Power Drill Painting

This was a great Messy Friday project.  The kids had a blast with this one, esp the girls.  More girls need to learn to use tools...but that's another post...
The set up was pretty straight forward for this one, however, I completely forgot to cover the table in paper.  I guess I was just too excited.  It turned into a great cleaning/scrubbing lesson for the kids though haha.

I started off with a few jars of paint and would switch out the paint brush every time the child wanted to paint with a different color.  Quickly I saw that all the colors were just mixing in the jars anyway.  It worked out better to have the child pick a few colors that I then just poured onto the paper.  It was a lot easier than stopping to switch out paint brushes all the time.  When I do this again, I think I will put the paint into squeeze bottles and let the kids squirt their own paint onto the paper in whatever design they want first before they start to play with the drill.

When the kids were finished, the paintings had to be left out on a flat surface to dry.  Some of the kids took the handle end of a paint brush and drew pictures or wrote their names in the paint.

By the way, the bigger the paint brush, the bigger the splatter!

Splatter painting

I've decided that Friday's should be messy. It's Friday!!  Let's have fun! 

This week I covered the tables in paper and walked around pouring paint in various colors all over. The kids were given smocks and straws. They then went to work blowing the paint around with their straws. The only rules were 1) no hands allowed in the paint and 2) no blowing paint on your friends. 

It was awesome. The kids had a blast. One of them quickly discovered that if you put the end of the straw in a glob of paint, you may get some bubbles to form. 

This was a great painting craft for the kids. They saw that you can use something other than your hands to make a piece of art. 

The one thing we learned was that it's best to pour small strips of paint rather than in little piles. It took forever to dry but well worth it.  

Rest is a four letter word

Back in Sept, while back-squatting, I injured a ligament in my right knee.  Amazeballs.  It was absolutely devastating.  I was so close to reaching my personal best and my baby wasn't even 6 mos old yet.  ....sigh...
I definitely threw myself back into working out and lifting a little too enthusiastically.  It turns out my brain is the worst person in the world for me to be working out with.  I pushed myself too hard and convinced myself that I didn't need to take it slow.  I'm tough.  I can do this.  I can't let these other girls beat me.  They're GIRLS!  Pssssh.  I mean, I was able to out bench, deadlift, and out squat all of them WHILE I was in my first trimester.  Now....they are all beyond where I was at that point and I'm the one starting over with the beginners.  At least I didn't loose my form.  I have great form.
So, back to my injury.  My knee knocked me on my ass, mentally more than physically.  I know what I'm capable of and now I have this nagging pain that says "Oooohhh...but ya can't." A talk with my trainer led to two devastating little words... "don't squat", and the mother of all bad words... "rest."
Rest.  Right.  That should be perfectly easy with a 6 mo old at home, working in a preschool, and trying to meet that new mom ideal of fitting back into all of my pre-pregnancy clothes 5 mos and 3 weeks ago.  Plus, squatting is my absolute favorite lift.  I could squat 8 days a week.  It was also what I was best at.  I was able to squat more than those upside-down-triangle-looking meatheads that can't put their arms down.  It was my THING.  Now my thing is broken.
I did what any normal person would do in this situation.  I threw myself into benching and working on my upper body.  After a few weeks my knee pain had subsided and I went to my trainer about squatting again.  He suggested that I try front-squatting instead.  I didn't understand how that would be any different and I HATED front-squatting.  I had tried it before my injury and it just felt wrong.  It was awkward at best; it left me with a bruised clavicle and really sore forearms.  After my injury, however, I had no other choice but to embrace the front-squat and just deal with the awkwardness.
I was finally able to get back into the squat rack again.  I was home.  I'm nowhere near the weight I was at for back-squatting but I feel amazing and I'm learning to work with my injuries and to listen to what my body needs.  On a side note, I've been able to hit an all new high with benching.  I may not be able to squat as much as I used to but I think I'm slowly becoming ok with that.  This injury has forced me to branch out and not be afraid to push myself in other areas and to try new things.  ...maybe a little rest time mixed in there as well.
I still have great form, by the way.  I know you were wondering.  Form is everything.

The Importance of Scientific Literacy

I started developing a nine-week unit plan for my honors research students just over 2 months ago.  I was struggling with what topic to use and how to structure the unit.  I wanted the experience to be a positive one for everyone involved, and more importantly I wanted the students to get something out of the assignments.  I didn’t want this to be just another research paper/project that they rushed through and never looked back on.  My goal was to structure the unit around a socioscientific issue.  Luckily for me, it was right about this time that there was a lot of media attention be placed on the retraction of a study that was conducted by Dr Andrew Wakefield concerning a link between autism and vaccines/thimerosal.  I decided to design a unit on the importance of a scientifically literate society centered around this current, and heated, issue.

I felt that this would be an important issue for these students to think about since all of them are planning on entering some field involving science, and most of them are entering pre-med programs at various private institutions.  They will certainly encounter issues as future scientists that stem form a lack of scientific literacy among the general population.
The honors students were not only required to read various pieces of literature highlighting both sides of the vaccine-autism controversy, but they were also required to interview people from their community.  I was hoping that this would lead to the realization that the content we talk about in the classroom is linked to the world they are a part of outside of the classroom.  I was impressed with the depth of knowledge that the students brought to the discussions and the links that they formed between this issue and others like it in science.  Topics such as stem cell research and global warming were used by the students as examples of other instance where scientific illiteracy has led to massive confusion, and controversy among the general public.  Such confusion and misunderstanding can lead to uninformed decisions by the public and the creation of unwarranted public policies.
My hope is that the students will take this newly formed knowledge and insight with them as they enter college and become members of the scientific community.  I know that this particular group of students could be considered to be scientifically literate, however, they are going to have to deal with the general public in their various scientific career fields.  This lesson, at least a variation of it, can be done with general biology students as well.  I would probably schedule the unit to be done at the beginning of the year, possibly following a lesson on the “scientific method”, in order to deal with the all too frequently asked question of “Why do we have to learn this?”

Resources used for this lesson:

• FDA Development & Approval Process (Drugs)
• Retracted article by Dr Wakefield: Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children
• Media Coverage of the Measles-Mumps_Rubella Vaccine and Autism Controversy and its Relationship to MMR Immunization Rates in the United States
• Portions of the book Autism's False Prophets by Dr. Offit
• Why Should You Be Scientifically Literate?
• Scientific Literacy

Using Google Documents in the Classroom

During my pre-student teaching experience, I introduced my mentor teacher to Google Docs.  He was looking for a way to have groups of students collaborate on presentations in such a way that all members would have access to the same information at the same time.  The method with which he usually goes about doing this type of project involves calling the IT department at the school, giving them a list of each student in each group, and having them set up a shared folder for each group that only students from that group can access using their individual accounts.  Of course, this is something that takes time to set up, and students must have an active account and/or know their school account information.  
This setup would eliminate the “...but we can’t present today because “Bill” has the presentation and he’s not here today” scenario.  However, you are still left with the dilemma that students are only able to work on the project from a school computer that is linked to the school’s network.  This proves to be a problem if students are absent, as well as cutting into valuable instructional time since students cannot work on it from home.
“Why don’t you just use Google Docs?” I asked.  
A puzzled look...  “What’s a Google Doc?”
After explaining to him the various features he told me that I would be teaching the class, and him, how to use Google Docs.  The instructional lesson went relatively well.  I was surprised at the low number of students that were familiar with Google Docs, compared to a previous high school I had been at where almost every student had been using Google Docs for a few years. There were some technical issues as well.  The students were required to create a Google account using their school email address, which was problematic since most students do not use their school email address and could not remember the account information to be able to gain access.  It took an entire class period to get all of the students set up with a Google account.  Another issue was the slow network at the high school.  It took a long time for some of the documents to load, especially towards the end of the projects when there was a lot of information contained within them.  However, when students and I worked from home we did not experience this problem.
The benefits of using Google Docs has made these little frustrations well worth it.  There were several students that were absolutely excited to hear that they could finally type up papers for class at home using Google Docs and then print the assignment once at school.  A few of my students have access to the computers and internet but not to Microsoft Office.  Google Docs also gives me the ability to monitor the students while they are working on laptops during class since the students are required to share all work with me.  I can check a students’/groups work without having to interrupt their work, as well as provide instant feedback.

I am also in the process of using Google Docs to facilitate collaboration among 3 science instructors and 12 honors research students.  This situation is unique in that the students are spread out among three instructors and not all of the students working under individual instructors meet during the same period.  Most of my communication with this group of students has been through Google Docs and email.  Through this project, we hope to facilitate collaboration between students and instructors in a manner similar to that of professional scientists and researchers.  The students will benefit from this by being prepared for the type of work and collaboration that will be expected of them in collegiate level science courses.  The instructors will benefit by continuing to build a collaborative relationship within the science department, as well as becoming more familiar with technology that students today are using and ways to incorporate it into their curriculum.

Riddles in the Classroom

We started off the year by doing a Nature of Science (NOS) lesson with three 10th grade sections of Bio 1.  The NOS lesson was based around the historical case of Beriberi; but presented to the students in the form of a riddle.
The idea of using riddles in the classroom came about over the summer while working at a science camp.  During down time, a co-mentor of mine, gave her students riddles to figure out.  The students loved it, especially when we wouldn't give them the answer.  :)
There is a connection between solving a riddle and problem solving in science: you're faced with a problem;  you develop a hypothesis; you ask a question; you get an answer; you redirect your questioning based on the gathered evidence and hopefully end up at a solution.  Some of the riddles were easier than others, as the students quickly found out.  For the harder riddles, the students worked in groups, each group asking questions as we circulated through the class.  When the students reached a point when they felt as though they were stuck, they were allowed to collaborate with other groups and compare information.  Without realizing it, the students were actively engaging in a modified version of the "scientific method."  Shhhh!
So back to Beriberi...
The students moved through the investigation just as Eijkman had.  At various points along the way, the students were prompted to reflect on the information that Eijkman had gathered thus far; speculating as to what they thought was occurring.  I even overheard some students stating that the Beriberi lesson was "like a riddle."  Roughly midway through the lesson, the students were given the task of developing an experiment that they thought may lead to solving the mystery of Beriberi.  They were to take on the role of an assistant researcher to Eijkman; placing themselves within the context of the historical research.  The only contraints placed on the students was that they were only allowed to use the tools and information available to Eijkman at the time of his initial research.
The ideas and experiments the students came up with blew us all away.  Some of the groups had elaborate experiments that included controls, independent & dependent variables, etc.  At this point they had not been formally introduced to the scientific method, but they were doing it!
At the end of the unit, the students were told the conclusion of the Beriberi mystery.  They then compared their ideas and experiments to those of Eijkman and his scientists.  After the unit, the students went through a more guided lab that reinforced experimental design.
By designing the first lesson of the year similar to a riddle, the students were immediately engaged in this activity.  They had fun and opened up to us, as well as to one another.
As subsequent lessons are designed, they are referring back to the principles of NOS as well as linking common themes throughout the year.  Will students be able to build upon the knowledge that they are actively a part of constructing?  We shall see...