New Study: Florida Teachers' Attitudes about Teaching Evolution
A new study was published in the February issue of The American Biology Teacher entitled "Florida Teachers' Attitudes about Teaching Evolution." A full summary of the paper is posted on another blog recommended to us. Check out: http://www.flascience.org/wp/?p=1178
Title: Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. and the Institute of International Education International Teacher Program
PROGRAM: Toyota International Teacher Program to the Galapagos Islands from November 20 ‐ December 4, 2010.
As stated on the Web site: "The Toyota International Teacher Program is first and foremost a professional development opportunity. Educators selected to travel on the program will be expected to be proactive and engaged in all pre‐departure, in‐country, and post‐program activities. The program is of general interest to secondary school teachers of all disciplines ‐ including, but not limited to, art, foreign languages, physical education, social studies, mathematics, science, music, English and vocational education. Previous knowledge of Latin America or environmental subjects is not a selection criterion. Instead, the program seeks teachers who are interested in learning about Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, its people, and the ecosystem of the region, and who will draw on their program experiences to enrich their teaching and professional activities."
DEADLINE: May 26, 2010
AWARD: This program is "fully funded." Expenses specific to the program will be covered by Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. This includes costs of program materials, transportation, meals, and lodging.
Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. will also issue each participant's school a $500.00 stipend to help defray the costs of participation during the school year.
ELIGIBILITY: Applicants must meet the following requirements to be eligible for participation in the program:
•Hold U.S. citizenship
•Be employed full time as a secondary school classroom teacher or teacher‐librarian (grades 6 – 12)
•Teach in one of the 50 States or the District of Columbia
•Have at least three years of full‐time teaching experience (by the program start date)
TO APPLY: Must apply online at: http://iieteachers.org/Applicant/UserLogin.aspx?Applicationcyclecode=GPS2010
CONTACT: Call (877) 832‐2457 or e‐mail: toyotateach@iie.org
This is how the MSSI Spring 2010 schedule is starting to look like. The next webinar is scheduled for March 4th at 4:30 PM using LiveMeeting. The institute is tentatively scheduled for May 18th and 19th (with May 17th as a travel day) in Orlando; stay tuned for more details.
Webinars
1/26/10 – Corey Peloquin and Julie Ball present "Engaging Students in the Science Classroom using Podcasts, Videocasts, and Stop Motion."
3/4/10 – Beth Geils presents "Discussions Worth Having: Encouraging deeper thinking in a science PLC using the lesson study tuning protocol."
4/1/10 – Tom Baird presents "Avoiding Misconceptions When Teaching Evolution: Common misconceptions and how we can address them with students."
4/21/10 – Lois Easton presents "A Follow-up to the Introduction to Lesson Study Institutes."
5/6/10 – Craig Seibert presents "What is Inquiry Based Science?"
Institute
5/18-19/10 – "Response to Intervention for the Secondary Classroom Teacher"
Wikis for Science Ed Collaboration
Source: 2/5/2010 - NSTA Reports—Debra Shapiro
Teachers and students are communicating and sharing ideas on collaborative websites called wikis that allow them to post work, comment on others' postings, and make revisions as a group. NSTA member Margie Gifford of Lebanon, Tennessee, is sold on their value. "The idea that teachers all over the world can work together and share the load is exciting to me," she says.
Gifford is one of more than 70 teachers contributing to the Science Cafés Wiki (http://sciencecafe.wikispaces.com). She learned about science cafés while attending a workshop on differentiated instruction using self-paced units—presented by Kristy Love of Houston, Texas—at the 2007 NSTA National Conference in St. Louis. Gifford describes her own version of science cafés as year-long self-paced units in which students are given a "five-course menu" with choices of different projects they can do, with each "course" addressing a different science standard.
When she offered to share her resources on science cafés on the NSTA Earth Science e-mail list in December 2009, Gifford says she received "an incredible response" for them. One came from Debbie Johnson of Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania. "The NSTA listserv is a great place to share ideas," observes Johnson. "Teachers, such as Margie, willing to share their ideas and hard work so that others can become better teachers, is an amazing thing." The café wiki, which Johnson set up on Wikispaces.com, "takes this cooperation a step further by allowing teachers to share specific ideas and work together to create the final products," she explains. The wiki is free and open to all teachers.
Teachers immediately began to contribute to a number of different cafes on the wiki, including an Energy Café, a Newton's Laws Café, and an Earth's Resources Café. "I checked in once a day as the site was evolving and organized the pages as they were being created so that the overall site would be user friendly," says Johnson. A wiki, she points out, is "a living document, easily accessible, ever changing, and yet always available. Teachers no longer have to be isolated in their classrooms, with only a few people in the district as a resource."
Types of Wikis
Wikis can be used in many ways, including for student engagement, collaboration on projects, and developing curriculum. "When teachers put their materials and class work online, they open their classroom for parents to connect with their children's learning," notes Johnson.
She advises teachers creating student wikis to determine how they "want the site to be used...informational, showcase of student work, homework helper, collaboration, reflection, or class record" and to consider "how they want their audience to interact within the site." For those new to wikis, "viewing how other teachers are using wikis is a great way to get started," she adds.
In her wiki for her middle school students, she says she "can provide support for my students, informally assess their understanding to help guide my instruction. Students are excited to use the computers and post, and excitement is contagious." As students "manipulate the content and create projects, they are not only deepening their conceptual understanding, but [also] applying their knowledge and using higher-order thinking skills to make connections within the material. Although they just think it is fun, they work harder when they have an audience."
But for safety's sake, students need to realize who might be in that audience. "It is essential that students understand that they are not anonymous," says Karolee Smiley, a middle school teacher from Sacramento, California. "By appearing faceless, many seem to feel they can post indiscriminately. But when students are aware that all readers will know the source of all posts and changes, students are more likely to take responsibility and post wisely."
Smiley's science class is using a wiki "to create a 'root word' library. Students are adding examples of different Greek and Latin roots and how they are used in science terminology." This is an example of "a very simple, low-maintenance wiki," she notes. She appreciates that "students can access the wiki whenever and wherever they want…on weekends, mornings, and even late night. Having open access also allows those that need more time the ability to access it as necessary."
Johnson says she has also "created a wiki for our teachers to use as a way of tracking parent contacts, conferences, conversations, and concerns for students [who] are not performing well in our classes." She believes "this has been extremely helpful" for identifying these students and providing "necessary interventions quickly."
At the high school level, biology teacher Louise Maine of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, uses several wikis with her classes. On http://mrsmaineswiki.wikispaces.com/Cells, for example, she created "Cell-vivor," a game based on the television reality series Survivor. During Cell-vivor, students advocate for one part of a cell's structure, stating reasons why the cell needs their part so much it shouldn't be "voted off."
Biology teacher Louise Maine created "Cell-vivor," an activity based on the reality series Survivor in which her students choose a cell part and explain why it shouldn't be "voted out" of the cell. Her students are using stop motion video to animate cell parts they made of clay and foam. Maine will post the videos on her Cell-vivor wiki.
Maine thinks it's important for teachers to design their wikis around students' strengths and interests. For example, her students working on this year's Cell-vivor wiki have expressed no interest in using a voice thread to state their cases, so she won't use it. Instead, her students want to use "stop-motion photography," an animation technique, to support their cell part and portray its "specific actions," she explains.
She also changes each wiki's focus every year and encourages students to develop new ideas for them. She podcasts her lectures and posts them on the wiki, and her students use the wiki to show what they have learned using "animations, videos, and writing."
She advises teachers new to wikis to "consider yourself a learner" and don't feel like you must "have all the answers." The teacher's role, she says, "is not to teach [students] everything: It's to get them started" on the path to learning. This philosophy makes her and her students partners who "learn together" in groups and try new things. "I've learned an incredible amount of patience," she adds.
Wikis allow for "easy fixes" when needed, and "very rarely do you lose data," she points out. They save time by allowing teachers to create pages in advance and record all their thoughts "in one place." She says her students check the wiki when they've been absent to see what assignments they need to complete. And as an environmentalist, she appreciates how wikis reduce the need for paper.
Maine believes because wikis can teach students how to use all types of Web 2.0 media, they contribute to students' feelings of confidence and competence. She suggests giving students guidelines for using technology, "but let them know you trust them." And when her students "were inspired to create a wiki following their passions, I did encourage them," she says.
A Wiki for Undergraduates
Undergraduate students can learn how to write high-quality scientific articles and contribute them to a wiki—The Encyclopedia of Earth (EOE; www.eoearth.org)—by participating in the Student Science Communication Project (SSCP), a faculty-supervised science writing initiative. SSCP teaches students the basics of wiki writing, as well as communication, writing, and literature searching and referencing skills. While students aren't required to write for EOE, they are "strongly encouraged" to do so, says SSCP Director Emily Monosson. "Our intention [for EOE] has always been to be a collaborative site where a scientist can update or add to [his or her] own or someone else's article. If students get this experience under supervision, they may be more likely to think about collaborative writing in the future."
In the past, wiki users had to know HTML, which discouraged some faculty, scientists, and students from contributing because they were hesitant to take on something new and challenging, says Monosson. But since EOE and most wikis no longer require HTML expertise, they have become "more user-friendly," she notes. She likes wikis because "you can do so much with them," including posting images and art, which is required for EOE articles. Some students do find that a challenge, she admits, but when students choose to write about something in their professor's field, their professor can help them with the writing and graphics.
SSCP offers numerous benefits for student authors, according to Monosson. "Having a published and citable article that has been reviewed and accepted" is one advantage, she points out. "This is something they can show to others: their published work on a legitimate science site." She believes it's important for scientists of all ages to realize "it's not so intimidating to write for the public."
Monosson extols the merits of experiencing the article review process. "The feedback from students about going through that process, which can be a little scary, was really positive and…[it was] really valuable for students, to know they can write to these scientists and get feedback on their work. This is the real thing for them, not 'a report that I'll delete once the class is over,' and they are very much aware of this."
Another benefit for students is "having their articles turn up before any embarrassing Facebook photos," she quips.
SSCP is open to students nationwide; to learn more, visit www.eoearth.org/article/Student_Science_Communication_Project.
Smithsonian Science Education Academies for Teachers
Each of the three Smithsonian Science Education Academies is a week-long immersive science experience, including content sessions to deepen your understanding of key concepts, and behind-the-scenes access to Smithsonian collections and cutting-edge science at world-class research facilities. Three optional graduate-level credits are available for each Academy. Click here for more information.
Get early bird pricing if you register by May 14, 2010: Save $100
National Science Resources Center
901 D Street, SW, Suite 704B
Washington, District of Columbia 20024
202-633-2970
nsrcpdcenter@si.edu
www.nsrconline.org
The Middle School Science Initiative will begin a webinar series in 2010!
The first webinar will be aired live on January 26, 2010 at 3:00 PM Eastern time and then archived on the FLICC website at www.ets.org/flicc .
The first webinar will feature two middle school science teachers from the Tampa Bay area and focus on how to engage students using technology. The presenters will discuss how anyone can use podcasting, videocasting, and stop motion in their science classes.
We hope you will be able to join us for this entertaining and useful presentation!
In the Fall of 2009, FLICC – in conjunction with the Florida Department of Education – designed and delivered a series of institutes across the State of Florida focusing on lesson study. The idea was to take Professional Learning Communities to the next level by having regional personnel, district staff, and teachers trained in the art of lesson study.
So the FLICC Team, with the help of the Anchin Center at USF, set off to seven locations across the great State of Florida: the rolling hills of Ocala, history steeped St. Augustine, and centrally located Orlando; followed by the beaches of the Tampa Bay area, Naples, and Boca Raton, finishing in our capitol city, Tallahassee. A whirlwind tour to be sure.
Dr. Lois Brown Easton facilitated the sessions, tweaking the presentation as the series of institutes unfolded. Currently living in Colorado, Dr. Easton was appreciative of the opportunity to serve the educators of Florida again (not to mention the warm winter weather!). She returned to Florida after providing training for the FLDOE's Regional Assistance Centers during the summer. That session was so well received that FLICC brought her back for this series of seven institutes. These encores, of sorts, built on the summer training and organized it for training additional regional FLDOE personnel, district staff and secondary level educators.
The institutes were designed to cut to the chase and be a series of hands on experiences in lesson study. This was not a sit and get series of events. During the first experience, the unsuspecting participants were asked to teach a secondary math lesson provided by the FLICC Team. This challenged comfort levels as Dr. Easton directed one team to teach the lesson to another team of "students." This was a baptism by fire in lesson study!
After teaching the lesson, groups reconvened in a debriefing session of the lesson called a "colloquium." In colloquium, teachers, students, and data collectors share their impressions of the lesson, focusing on the content of the lesson and the student reaction to it. The key is not to focus on the teacher per se; the focus should be on the students' engagement in the lesson and their potential for learning the standard or benchmark. Lesson study never focuses on the teacher.
The second experience with lesson study was somewhat more comfortable because educators were given the choice of working on a provided lesson in their own area of expertise: science, mathematics, social studies, or English language arts. In addition, participants engaged in a broader discussion of lesson study and the data to be collected during the observation of the lesson being taught. As the sun set on the first day, participants moved from their second colloquium to a networking reception with Dr. Easton and the FLICC Team. Comfort food and conversation closed out the day.
It is said that it is always darkest before dawn and this seemed to be true for the lesson study groups. At the end of the first day, participants still had many questions about implementing lesson study in their regions, districts, and schools. How will we find the time to do lesson study? Is a lesson ever perfect? How many lessons should we work on during the school year? How do we start implementing lesson study?
Luckily, like the story of the shoemaker and the elves (you'll remember that the shoemaker cut the leather and the elves came in dark of the night and made shoes), Dr. Easton expertly cut the leather of lesson study on Day One and institute participants began to bring shape to what was laid before them as they continued to work on Day Two.
The third experience with lesson study came slightly after dawn on the second day. This lesson study experience was the group's first variation in that educators were given the opportunity to develop a lesson with likeminded content experts guided by a copy of the Next Generation State Standards for each content area. Participants set about developing lessons in science, mathematics, social studies and English language arts. Like the previous day, the group was split between those who taught their lesson and those who acted as students, followed by colloquium.
Next, a second variation of lesson study was discussed. This variation focused on the tuning protocol. The tuning protocol is the classic protocol, the one upon which most other protocols have been based. It features times when a presenter talks and is silent and times when participants talk and are silent. It provides three levels of depth: presentation → participant discussion → presenter reflection, finalized by a general debriefing that can extend the conversation about the lesson.
After the tuning protocol activity, the practice of lesson study solidified for institute participants. This foothold provided the foundation to discuss the logistics and implementation of the lesson study process. Teams struggled with the issues for their districts and schools, suggesting solutions and planning the next step to implement lesson study back home. This is when the lingering questions from the previous day were addressed and answers to the details of implementation answered.
So over the busy two day schedule, participants grew to understand the basics of lesson study by engaging in three lesson study experiences and learning about lesson study variations. Regional personnel, district staff and teachers also planned the implementation of lesson study in their respective regions, districts, and schools and discussed how they all will work together to solve any issues related to lesson study implementation.
The participants left the institutes edified and ready to implement lesson study wearing the new shoes their teams had cobbled.
Materials from the lesson study institutes are available on the FLICC website (www.ets.org/flicc ) including the following:
