Below you can find a link to the Week 8 Agenda. This will be updated as the week passes and at the end of the week a reflection will be shared in a different post.
Monday, November 28, 2016
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Week 7 Reflection
This week marked the start of the second part of the second assessment for NGSS focused on Newton's Laws and Engineering. This part of the task, unlike the first part (building the car), was an independent project and relies a lot more on student understanding. As such I expect there will be students who will need support completing the assignment. this was also somewhat of an odd week because it was conference week (meaning minimum days) and right before Thanksgiving break (so I stretched out the week a bit more than I might have otherwise).
The assignment had these students working on slides about Newton's laws and about how each law related to the motion of the balloon powered race car (student slides and teacher slides). The first part (describing the laws) isn't really critical to the task itself, but I felt like it supported the students in completing the second part (discussing how they related). And for the students who will need extra help it gives me something to start with when supporting them.
We worked on a law each day, which went well. I am used to spending a lot longer with direct instruction and student activities related to each law, so this shorter structure was a challenge for me. There is the constant worry that of how much I should be putting on the students in terms of understanding and how much I need to present to them. But. I look at this year as very much a work in progress.
This week I begin each day with a demo or two related to the law. The first day we looked at a couple related to inertial. One is below, the other was the pulling out the table cloth from under a place setting trick.
(Embedding videos is having some issues right now, so I've added links below.)
The second day I didn't do a specific demo, other than discuss how it is easy to start pushing something that weigh less (like a pencil case) rather than something that weights more (like the lab table).
And the third day we looked equal an opposite forces with two rolling chairs and the students pushing off of each other and then just one student pushing. In both cases they both moved back.
Working on just one law each day gave the students a good amount of time to get the slides done in class and ask for support as needed. Since we have basically moved away from intentional homework the work time has become something the students expect and most use it well.
On Thursday we self checked the slides. Since it is hard for me to really work and check on each student each day, this gives them a chance to make sure they have the key parts before turning it in.
And then we moved onto a couple more complicated demos. I feel like it is important to bring some of these more surprising and complicated demos into middle school science. Although not all students understand it 100%, it is good for them to be exposed to them. One isn't shown below, but it is where you have a platform suspended by strings with a pyramid of cups of water on it (it works 100% like swinging around a bucket of water, but looks way cooler).
The first is the fan cart, which is fairly straight forward.
And the second is the bicycle gyroscope. This one is much more complicated, but I try to really present the idea of precision with just the idea of the first law and objects (or points on the object, wanting to keep moving how they were moving).
With this assessment I am also working on incorporating phenomena into this assessment. We looked at the wall of death at the start and I felt like a midway through check in would be good. With the short day the groups didn't all finish, so we will continue after break, but they began work on a group advertisement for the wall and the physics behind it. There were a lot of good ideas, but it was clear that a lot of groups either didn't get all the concepts at work (not surprising because it is a little complicated). This time I let them research online, which can be good or bad because you end up with some groups trying to explain a concept they don't yet understand rather than focusing on explaining what they do understand. We will return to their advertisements and a description of the physics behind it at the end of the unit as well.
Although the final product can be more clunky than something done independently on the iPad, I feel like the collaboration aspect of making a poster with your group using pen and paper makes the activity more effective.
This week I begin each day with a demo or two related to the law. The first day we looked at a couple related to inertial. One is below, the other was the pulling out the table cloth from under a place setting trick.
(Embedding videos is having some issues right now, so I've added links below.)
The second day I didn't do a specific demo, other than discuss how it is easy to start pushing something that weigh less (like a pencil case) rather than something that weights more (like the lab table).
And the third day we looked equal an opposite forces with two rolling chairs and the students pushing off of each other and then just one student pushing. In both cases they both moved back.
Working on just one law each day gave the students a good amount of time to get the slides done in class and ask for support as needed. Since we have basically moved away from intentional homework the work time has become something the students expect and most use it well.
On Thursday we self checked the slides. Since it is hard for me to really work and check on each student each day, this gives them a chance to make sure they have the key parts before turning it in.
And then we moved onto a couple more complicated demos. I feel like it is important to bring some of these more surprising and complicated demos into middle school science. Although not all students understand it 100%, it is good for them to be exposed to them. One isn't shown below, but it is where you have a platform suspended by strings with a pyramid of cups of water on it (it works 100% like swinging around a bucket of water, but looks way cooler).
The first is the fan cart, which is fairly straight forward.
And the second is the bicycle gyroscope. This one is much more complicated, but I try to really present the idea of precision with just the idea of the first law and objects (or points on the object, wanting to keep moving how they were moving).
In each case I tried to model how they might represent the forces acting on the object because that is a critical thing for them to become accustom to this unit.
With this assessment I am also working on incorporating phenomena into this assessment. We looked at the wall of death at the start and I felt like a midway through check in would be good. With the short day the groups didn't all finish, so we will continue after break, but they began work on a group advertisement for the wall and the physics behind it. There were a lot of good ideas, but it was clear that a lot of groups either didn't get all the concepts at work (not surprising because it is a little complicated). This time I let them research online, which can be good or bad because you end up with some groups trying to explain a concept they don't yet understand rather than focusing on explaining what they do understand. We will return to their advertisements and a description of the physics behind it at the end of the unit as well.
Although the final product can be more clunky than something done independently on the iPad, I feel like the collaboration aspect of making a poster with your group using pen and paper makes the activity more effective.
Sunday, November 13, 2016
Week 7 Agenda
Below you can find a link to the Week 7 Agenda. This will be updated as the week passes and at the end of the week a reflection will be shared in a different post.
Week 6 Reflection
As what feels like of the few science teachers in our district who doesn't teach some sort of STEAM elective class, the whole Engineering Design Process was new to me. Don't get me wrong, I know I've unintentionally used those steps myself when working on projects, but I've never organized my class projects that way. Ultimately there were a number of unknowns going into this for me and a little bit of fear.
Would my students succeed?
How much support should I give them?
What if the teams were not working well together?
What would ultimately happen on competition day?
Thankfully, it all went fine and almost all my groups were successful for the competition day, those that were not may need some more support from me next week as we begin to move onto the next part of the assessment.
Just as an example this is what I provided my students (to note I have 7 classes for a total of 244 students, they worked mostly in groups of 4, so there were about 60 groups)
- Glue guns (we had 3)
- 200 glue gun sticks (almost enough, we ran out on competition day, but repairs could be done with tape)
- Tape (masking and scotch)
- White glue
- 1000 craft sticks (we were out of these by the end of the first day, we could have used a ton more)
- Balloons (2 provided by me per group, though I had extras for the competition in case they needed it)
- Straws (In a variety of sizes, around 1000)
Students also brought in a bunch of stuff on their own to work with, bottle caps, cardboard, old CDs, wooden skewers, and more. Although I provided a lot, something for the axles and wheels would have been necessary for the groups to bring. I do actually have skewers for the axles, but only provided these to groups who were nearing the competition and still at a loss of what to use.
The students had the requirement of having their car travel at least 5 feet, it was a good metric of determining if the car actually moved or not.
I did allow a sympathy nudge for the cars that needed a little push to get started (these were cars that were fighting for the 5 feet, not for winning furthest distance).
For the students whose cars didn't work, they will continue working (with my help if needed) and we will be testing next week (aiming for the five feet). This is the first part of the assessment and I want all students to be successful in it, I am willing to help them with ideas and problem solving if needed. For the rest of the students they should be done with their group Wikiprojects documenting their engineering design process by Monday and will start working on the next task.
Would my students succeed?
How much support should I give them?
What if the teams were not working well together?
What would ultimately happen on competition day?
Thankfully, it all went fine and almost all my groups were successful for the competition day, those that were not may need some more support from me next week as we begin to move onto the next part of the assessment.
Just as an example this is what I provided my students (to note I have 7 classes for a total of 244 students, they worked mostly in groups of 4, so there were about 60 groups)
- Glue guns (we had 3)
- 200 glue gun sticks (almost enough, we ran out on competition day, but repairs could be done with tape)
- Tape (masking and scotch)
- White glue
- 1000 craft sticks (we were out of these by the end of the first day, we could have used a ton more)
- Balloons (2 provided by me per group, though I had extras for the competition in case they needed it)
- Straws (In a variety of sizes, around 1000)
Students also brought in a bunch of stuff on their own to work with, bottle caps, cardboard, old CDs, wooden skewers, and more. Although I provided a lot, something for the axles and wheels would have been necessary for the groups to bring. I do actually have skewers for the axles, but only provided these to groups who were nearing the competition and still at a loss of what to use.
A few of the final cars, I gave extra credit for artistic merit for students who choose to decorate their cars.
We had our actual competition on Thursday, which meant the students had two days for the initial planning and five days for building, this was more than most groups needed, but with the timing I thought it made more sense to draw out the activity than to introduce something new right before the weekend.
For the competition the students took turns having their cars travel along the classroom floor, my classroom is rather long (48 feet for the competition area) so it worked to test in there. If I didn't have that space I probably would have tested in the MPR.
Just a few of the cars competing.
I did allow a sympathy nudge for the cars that needed a little push to get started (these were cars that were fighting for the 5 feet, not for winning furthest distance).
For the students whose cars didn't work, they will continue working (with my help if needed) and we will be testing next week (aiming for the five feet). This is the first part of the assessment and I want all students to be successful in it, I am willing to help them with ideas and problem solving if needed. For the rest of the students they should be done with their group Wikiprojects documenting their engineering design process by Monday and will start working on the next task.
Sunday, November 6, 2016
Week 6 Agenda
Below you can find a link to the Week 6 Agenda. This will be updated as the week passes and at the end of the week a reflection will be shared in a different post.
Week 5 Reflection
This week marked the start of the first Engineering Design Challenge I've done with my students (The Balloon Powered Race Car). I've had my students design things before, but never in this same structured way.
One of my challenges going in was that a number of my students are also in STEAM and they do a similar Balloon Powered Race Car in that class. This is good and bad because it means there are a number of students who have already problem solved some of the issues, but it also means that there are more students who might be over powering in the decision making process.
To get around some of the concerns I spread these students around in the seating chart so only one STEAM student was in each group and I emphasized that I was grading far more on whether they were working as a team and listening to everyone's ideas, than if their car went the furthest. While there have been groups that have overly relied on the student who was familiar with the task or where a student was controlling because of their previous experience, ultimately most groups have been working well at respecting everyone's ideas.
In orchestrating this task I debated a lot over what to provide the groups (I am having my students work on teacher assigned groups of 4). Glue guns and tape were a given, as were balloons (if for nothing else than making sure no groups brought in a giant balloons). I also provided some craft sticks and an assortment of straws to give them a start in constructing. Next year I am debating on giving each group a set number of each of those at the start and letting them bring in extra materials or trade with other groups if they need more. This would save me a bit from having to monitor things. I also bought some wooden skewers that could be used as axles (just in cause some group is nearing the end of the allocated time without wheels that move at all).
One of my challenges going in was that a number of my students are also in STEAM and they do a similar Balloon Powered Race Car in that class. This is good and bad because it means there are a number of students who have already problem solved some of the issues, but it also means that there are more students who might be over powering in the decision making process.
To get around some of the concerns I spread these students around in the seating chart so only one STEAM student was in each group and I emphasized that I was grading far more on whether they were working as a team and listening to everyone's ideas, than if their car went the furthest. While there have been groups that have overly relied on the student who was familiar with the task or where a student was controlling because of their previous experience, ultimately most groups have been working well at respecting everyone's ideas.
Day 1 Construction
In orchestrating this task I debated a lot over what to provide the groups (I am having my students work on teacher assigned groups of 4). Glue guns and tape were a given, as were balloons (if for nothing else than making sure no groups brought in a giant balloons). I also provided some craft sticks and an assortment of straws to give them a start in constructing. Next year I am debating on giving each group a set number of each of those at the start and letting them bring in extra materials or trade with other groups if they need more. This would save me a bit from having to monitor things. I also bought some wooden skewers that could be used as axles (just in cause some group is nearing the end of the allocated time without wheels that move at all).
Day 2 Construction
My students will be competing next Thursday, which should be plenty of time for most groups. So far most are making good progress, but I have some that still need to get almost everything done next week as they are not close to having a functioning car. But, the challenge is going well and a nice change of pace for them from the research paper.
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Reflecting on Unit 1 Assessment 1
This new month has unintentionally signified the real end of our first task in our first NGSS unit. Most of my students are at a good place with their project and have finished either their paper, the presentation, or both. I still have some who have work to do and this year I have moved to accepting any part of these tasks late, up to a reasonable cut off, so I know I will still have the occasional item coming in.
This first assessment, the research paper, had its challenges and successes. One of the main challenges, for me, was that the structure of the task made it difficult to focus on making sure they had mastery of one part before moving onto the next. With the next assessment they start by building a car, the next part of that task requires to existence of the car, it would be hard to move ahead without mastering part 1.
With the research paper I still have students who've yet to get mastery on the first part, the Defining Key Concepts Worksheet. These are not my students who are unable to complete the worksheet, these are the students who don't really want to do it, but are totally capable. Until they have mastery of that part they have a zero on the whole project which has a huge impact on their grade. If I were to do this again I might pull these students aside and make them work silently to complete this. As I said, these were students who are capable of completing this independently and we did go over the answers in class, so I expected them to be able to complete it on their own. For some of my other students who needed different support I already worked with them to complete this assignment.
The main success for me was the variety of their questions or topics for the paper. When you break it down (with topics on the fossil record, evolution, extinction, human impact, solar system formation, asteroids, collisions,...) there are topics that span the range of standards we'll be covering in all the units this year. Since, I am working to connect asteroids throughout the year that works great because they've already been introduced to the connections.
Grading
With the change to NGSS our school has moved towards standards based grading and a 4 point scale.
No real surprises here. The second part, the research, was difficult for some students and that was apparent when I was checking in with them in class. For the many students the initial difficulty was coming to terms with the idea that you can't necessarily Google an answer to your question. The other difficulty seemed to be that a lot of students were not use to taking a resource and pulling out information to use. I think if I even described it as taking notes on that resource they might have understood the task better. And then a number of students found the paper or presentation difficult, though with the ability to revise most who attempted it eventually did well. Plus, it is the last part of the task so challenge is not a bad thing.
This first assessment, the research paper, had its challenges and successes. One of the main challenges, for me, was that the structure of the task made it difficult to focus on making sure they had mastery of one part before moving onto the next. With the next assessment they start by building a car, the next part of that task requires to existence of the car, it would be hard to move ahead without mastering part 1.
With the research paper I still have students who've yet to get mastery on the first part, the Defining Key Concepts Worksheet. These are not my students who are unable to complete the worksheet, these are the students who don't really want to do it, but are totally capable. Until they have mastery of that part they have a zero on the whole project which has a huge impact on their grade. If I were to do this again I might pull these students aside and make them work silently to complete this. As I said, these were students who are capable of completing this independently and we did go over the answers in class, so I expected them to be able to complete it on their own. For some of my other students who needed different support I already worked with them to complete this assignment.
The main success for me was the variety of their questions or topics for the paper. When you break it down (with topics on the fossil record, evolution, extinction, human impact, solar system formation, asteroids, collisions,...) there are topics that span the range of standards we'll be covering in all the units this year. Since, I am working to connect asteroids throughout the year that works great because they've already been introduced to the connections.
Grading
With the change to NGSS our school has moved towards standards based grading and a 4 point scale.
To give you an idea of what this looks like with my record sheet, they get 1 point (out of four) for each part they finish, with both the paper and the presentation being worth a half point.
When I first entered the grades in the grade book the average grades for the classes were as follows: 3.2, 2.8, 2.8, 2.9, 3.1, 2.8, 2.1. A few days after I first entered the scores for my students the average grade on this project for my class periods were as follows: 3.5, 3.3, 3.4, 3.0, 3.4, 3.2, 2.4. Other than that last class (where a number of students have yet to revise their Defining Key Concepts Worksheets), the average score after they saw the impact missing parts had on the grade went up to around a B.
Student Feedback
Whenever I finish a major activity in class I try to survey my students to get their thoughts.
For the amount of time in class my students seemed to lean more to the too much time, considering that was how I felt as well, I may reevaluate how long I spend on it.
This question was interesting to me because ultimately there was a significant percent of the class who would have picked another topic, though I am not sure how I could go about changing that.
Lastly I had my students share what they disliked and liked about the project.
For disliked the lack of a clear time frame was a comment from a few students (given that I was flexible with late work the time frame was flexible) I'll see how this goes with the next assessments this year and decide if I want to reevaluate how I present that flexible time frame. A number of students also didn't like presenting, which didn't really come as a surprise. Some other interesting comments I got from just one student (rather than being a trending comment) was that they didn't find the thinking maps helpful, that they essentially want a checkpoint rubric, and that they didn't like how the topic was somewhat limited, but weren't given a specific topic to research.
For liked many students liked that they could pick their own topic and that they learned something new. This was by far the most frequent comment given. A lot also liked that there was no due date, the amount of time in class they had to work (basically that it wasn't mostly a homework assignment), and that they could revise if they didn't succeed the first time.
Ultimately, I view this project as quite successful. I got great projects, innovative answers, and a lot of student lead investigation. It wasn't easy for everyone, but it was attainable for all. I may try to tighten up the class time a bit and want to work more to clarify the expectation of mastery; nevertheless, I am glad we spend the chunk of class time that we did researching topics that will play out throughout the year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)