Humble Pie, New Beginnings and Is Knowledge Obsolete?

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

      Well, the data is in....I spoke to a grad student at Miami University who number crunched my data of pre and post test.  Essentially, there is good and bad news.  The good news is students improved.  The bad news is not by very much.  There could be many reasons for this.  First and foremost I have to figure that I, as their teacher, have a huge amount of control about the learning that goes on in the classroom.  That is what I can control so that is what I need to worry about.  I could yell, complain or rationalize away the results but honestly...I hate when students do just that. So what do I do now?????

     First, I need to incorporate more questions that involve, "What is the answer?" and "WHY is it the right answer?"  Coming up with the correct answer can be done in seconds on Google.  But WHY is it the right answer develops a new level of understanding.  There is not much out there that involves scientific reason specifically for chemistry.

     Second, keep up with labs but less cook book labs.  I really believe that the tri fold presentation approach (which I have shown and discussed in previous blog entries) is the way to go.  It forces kids at all levels to try and decide and ask "What is a good hypothesis?",  "What do I need to do to be safe?", "How should my data table look?  What data is important?", "Is there a connection between my hypothesis and results?",  "What is a reasonable conclusion based on the data?"

     Vocabulary...I have gotten away from it but I am going back..In the Miami program we were forced to work through extremely technical scientific articles.  It started out as if I was reading Greek.  Slowly I began to learn what some of the words and terms meant (thank you "google scholar").  A few key terms were used over and over and things started making sense.  The experience provided understanding and empathy for what students go through.  

     So...three things I can do....two part questions that involve reasoning....less cook book labs... and incorporating vocabulary.

     My next idea (really more of a question).  Is knowledge obsolete?  Here is the idea...I had students do problems on an online homework service (University of Texas homework service).  It is used by many schools, provides instant feedback and allows me to see how students are doing on certain topics.  One minor problem...just for fun I pulled up some college level problems and just for the heck of it pasted them into google.  I got 100% correct without ever reading the question.  So, is knowing how to use Google more important than knowledge????

Rounding Third and Heading for Home....Hopefully...

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     Sorry if I have been away for awhile.  Fourth quarter is a bit crazy.  Having to deal with all of the crazy schedules, seniors, "summer-itis" and my own kids....at this point I am glad to keep my head above water.  The tank is running pretty dry..

     So here is the question..how to keep going and providing meaningful content when it is tough to grab their attention?  How can you teach kids when the schedule is so crazy that many of them are not their (sophomore debates...AP testing....State sports matches...).  Here is one idea.  One of my goals is to "flip" the classroom 4th quarter.  Bottom line, information and lectures will be for homework, problems and labs will be done in class.   If you know that you cannot be there, at least you can get the basics.  Another strategy I am going to try is to come up with a new book.  Our books are falling apart and we have been told that we are not getting new ones.  The good news is that the state of California created free online text books that anyone can use, alter or make their own as long as they are not going to use them to make money and as long as they will be used for educational purposes.  In some ways they are better than the online books that are purchased.  They provide good content and no frills.  Also, you have permission to edit them to make them your own.  Seeing as how they are free...the price is right.  Check out this link....CK-12.org.  Finally, I am still sold on the "tri-folds" when doing labs.  Even during fourth quarter when it is almost impossible to grab their attention, I have had more kids argue about what the hypothesis should be for the lab.

     Now the big question...how do I know kids are learning?  What is the evidence?  Thanks to the target inquiry program from Miami University (project TIMU), I gave the students three "pre tests" in September and the same three "post tests" in May.  One test was on chemistry, one on scientific reasoning (they had to provide a correct answer and the correct reason) and one on attitude.  Preliminary results show that they increased on their chemistry and reasoning but went south on their attitude (both academic and accelerated classes).  The results are still preliminary and I am going to run them through more statistical analysis.  It is encouraging that they are learning but discouraging that their attitude about science is worse.  This will be the topic of my summer research.  It also gives me a place to start to work on for improvement.

Inquiry, SOLE and the future of learning....

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     We decided to sneak in a little bit of "heat" activities.  I thought I would try an inquiry activity with Academic Class.  I posed this challenge...."Can you find the amount of food calories in a food item that I bring in without looking at the lable?"  We talked about any questions they had and what they thought they knew about heat.  It was pretty impressive.  Most kids asked good questions such as "What is heat?  How are calories measured?" and not "How do we do this?".  I then showed them the video chemistry book at VESPR.org (check out this link).  It was perfect.  There was a great video on calorimetry that answered most of their questions.  They had to create a "tri fold" and design the experiment.  Most students did well.....even without this being in the lab manual.  They were fighting over the "hypothesis" and figured out how many chips to burn or water to use.  So why do they need a teacher???.....

    Good question.  What happened was a SOLE or self organizing learning environment.  There is essentially mounting evidence that suggests that kids learn non stop despite our best efforts.  There has been some amazing experiments done on learning with the poorest of the poor kids in India.  They learned with very little help from anyone but themselves and a computer in a foreign language...no kidding.  It was incredibly advanced learning.  It was found that after awhile, they hit a snag.  The key was not having a teacher but instead an adult who did nothing more but continued to encourage them....makes you wonder if sometimes it is all about relationships......  If you want to know more about SOLE or this incredible study...check out this link.  Be prepared to have you mind blown...looking back, I think it is what my kids did when they tried to figure out the calories in some food.  Check out the pics below.