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.