Watering My Tree

Have you ever put so much effort into something in hopes of getting something in return? As part of my work, I invested my heart and soul into developing and designing a new interactive education exhibit for children. After the Grand Opening event last weekend, I was invited to present my results. The meeting wasn't a cent short of exciting. (Left: A sneak peek of the exhibit)

So, what does my day job have to do with this class or my tree climb? Well, after weeks of building my personal learning network, it wasn't until this week that I realized a fundamental, yet missing, way to expand my professional development. To really advance my network into desired contact groups (and become one of the gang), I need to not only gather, but also produce. In other words, from time to time, I need water my tree.

For this entire class time, I've been reaching out to search for more knowledge, to gain more contacts, to learn more technology applications. The fact is that I've been looking only to others to network with me. This technique alone will not continually grow or sustain my network. I need to also find ways to network with "them."

So what I'm wondering is what if we all took the time to actually develop science education work products (i.e. our plans coming up next week) in a strategic way so that others would be interested... Would we create more opportunities for our students? Would we create positive recognition for our schools? And most significantly, would we engage students in science in a more effective and lasting way?

This networking twist isn't really new, but I had to re-learn it this week; and it was refreshing. It made me consider how many things I learned when I was little about networking. Growing up, thanks to my mother the master gardener, my sister and I spent the summer watering, weeding and growing the most beautiful vegetables and flowers. (Proof: we have 4-H Best of Show ribbons in both categories.) What's the network translation to now? We need to tend our network like a garden. Plant strategically. Water diligently. Tend often. Share the fruits of our labor. Connect with master gardeners. Bottom line, it is better to give than receive. And it is when we give of ourselves with creativity and ingenuity that our tree will shoot up to new heights.

And so, I must re-fill my water can.

Need Input

Have you ever seen the movie Short Circuit? The robot (no. 5) malfunctions, comes "alive," and then, spends all its time trying to satisfy its cravings for input. No. 5's favorite saying was, "need input."

To understand any scientific problem, you need data. To discuss potential solutions to scientific problems, you need data. And ultimately, to solve any scientific problems, you need data.



Data may not be fun as solo numbers and information with units, but what the data can do is where the real fun begins. And when students can work to solve real problems with data, or collect their own data in the field, or participate with scientists in collecting data, that's when they'll start to see science come alive too!

In my Thermal Biology course, I developed a water cycle program for elementary students that utilized temperature data in a virtual field trip activity. In the summer edition of Science & Children, a project involving collecting data is featured for grades 4-6, called "Designing Payloads." The students worked with a local university to create a payload that collects temperature, relative humidity, and/or light intensity data in the atmosphere. Prior to coming up with their own design, the teacher worked with students to teach them how to use a data logger. When the construction of the payload was complete, the students with university scientists launched the payload, tracking it with a GPS unit. Wow!

As seen with this project, data collection, explanation and analysis can be a time-consuming project in the classroom with students. But because it can be very worthwhile if done in creative ways, I'm wondering how often data is used in the classroom to conduct science investigations vs. being reviewed by students online to only see science data?

Networking Advice from Ants

I love fireflies. To me, they are nature's fireworks. And I've been waiting for them to appear since June. Last night, in a beautiful symphony of patterns, they lit up the night sky. My heart was aflutter; my friends had returned.

And isn't this what our personal learning network should be like too? People who light up our lives with exciting, new information that's helpful? This week, I finally got in touch with a technology-guru family member. And you know what? I now can download my video from my camera to my computer!

Ant Advice No. 1: To build the best ant hill, network with the entire ant family.

Upon reflection of my network activities this week, I realized an important methodology: build your network simultaneously in two directions, focusing on two main areas: people and information. For information this week, I learned that twitter is being used as a tool to notify customers of product sales. Thinking this was a good application, I tried to see if any science education stores were utilizing this Web application for informing clients of promotional science products. Acorn Naturalist, one of my favorites, Steve Spangler Science and eNasco did not utilize twitter; however, Steve Spangler does have a blog. As I continued to gather ways to network, I reached out to science educators and individuals in childhood learning, and reviewed the Science Channel and How Stuff Works to see what I could learn or follow. Ultimately, the best way for me to build myself professionally is to keep all potential learning avenues open to enhance my knowledge level (i.e. science abilities) and people contacts.

Ant Advice No. 2: Because the Queen is hungry, leverage all ant workers to carry the carbon-rich leaf food.

At times though there are some avenues for networking that must be avoided because they waste my most valuable resource: time. Therefore, I not only think that guiding principles are important for utilizing technology in the classroom, but also managing the use of my time spent with technology. In other words, I'm not willing to veg out in front of the computer reviewing hundreds of emails, without responding, or perusing many tweets that add no value to my professional development. Therefore, this week, I also was working on honing my management of technology tools so that I could use technology to my benefit, setting up rules or scheduling posts. Technology on automatic is effective and efficient.

Ant Advice No. 3: Nothing or no one is let into the ant hill, except what the ants allow.

Nearing the Tree Tops

My virtual plane was fueled, ready for me to fly across the ocean to the great Vatican City this week. And as my tour continued around the world, I saw The Great Wall of China, the Grand Canyon, Mt. Rainier and my childhood home. And the best part: I didn't use a single vomit bag!

The journey through Google Earth was interesting, because it gave me a new way of looking at the world around us. And although the tool was cool, it wasn't as focused as I hoped it would be as I zoomed in. My husband prefers another tool called Flash Earth. This one seemed to provide clearer views at closer ranges.

What I hope is that in conjuction with applications like Google Earth students continue to go outside and explore the outdoors. For Google Earth doesn't provide sounds or smells or a connection to nature. Have you read Last Child in the Woods? If not, I encourage it.

Me at an absolutely secret blueberry-picking spot.

What I'm also wondering is if there are any ethic violation cases regarding the use/misuse of this application. Because not only could Google Earth be used in the classroom to explore the use of technology to benefit scientific study, but also to debate issues with technology. (A discussion scientists are having right now concerns data collection on a database. Idea: scientists share their data on a database to get to solutions quicker. Concern: Scientists collect data differently, so how do you sort and calibrate it? Therefore, a potential classroom debate could be: What are the pros and cons of using technology to advance science discovery.)

Simulations are booming! I immensely enjoy the educational benefit of simulations. They clarify science concepts through magnification. Brilliant. A new one I came across through my search was Gamequarium. Check it out on the class simulation wiki. (The one through my PLN on viruses is there too!)

So, to conclude, my flight pattern was varied this week, and as usual, I am in awe of the volume of resources available on the Web. But what I am also realizing is that I am nearing my tree top.

And I can't wait to reach the top and fly!

Branch to Branch

From age to age, branch to branch, wisdom is passed down from generation to generation. Some of it sticks with you, and other pieces slip away. What has stuck with me is the wisdom of my high school chemistry teacher. Over and over he would say, "you're the best of the best, but you're not that good." A phrase that has come to personally mean: never stop learning and exploring the world of science.

This wisdom couldn't be more appropriate in this day and age when the opportunities to learn science seem endless. But what should you learn? How should you learn? And who should learn from? All fundamental questions in building a personal learning network.

And that's why I've chosen to build my network to focus on science (research and findings) from an academic institutes (Penn State through Twitter) with real people (Mr. Wanek, a fantastic teacher of 35 years, corporate education directors and science education program coordinators). With these types of connections, I will find valuable, wise and cutting-edge information.

(Pictured left) Mr. Wanek, best chemistry teacher ever, and scientist Jacquelyn pointing to her 100% qualitative analysis score on a chemistry lab cabinet door. The cabinet door was rescued by Mr. Wanek recently as the old high school will soon be torn down.

In fact, while staying in my fort up north, I had some very wise visitors. Mr. Wanek, best high school chemistry teacher of all time, and I visited about science education in the fort. First, we walked down memory lane and talked about the Qualitative Analysis project - best high school Honors Chemistry project ever! (Mr. Wanek made up mixtures with different elements and put them in the vials. Our job was to figure out what was in the vial. It was self-guided, but we could ask the opinion of our peers. Mr. Wanek knew it was a formidable project, but truly saw the value in allowing us to do science in a hands-on way.) And then, we analyzed the current state of science education (some teachers have gone to doing only demonstrations because of room spacing in the classroom). And what were great Mr. Wanek's thoughts on this? Basically, how are you to learn science, if you're not allowed to do science? Scientists are scientists because they experiment and try things. And furthermore, in his great words, "are given the opportunity to do things wrong."

It's this kind of wisdom that I want to branch out to, even though it's not the normal horizontal branch-to-branch network. We must remember in networking to not only look around, but also up and down. Vertical branching is key to passing down meaningful science education knowledge.

I will never be able to thank Mr. Wanek enough for inspiring me to become a chemist, and for always making sure I got the chance to get my hands on science.

He will always be the strongest branch on my science-learning tree.

Building a Tree Fort

It's week three. I've been busily climbing my tree, exploring new tools, reaching out to others through blogs, twitter and online resources. But this week, I'm putting the climb on hold and setting up fort. It's time to enjoy the view. ("No. 6: Enjoy the view. Evaluate tool-use effectiveness and level of scientific engagement.")

As I look out at my forest, I see many trees that were caught up in a burning flame (eg. firefox is coming on at 3:50 p.m.!), and I don't want to immersed in that kind of fire. In busily following tweets (glad people are eating), reviewing new applications (what's out there, how does it work), and text about technology (what to do, what technology is available to use, how it can be used effectively), I want to take time to thoroughly investigate this last bit more. What is the why and how behind Internet-based technology and instruction? In other words, what is the business case for using technology in the classroom? Where is the data that shows using Web technology increases science understanding?

And that's why it's time to build a fort.

My personal learning network needs to find new branches that are focusing on the rationale for using Internet-based technology during instruction, along with a few old branches (my family) that can help me with some of my technology questions.

Stay tuned. I look forward to sharing my family fort chats.

Video: Denied

This is the week I've been waiting for! Finally, I'd be able to learn how to put videos from my digital camera on my computer, edit them, create movies and share them.

But, that's not going to happen this week. Disappointingly, although I expanded my abilities in the image realm, there was little to no expansion in my video learning. Here's the rundown. Maybe you can help.

Experience
I have learned that my imported videos are in the jpg format in my Movie Maker software. I've spent quite a bit of time playing with Movie Maker, but it seems that I need to convert the jpg into a different file type to watch the video I took with my camera on Movie Maker. Does anyone know how to do this? When I went into Zamzar, I noticed that these jpgs were listed as mov. What I keep bumping into is the url. I don't have a url, because the videos are on my computer. Any ideas of how I get computer files back online? I don't have html to link them. Hmm...

My image experience was completely different though. Every image tool was new and exciting to me. I see many classroom possibilities with images and considered all tools easy-to-use. With that said however, I still have a lot to learn with images. I need to spend more time investigating copyright issues and look forward to similar answers as Marta.

Classroom
Images and videos have the power to teach and expand in ways that published textbooks cannot - the current science, the latest videos, the newest nature pictures. And what's more? There isn't a limit to the number of pictures you can share. You don't have to downsize the number of photos you share, because you have to fit everything on one textbook page. To me, images and videos are definitely learning enhancers and can help students "better understand complex scientific concepts when they see the phenomoenon they are studying" (Technology in the Secondary Science Classroom, Chpt. 2, pg. 9).

However, I also learned that what image and video you choose does make a difference in science interest. For example, many videos out there are too long, not dynamic in their pictorial element, or unclear - what is this again? So, I think selecting material is an important step in quality lesson development. Choosing a video to just have a video probably won't add value. To help with my decisions, I've designed the following video-selection criteria: relevant content from start to finish, appropriate length, clear images, reinforces scientific material, increases student interest, inquiry and understanding.

One last thing, I've realized that image-editing software and online video stores (youtube) are the tools to apply different science teaching methods, such as teaching in opposites, comparing/contrasting, constructivist. So maybe most importantly, videos and images are not used alone to achieve instructional goals, but as part of an overall lesson with teacher-guidance.

Application
So how would I concretely construct something using the image and video tools we explored this week? I would use images and videos to build scientific method skills. After students put together their picture puzzles (observe/research - p.s. in previous blog post), they would report what they think they see (hypothesis). Then, I would ask questions about the pictures (infer and question) and have students ask other questions. Then, we would take a field exploration with real photos and videos (experiment - hopefully soon) to analyze (data) and make (conculsions). For instance, I'm working on developing a water cycle program. To show water gets hot, I could show photos of water temperature readings. We could then calculate and analyze the temperature data found in the field and draw conclusions about what hot water does. Then, I could show a video of geysers, mud volcanoes and steam vents.


Check out the steam surrounding the geyser eruption.

Something I'm wondering is how much of a difference does it make to students' learning if the pictures are of you or from you, or if the videos were taken by you in an actual science research setting? Will their science understanding increase more? Or will any random, applicable, exciting video/photo work equally as well?