I gave the student groups about 30 minutes to write down their best 10 (or come up with some new questions) that were understanding or application type questions. We then posted all the sheets on the bulletin board. In groups of 2 or 3, students had to pick 2 questions from all the lists of questions. They had to check with me to make sure that the question was of sufficient difficulty and was not something that had already been done before and then they put their names next to the question that they had chosen. Because I didn't check all the questions before they were posted (which saved a lot of time), it was really important to have the students check their questions with me. Some I said they just couldn't do, for a variety of reasons, some I modified slightly to make them a bit more broad in scope or cover a bit more curriculum and some I let stand just as they were. Each class ended up with quite a variation of questions. Here is the list from one of my classes with the instruction that I gave to the students.
Instructions:
1) all students in a group must work together on one computer.
2) you must access the blog to get the information to the question.
3) if you can not find enough information in the blog to answer the question you must ask permission from the teacher to go onto the internet to get additional information.
4) you must cite the blog postings you used in the blog directly with the information in your blog post.
5) you must cite any websites you have used directly with the information in your blog post.
Why do fish swim upstream? Clayton's group
Why do penguins swim but not fly when they are birds? Jamie and Shawna
Why do ice ages happen and what do you think would happen if there was one in the future? Elizabeth and Farha
What would the earth be like if the oceans were freshwater? Shawna and Jamie
How are watersheds formed? Jacob, Richard and Jeremy
Does a solar eclipse affect the tide? Elizabeth and Farha
Compare the impact between glacier, river and ocean erosion. Shania, Jake and Kyle
What makes an organism suitable to live in a tide pool? Shania, Jake and Kyle
Describe all aspects of river flow throughout its course and explain why the river flow and shape changes. Yousuf, Zhora, Samantha
Why can humans only consume freshwater? Samantha, Zhora and Yousuf
Why is there so much water in our body? Wentao, Binta, Breeze
Why is there salt in water? Jeremy's group
What is the difference between tides and waves? Liam's group
How does sunlight impact the temperature of the ocean? Wentao, Binta, Breeze
Explain why waves go white at the end of the beach. Emma, Jamie H, Evan
How does erosion impact the ocean? Richard, Jeremy, Jacob
Does the position of the sun throughout the day affect the ocean? Jamie H, Emma, Evan
How do seasons impact the ocean? Andrew's group
How does ocean pollution affect people? Liam's group
Explain how bioluminescence works and why some animals and plants have it. Maddy L's group
Explain why humans can not drink salt water. Christina, Maddy, Shay
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Blog project - first portion almost over
The blogging project is nearing completion of the first stage.
I added students to the blog by allowing them to be authors to my blog (Go to 'settings' then 'permissions', then 'invite authors'). I had a separate blog for each class. We compiled a list of the most relevant questions for the water unit (see below). I left my post with all the questions open at the front of the room and students signed up for a question. When they had completed their first post, they came up and signed up for another question. They posted their information using pictures, videos, links and their own words. Some students volunteered to take on a third question so that we would have information for all the questions and other students worked on giving feedback and giving editing suggestions on the completed posts using the comment box below the post.
Tomorrow we are going to work together to come up with some really good 'understanding' and 'application' type questions. Students will then decide on groups and pick questions. They will only be able to access our blog site for the information to address these questions and they will have to cite any blog post that they used when explaining the answer to their question(s).
On Thursday students are going to write an 'open blog' test on the basic knowledge posts. We have talked about this already and students think it's a pretty cool idea. Again, students will only have access to the blog post to answer the questions and they will have to cite the blog where they got their information.
So far there has been great 'buy in' for this project. Students have been working hard and have been focused. I am a little concerned about whether they will learn all the information, but I think we'll just have to keep working with the material in different ways so that they have to use it repeatedly and therefore will hopefully remember and understand the information.
Again, any thoughts, questions or feedback would be appreciated.
Example post (just the first one on one of the class blog sites)
what are the strongest currents? why?
Currents are caused by different things. Wind effects the water that is closer to the surface. The currents in deeper water are caused by sunlight creating heat pockets in different areas, the warm water then tries to pass through the cold water where the sun hasn't hit and it creates like a "wind" underneath the surface. The direction the earth moves causes different currents in the North and South hemisphere. The North hemisphere's currents turn to the right. The South hemisphere's turn to the left. The last thing that has an effect on currents are continents. When the currents come into contact with continents they are forced to move either South or North. With the continuous flowing of currents in all four directions; along with the Earth's rotation, keep the currents moving counterclockwise in the South hemisphere and clockwise in the North hemisphere. The strongest currents are the ones that are caused by the Earth moving and sending them in different directions.
The following is the list of questions that the classes compiled: (I left the student's first name just to show how the sign-up worked)
What is a food chain? Maddy L.
What are some difficulties that animals living in freshwater have to overcome?
What are some difficulties that animals living in saltwater have to overcome? Richard
What are some difficulties that plants living in saltwater have to overcome?shayelle
What are some difficulties that plants living in rivers, lakes and ponds have to overcome?
What are some adaptations of aquatic organisms for reproduction?
What is an adaptation?(Jamie B)
What are some adaptations for survival (feeding, breathing, shelter)?shawna
What are some adaptations for avoiding predation?Farha
What is a bioindicator species?Elizabeth e
What is a sea-floor vent? What are some adaptations of organisms that live near sea-floor vents?
Human Impact
What is pollution? Christina T
What is acid rain? Frances h
What major industries cause the most pollution? jacob
How much water do we use? Shania M.
How fast do the water resources deplete? Evan G
What are pollutants? Kyle M
What are greenhouse gases? Maddy L.
Does pollution affect animals lifestyles? Clayton
What types of pollution pollute water? Frances H
How do we purify water? Wentao
How do we sustain water resources?Binta B
What are the impacts of flooding?kyle M
What are the impacts when there is not enough water?
What is a point source of pollution? What is a non-point source of pollution?
How does agriculture pollute water? Shayelle M
What happens when there is too many nutrients in the water?kyle M
What is biomagnification? jamie b
How do we monitor water quality? What do we monitor in the water?
Frozen water
What are the different kinds of glaciers and their distinguishing characteristics?jamie.h
How do glaciers shape the landscape? andrew s
Why/how do glaciers move? emma c
What is an ice field? Kyle S.
Describe some of the major glaciers in Canada. Clayton
What is an iceberg? Yousuf
What is an ice age?dominic
What happens during an ice age?breeze
How many previous ice ages have there been and when were they? Elizabeth E
What is pack ice?christina T
How do scientists determine the age of ice?shawna
How important are glaciers as a freshwater source? jacob
Ocean
What is a tide? How is it formed? breeze
What is a wave? How is it formed? Farha
What is a tsunami? (Wentao)
What is an ocean current? Binta
How does the ocean affect air temperature? yousuf
How are beaches formed? dominic
Where are the strongest currents? Why?emma c
What properties determine whether a body of water is considered an ocean? Jake S.
What are hurricanes? How are they formed? Shania M.
What does the ocean floor look like? Describe the different parts of the ocean floor.jamie.h
How do waves change shorelines?
Describe how waves break on shore. Kyle S.
How does temperature change with the depth of ocean water?
What is salinity and how does the salt get in the ocean?
Freshwater
What is a watershed? Jake S.
Describe all the watersheds found in Canada.
Describe the shape of a river from its headwater to its outflow.
What is erosion/deposition? liam c
What is the water cycle?Drew B
What is an aquifer? How is water contained in the ground? zhora c
What is the water table? Evan G
What is a lake? What is a pond?Kyle S.
What is a stream? What is a river?liam c.
What is run-off?andrew s
What is a wetland?richard b
I added students to the blog by allowing them to be authors to my blog (Go to 'settings' then 'permissions', then 'invite authors'). I had a separate blog for each class. We compiled a list of the most relevant questions for the water unit (see below). I left my post with all the questions open at the front of the room and students signed up for a question. When they had completed their first post, they came up and signed up for another question. They posted their information using pictures, videos, links and their own words. Some students volunteered to take on a third question so that we would have information for all the questions and other students worked on giving feedback and giving editing suggestions on the completed posts using the comment box below the post.
Tomorrow we are going to work together to come up with some really good 'understanding' and 'application' type questions. Students will then decide on groups and pick questions. They will only be able to access our blog site for the information to address these questions and they will have to cite any blog post that they used when explaining the answer to their question(s).
On Thursday students are going to write an 'open blog' test on the basic knowledge posts. We have talked about this already and students think it's a pretty cool idea. Again, students will only have access to the blog post to answer the questions and they will have to cite the blog where they got their information.
So far there has been great 'buy in' for this project. Students have been working hard and have been focused. I am a little concerned about whether they will learn all the information, but I think we'll just have to keep working with the material in different ways so that they have to use it repeatedly and therefore will hopefully remember and understand the information.
Again, any thoughts, questions or feedback would be appreciated.
Example post (just the first one on one of the class blog sites)
what are the strongest currents? why?
Currents are caused by different things. Wind effects the water that is closer to the surface. The currents in deeper water are caused by sunlight creating heat pockets in different areas, the warm water then tries to pass through the cold water where the sun hasn't hit and it creates like a "wind" underneath the surface. The direction the earth moves causes different currents in the North and South hemisphere. The North hemisphere's currents turn to the right. The South hemisphere's turn to the left. The last thing that has an effect on currents are continents. When the currents come into contact with continents they are forced to move either South or North. With the continuous flowing of currents in all four directions; along with the Earth's rotation, keep the currents moving counterclockwise in the South hemisphere and clockwise in the North hemisphere. The strongest currents are the ones that are caused by the Earth moving and sending them in different directions.
The following is the list of questions that the classes compiled: (I left the student's first name just to show how the sign-up worked)
What is a food chain? Maddy L.
What are some difficulties that animals living in freshwater have to overcome?
What are some difficulties that animals living in saltwater have to overcome? Richard
What are some difficulties that plants living in saltwater have to overcome?shayelle
What are some difficulties that plants living in rivers, lakes and ponds have to overcome?
What are some adaptations of aquatic organisms for reproduction?
What is an adaptation?(Jamie B)
What are some adaptations for survival (feeding, breathing, shelter)?shawna
What are some adaptations for avoiding predation?Farha
What is a bioindicator species?Elizabeth e
What is a sea-floor vent? What are some adaptations of organisms that live near sea-floor vents?
Human Impact
What is pollution? Christina T
What is acid rain? Frances h
What major industries cause the most pollution? jacob
How much water do we use? Shania M.
How fast do the water resources deplete? Evan G
What are pollutants? Kyle M
What are greenhouse gases? Maddy L.
Does pollution affect animals lifestyles? Clayton
What types of pollution pollute water? Frances H
How do we purify water? Wentao
How do we sustain water resources?Binta B
What are the impacts of flooding?kyle M
What are the impacts when there is not enough water?
What is a point source of pollution? What is a non-point source of pollution?
How does agriculture pollute water? Shayelle M
What happens when there is too many nutrients in the water?kyle M
What is biomagnification? jamie b
How do we monitor water quality? What do we monitor in the water?
Frozen water
What are the different kinds of glaciers and their distinguishing characteristics?jamie.h
How do glaciers shape the landscape? andrew s
Why/how do glaciers move? emma c
What is an ice field? Kyle S.
Describe some of the major glaciers in Canada. Clayton
What is an iceberg? Yousuf
What is an ice age?dominic
What happens during an ice age?breeze
How many previous ice ages have there been and when were they? Elizabeth E
What is pack ice?christina T
How do scientists determine the age of ice?shawna
How important are glaciers as a freshwater source? jacob
Ocean
What is a tide? How is it formed? breeze
What is a wave? How is it formed? Farha
What is a tsunami? (Wentao)
What is an ocean current? Binta
How does the ocean affect air temperature? yousuf
How are beaches formed? dominic
Where are the strongest currents? Why?emma c
What properties determine whether a body of water is considered an ocean? Jake S.
What are hurricanes? How are they formed? Shania M.
What does the ocean floor look like? Describe the different parts of the ocean floor.jamie.h
How do waves change shorelines?
Describe how waves break on shore. Kyle S.
How does temperature change with the depth of ocean water?
What is salinity and how does the salt get in the ocean?
Freshwater
What is a watershed? Jake S.
Describe all the watersheds found in Canada.
Describe the shape of a river from its headwater to its outflow.
What is erosion/deposition? liam c
What is the water cycle?Drew B
What is an aquifer? How is water contained in the ground? zhora c
What is the water table? Evan G
What is a lake? What is a pond?Kyle S.
What is a stream? What is a river?liam c.
What is run-off?andrew s
What is a wetland?richard b
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Grade 8 Water Unit Blog
In grade 8, students study a variety information about water. We live in Calgary and although we have some pretty great rivers, it is a tricky time of year to spend too much time in the water, or even outside for extended periods of time. So, this year I'm going to try to have students generate their own understanding of the concepts through blogging.
We started last week by looking at a basic 3 tiered version of Bloom's taxonomy which included: Remembering, Understanding and Applying. Students then went through the curriculum and listed everything that they needed to learn. We then worked as a whole class to find logical clusters of topics. Groups were assigned to take a topic and generate 50 questions relating to that area of the water unit (there was some variation in the classes, but in general there were topics like: frozen water, oceans, lakes and rivers, human impact, wildlife, water movement etc). When the groups had 50 questions, they went through the questions and determined which were 'remembering' type questions, which were 'understanding' type questions and which were 'application' type questions.
Answering the 'Remembering' Questions
The next step is to get students answering these questions in an 'Ask Jeeves' type response. The goal is not to just get answers to the questions, but rather to make it clear and interesting for people to come and read the answers. For this portion of the project, we are going to start with 'remembering' questions and students are going to each answer one question on their own from each unit. They can find movies on the internet, do a lab themselves and take pictures, they can explain, describe etc, but obviously they can not just copy and paste something from the internet. Each student will write a blog with appropriate tabs so that others can later access their information. These blogs will be attached to my blog for ease of sharing information.
Answering the 'Understanding' Questions
Once all the 'remembering' questions have been addressed by the class, small groups of students will start to tackle the 'understanding' questions. The goal here will be to only use information posted on our communal blog site. If students can not find what they are looking for on our blog, they will write out the question missing and add it to the bank of information. Again, the goal will be for each group to address one 'understanding' question from each of the main topics.
Answering the 'Applying' Questions
The goal is to follow a similar strategy for these questions as well, but I am curious to see how these sections go and talk to the students and design something for this section that will work for them. So, I'll leave this portion open at the moment.
It should be interesting....wish us luck!!
We started last week by looking at a basic 3 tiered version of Bloom's taxonomy which included: Remembering, Understanding and Applying. Students then went through the curriculum and listed everything that they needed to learn. We then worked as a whole class to find logical clusters of topics. Groups were assigned to take a topic and generate 50 questions relating to that area of the water unit (there was some variation in the classes, but in general there were topics like: frozen water, oceans, lakes and rivers, human impact, wildlife, water movement etc). When the groups had 50 questions, they went through the questions and determined which were 'remembering' type questions, which were 'understanding' type questions and which were 'application' type questions.
Answering the 'Remembering' Questions
The next step is to get students answering these questions in an 'Ask Jeeves' type response. The goal is not to just get answers to the questions, but rather to make it clear and interesting for people to come and read the answers. For this portion of the project, we are going to start with 'remembering' questions and students are going to each answer one question on their own from each unit. They can find movies on the internet, do a lab themselves and take pictures, they can explain, describe etc, but obviously they can not just copy and paste something from the internet. Each student will write a blog with appropriate tabs so that others can later access their information. These blogs will be attached to my blog for ease of sharing information.
Answering the 'Understanding' Questions
Once all the 'remembering' questions have been addressed by the class, small groups of students will start to tackle the 'understanding' questions. The goal here will be to only use information posted on our communal blog site. If students can not find what they are looking for on our blog, they will write out the question missing and add it to the bank of information. Again, the goal will be for each group to address one 'understanding' question from each of the main topics.
Answering the 'Applying' Questions
The goal is to follow a similar strategy for these questions as well, but I am curious to see how these sections go and talk to the students and design something for this section that will work for them. So, I'll leave this portion open at the moment.
It should be interesting....wish us luck!!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Metaphors and dancing in class
I got a chance to use a new metaphor in my grade 8 class this week. We were discussing dissolving and the students were having difficulty guessing what happens to sugar when it is put in water. I asked them what they would do if there were a group of them and one of their friends looked down the hall to see someone coming to beat them up. Their first suggestion was to go and beat up the person coming, but I told them that they were all Buddhist and had taken a vow of non-violence. Their next thought was to hide their friend in a classroom, but I told them that the doors were locked. Finally, in desperation, they guy was coming down the hall after all, they said the they would make a wall of them around their friend, who would stay in the middle so the assailant could not reach their friend. This, I said, is what happens to sugar when it is put in water. One student replied 'so, basically, what you're saying is that sugar is a chicken!!'. Yep, that is correct, sugar is a chicken. They then asked if water was 'bailing' on its friend when it evaporated and I said that it was more like a parent coming and making the water go home for dinner; it's not like it has any choice in the matter.
It was such a fun discussion and right when we were finished my principal walked for a visit and I asked if someone would like to explain the discussion. One of the students explained the whole thing so clearly that I suspect that lesson might be one he remembers for a very long time. I hope so anyway!
Afterward, my grade 9 class came in and we learned DNA replication and mitosis by dancing out the moves. First of all I gave different students A, C, T and G and then had the others be the phosphate-sugars to make the ladder with some extra 'floaters' around the room. We walked through the process of DNA replication and then changed the students and did it faster and faster, until it seemed that they were quite clear with the process. Then we worked through some notes on mitosis and proceeded to act that out as well. It was again a lot of fun. After teaching meiosis I have now assigned the students to write a story, song, skit, analogy or comic explaining the three processes. They are due on Tuesday, so I'm looking forward to seeing some of their creativity in action.
It was such a fun discussion and right when we were finished my principal walked for a visit and I asked if someone would like to explain the discussion. One of the students explained the whole thing so clearly that I suspect that lesson might be one he remembers for a very long time. I hope so anyway!
Afterward, my grade 9 class came in and we learned DNA replication and mitosis by dancing out the moves. First of all I gave different students A, C, T and G and then had the others be the phosphate-sugars to make the ladder with some extra 'floaters' around the room. We walked through the process of DNA replication and then changed the students and did it faster and faster, until it seemed that they were quite clear with the process. Then we worked through some notes on mitosis and proceeded to act that out as well. It was again a lot of fun. After teaching meiosis I have now assigned the students to write a story, song, skit, analogy or comic explaining the three processes. They are due on Tuesday, so I'm looking forward to seeing some of their creativity in action.
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