How to read the text online:
online text pdfs = upper left frame home page & each syllabus day for specific links
Its About Time Project Based Inquiry Science
student logon = mcmsci678
student pw = stem4u
if no luck, download free
Acrobat Reader, install, reboot
Course Sequence =
Diving Into Science (under Physical Science)=q1
Ever Changing Earth - (Earth Science)=q1+q2
SciFest on Tu & Tr ~ 4 weeks = q2+q3
Planetary Forecaster - (Earth Science)=q3
Astronomy -( Earth Science)=q4
ToDo StartUp =
How To Begin & End Every Class = √
Hall Pass Proceedure = √
Seating Chart SetUp = √
Journal Assembly - use heavy duty stapler ONLY for 50+ pages! = √
Lab Behavior Training = √
Sub Behavior Training = √
Visiting from Other Classes = √
(McM Teacher Schedule)
Philosophy & Ethics of Science (Classroom & Building Norms)
Love & Logic Behavior System
Carol Dweck Growth Midset Brainology (also - NBC Education Nation "Is 'Accountability' Undermining American Education?" (pdf)
PBIS Method (5E) & Content Introduction
Mindset Personal Growth Research (Amazon)
Intrinsic vs extrinsic reward systems - Daniel Pink - TED (Drive) (Amazon)
MindFlex Duel (Amazon)(Cnet)(NeuroSky Sensor)(Wiki)
(above as local files = QuickTime.mov + RealPlayer.flv)
Observation - Perception - Synthesis Biases
(Gorillas & the Missed;P)
VisCog Lab Videos Page (2) (3) (4)
Sine Wave Speech Synthesis & Perception =
YouTube =
"How does one create a testable question about something they know little to nothing about?"
Science's Essential Questions (starting points) for investigations / experiments =
"Thin" questions =
- structure(s)?
- mechanism(s)?
"Thicker" questions =
- cause(s)?
- effect(s)?
"Thickest" questions =
- why?
- meaning?
Core Concepts =
(emphasized / reiterated)
1) Math Applications
-
scale
-
proportion
-
mathematic analysis of data,
-
pre-algebra (variable solutions)
2) Experimental Design
- "thick" research questions,
-
variable identification (MV-RV-CV)
-
math analysis / presentation of data & support of conclusion
3) Reading, Thinking, & Writing in Science
-
Using Scientific Literature and Experimental Data to Formulate and Communicate a Scientifically Informed Opinions. (Here be Dragons)(SciAm Article - Nov2010 - Confirmation Bias)(Journal NATURE: TeenBrain/IQ Flux?)(full)(readcube)(NPR Feature)(Predictive Value paper)(SoundFile)("Academically Adrift" Higher Ed?)
4) Evolution / Epigenesis of Natural Systems
5) Energy & Resource Flow Through Systems
EALRs 2009-2012
(incorporated in Core Concepts above)
E1=Systems = Input - Output - Boundary - Flow
E2=Inquiry = Question - Investigate
E3=Applications = Science - Tech - Problem Solving
E4=Earth Space Science =
- ES1=Earth In Space = Solar System
- ES2=Earth System Structures & Processes = Earth System Cycles & Epigeneses
- ES3=Earth History = Evidence of Change
Assessment (Grading)
Disaggregated Grading Experiment
Defines your grade in terms of what conepts and skills you CONSISTENTLY APPLY ON YOUR OWN (90%), as well as how much EFFORT you applied on your own DURING THE LABS (10%), where those skills & concepts are developed and practiced towards mastery.
Effective lab participation requires - FOCUSED - PERSISTENT - MINDFUL EFFORT - as opposed to chorusing, copying, "just going along / doing the minimum", avoiding work, distracting yourself &/or others, being a drag on the group, socializing, or being off task in any other way.
Formative Assessments = Skills Tally, NOT assignments / lab activities = 0%
- competency tracking system = lets me know when the class is ready to be formally (sumatively) assessed for a grade.
- same for downstream teachers - lets my colleagues know who has domonstrated what competencies to me throughout 8th grade
- highlights which student's skills need mitigation through differentiated instructional & assessment approaches (usually outside of class)
- Skill = Hypothesis Generation
- Lab Activity it is formatively assessed in = "penny smack lab"
- Scoring =
0/3 = No Effort Demonstrated to Date
1/3 = Developing
2/3 = Competent
3/3 = Grade Level Mastery
Formative Assessment involves the teacher checking for skill & concept understanding & mastery along the way. Includes Mr. J. observing / listening in on group operations, asking for journal explainations from individuals, warm up exercise participation, white board reading exercises, group discussions, data checks, math analyses of data . . . anything which might help indicate each & every individual's present level of mastery of content and skills being developed.
Sumative Assessments = Final Presentations / Tests = 90%
- demonstrating individual mastery of concept & skill application on a new but fundimentally reflective problem
- written, verbal, or physical demonstration
- usually after each section, ~3-5 weeks
-
1st = egg drop lander build / test / experimetal formatting / error analyses
Su23Oct11:
I finally got the 90% skills / process / concept assessment (label = Tests/Quizzes/Projects), blended with the 10% participation record (label = Process/Participation), and the no grade impact skills check (TARGETS) keeping track of their initial competencies by date.
Sorry about the name fandango - I had to choose best fits from available categories. They appear on Parent & Student Access in order of (Process/Participation=10%), (Targets=0%), with (Tests/Quizzes/Projects=90%) last.
The idea behind disaggregated grading is to record explicit concept / skill / process competencies tied to specific activites, expressed numerically (0/1/2/3 ~ 0/-/√/+), without impacting the student's final grade achievement, which is almost entirely based (90%) on mastery demonstration to me one-on-one, with a 10% participation component recording when & how much they were off task.
No extra credit, and no makeup limits or late penalties for when mastery emerges. As long as they keep plugging away by catching up on their own time or get help in the lab before or after school, and keep up with the new stuff we are doing in class, they get full credit whenever they get there.
Direct Observation / Perception / Synthesis of Meaning =
A Private Universe Resource Page
"Launcher Unit" (Physical Scienc-Diving In) Launch;>
Real Time Apollo 13 Audio of "Event" (mp4)
Explosion - "Work the problem - not make things worse b y guessing" (mp4)
"Failure is NOT an option" (mp4)
"OK, let's build a filter":P" (mp4)
{Book Support Challenge (Let's Build a Filter!) Images}
RAS learning (ScoobyDoo moments:P)
Mr. Cheroke's Summary - best plain English I've seen on the topic:>!
Its About Time Project Based Inquiry Science (Middle School 2010)
PBS Ed Programming Guidelines - 5E's (pdf)
Consider . . .
“I wish I could tell you about the inspirational teachers in science from my elementary or junior high or high school days. But as I think back on it, there were none. There was rote memorization about the Periodic Table of the Elements, levers and inclined planes, green plant photosynthesis,and the difference between anthracite and bituminous coal. But there was no soaring sense of wonder, no hint of an evolutionary perspective, and nothing about mistaken ideas that everybody had once believed. In high school laboratory courses, there was an answer we were supposed to get. We were marked off if we didn’t get it. There was no encouragement to pursue our own interests or hunches or conceptual mistakes. It was our job merely to remember what we had been commanded. Get the right answer, and never mind that you don’t understand what you are doing.
If we teach only the findings and products of science - no matter how useful and even inspiring they may be - without communicating its critical methods, how can the average person possible distinguish science from pseudoscience? Both then are presented as unsupported assertion.
Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time - when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendae or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.”
Carl Sagan, 1996
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (emphases mine)
"...after I passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful for an entire year ... it is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry"
~ Albert Einstein
Philosophy & Ethics of Science (Classroom & Building Norms)
“A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow. “
-Tommy Lee Jones as Agent K, Men in Black (1), 1997 (emphases mine)
Imagine what you'll "KNOW" tomorrow. . .
demosthenes@centurytel.net
teachers =
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irritation-phoney
MMSS11
UW Journals
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