This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the hopes of improving my craft. Synopsis: it was week of historic firsts for the NCS K4STEMLAB! Kindergarteners and First graders literally had their hands full this week with full-on STEM projects while Second graders just started their own multi-week STEM journey. Third and Fourth graders got some "independent" work done while literally lounging around in our learner-centered, flexible-space classroom. Please note: in our current "Day" rotation, Mondays are Day 2, which means my new lessons start on Friday (Day 1). These "days" change over the course of the year due to holidays, etc. Week ending 02/08/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: This week’ s lesson was stolen borrowed adapted from the STEM Mom Gummy Worm Measuring Activity which I loved the moment I saw it. Children learned subtraction using manipulatives while practicing measuring skills… and they got to enjoy a tasty treat  too! Students were asked to first measure the unstretched Gummy Worm and record the result (in MM) on their worksheet. Then they were to carefully stretch the gummy worm as far as it would go (without breaking) and record that measurement. Finally they would use the cube manipulatives to line up cubes equal to the larger of the two measurements, then "take away" cubes equal to the smaller number. What’s left is the difference, which they recorded on their worksheet, and then they got to eat the gummy worm! Each student got to measure and record data twice. Kids also got to color in a worm worksheet at the end of the lesson. What I observed / inferred / connected: Kindergarteners are just learning about subtraction now, so this was a little early for the lesson (I’ll try it later in the year next time) but the kids largely understood what to do. Since they worked in pairs, took turns, and did everything twice, by the end of class just about everyone was able to perform the tasks successfully. Many students are still working on their letter formation skills; the guides on the bottom of the worksheets were helpful. This was a fun but also difficult lesson for me. On Day 1, Mrs. Vicente jumped in and took the lead at the beginning, teaching the kids how to subtract using the manipulatives. Encouraged, I took the lead on Day 2 with Mr. Battistini’s class but my explanation wasn’t nearly as fluid as Andrea’s. As a result, the kids struggled. I was better the next day with Mrs. Kern’s kids but when I saw Ms. Serago demonstrate the tasks everything got a lot clearer. By the time Ms. Brady’s students came in on Thursday, everything was running smoothly. I knew what worked and what didn’t. This lesson will be a hit next year, right from the start! What students can do at home: The STEM Mom Gummy Worm Measuring Activity is easily replicable at home with ordinary objects and a pape table for data collection. Try it Check out the Kindergarten Symbaloo for fun activities and skill builders. First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: In this week’s lesson as part of the Engineering is Elementary unit "A Sticky Situation: Designing Walls," students had to determine which mortar "base" - clay, sand, or soil - was the strongest and then mix some mortar up to construct a stone wall. We began by showing video of mortar tests we conducted last week using ceramic tiles (like this). Students then used a clay flour base and added either soil or sand to the mixture, which was then used to construct a small stone wall using red slate rocks placed on a piece of plywood (fortunately I had some left over from the construction of my Z-Rack this past summer.) We then washed up, gathered on the foam cubes in front of the SMART Board, and reflected on what we’d learned. What I observed / inferred / connected: By FAR our most ambitious STEMLAB lesson yet, this activity required a major amount of organization, preparation and cleanup, and would not have been possible without the generosity of several generous parents who provided necessary materials. (I’d also like to thank Mrs. Bushay and Mrs. McGowan who helped me inventory everything we had and determine what we needed to ask for, and Mrs. Pilli for donating the old t-shirts the kids used as smocks.) Students loved, loved, LOVED this lesson! The mixing of materials, the placing of the rocks, the teamwork, everything about it was a hit. One child in particular, during our reflection at the end of class, couldn’t contain himself and blurted out, "THANK YOU FOR MAKING ME CREATIVE!" (I’m going to remember that for a long, long time.) Thanks to some creative planning by the first grade team, we were able to divide up the work to be performed so that everyone contributed to the process and got to try every task. It wasn’t easy, and it was messy, with mortar literally spilled all over the room, on kids’ hands, on tools we used in the classroom, and oh yes, on the rock wall itself. Oddly enough, first graders don’t have an innate knowledge of masonry, so, our wall looked a little … unconventional. Some students stacked rocks directly on top of each other, resulting in unstable structures that had to be redone. By the time it was over, though, we had our wall - built with alternating sections of clay+soil and clay+sand mortars. A great deal of flexibility and out-of-the-box thinking was necessary to adapt this lesson, which is designed (and we have materials for) a class of 30 students. We have 100+ students and we only meet once a week for 42 minutes. And, my classroom is used for four other grades’ worth of classes. All these factors were addressed by the modifications we made to the activities, mostly as suggested by the first grade teachers. All in all, it worked very well. What students can do at home: Ask your child what they learned from this experience. What mortar is best and why? Does adding sand or soil strengthen or weaken clay? What do materials engineers do? Did they feel like materials engineers during the lesson? What was their favorite part? I’d love to hear from you in the comments! Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: This week marked the start of the Engineering is Elementary unit, "A Work in Process: Improving a Play Dough Process." In this unit, students are read (I get to read!) a short story with an engineering design challenge they have to solve themselves. The story is about Michelle, a young girl from Canada with Down’s Syndrome that plays recreational hockey with her older brother, Tim. They need to raise money for their team’s trip to see the Toronto Maple Leafs, so they decide to have a booth at  their school fundraiser making and selling homemade play dough. Along the way, the students learn about chemical engineering concepts as they improve the play dough that is created. What I observed / inferred / connected: We only got through the first three chapters of the story, but it was great fun, as I really enjoyed both the "story" and the "telling" aspects of reading to the class.  My delivery needs a lot of work, and I need practice remembering my position in the book as I read, but overall, the kids seemed to get the key points (as they did in First Grade when I read their EiE story). In several of my classes, students asked about Down Syndrome, leading to some very rich and powerful discussions about what it means to be different and how we all struggle with different things. (In the story, Michelle is a terrific artist but is less confident about her athletic skills. Her sports-minded brother Tim, a star player on the hockey team, isn’t very artistic.) Though I wasn’t expecting the questions, I was prepared, and my explanation for one class earned me praise from several other teachers in the room, which made me feel pretty good. There are many themes in this story that make it easy for the kids to relate to: the age of the characters, the activity they are involved in, hints of bullying (and appropriate responses to/children’s thoughts about it), the roles of adults in various leadership positions, particularly those who work in engineering. I really, really enjoy these stories. They are very well done. What students can do at home: Since we are covering the story in class, the best thing to do at home is to talk about the characters, the problems they’ve encountered, what your child thinks about them, how they would have reacted, etc. We will finish the story in next week’s class. Third and Fourth Grade What we learned / did / explored together: In keeping with our week of firsts, we, for the first time, had students independently (with minimal direction from me, but with the help of other students if needed): - Choose a place in the room to sit - Log onto their Chromebooks - Start a keyboarding activity of their choice - Locate their Google Document presentation from last week to revise/edit/improve it. Though it was not technically very demanding - students have been logging into their devices independently since the start of school - this was the first time they were asked to work essentially by themselves for the entire period - and, we able to sit anywhere in the room they wished. What I learned / observed / inferred: Students are ready for this responsibility. We need to  reinforce proper Chromebook carrying techniques, but overall, in both grades, students appreciated and enjoyed the opportunity to work by themselves for the day. Without my telling them to do so, students in every class took it upon themselves to explore Google Presentations and learn new features, inserting royalty-free images, adding styles and themes, transitions, and other features. The best part - they taught each other how to do it. What students can do at home: See if your student remembers their Google Docs username and password, and, if so, have them log in here: http://docs.google.com/a/ncs-tech.org to show you the work they’ve done so far. Let them show you how to create a document, how to share it, revise & edit, insert images and graphics, etc. You will be amazed by their skills, I predict!

Imagine the contributions instructional designers would make to society if they ruled the world.Post from: The eLearning CoachIf Instructional Designers Ran The World

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In my attempt to remain sane through this 8 week weather project, I’ve used a lot of Google products to keep everything in order.  Its all been flowing along nicely … Continue reading →

This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the hopes of improving my craft. Synopsis: Kindergarteners whipped up Valentines Day greetings for family members; First Graders got their "demolition" on during tests of mortar walls built last week; Second Graders finished the Engineering is Elementary storybook, "Michelle’s MVP Award" and are looking forward to getting their hands dirty by mixing up batches of homemade play-dough next week; Third and Fourth graders once again whipped up Google Docs magic by putting finishing touches on their "Paper Bridge Project" reflections. Please note: in our current "Day" rotation, my new lessons start on Friday (Day 1). These "days" change over the course of the year due to holidays, etc. Week ending 02/15/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: After a few minutes warming up with activities of their choice on the Kindergarten Symbaloo page, we gathered back on the cubes in front of the SMART Board for a discussion about computers as tools for creating things, particularly art. We talked about different types of programs (websites) and demonstrated Kerpoof.com, Crayola’s Digi-Color, ABCYa Paint Go, and Bomomo. We compared features and basic tasks and explored how each could be used to express feelings. Finally, we talked about the upcoming Valentines Day holiday, and students were free to choose the app/site they liked best to create something for a family member, and, off they went! What I observed / inferred / connected: Kindergarteners are dutiful duplicators, very highly influenced by suggestions and examples. Most kids chose Kerpoof.com and included features similar to my example. A few went with other tools like ABCYa Paint Go. All were successful/proficient. At first I thought giving them a choice was a good idea, but as the week went on, it seemed too much for some kids, as they spent time in each app, and came close to running out of class time. In the future, I’ll use fewer choices. What students can do at home: Rock out on the Kindergarten Symbaloo page! Let them impress you with your skills, but a word to the wise - tell them NO PRINTING (unless you OK it) otherwise you’ll be buying ink like milk and bread! First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: In this week’s lesson as part of the Engineering is Elementary unit "A Sticky Situation: Designing Walls," students had to test the mortar walls they had constructed last week using a homemade "wrecking ball" I put together based on instructions in the material. Our design was a little different (it used traffic cones instead of chairs) but it worked perfectly as the students were all able to clearly see the action. We started the lesson however with video of wrecking ball, which was a huge hit, and got the kids thinking about force and energy in relation to how high the "ball" swung back before hitting the building. From there, we moved over to inspect the walls, looking for cracks, differences in color, etc. I introduced them to our wrecking ball with a quick demonstration of the relationship between "drop height" and force using small plastic jars filled with tiny rocks. They intuitively knew that a ball dropped at position "4″ on our scale (shown in the first picture above) would do more "damage" than one dropped at position "1." (We had fun making analogies to backyard swingsets and what it felt like to swing up "that high." Finally, we made predictions as to how much damage there would be to each wall, followed by recording our actual observations, which the students then used to determine which mortar was strongest. What I observed / inferred / connected: HOLY COW WAS THIS FUN!!! The activities fit together seamlessly, managed to get everyone involved (even though it was a whole-class lesson), and judging by the facial expressions of the kids (which I can’t show here), this was the most powerful lesson in the series. (Plus, we got to break stuff!) The kids chanted loudly as we counted the number of strikes until the walls completely failed. They were mesmerized! Better still, they followed the logic of the process (which did not always yield the expected result - that the Clay + Sand mixture would be strongest). It was the most fun I have had teaching in a very long time. We made multiple, major adjustments to the activities in "A Sticky Situation: Designing Walls, but only because we had no choice; the Engineering is Elementary units are designed for single self-contained classroom of up to 30 students. I have 100+ students, which I see (in five classes) once a week. So not only did we have to scale the materials UP, we had to scale the activities DOWN. There was no way I could have stored all the different wall samples the kids could have built. My colleagues on the First Grade team deserve all the credit for suggesting we build a single wall as a grade level. This made the wall creation manageable and allowed each class to have its own sections to test. The "Messy Area" of my classroom was truly that this past week as pieces of mortar and stone went all over the floor despite our best efforts to contain things. (I’m in debt to our fantastic custodial crew including Mr. Larry for doing such a great job cleaning up every night.) Despite these challenges, the lessons were successful, effectively building excitement with each passing week. (Audible gasps were commonly heard as students came into my room, giddy with excitement about what they’d be doing.) With one more activity to go - a visual reflection - we are about ready to wrap this up. It will have been six weeks since the kids touched a computer in my classroom! What students can do at home: Have them talk about the experience, how they made predictions, how those compared to the actuals, what they thought about the testing, anything at all. If you have any feedback, I’d love to hear it in the comments! Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: As a class, we finished reading the story, "Michelle’s MVP Award," setting the stage for next week’s play dough mixing. There is an unexpected, very satisfying twist at the end that made the story special. What I observed / inferred / connected: The kids did a great job listening attentively as I made my way through the story. Having the story graphics on the SMART Board helped, again. I tried not to be too over-dramatic but almost certainly failed in spots. After two weeks of reading, the kids are ready to get their hands dirty, and boy, will they! What students can do at home: Talk to your child about the story - the plot, characters, setting, anything - have them give you the highlights or attempt to retell the entire story. (I remember when my kids were in Second Grade, and it’s a great age where the sense of wonder and suspension of disbelief really take hold. Though it was realistic fiction, it was so very believable! Third and Fourth Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Students were free to continue working on their Google Docs reflections entitled "Paper Bridges: an Engineering Design Project," sitting anywhere in the room that was comfortable. What I learned / observed / inferred: Once again, the kids did a great job sharing and supporting each other. I did virtually no instruction regarding features in Google Presentations; I merely indicated what I wanted them to do (apply formatting, change the appearance, insert images) and let them do it. As last week, the kids rose to the occasion. Here’s an example. What students can do at home: See if your student remembers their Google Docs username and password, and, if so, have them log in here: http://docs.google.com/a/ncs-tech.org to show you the work they’ve done so far. Let them show you how to create a document, how to share it, revise & edit, insert images and graphics, etc. You will be amazed by their skills, I predict!  

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This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the hopes of improving my craft. Synopsis: we had another "first" this week in the K4STEMLAB as every class had some sort of hands-on STEM or other activity (meaning the Chromebooks were unused for the week.) Hands-on experiences are the key distinguishing element of my program this year. It is great to see the kids so excited about creating and reflecting on what they’re learning! Kindergarten students explored 2D/3D shapes using spaghetti and marshmallows; First Graders reflected on their "Designing Walls" STEM project experience with a "visual reflection" of the Engineering Design Process; Second Graders explored properties of solids and liquids in different mixtures, their first exposure to chemical engineering; Third and Fourth Graders brainstormed some Games in Education research questions (and got a sneak peek at "Minetest," a free Minecraft clone.) Week ending 02/22/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: Using dry spaghetti and mini-marshmallows, and following the inspiration of this blog post, students made as many two- and three-dimensional shapes as they could. We first started out on the SMART Board as we discussed different shapes (on this card) as I modeled the construction process. We had some fun estimating how many marshmallows it would take to make different shapes. The kids then scurried off to their tables and started creating on their own. What I observed / inferred / connected: This lesson was a lot more fun for everyone than I imagined! Almost without exception, kids were mesmerized by the construction process and how many shapes could be combined to form even more complex shapes & designs. Kids made every imaginable shape, creating, undoing and re-creating over and over. At then end of class, they got to eat five of the marshmallows. Pretty soon imaginations were running wild and we had kids making: swingsets; SpongeBob Squarepants; windmills; houses of many different types; people; animals; and more. Once again, the floor in our "Messy Area" was a disaster, littered with broken spaghetti and flattened-out marshmallows. What students can do at home: This project is easy and fun! Tip: let your marshmallows go stale - at least a few days, if not a week - they work a lot better stale (dried and hard) vs. fresh (soft and gooey.) Ask your child to identify these shapes all over the house - then recreate them with marshmallows and spaghetti. Have them count the marshmallows needed to make different shapes. First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Having completed five weeks of work on the Engineering is Elementary lesson, "A Sticky Situation: Designing Walls," it was time for us to wrap things up. I reviewed the assessments that came with the kit but wasn’t satisfied; they were either a little too simple or they required too much writing. I decided I wanted some kind of visual reflection and talked to my colleague Mary Lou Best to get her input. She suggested having kids create an image showing what was happening in the project during each phase of the Engineering Design Process. I loved this idea and put together the template shown above. (The reverse side is a full page graphic of the Engineering Design Process.) We started the lesson by reviewing what we’d learned in the project (and revisiting the storybook, too.) I explained what the kids needed to do and sent them to their tables to get to work. What I observed / inferred / connected: This went well, better than I’d expected. Most kids needed some gentle reminders about what was happening at each phase of the process, but they ultimately got it, understanding the sequence, dependencies and achievements at each phase. It was so rewarding to watch! I’m convinced this will be an experience they will remember for a long time. I had originally wanted the students to create their reflections digitally but decided that added too much complexity for too little benefit and we went with paper. I’m glad I did. The kids really enjoyed the activity and the resulting reflections tell me all I need to know about what they retained from the project. What students can do at home: I will be sending the reflections home as soon as I make a copy. Discuss them with your child! Ask them to tell you what was happening in each of the phases of the Engineering Design Process. Ask them what it means to be a "materials engineer." Ask them what they liked best about the project, what they learned. Ask them anything! Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Week 2 of the EiE STEM unit "Improving a Play Dough Process," for us, involved an introduction to chemical engineering via play dough material testing. First, we passed out commercial Play Dough to all the students to let them handle and get the feel of the material, consider its properties, try to mold it into shape, etc. We also had on hand a batch of "bad" play dough I’d whipped together earlier for comparison purposes. Two volunteers came up to the front of the class and grabbed handfuls of the stuff (making some pretty funny faces along the way - if only I’d taken some photos!). We then contrasted the "good" and "bad" play dough to be clear on how we wanted the dough we made to feel and smell. We then moved on to mixing materials in accordance with the instructions. Each pair of students had to work through five different tests, recording their results along the way. We then had some time to reflect on what we’d seen and make some predictions about the mixtures that would work best with our final play dough. What I observed / inferred / connected: Student reactions were priceless as they mixed each of the materials. Shock, disbelief, surprise and amazement … I never expected such reactions! Several kids took it upon themselves to mash the stuff with their fingers, which is fine, but it was not part of the test (and added somewhat to the cleanup phase.) Lunch trays are awesome. I got these over the summer (ordered them without even knowing what I’d use them for) and they’ve been the single most helpful piece of classroom equipment in my lab! Lesson setup was an absolute PITA, and the results of the project were messy, messy, messy! Each team of students needed their own flour, salt, mixing bowls, etc., and this wasn’t even our actual play dough mixing! Switching classes after messy STEM projects is going to be a real challenge. I’ve often got only a few minutes between classes and I’m by myself. I could shave off some instructional time for cleanup but we’re hurting to get through everything timewise as it is. Fortunately the room setup is ideal and in a worst-case scenario we can actually "leave" the mess and work in another part of the room. The design work we did on the space over the summer is paying great dividends. What students can do at home: Ask your child about the project - what did they learn this week? Make some simple combinations of materials at home, have them predict what will happen, observe the results, then explain why! Third & Fourth Grade What we learned / did / explored together: We are kicking off a mutli-week survey/research project that I hope will engage the students while it paves the way for innovation in my classroom. Trying to come up with a topic that might interest our third and fourth graders, and that mattered at the same time, I decided "games in education" (particularly Minecraft) would be an excellent choice. So far it seems I was right. The learning goals for this unit are for the students to gather data using a Google Docs survey of their own creation, analyze the results, then form opinions based on the data. The resulting analysis will, hopefully, pave the way for us to use Minecraft (or the free program "Minetest") in my curriculum next year. We began the discussion with a conversation about standards and how as the "technology" teacher my job is a lot simpler than, say, a classroom teacher who has to teach at least four different subjects. We also talked about the curriculum approval process and how I could (as we did with the STEMLAB this year) "imagine" new teaching approaches, propose them, have them be approved, and then implement them in the classroom. We talked about Minecraft as a context for learning, and specifically "Minetest," the free Minecraft clone that we could theoretically deploy throughout the entire school. This certainly got everyone’s attention. We shifted the conversation over to the kinds of things students are learning outside my classroom, and we broke the class into teams that had to brainstorm as many possible topics as they could in about ten minutes. Their answers were recorded on paper (for ease of storage and later access). What I learned / observed / inferred: Despite what you might think, kids are pretty enthusiastic about the material they are learning in school. They energetically came up with concepts to write down, often competing with other groups to see who could think of more. The conversations withing the teams were interesting too as kids debated & validated ideas, sometimes consolidating. Our third and fourth graders really, really need to work on their spelling skills. (To be fair I told them spelling didn’t count, and it doesn’t, for a brainstorming list.) The results of these brainstorms are now scattered all over my basement floor, as I consolidate them and prepare for next week’s lesson … forming the questions we’ll be using in the actual survey. What students can do at home: Talk to your child about what they are learning. What do they enjoy? Why? Would they be more apt to enjoy learning if the learning environment was more collaborative and game-like, as in Minecraft? Or would that be a distraction? It’s an interesting premise I look forward to exploring with our students!

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