Popplet in Grade 4

The 'All Systems Go!' unit in Grade 4 as an ideal place to explore the use of a mind mapping tool in an on-going (or what we like to call an 'ongoingative') way. That is, to use it as a tool for formative assessment, which naturally evolves into a powerful summative demonstration of a student's understanding by the end of the unit.

Our central idea is that systems work together to support life functions in human beings.

In Week 1, before any teaching has begin, focussing on the Key Concepts: connection and function, the students brainstorm everything they already know, (or think they know) about the systems of the body.





Brainstorming focused on the lines of Inquiry:

• What body systems do you know? How do you think they function.

• How different systems of the body are connected?

• What choices can we make to maintain healthy body systems?




As the unit progressed, week by week, students return to the popplet to add to, adjust and remove information in line with the feedback they receive from their peers, their teacher, and their improving understanding of the central idea.



Finally by the final week of the unit, the popplet has evolved from a formative tool, to a powerful representation of their learning in the unit, it has in effect, become a summative assesssment. This is an 'ongoingative'.

Popplet is particularly powerful for this as it has a timeline tool, that allows students to rewind back through time to appreciate the way their understanding as developed over the course of the unit.

Prezi in Grade 4 Science

Prezi is cloud-based presentation software for exploring and sharing ideas on a virtual canvas. It is a powerful plaform for bridging linear and non-linear information, and as a tool for both free-form brainstorming and structured presentation. As such is is a powerful tool for allowing our students to formatively develop their understanding of the Science Process.



Traditionally students would have tracked and recorded their investigations using paper, which while being a very powerful medium, is not dynamic and it does not provide animation, real-time feedback that facilitates a capacity for continuous expansion. If a student 'messes up' on paper, they either have to try and 'fix' it without ruining it, or ... start again... with ICTs this process is not only painless, but actually helpful, as it facilitates the feedback process of using assessment for learning.

In the Grade 4 'In the Mix' unit students gradually developed their own Prezi over the course of the unit.

So, after the initial weeks of guided enquiry, we wanted to find a way for the students to be able to effectively present their understanding of the Science Process as a result of their class investigations.

For this unit I also wanted the teachers to free from the 'tech' and focus on the Science, so I utilised a model of teaching the students to teach each other.

We used what we call the 'Techsperts' model, I ran one sessions per week at lunch time, and invited 3 to 4 students from each class to attend. These students in tun become the 'experts' in their respective classes, effectively coming the 'teachers' for the specific tool. 

Its all in the mix on Prezi

Integration of ICTs into this process allowed for more dynamic teaching, and more importantly, they allow students to show what they know in non-traditional and non-linear ways that more closely approximate the actual steps that are critical to a Scientific investigation, and the reasons why they have to happen in a rigorous sequence.

Prezi was an ideal choice to allow the students to formatively record and ultimately present their understanding of the scientific process, and easily incorporate images to document their inquiries, something which would be far more difficult on paper.

It's all in the mix! on Prezi

In addition, the fact the Prezi is 'cloud based' allows the students more:

flexibility - not tied to one platform/machine
real time collaboration
ease of sharing (eg, emailing a keynote/PowerPoint is fraught with complications)


Finally often the fully featured programs like Keynote are usually overly complex for what we need as educators, the problem with these programs is they are so feature full that kids get lost - distracted/confused by the 90% of what it can do but they don't need. Prezi (and other cloud based presentation tools) focus on doing the 10% of what we actually need/use.

An especially powerful aspect of the work in this unit was teaching the students to take advantage of a feature known as 'Embedding'. This is a technique whereby a student can copy some HTML code and 'embed' it into a post on their class site.




This facilitates a powerful process of peer sharing, as it is now a relatively simple matter to view, reflect and formatively assess all the class Prezis in one place.

Grade 5 Science meets Web 2.0

The students in this unit were focused on the the way people use the scientific process to challenge, investigate and clarify ideas. A science unit is good place to use spreadsheets, for recording the data from their class inquiries, analysis, identification of trends and patterns using basic functions and formulae, and of course to create graphs. But after the initial weeks of guided enquiry, we wanted to find a way for the students to be able to effectively present their understanding of their final experiment.


Traditionally students would have tracked and recorded their investigations using paper, which while being a very powerful medium, is not dynamic and it does not provide animation, real-time feedback that facilitates a capacity for continuous expansion. If a student 'messes up' on paper, they either have to try and 'fix' it without ruining it, or ... start again... with ICTs this process is not only painless, abut actually helpful, as it facilitates the feedback process of using assessment FOR learning.

Dylan Lau

Integration of ICTs into this process allowed for more dynamic teaching, and more importantly, they allow students to show what they know in non-traditional and non-linear ways that more closely approximate the skills they will need to be successful in the following Exhibition unit. 

Web 2.0 presentation toolswere an ideal choice to allow the students to formatively record and ultimately present their understanding of the scientific process, and easily incorporate images to document their inquiries and even video, something which would be far more difficult on paper. Students were introduced to four tools in the first part of the unit, so they are ready to use them by the 4th week of the unit. 

Just for this unit I also wanted the teachers to free from the 'tech' and focus on the Science, so I utilised a model of teaching the students to teach each other. 

We split each of the none classes into 4 groups, and assigned them tools to learn and use in this unit. The tools we used are:

1. Prezi
2. Vuvox
3. Simple Booklet (accessible via GApps)
4. Slide Rocket (accessible via GApps)
   

We used the Techsperts model, I ran one session at lunch time per tool, and invited 2 students from each class to attend that intro session, 9 x 2 students = 18... So I ran 1 session per tool, a total of 4 sessions with 18 students per session. I’d covered these in the first couple of weeks so the kids are ready to use the tool by the latter part of the unit.

Another question to consider was...

Why use Web 2.0 vs Locally installed programs, eg SlideRocket vs Keynote?

Keynote is awesome, so why use a Web 2.0 tool that does the same thing/less, like SlideRocket or Google Presentation?

Why?

Because there are a few things that cloud based apps like SlideRocket et al., does that Keynote does not:

• flexibility - cloud based, so not tied to one platform/machine
• collaboration options
• Ease of sharing (eg, emailing a keynote/ppoint is difficult and tedious)

But the Achilles heel of Web 2.0 is its stability/reliability... pros & cons as always.


Finally often the fully featured programs like Keynote are usually overly complex for what we need as educators, the problem with these programs is they are so feature full that kids get lost - distracted/confused by the 90% of what it can do but they don't need. Sliderocket et al, focus on just doing the 10% of what we actually need/use.

Bo Hye Park

New experiments with Grade 6 Science

In recent weeks the Grade 6 Science students at our Dover Campus have been using technology in some wonderful ways to enrich and deepen the learning experience.

The Middle School Science teachers including Valerie Newton and the Digital Literacy Coaches have developed some lessons on using the electronic Data Probes to collect real time data of changes in acidity levels in a neutralization experiment. Neutralization is an important concept for the students to understand as this summarizes their study acids and alkalis.

Traditionally the neutralization experiments are done in a few different ways, including with litmus paper and static measurements once in the experiment.

The Data Probes are sensors which can collect data from different variables including temperate and also pH levels. With an electronic pH sensor attached and a piece of software called Data Studio, students were able to collect some rich quantitative data that clearly highlighted the of neutralization of two chemicals with different pH levels. The students added drops of a chemical to the solution and recorded the pH level after each subsequent drop with the data probes. By adding more drops of chemical, the piece of software highlighted the changing pH level and the eventual neutralization of the solution. This is on a nice graph as shown below.

In the next piece of assessment, students are designing their own experiments to measure the effectiveness of different indigestion remedies. The data probes could be used in one of their experiments allowing them to collect a rich source of data and then test this against litmus paper and other traditional tests.

Conceptualising Mitosis with Digital Microscopes

The introduction of laptops and digital microscopes into the IB Biology classroom, has offered rich opportunities for students to visualise and research cell structures. In this particular lesson, students were analyzing onion root cells and identifying cells at different stages of cell division or mitosis. The lesson was building and developing on previous understanding and is a transformative example of constructivist learning.

The video showcase below, explains the process and key learning outcomes.

Students were able to use the microscope to analyse the slide, and then capture images of cells at various stages of mitosis. These images were stored on their laptops for further analysis. The students all used simple annotation tools in Preview to highlight the chosen cell and then embedded these images into a table. (see example here) Later that tallied the number of cells they identified at each stage of divison. The process was part of a larger practical research assessment, as part of IB Biology curriculum.

The transformative aspect of this lesson was how the digital microscopes and the laptops enabled the teacher to give critical and timely feedback as students completed the practical. The teacher could look at the magnified image on the screen and help the student identify and classify cells. This is an important aspect of understanding Mitosis as many of the stages are blurry. This style of feedback is more difficult, if only one person can peer down the lens of the microscope at a time. The Motic Digital Microscopes still have the same traditional functionality, different lens etc so that student still acquire and practise the essential practical skills.

Thanks to Cathy Elliott and her lovely Grade 11 Biology class for being part of our showcase.

Show me the Learning - IB Chemistry

I have recently been working with Simon Dean and a group of amazing Grade 11 students, on the concept of "Show me the Learning". Simon's initial discussion was around finding a way to truly discover if student's have been able to grasp and to explain concepts in Chemistry. As an Economist's teacher, I am always grappling with this same concept. Students can now effectively plagiarize understanding from books and the internet without really being able to apply conceptual knowledge to the real world.

I believe that technology, is an amazing tool students can use to demonstrate understanding, and for teachers to see and hear how students apply and break down concepts. By using specific tools, teachers can understand some of the students metacognition as they explain an idea. This offers the opportunity for very effective formative feedback.

In Simon's Chemistry class, students had to deconstuct a complex idea into simple language, effectively at level of instruction so that others could understand. This kind of idea of prevalent in a series of videos produced in a Commoncraft Genre. The student were also inspired by the series of RSA Animate presentations that are truly creative. Students had to create a presentation that combined the use of visuals and including an essential oral narration.

The following video is a showcase of the class and a reflection on the technique.

Exploring Cells with the Digital Microscopes

A recent project with our great group of Grade 6 science students focused on using our 14 Digital Microscopes to explore cells. The students spent time learning about cells, preparing slides and understanding how traditional microscopes work. This learning was supported by using the new Science eBook "Exploring Science"

We used the Motic Digital Microscopes to take the students skill development and understanding a step further. Instead of drawing pictures of what they saw down the traditional microscope we could plug the microscopes into the students laptops and they could quickly analyze and compare the different cell structures of animals and plants. This is a nice understanding of transformative learning, where students are using technology to do something that was inconceivable a few years ago and where technology adds value to the teaching and learning.

Lesson Plan - Cell Structures and Digital Microscopes

Reflection

Students remarked how easy it was to plug and the capture images, and they were impressed with the quality of the images. The important step was having the students articulate what they saw to explain the differences in cells. Across the ten different classes this was done slightly differently but students liked the idea of using a simple template and table below.

Teachers were happy with the flow of the lesson and are now confident to help students use the microscopes in class. In the future we need to look a few different things. We could look at purchasing some more digital microscopes so they can be used in different science classes when more students have laptops next year. We could also look at converting some of the traditional microscopes with a digital camera, and how much this would cost. The optics in most of the traditional microscopes are better the Digital Motic Microscopes. As a digital literacy coach I focused on the need for students to do something with the images and to really understand what the images were showing them. Although lots of the draft captured images looked attractive, they actually showed air bubbles, crumpled slides or onion or blurry images at low levels of magnification. The development of student understanding is still so important regardless of how we use the technology in classes.

The video below captures the key moments from a lesson by Carolyn Stannard.