Building a Better Science Teacher

http://www.flickr.com/photos/crucially/412106816/

This academic year marks my 5th year in the teaching profession. I am thinking more about what I want students to know and do as a result of my teaching. While I am guided by state and national standards, I also have ideas about what skills I want students to develop in my courses:

- technical writing


- making and interpreting tables and graphs


- presenting lab data and science content in multiple formats


- thinking/inquiry skills


- reading and vocabulary proficiency


- content knowledge

This semester I will design activities to balance content and skills development. This is consistent with efforts to flip my classroom and incorporate standards-based grading practices. While my students do hands-on activities and experiments on a regular basis, I want to be more deliberate about what I want my students to learn from these activities.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Science_lab_in_Fisher_Hall.jpg

One way I can more deliberately incorporate process skills is having all of my students compete in the Google Science Fair. My intent is to break down their projects into small assignments they can complete before the submission deadline, April 1st.

First, I want them to develop their own research questions. I want them to understand that they can apply the scientific method to many subject areas.

I am hoping that participating in the Google Science Fair will get my students excited about science and help improve their Science understanding and skill set.

Screencasting!

In my attempt to create my own flipped classroom, I have begun making screencasts to deliver content to my students. After reviewing several screencasting websites, I settled on http://www.screenr.com.  So far, I made videos about base pairing rules, types of chemical reactions, and types of mutations.

Listening to myself talk and getting used to the microphone have been very helpful for me as an educator.  Listening to my screencasts helped me get a sense of what my students hear when I speak.  As a result, I want to demonstrate even more enthusiasm and use more voice inflections when I speak.  Whether listening to me in class or online, I want to make sure students are engaged in the learning process.

There are several other screencasting sites.  Pick one you like best. Other screencasting sites include:

• http://www.screencast-o-matic.com
• http://www.screencast.com
• Jing
• Camtasia

There are also screencasting apps for the iPad.  With these apps, write on the screen using a stylus or your finger.  This might be helpful when showing students how to perform calculations.  However, to my knowledge, iPad screencasting apps do not allow users to access content outside the app (websites, documents, etc.).  iPad screencasting apps include:

• Explain Everything
• ShowMe
• ScreenChomp
• http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/replaynote/id419786855?mt=8

Flipped Classroom

This year I learned about flipped classrooms and I made an effort to try to flip my classroom as well. I began recording videos of myself explaining content for students to watch on my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/edwardslearninglab .

 However, while I enjoy making videos, I know that there are many great videos already on YouTube. I began creating playlists with these videos for students. However, some students did not have Internet access and others were not able to watch the videos. To encourage more students to watch the videos, I created online assignments with embedded videos. The students have to answer questions about the content in the video. To accommodate students with limited Internet access, I give students a week to complete the assignment. While this is not a true flipped classroom, I have found this works well for my students. I try to make watching the videos an active process by assigning a few questions with the videos, but use class time for practice and hands-on activities. I realize that "the flip" is a long-term process and I am giving myself permission to learn and grow.

The Power of Inquiry Labs

In chemistry this week, my students completed an inquiry lab involving the law of conservation of mass.  While many teachers and students have done this lab, my students had not previously performed this experiment.

The students were told they could use a Ziploc bag, an antacid tablet, a graduated cylinder, water, and a balance to determine the total mass before and after the reaction that occurs when antacid tablets are placed in water.  The students had to develop their own procedure before receiving materials.  The students then completed the experiment with their materials.  Watching the students work together to make decisions about the amount of water to use and how to set up their equations to determine initial and final masses was informative for them and for me.  Next the students calculated the percent difference before and after the reaction.  They were excited when they realized a small percent difference meant they had evidence supporting the law of conservation of mass.

In the future I plan to incorporate more inquiry labs in biology and chemistry classes.