Week 6 ~ Getting pensive …

I have spent this summer with Angie and John at Wickiup Hills Learning Center.  I really enjoyed helping them with their youth programs. And we were able to leave behind a couple of program guides that we created. It was great working with Chuck, Jenny, Sarah, and Gail.

One of the things that makes this program great is the collaboration with the businesses and our supervisors.  It is good for us to walk in their shoes; to see how the other half lives. We live and breathe our teacher schedules for more than 9 months out of the year. It is good to see and experience another schedule and work load. Having these experiences help us relate the world to our students. I teach 7^th through 12 graders. And my juniors and seniors are getting ready to go out there. Some will go to college, but some will begin to work and not do college. Every one of us only are really only familiar with what our family and close friends do. Some students will do exactly what their parents do. But it does take a village to raise a child. If us teachers can be just one more person to give them new perspectives and ideas and bits of information to make plans and dreams, then we are on the right track. With last summer’s experience with the supervisor in the metal manufacturing department and listening to the speaker at the STEM summit tell us the workforce needs good, dedicated welders who can read and decipher numbers and instructions, I was able to pass on that information to my pre-algebra class. Being able to say, “Austin, you might not think you are good at math, but you have a really good math sense with calculations. You’d be great at welding. I’ve heard from more than one business person that good welders are in demand” could be just the thing to get him thinking about welding, or just give him the idea to go in some similar field. And it’s not just me making it up, or hearing it on TV. I’ve heard it personally from more than one source, and that gives the credibility that students want. Many of my students grew up on farms. They love to hunt and fish and be outside. Working at Wickiup this summer has given me personal, first-hand knowledge that I can take back to the kids, even my own son who is studying geology.

The other aspect that is huge for me in this program is the direct collaboration with other teachers. We have so little time in the school year to learn new things. Last summer I worked by myself, but was able to learn new technology skills, particularly Excel features, from a manager and the college interns. This year I am worked with Angie and John. My school is small and only two (and a half) of us teach math. There is almost zero time in the school for us to get together and learn talk about and learn new things to use in our classes. So working with the two teachers and being able to bounce ideas off each other has been great. John has taught me some new and exciting technology tools. Angie taught me some features of PowerPoint that I hadn’t done before.

I took a graduate class that I learned about from Ted. Spending that week with other teachers and learning from Ted and Brian was also valuable.

From working at Wickiup, to working with Angie and John, to the class with Ted and Brian and the teachers from Davenport, I’ve picked up some incredible PBL ideas. I am adding on to my statistics unit with some great outdoor sampling field work. And I am going to excite my AP Calc students with wind and solar energy and the building and design of wind turbines. In these PBL’s my students will be engaged in 21^st Century Skills. We will be using google docs, photosynth 360 degree panoramic picture taking, google maps, excel, collaborating with other students in their class as well as in John’s class in Cedar Rapids. The students will document, create graphs, create presentations and then present their findings to the school via school TV’s or through the school website. It will be tough going at first, a bunch of grumbling, but we have to help our students get comfortable and good at this stuff. We have to prepare them more for life after high school.

Week 5 ~ Getting ready for the school year ...

My business ― Wickiup Hills Learning Center ― is conveniently only about 20 minutes away from school. The naturalists do a lot of programs for preschool and elementary age kids. Some of the fun programs have been viewing and touching live ‘critters’ and skins, fishing, ice cube painting, and archaeology. They could do some of these programs for the older students. As Angie, my summer cohort says ‘everyone loves live animals.’ I plan to use recycling in a statistics PBL. So I may ask one of the naturalists to be an ‘expert’ and talk about recycling. I have always given my students my ‘speal,’ but hearing from someone who really knows what they’re talking about will carry more weight! One thing that Ted told us during a class as he talked about PBL’s was bring in experts!

What my school and I can do to engage students with the real world is bring in ‘experts’ and do more PBLs and STEM PBLs. I have only had a couple of guest speakers during the last couple of years. I really need to change that. They bring in so much knowledge – far more than I can bring to the table on topics that I have limited knowledge on. I would also like to give my students, especially the juniors and seniors, more information on colleges and degrees offered. Our high school had to downgrade our guidance counselor to half time. I plan to make part of a wall in my room a college wall. Information will include possible career paths and degrees and which colleges offer those programs. It will also include entrance requirements such as ACT scores, GPAs, and costs. I have also been collecting data on AP scores and requirements for college credit. I have talked to my students about different jobs and careers in math and science, especially those I’ve learned about during my two summers with IMSEP and the businesses. But creating a data base and a visual display will be much more attractive and effective for my students.

What the real world can do is to volunteer their time for our schools. Bringing in guest speakers to talk about how they use math in their jobs or careers using math and science would be great also, not just guest speakers for PBLs. I can tell the boys in my Algebra Concepts class that my last summer’s business, CIVCO, and a guest speaker at this spring’s STEM Summit both commented on the big need for good, experienced welders. But having someone else there would make so much more of an impact. I don’t have enough knowledge to get them excited about welding, but others could. So many places offer field trips. But in today’s schools, the logistics of getting kids to sites is so tough. Having businesses offer to transport, etc., would be a huge help to us. At Alburnett so many of our kids love to hunt and fish, so having one of the naturalists talk about careers for those students would also be beneficial. 

Week 4 ~ Getting 'techno'

Every new school year that I teach I am always trying to add more technology, more project-based learning activities. For this reason I am excited to be involved again with IMSEP. Last year’s externship emphasized the need for my students to be able to use spreadsheets. I learned many of the departments used spreadsheets for “punching the clock” each morning and evening to using it as a tool for data collection and analysis. So I added more Excel in my curriculum and taught them more formulas to use.

This summer’s externship is giving me yet more exposure to different technologies I haven’t used yet. John is our “tech” guy. He is showing us how to create Google maps and documents that we can access on the computer or through email on smart phones. It will definitely be a good time to upgrade to a smart phone in the next month.

The following pictures and screen shots are some examples of technology I will have my students use during the year with their STEM PBLs. They will use digital cameras or cameras on their phones and download the pictures into Word docs and PowerPoint presentations. They will also use cameras or phones to take video and incorporate them in presentations. They will use a smart phone app to take “ground view” pictures or 360 degree panoramic shots of a location. They will learn to upload them into a blog or presentation. They will use Excel even more this year. They know how to check their grades on PowerSchool. But I weight their grades which are separated into three categories – tests, quizzes, and homework. Most students do not know how to calculate their final grade. They will use Excel to do store their grades and to be able to predict what score they need to get on the next test to bring up their grade. They will use Excel to store and analyze data. They will make tables and graphs in Excel and use them in presentations. They will use Edmodo for assignments and communicating with each other during STEM projects. We will also use Skype to communicate and collaborate with John and Angie’s classes.

Students will know things have changed by using these new technologies. In teaching math skills, either I or the kids are at the boards a lot. Some of these technologies are new to me and they will be new to most kids. My old “projects” will take on more characteristics of 21^st Century Learning. More will be required of them. Students will be taken out of their comfort zones, but they will also learn more. Hopefully they will enjoy this format more!

Another way my students will know things have changed is that for a couple of their STEM projects, they will be out of the classroom – like the three of us in the following pictures!

Testing Bear Creek that feeds into the Cedar River near Palo.

Testing for phosphate levels in Otter Creek off Blairsferry Road.

A Google Map of our adventure sites.

A screen shot of one of a panoramic view of Otter Creek ― using a Smart Phone app to take panoramic pictures.

A screen shot of Edmodo

Week 3 ~ Getting dirty, avoiding ticks & poison ivy, and employing 21st Century Skills …

During our third week, the three of us donned our waders, hit more water locations, logged lots of data, and incorporated a bunch of technology. Our experience with our water monitoring project exemplifies a STEM project and 21^st Century Skills. We are using and learning new technologies. We are collaborating with each other and with the public on a database. We are creating a PowerPoint. We are analyzing and evaluating our findings. We are communicating with each other in our daily work and will communicate our findings through blogs and a final project.

Again, our water project involves doing volunteer water monitoring for IOWATER. We attended a workshop to become certified as a volunteer and they supplied us with all the materials needs to do chemical, bacterial, and biological testing of any water site in our area.  This summer we are focusing on the watershed around Wickiup Hills. So over the last two weeks, we’ve driven and hiked to seven different locations. Some were easy to get to and access. Our last site involved driving into the back area then hiking for a half hour through timber, around lakes, through mud and tall grass, trying to avoid ticks and poison ivy, and finally climbing down a steep bank to test the Cedar River near the power plant in Palo. Our data gathering has been high tech and low tech. When Angie and I began, we recorded our data with clipboards and paper forms from IOWATER. Then I created a spreadsheet from the four forms. When John got back from his wedding, he entered the forms into a Google doc that allows us to enter the data into a smart phone or ipad. Then the data would upload into a spreadsheet. We have taken pictures at all of the sites to add to the IOWATER database along with our data. But John used a free app for his smartphone, called PhotoSynth, which allowed him to take a 360 degree panoramic shot of the area. He created an interactive Google map allowing us to view sites we’ve tested and look at the panoramic views of our testing transect. The spreadsheets allow us to collect and view our data, but also to create tables and graphs of each individual site, as well as compare and contrast a site with another.

During the summer, we will collect data from about 12 sites in the area. Then we will create an instructional PowerPoint that will show and teach our students the various steps of the Volunteer Water Monitoring and data collection.  We will be able to test each site twice this summer. This will allow us to have some starting points for comparison data. My school is northeast of Wickiup and John’s school is downstream of Wickiup. I will test Dry Creek with my students and John will test Indian Creek. Dry Creek runs into Indian Creek. So John and I will have our students collaborate and share data and experiences through Skype. Through this STEM PBL, my students will be able to incorporate most aspects of 21^st Century Learning while working on my districts’ and the Core standards of Statistics and Data Analysis.

Week 2 ~ Getting started …

During my second week at Wickiup Hills Learning Center, Angie and I began our water monitoring project, we helped with some small projects here at Wickiup, and we helped and tagged along as the Naturalists did programs with kids groups. We’ve been having fun and making some good progress. We’ve started logging some good data for our water project.

We asked the ladies at Wickiup about their concerns about our externship. The only real concern for them was if they could find enough work for us to do. They had two externs here last year. So they were used to our routine and the expectations of the program. I was the third extern this year, so of course, that’s an extra body to add to the work load. But the three of us ― Angie, John, and I ― are pretty independent workers. We have a good game plan for our water project and that will keep us busy for the summer.

Week 1:

This week I started my externship at Wickiup Hills Learning Center & Area in Toddville. This is my second year as an extern. Last year I spent indoors with an engineering department. I really enjoyed that experience. I’m excited about this summer because I will still be doing data analysis, but it will be in a different setting. I will be outdoors a lot of the time. So that will mean sun - yay!, but bugs – ick! I am excited to be gaining more ideas for STEM projects to use in my classroom. In addition, Wickiup is near the school where I teach, so our summer projects will be easy to adapt to my classroom.

Some of these projects will be to create and update some of their curriculum to use with school fieldtrips, creating and updating informational materials to be used by their volunteers, and creating visuals for their flower, plant, and benthic macroinvertebrates (bugs found in water) identifiers.

But one of our main projects will be to monitor various water sites of the Middle Cedar Watershed. Monitoring water sites will involve chemical and bacterial testing and photographing and recording physical characteristics. The chemical testing includes pH, phosphate, chloride, oxygen, and nitrates & nitrites. The main bacteria we will test for is the bad e-coli. The training we received from IOWATER through the DNR allows us to record the data in the DNR’s statewide database. Throughout the next few weeks we will be monitoring some of the creeks, marshland, streams, Palo reservoir, and the Cedar River. We would like to use our data to add to the DNR's database and to create teaching videos and curriculums for our classrooms and for Wickiup. Ideally the water site monitoring would be done twice a year, fall and spring, up to monthly. So I could pick up some of the site monitoring with my students.

I really did not have any concerns with the beginning of my externship because this was my second year and because I had already visited Wickiup on a field trip with students. So I was already familiar with them and their services. The Naturalists that work here and Angie and John are so easy to work with, the transition into this externship has been easy and a good one.

My 2012 summer Externship is at Wickiup Hills Learning Center & Area. I will be working with two other externs, Angie and John. We will be doing various projects for the naturalists at the learning center. But one of our main projects will be to monitor various sites of the Middle Cedar Watershed. We attended the training workshop in Davenport this week. We learned how to do chemical testing for pH, phosphate, chloride, oxygen, and nitrates & nitrites. We learned how to do habitat and physical monitoring. And then how to test for bacteria, such as the bad e-coli. It was very cool, very fun. A lot of hands on experience. Throughout the next few weeks we will be monitoring some of the creeks, marshland, streams, Palo reservoir, and the Cedar River. We would like to use our data to add to the DNR's database and to create teaching videos and curriculums for our classrooms and for Wickiup.