Effecting Change at School and District Levels

The journey through my master’s program, has given me the confidence as well as the knowledge needed to become a science education leader in my school.  The resources we read this week about diversity within the STEM work force made me think about my role a lot. For me, I think that being the Head of the Science Department in my school, as a woman, is a good step to beating the odds.  Overall, at my school, there are three women in the STEM departments of Science, Math, and Technology.  However, we are definitely outnumbered by six men being our counterparts. 

By having the knowledge of STEM education, the creation of authentic assessments, project-based curriculum design, as well as the use of skill based instruction, I feel that I am well on my way to becoming a positive leader within my school.  However, as far as being a leader or influence beyond my school community, I am not sure how effective I have been.  Teaching at an International school in Eastern Europe, there is not a whole lot that I can do at a district level.  I have created several contacts here within Serbia for curriculum connections, but still need to improve in this area.  By travelling to several teacher workshops through the International Baccalaureate program I have met several colleagues who work at other International schools and have created a network of educators with whom I can share ideas.  This fall I had the opportunity to travel to Wellington, United Kingdom for a conference of Environmental Systems and Societies, where I met several colleagues who teach the same subject in various types of schools.  I felt very fortunate at the level of technology and science funding we receive for our curriculum at my school.  Many of the ideas that I shared with these colleagues, were technology and science related.  For example, using Blogger, Google Forms, Google Documents, Dropbox, and other collaborative media. The enthusiasm, and the questions they raised, made me feel like a science leader, but I felt saddened by the fact that such simple methods could not be implemented because of the lack of technology their students had access to.  Something as simple as a blog where students are making posts about current events they are reading, help them to become scientifically literate global citizens in the cyber world. 

Taken from Connecticut Innovations Blog (2011)

All in all, I feel like much of my efforts are directly influencing instruction within my school as far as mentoring my science colleagues, working with the Elementary school curriculum coordinator and the teachers there in order to embed more science in their curriculum, serving on the curriculum and leadership committee, as well as the Response to Intervention team.  However, I also think that much of my influence is indirect as well.  We are a highly transient community and the affect that I have on my students is carried with them to their next school, as well as conversations that I have with their parents.  I may not have directly affected the schools of the colleagues that I meet at conferences, but I do make an indirect effect.  My niece, who is a kindergarten teacher, came to stay with me here in Serbia and worked at my school for half a year.  She is also a graduate of Walden University, but for Literacy.  Through working with the inquiry-based curriculum of the Primary Years Program, and talking with me about teaching young students science, she has now spearheaded a movement to improve the science curriculum at her new school.  She now understands the importance of science and how it benefits student learning, especially when it is not only thematic, but has a deep underlying concept she wants them to understand.  I think through my discussions with her, and helping her develop her curriculum around a significant concept she was able to improve the interdisciplinary aspect of her grade 2 curriculum.  Therefore, another indirect influence I have had on another school. 

Challenges that I have faced when discussing with colleagues have been in getting them to break down their own barriers of thinking that science is “hard and difficult to teach” to such young children.  It is very difficult to influence Elementary teachers to allow students, especially grade 2 and up, to engage in their own science investigations.  Banchi & Bell (2008) state that "for many Elementary teachers, just understanding what inquiry is can be difficult, let alone designing activities that support high levels of inquiry (p. 26)."  Not only in science investigations, but also spending more time discussing science concepts and the work of scientists as well as the scientific method.  Facilities are a problem, as well as the materials they do not have.  However, I feel that the biggest thing holding the curriculum back is the hesitation that teachers have, in “letting go” and allowing students to inquire.  When I finish my Master’s program, I will have more time to focus on helping these teachers with their curriculum as well as provide them with support in inquiry.  I plan to go to the Elementary school and help them by teaching some lessons in inquiry with their students and hopefully having my students go and work with the younger ones. "Confident teachers produce confident students in science" (Connecticut Innovations, 2011). 

Even though I have mentioned a few ways that I may have been a leader in science education, I feel that I can do so much more.  Some ideas that I have are: visiting science classes in Serbian schools in the area, joining with a colleague at a private school here in Belgrade who teaches the same topic as I do to grade 11 students, present my knowledge of using technology in the science classroom at a Central Eastern European School Association (CEESA) conference, and become more involved in science education development within my home state of Maine.  I am on listservs, but perhaps getting involved while home in the summer, or talking with educators online may be a good way to begin making an impact there.  Already I have contacted a contest in Maine where my grade 11 students can take part in learning about the ocean and learning about the effects of human actions on the biodiversity of the area.

Overall, I believe that I am well on my way to making large inputs into the scientific educator community within my school, the Serbian schools, my International schools districts, and back home in Maine. Science should be a priority to everyone, because scientific understandings and technological skills are things that our students will need to seek solutions and solve the problems in THEIR future world.  

References                                                                                      Banchi, H., & Bell, R. (2008). The many levels of inquiry. Science and Children, 46 (2), 26-29.     Connecticut Innovations (February 10, 2011). Innovation: Learning from the past to inform the  future.
[BLOG POST].  Retrieved from:  http://www.ctinnovations.com/blog/?tag=science-education. Youtube (February 11, 2011). Ease the quiet storm trailer. [WEB].  Retrieved from:  
http://youtu.be/WA6jtil1Qrg

What's Our Sputnik?

Friedman (2010) really struck me when he stated "Let's get out of the way and let the moderate majorities there, if they really exist, face their own enemies on their own.  It is the only way they will move and we can be the wind at their backs, but not their sails."  This is something that I have been saying since the bombing of Serbia in 1999 when I was here living at that time.  So much money was wasted on the fight between Serbia and Kosovo by NATO, but nothing was accomplished there.

Spending money on our military to solve problems in other countries is only making us a more troubled and uneducated nation in itself.  By trying to "help" other nations, we are investing our hard earned, well-deserved money on someone else's land.  We need to invest in our own home and our people instead of trying to solve everyone's problems.  By spending like this, it takes away resources and focus from the development of our nation and our future goals, young leaders, and stimulating growth in education.  Can you imagine taking away the money as Friedman stated from the Pentagon and putting it back into our schools?  Imagine the things we could do in teaching our future innovators and problem solvers and world leaders...

What can educators do without funding from the government?  This is the question that comes to mind when I think about what we can do at a local, state or national level.  I believe educators themselves are trying to do as much as we can for our students, but we can only go so far with our hands tied behind our backs.  Funding for science programs are not consistent across the nation, and perhaps students who are going to private schools are better off than the rest of the population.  This is a mere small population.

We need to first come up with a program that would stimulate young people within and outside schools, get funding from local congressmen and create science initiatives.  What I would recommend is that we introduce a mandatory science coordinator from K-6 in order to present Elementary teachers with the support they need to implement science into their curriculum successfully.  This may help to release the pressure off teachers who are not familiar or comfortable teaching many of the main concepts that young children should understand.  Science should be a fun and rewarding experience for people of all ages.  I believe this support system would have a ripple effect in Education, students would feel more free to experiment, explore and not afraid of science, the teachers as well. This could in fact create a new situation where WE, the United States, produce the next Sputnik situation for others around the world.

I believe that the United States STEM educators are on the road to improvement, but we have a very large road block ahead of us because the US as a whole are not on the road to improvement.  We continue to spend large chunks of our national budget on fighting for other countries, on weapons, on military operations and training, instead of Education.  Other countries, like Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland), keep their budget for themselves, and invest into their education system.  Not only are they at the top for high school graduates, they are also at the top for literacy and scientific literacy compared to other countries.  For the time period of fighting other countries fights, our high school and college graduates have declined and other countries have pulled ahead.  "The U.S. once led the world in college graduates, but this number has flat-lined for Americans" (CNN, 2011).  Until we find the courage to pull back, and become a bit selfish with our money and time spent trying to put our noses into other countries political affairs, and depend on others to provide us with oil, then unfortunately, our education programs will continue to suffer, and the next Sputnik moment will never come.

References:

CNN.com (2010, November 3). How U.S. graduation rates compare with the rest of the world.  Retrieved from: globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/03/how-u-s-graduation-rates-compare-with-the-rest-of-the-world/

Friedman, T. L. (2010, January 17). What's our sputnik? New York Times. Retrieved from:  http://search.proquest.com/docview/434270918?accountid=14872

Students engaged in egg model activity

 

As part of my assignment this past week, I was asked to take photos of my students and film them while taking part in the use of a model activity.  Students used a hard-boiled egg in order to model the three types of plate boundaries and what forms at the boundaries.  Although the model was not perfect, the students enjoyed the change of pace in the classroom, and felt the tectonic plates moving in their hands.  They had fun and learned at the same time.

Modeling Earth Science-Instructional Plan Implementation Reflection

            “A scientific model is a representation of a system that includes important parts of that system to help us think about and test ideas of the phenomena” (Kenyon, Schwarz, & Hug). I chose to use a hard-boiled egg to represent Earth which was a very simple model to use. Students knew right away that the egg was a good representation of the Earth simply because of the yolk (the core), and the shell (the crust).  They had learned about this in January at the beginning of the Astronomy unit.  Overall the lesson went very well, and students were engaged during the lesson while using the model Earth to explore the tectonic plates.  For me, this was very much a structured inquiry lesson, but instead of using an experiment, students used a model.  They made observations and were able to share their explanations with others. The goals of the lesson were met and students were able to name the plate boundaries easier than at the beginning of the lesson. They all successfully drew the three types of plate boundaries and named them, transform was the most difficult to remember.  They could also explain what types of physical features they create on the Earth’s surface.  Some of the problems that I had were with students not cracking the egg enough and cracking it too much that the yolk came out.  I think that I should have made it clearer, perhaps to provide a visual of how to crack the egg and apply pressure on the outside, but I was afraid that I would give them too much information.  During the partner activity, students were able to describe to each other and point out on the egg’s crust the various boundaries that they could see. Most students drew diagrams in their notebooks and wrote down observations while they were completing the model activity.  Another challenge that my students had were drawing the diagrams and writing down their observations. Perhaps if I had provided them with an observation sheet, and was more clear about what types of observations, and various drawn egg silhouettes so they would have something to start with, students would have been more successful.  Again, I was afraid to limit the amount of observations they wrote down, nor their creativity.  I think sometimes, if the activity is too open for middle school students, then the activity and assessment provides me with little evidence of their learning.  The model activity was very straightforward, however before we used the egg, students thought that the plates were all the same when plates come together.  They thought that all convergent plates formed mountains, until they had the chance to see subduction zones (areas where one plate went under the other).  They were also not aware that oceanic crust was more dense than continental crust, but thinner.  “The two types of crust vary because they are made up of different kinds of rock” (Tillery, Enger, & Ross, 2008, p. 342). The variation on the model where they added continents (tape pieces) was really good in that it allowed them to see how continental crust when thicker, it resists breaking more than the oceanic crust.  I believe the knowledge they gained from using the model, was far more than if they had just read the book, or just watched a film.  As one student said, “This was a great model because we could feel the tectonic plates moving in our hands."

            Overall, using the visual model for investigating plate tectonics was a great way for helping my diverse population of 7^th grade students, learn about the plate boundaries of the Earth and areas where disturbances form Earthquakes. Students learned the three types of plate boundaries, the two types of crust on Earth, and how the oceanic and continental crusts interact with each other to create the various physical features on Earth. One thing that I may change next time would be to give them more time to investigate the model and to make their observations and also perhaps to use an animation of the tectonic plate movement for each form of boundary. I feel that may be what was missing for some of my students so they had something to compare to.  I would most likely use this lesson again next year for helping students to understand the Earth’s plates as well as the other models that I used to help them understand Earth and Earth’s waters. Perhaps I could even provide students with choices of how they learn about the tectonic plates such as simulators, websites, or the model. They could also choose to represent their learning in other ways rather than taking notes, or drawing diagrams.  “Choice provides students opportunities to try different modalities for experiencing an idea or expressing what they know” (Dotger & Causton-Theoharis, 2010).  

Here is a SlideShare version of the PowerPoint I used with my 7th grade students. 

Plate tectonics

View more presentations from Janice3252.

References

Dotger, S. & Causton-Theoharis, J. (2010). Differentiation through choice: Using a think-tac-toe

for science content. Science Scope, 33(6), 18–23.

Kenyon, L., Schwarz, C., & Hug, B. (2008). The benefits of scientific modeling. Science &

Children, 46(2), 40–44.  

Tillery, B., Enger, E., Ross, F., (2008). Integrated Science. (4^th Ed.). New York, NY:

McGrw-Hill. 

Developing Scientifically-literate Citizens

When I think about how I can help to develop more scientifically literate and compassionate citizens through the study of current, and past, natural disasters, I think back to last year's Earthquake and Tsunami crisis in Japan.  My 7th grade students were learning about seismic waves, Earthquakes, Earthquake safety and tsunamis.  They were very interested in the power that the Earth's plates hold as well as how they can power a major wave that can travel faster than a Boeing 747.  After a long discussion of the effects that came about due to a large Earthquake in the Indian Ocean on Boxing Day of 2006, students were asked to research tsunami safety as well as ways that science is helping people to stay safe from tsunamis.  They were asked to research Tsunami warning systems and write an essay about it, clearly stating how science and technology are involved and how effective these systems are.  After students had handed in their essays and we discussed these warning systems, chaos struck Japan.  My students were shocked. They knew exactly what happened within the crust, and how the tsunami was created.  I remember the day after we got the news of the Earthquake/Tsunami incident, my students said to me, "Mrs. Medenica, you should never assign us essays about natural disasters." They were very much freaked out by the incident, but were also able to sympathize with the people of Japan because they understood the science behind it.  They could question why the warning systems did not work, or the levy's.  They took action immediately by creating a sleepover marathon in the school gymnasium and raised money to send to help those victims in Japan.  There were multiple campaigns happening around Belgrade which we were able to donate the money through.  Connecting students to community organizations to learn about relief efforts is a little more difficult here than in the U.S. Most efforts are to help against hunger, homelessness, poverty, etc...  However, there were multiple online communities which students can go to in order to learn about relief efforts in certain areas.

This is just one incident from my past teaching experience that I can share about the importance of teaching such material.  The beautiful part about the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program where I teach is that we have a Criteria called One World and this is very specific to science, society, and the world as a whole and how they interact together.  For each unit that we study, we always try to link these three things together.  At the moment, this year's 7th graders are studying waves and I plan to teach them about ocean waves, hurricanes, tsunamis, and Earthquakes and how science is involved in the prediction of these forms of natural disasters, as well as how to stay safe in the case of an Earthquake here in Belgrade.

Another thing that I do with my 6, 7, and 8th grade students is current events.  Each week, they select a news article that relates to what we are studying in class. They read it, summarize it, and review it. Then, they post it to their science blogs.  This gets students active in reading about what is happening around them and around the world.  They also are encouraged to read other classmates blogs and to respond to the articles they had written a review on.  

Ask a Scientist Review

For week 2 of the course, we were asked to investigate the website called “Ask a Scientist” developed by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.  




After spending some time on the website, I had asked several questions about cells and how they work ranging from body cells to brain cells to cancerous cells.  I found out an abundance of interesting information. I enjoyed the fact that I could ask a question and several answers popped up which I could choose from. These answers led me to more questions about cells and how scientists were able to find out so many things about such small living things that they cannot actually see.  The questions that I asked were not answered by a scientist because it was not until I went back to the website or the third and fourth time when I realized that if I selected the phrase “No, not quite! Don’t worry, we can still get you an answer” that it would ask me for my email and the scientist would respond to me through email.  I do not know why I did not see that before. 


I thought this was so cool that a scientist or other expert would answer my question the best they could.  So, once I found this out, I asked three more questions which I did not get immediate answers to before.  However, I thought it was great that there was already an answer in the database about how the brain stores memories both in long term and short term, but it is still being researched by scientists how brain cells or the lobes are able to do this. 

I found the whole experience very casual, but informative which is sometimes a very good thing because the World Wide Web can be so overwhelming when seeking an answer on Answers.com and other websites like it.  Most of the responses that I got when asking several questions were simple enough that I could understand more complex ideas and this led me to even more questions.  I began with one question about how long cells lived and how long it takes a cancer cell to develop into a tumor and learned so many new things that I had not thought about, like mitochondria DNA which is passed down by mothers to their children.

I envision utilizing this website in a variety of ways for my students. I think it is an invaluable tool for students who ask a lot of questions, for differentiating instruction and challenging my gifted students in their thinking.  I also think that I will be able to use this website as an extension activity during literature circles with non-fiction text.  The discussion director is supposed to come up with questions before the discussion about the part of the text they read and they will be encouraged to enter their question into the Ask a Scientist section of the website so they can understand the answer. This may empower them to lead their group into further discussions and a deeper understanding of the content they are reading about.

References:

Howard Hughes Medical Institute. (2012, March 7). Ask a Scientist: Rich Sherwood.

Retrieved from: http://www.askascientist.org/askascientist/answers/20080912-

9.html

Evaluating Web 2.0 Presentation Tools

This week I explored multiple presentation tools which I could possibly use for my presentation on sturgeons. There were many that I viewed but some were very limited in their tutorials and use and some did not exist anymore.  The three that I will most likely choose from are Youblisher, Slideboom, or Prezi.

Youblisher is very good because it is so easy to use. Basically it is a publishing website which converts your presentations and all other pdf documents into publications with flippable pages. Your presentation comes up looking like an ebook with pages. You even get the page turning sound. One thing that I really liked about it was that you could just click on the page numbers to go ahead or go back, page numbers were located in the bottom. Just a double click on any image on the page would zoom in and you can scroll up and down.  There is a video tutorial both in English and Spanish and you can view samples of recent publications. You can share four different ways. Once you upload your document or take a pdf from an internet source, you will get a url which you can put into your website or blog. You will also get an embed code with a small or large cover preview of your presentation.  I would recommend Youblisher for those who wish to create a more traditional form of presentation, such as a book or magazine article about their topic.  It looks very nice when uploaded from the pdf format once complete. You cannot have videos or animations and it is much less interactive. However, it is in the form of a book with flipping pages which is a nice way to present sometimes.

Slideboom is also very good but it a bit more interactive than Youblisher. It is still the same principle because you are uploading something that you have created in PowerPoint.  Basically, it transforms your PowerPoint into something that can be shared on the web. You can also colect feedback from presentation viewers. There are a wide variety of presentations already created as samples in 100+ lanaguages and 30+ topics such as education, nature, and science.  You can share your presentation either privately or publically. One thing that I thought was an excellent feature is that it keeps all of the animations and transitions as well as any audio narrations that you made in your PowerPoint presentation when creating it. Another really nice element that would be effective when presenting on a whiteboard is that you can write or draw on your slides with a marker and save them with slideboom. I would recommend this to someone who wants to use PowerPoint for their presentation, but also who wants to present their ideas to their web by publishing to their blog.

Prezi is the third presentation tool that I explored. I have been teaching science for four years now and some of my students prefer using this tool over PowerPoint. I find their presentations so fascinating and I love how they can work together on the presentation at the same time either in class or at home. This makes it an excellent collaboration tool.  The tutorials and sample Prezis are exceptionally helpful over any other program that I have explored. However, I do not think that it is as easy to understand or use at the beginning, but once you get the hang of it, it is an amazing tool for presenting.  You can embed videos, images, zoom in, zoom out, you can also type text within text and zoom.  It is very effective and keeps the attention of the audience.  One thing that I like as well about Prezi is that it is more of a webbing tool for gathering information about your topic and then in the end you just choose a path which you want your presentation to flow in.  I would recommend this program for its variety of resources and prezis, the ease of collaboration, and the functionality as a whole.

References:

http://prezi.com/
http://www.slideboom.com
http://youblisher.com/