning something that is interesting and relevant to our school.  For instance, there is much geese droppings all over the baseball field.  Is there something that can be done to change this condition?  Some students, are interested in plants and how they interact so they can possibly follow up on questions about how plants share space or compete with other plants.  I anticipate that the engineering of bird feeders will be of interest to my students so they can track how much they are used by the amount of seeds remain compared to what they initially start with.  I am probably going to work with eBird. I will begin by having my students collect their own data and then compare it to similar datasets to see if their findings coincide with others.

I encourage curiosity and questions by showing students video clips of various phenomenon.  I ask them what they want to know more about to facilitate discussions of new topics.  When students have shared their work with their classmates, the students that are listening to presentations are expected to complete a report that address the topic, three new things they learned and finally something they would want to research as a result of learning about their classmates' report.

When students share their experiences, sometimes their peers become intrigued.  I have noticed that there seems to be a couple of students in each class that really show great interest and their excitement usually captivates their classmates.  Along with students sharing their experiences, it is important to continuously use any outdoor opportunity available to promote students experiencing the natural world.

I will engage the students by promoting an "I Wonder" board so that students can have an opportunity to continuously ask questions.  After reading and listening to the videos, I am inspired to have the students bring their notebooks outside to gather information and write questions about what they are observing.  I would even encourage students to gather photos of species of plants and birds to identify and track.  Questions about what environment supports species and what conditions are unfavorable can be explored. Depending on my students interests, I will plan on joining a scientific community in which they can share their data collection and meet other scientists and citizen scientists.  The idea of understanding that you are part of a global community is an excellent means of motivating students to provide quality work.

I have not used a citizen project yet.  The Project Feeder Watch seems very interesting to me but the others are extremely appealing also.  I work in an alternative school with small class sizes so I would like to see what interests my students most.  Possibly have different groups work on different projects.  I see opportunities for cross curriculum (math, engineering, and science).  I find that I get the most out of students when they are involved in deciding what they are researching.  This year, for example, I had a student that decided to investigate a device called The Plant Choir.  Essentially, the plants would have a different electrochemical pathway which gets converted to music.  There were so many questions that came up.  The first being was, "Is it really measuring the plant or is it simply completing a circuit?"  The students realized that if a metal was used music was not created.  We began further asking questioning, "Would the music change if the same type of plant was tested under various conditions?" The way this project began with one student was his interest in another student's project of how plants communicate with one another.  He was studying how mycelium bricks were an alternative building material.