Entry #17 - January 11, 1999
"Another student said, 'You should start the year by modeling
a complete science fair project which we could all judge with the rubric
so that we'd have a clear picture of what you wanted.' Up to now, I've been
focusing in on a piece at a time, like 'problem' one week and 'research'
the next."
After welcoming all the students back the holidays we shared a few highlights
about how we'd spent our vacations and then we dug back into our work.
For the seventh graders that meant beginning in earnest to plan our approach
to the visits of primary kids to our mini-museum. Since my students will
be the docents, I thought they needed to plan like teachers and I introduced
them to the Quinn 6. (The Quinn 6 was developed by Juli Quinn of Freeducation
in Seal Beach, CA and goes like this):
-What are you teaching?
-Why are you teaching it?
-How are you teaching it?
-Why are you teaching it that way?
-How will you know they're getting it?
-How will they know they're getting it?
Before the break the kids chose their lesson and book topics along with
their teams. This week, using the Quinn 6, we talked about their focus questions,
timelines, and division of responsibilities in their groups.
We talked about the ways they could get started, and they began to research
their topics. Next week they'll give status reports and I'll have them list
their focus questions and their responses to Juli's questions. It's been
interesting to have a conversation with students about how you design a
good lesson. I'm anxious to see what they design. They've already contributed
some wonderful ideas about the use of puppets and music to teach about marine
life. ( On a related note, I got a carpet showroom to donate carpet squares,
so we now have comfortable seating for our guests!)
The eighth graders just started a new unit -- the pilot program on Catastrophic
Events that I was trained in at the Smithsonian in late October. I'm not
used to teaching lessons exactly the way they're written so I'm feeling
a little awkward. However, I think the model really builds a solid conceptual
base and I made a commitment to the author so I'll forge ahead.
The kids like the materials and gave me some good feedback about the initial
activities. They were given inflatable globes and colored dots which represented
volcanoes, tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes. Working in teams, they
were supposed to label the globes with the dots, indicating where the events
occurred most frequently. They had difficulty working with physical maps
because they've had very little experience with them. Is geography a lost
subject? Their lack of direct experience with most of these catastrophic
events contributed to their shaky foundations as well. I expected them to
remember Hurricane Mitch, but many did not, even though they have family
in Puerto Rico.
They enjoyed choosing their anchor or culminating projects. I posted a list
of possible events and also said they could come up with one of their own.
Each student picked three and then we broke into groups according to common
interests. Tomorrow, I'll work on a schedule which balances our time in
the weeks ahead between labs, inquiry lessons, and group work. The kids
asked for a frame to help them plan the research and tasks for the anchor
projects and presentations.
Science Fair Feedback
I just finished reading the 165 science fair evaluations my students submitted
and I've gotten some real insights from them. Over 30 of them wrote about
feeling too rushed this year and most were my more disciplined students.
On the question of log books they were split pretty evenly between those
who found them helpful and those who felt they were just a chore.
Research was an almost universal sore point and one girl made the point
that "looking for information was most difficult, especially if the
topic was weird or odd." Since I push the kids to pick problems that
they're interested in and not just the same old thing out of a list, lots
of them were in fact harder to research.
Along the same lines, lots of students expressed a need for help in knowing
where they might find information, what keywords would be successful etc.
I need to hash this out with colleagues and the kids. Where does it pass
over from guiding to spoon feeding? One student asked for a list of books
and I know I'm not going there. I already provide tons of books, magazines
and seven wired computers!
The metric system has been a cause of frustration for years and now that
I finally asked them, the students said a chart of the conversions would
help, along with a list of the metric and non-metric measurement words.
Because so many of my students come from homes where English is a second
language, it was very shortsighted of me to think they knew that "teaspoon,"
for example, was a measurement word.
We've been spending all of our time making sure they knew the metric prefixes
and their meanings, when the focus must really be on basic vocabulary and
conversions! One student asked me to make up a song or rhyme to help them
remember! This kid knows how to make me smile. I've never actually had a
request for one of my weird mnemonics before.
Another student said, "You should start the year by modeling a complete
science fair project which we could all judge with the rubric so that we'd
have a clear picture of what you wanted". Up to now, I've been focusing
in on a piece at a time, like problem one week and research the next. Apparently,
this is too fragmented for some so I'll take their suggestion and try it
out. (Read a reader's comment about standards
and science fairs.)
Finally, it was painfully clear that most of the students, even the science
fair winners, were still fuzzy on the difference between dependent and independent
variables. Here again, I think the scheduling contributed to the confusion.
Students need lots of experience with variables in order to understand how
to control and or manipulate them in an experiment. Our schedule this year
was just too rushed.
I'm anxious to share these ideas with my fellow science teachers and with
my classes. I think it's critical that they see some changes made based
on their helpful feedback. I hate when I get asked for my input and then
nothing changes and I know they do too. I think I'll write my summary up
and give it to them -- that way they'll be able to remind me of my promises
even when I'm pressed for time.
I just downloaded some alternative ways to approach science fairs and the
scientific process, but I haven't had time to study them yet. Next weekend
I'm scheduled to present my professional portfolio at an Annenberg conference
and as you might have guessed, my focus for discussion will revolve around
science fair.
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A READER'S COMMENT ABOUT STANDARDS
AND SCIENCE FAIRS
I am a public school parent in Pittsburgh and an education writer
for the Pittsburgh Council on Public Education--and I am enjoying this window
into your thoughtful teaching.
My sixth grade daughter came home the other day with this story about a
classmate's science project, which was presented to the class. The project
she designed was called "What Breaks?" and it involved throwing
different objects against walls and floors and reporting on whether they
broke or not. The students were supposed to ask the presenters questions
(from a list), one of which was, "How has this project made a difference
to the world?" One student added, "Why would you even do a project
like that?" The girl answered, "Because it was easy." I can't
help but admire the way she almost literally flung the science project in
everyone's faces.
My older daughter has participated in the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of
Science for the past three years, which is a voluntary competitive program
awarding first, second or third place to all participants. The first year,
she received a second place for her project. Since then, she has won first
place awards and the chance to compete at the state level. The difference
has been that she understood what was expected of her after her first experience.
Mysecond child will probably do better on her first try because as a family,
we now understand the expectations. Is this fair, or the necessary way to
do things? There was some support from the seventh grade science teachers-
including samples of successful projects--but there was no set of clear
expectations beyond how to structure the speech. This has really underscored
for me the need for known, explicit standards, for both students and parents.
FESCHANTZ@aol.com