How do you know?

This year I've got a lot of students who are vocally resistant to science - evolution in particular, but science in general is suspect in the minds of a lot more students than I've witnessed before. A frequent challenge is "how do they know that?" and a frequent answer (provided by the student asking the question in the first place) is, "they don't, they're just guessing." That's a literal quote, mind you.

So, after deciding last year to retire the activity, this year I am again dusting off the "Black Box" lab to address the idea that science is about just guessing what's going on in the world, or because we can't "see" the structure of an atom, or the solar system, or macroevolution, we shouldn't have much confidence in the models presented by scientists. Where this thinking ultimately leads is to a rationalization for rejecting science in favor more comfortable or "convenient" explanations, such as creationism.

I can't say a lot about the activity, since the element of mystery is crucial, and I wouldn't want a student to stumble upon this blog and spoil it. I'm attaching the lab sheets that I revised last week, without teacher's guide - if you want a copy, send me an e-mail and I'll get it to you.

Black Box Lab - Student Edition

Global Warming & Risk Management

How It All Ends - Watch more free videos

- Watch more free videos

Stress = Silence

I suppose that there are people for whom blogging would be a form of stress release and therefore blog even more when stressed. I'm of the opposite variety - when the demands of work become overwhelming, the blog falls way down on my priorities list.

So it has been a couple of weeks. I have a lot of stored materials ready to go when the time comes, but there are also gaps to be filled, and that's what I've been doing lately. Already the workload of 120 students - setting up computer gradebook, arranging seating assignments, checking on materials, collecting contact information, sending out progress reports to parents, posting assignments on the website, collecting labs and homeworks and journals - I'm drowning!

But much of this work is "front-loading" and will get easier. I look closely at labs and homeworks in the beginning, but after this I will do honor policy ("raise your hand if you don't have homework") plus spot check ("the following 5 randomly chosen students please turn in your homework for grading"). Ditto with the labs. Then the only thing I need to concentrate on is projects & journals.

I decided on a different lab this year for natural selection. I pretty much took Kim Foglia's lab and copied into my standard format, changed some of the text to reflect my own way of presenting the topic to reduce confusion, cut out some of the more detailed analytical questions (too confusing for my students) and voila. Here it is:

Natural Selection Game

First Day 2007

Here's a first day activity based on Dan Collea's suggestion on the Bioforum Listserv and modified for my own circumstances and comfort levels. It brings biology to "life" from Day 1 by introducing an interesting creature - my hissing cockroaches - for students to observe. At the end of the period on I will distribute my course packet for students to read as homework.

I'm calling it a lab, a "getting to know you" activity where I gather info about them, they gather info about the cockroaches and later they also gather info about me and the course. The lab folds in a discussion of the scientific method - observe, formulate hypotheses, test hypotheses - It may evolve into more elaborate investigations, but for now I'm keeping it rather simple, with a limited initial duration but open-ended possibilities for further explorations. The last section asks students to imagine the cockroaches can talk - what kinds of questions would you ask? Some of these questions may then lead to follow up investigations. I will revise as it unfolds.

Getting to Know You.

Updated Course Packet

Not much has changed. I streamlined the course overview, re-arranged a couple of items, included details of our new lab policy and changed the dates to reflect the 2008 Regents exam administration.

I changed the grading policy a bit as well. I lumped together tests, quizzes, projects, and classwork because I found that in a given marking period, I assign radically different amounts of each of the categories - sometimes there are just a lot of tests and not many projects, for example, which gives an undue weight to a single project if I gave each category its own percentage. As a group, they are now 70% of the grade, which is what they would add up to if I separated them out. That allows me to keep the 20% for labs and 10% for homework. Both of those components are fairly consistent.

Course Packet 2007-8

Are You Tone Deaf?

No, I mean literally. This was a fun online music test. Took about 15 minutes. I can't stand to hear myself sing, so maybe that in itself is a sign that I'm not actually tone deaf - I KNOW I can't sing.

The test involves listening to a series of paired musical snippets. Each pair is either identical or slightly different, and you have to identify which are the same and which are not.

Check the results of the study for a nice histogram. Potential tool for a long term study for a student project as well. It would be nice to get a better breakdown of the results - false positives vs false negatives, for example. You may be able to contact the study authors and get more details. I suspect I would do better on a second trial, but I won't explain why - it might influence your results.

Article

Predator-Prey & Population Dynamics

Here's a predator-prey simulation game that I got from Queen's University (Canada) Science Teacher Resources page and modified.

Simulations are always tricky, and depend on students following some rather complex and precise rules, having the patience and focus to go through multiple generations of a process, keeping meticulous records along the way, engaging in the spirit of the exercise rather than looking for loopholes to get it over with, and being willing to start over when they realize they've made a big mistake - that's a lot of conditions for a group of 9th/10th grade kids to adhere to.

To make matters worse, there are two simulations that follow similar patterns, but are just different enough that I can't combine them, so the kids have to endure two tedious simulations during the year. One is this predator-prey game, the other is the natural selection game, which of course involves a predator-prey relationship, but examines changes in the frequency of a particular characteristic - visual acuity or camouflage - in the two populations. I'll write about that one later. Here's my version of the predator-prey simulation. I bought some "poker chips" to use for the rabbits, because the paper was just such a mess.

Predator-Prey Population Dynamics Lab

Fossil Tracks Lab

I revised this lab from last year and added the image to the document for teachers to use. The source of the image and basic idea for the lab are from some now forgotten edition of the BSCS series. It is a set of hypothetical fossilized footprints that can tell a story. The set of prints is divided into 3 sections, and revealed sequentially as students hypothesize about the limited information they are given. As new information is "uncovered" students are given a chance to revise their hypotheses. I use this as a basic introduction to the scientific method (hypothesis testing, logic, etc.) I've added a little section on basic logic - valid, sound arguments - which may or may not go over so well with my 9th grade level students.

Fossil Tracks Lab

Back From Vacation

A few vanity photos from my "torturous" bike ride from Port Jervis to Jeffersonville, NY. Lots of hills, about 50 miles. I've done 50 miles in the city without much pain, but it's a pretty flat circuit around the island of Manhattan, so the hills really killed me...

Starting in Port Jervis - already annoyed at the long train ride that turned into a bus ride because a bridge was shut down. A very hot day with blazing sunshine, but not a hint of sunburn using 70 SPF sunscreen.

Along the Delaware River...

...and about half-way there at a little roadside "market" (general store really) in Barryville.

Finally a few miles outside Jeffersonville, exhausted.

Forcing a Vacation

I admit it. I'm a workaholic. I've got quite a bit done this summer in preparation for September, and I still feel like I need to do a lot more. Teaching and all the preparation that goes into it consume me. I neglect things that need to be done around the house. Other than for exercise I hardly leave my apartment, and instead sit at the computer planning, writing, reading, and so on. I don't spend enough time with my kids. I don't go out. All work and no play and all that.

I know the only way I will stop working is to put myself in a place where I can't work. So I'm going out of town this week to a place where I won't have access to a computer. I've even asked my wife not to bring her computer. I'm not taking books or any other kind of work-related materials. It will be a bit of work de-tox. I just hope I can handle the withdrawal don't find myself wandering into some cheap, sleazy internet cafe in the town where we're going.

Sadly, my real motivation here is to come back refreshed so that I can get more work done before school starts. It's like the heroin addict putting himself through withdrawal in order to experience a better high afterward. I really do have work to get done. But more on that after the vacation.

Final Post on Flashcards (For Now)

Wow, that was a grueling experience. I just finished last night with the last of the 400+ vocabulary terms from the core curriculum. It was a tedious process, a struggle to come up with definitions that were sufficiently clear and understandable without being inaccurate. I suspect I failed on a number of items, and on a number of counts the core itself imposes a certain level of inaccuracy by the way a term is used in that document, which guided my definitions. In other cases the core omits words that seem absolutely essential for defining other words, and in those cases I felt it necessary to go ahead and use the term in question (example: chlorophyll is in the core but not "pigment.")

I still need to go through and proofread some of the entries - I did a spell check but I've also discovered grammatical errors that don't show up in spell check, I've simplified a few definitions, provided examples for a few more, etc. This kind of editing will probably go on for a long time, but I'm at a point where I'm willing to distribute the cards to my students. I'm hoping to get some input from other teachers in the fall.

I plan to keep the google spreadsheet up and available to all, and of course I have the flashcards posted here as well in the sidebar. I may decide for my own classroom purposes to cut back on some of the terms for which I feel students need only a passive knowledge, and focus on those terms that they need to know more intimately. At the same time, I am likely to find other terms in the NY State required labs that need to be added, along with some terms that occasionally show up on the exam, even though they are not in the core.

Problems


--The image cards are still a problem that I discussed earlier, namely the difficulty in getting good results with a variety of images exhibiting a range of contrasts outside the copiers abilities to render properly. It's a big problem that will take a while to fix.


--I priced card stock at staples recently, then looked online, and it's simply too expensive for me to use. So students will have to make their own card stock versions or accept them on regular paper.

Finally, having done all this work, I considering how I might use it as part of my masters project looking at how students learn (science). But that's another post...

Shop Lowes

Or you local independent hardware store. Just keep on driving past that Home Depot, feel good knowing that your money isn't supporting the O'Really factor.

Awesome Science Blog

My science-obsessed son (8 yrs old) just started his own science blog. Go check it out and leave a nice comment - he'll be thrilled!

Snag

I tried photocopying flashcards at school copiers yesterday. The quality of the image cards is unacceptable. Even after experimenting with the output variables at different settings, some of the images are too dark, some are completely washed out. So, I don't know what the solution will be at this point. Some image styles are better than others - line drawings work pretty well, as long as there isn't much text. Flashcard exchange only allows jpeg format images, which doesn't render text sharply - GIF format is much better for that. Photos are a mixed bag, depending on the contrast in the original image. So that means taking more time to find appropriate image types, or in some cases just not including images. I could also make all the image sheets on a printer and then run through a copier for the text - not unreasonable using a laser printer. I really think the image cards are essential, even more so than the straight definitions, so I will keep working on them, but they will take even more time than anticipated. I may also think about making the image cards bigger, which would take care of some problems (text legibility) but not others (widely varying contrast between images makes copying difficult regardless of size).

The second snag is less of a problem. As I feared, the borders on double sided cards do not line up properly on the copier. Even though the office copier has options for adjusting the "offset," which would probably allow me to make it work, it seems a simpler solution to just get rid of the borders on one side of the cards, which I will do sometime today.

The Naturalist

One son is really into nature, the great outdoors, frogs, bugs, the works. The other one prefers the physical sciences, particularly physics/chemistry. I don't have any good pictures of the other one in some sort of physics-y context, but I'll work on it. In the interest of equal time, I'm posting a random picture of him anyway. We're making a lava lamp this weekend or early next week, so I should have something better then...

Last night they both expressed interest (unprompted) in starting a website - I did suggest a blog would be the way to go for simplicity and ease of use. I'll link when they get them running. Only one wants to start a science blog, the other, the naturalist, wants to start an "Animorphs" blog. He's actually much more into the arts than science, although Animporphs is in the science-fiction genre.

UPDATE

Awesome Science Blog

He would be thrilled see a comment! (I moderate comments, just in case).

Obsessive

I could not be satisfied until I got to a logical stopping point with the flashcards. Just finished the image card set for the first three units now posted in sidebar. It's the frickin weekend in summer and I couldn't let it go until Monday - I had to get it done. I need (mental) help! Well, it's over for now.

UPDATE (7/23/07)
It's never over. Just one problem with google spreadsheets is that there's no spell check. So I have to save as excel, then do spell check and make corrections. So that was the real last task and I think I'm finished up through Unit 3. I will make some copies on the school copier tomorrow to make sure it all aligns properly. If not, I will need to make a few more adjustments.

Half-Way There

I've finished half the flashcard definitions (first 3 units), which covers at least half the school year. I'll leave the rest for later. The only thing I have remaining to do in the next week or so is finish the image cards for the first 3 units. A reminder that the spreadsheet is here - criticisms or suggestions welcome. You can download as excel file if you want (file-export-.xls).

I've printed the flashcards to pdf. Students will be able to access them and study online through Flashcard Exchange, but they cannot print from flashcard exchange, so I've uploaded the pdf files to this blog and my e-chalk class page for those kids who inevitably loose the copies I give them.

I've added a flashcard section to the sidebar, beneath My Lab List, rather than putting the links into this post.

Balloon Blow Up Lab

I use this lab as an introduction to the basic chemistry portion of the living environment curriculum. It is a pretty elementary experiment that many children have done in one form or another (Volcanoes!) but they may not have measured the results and considered the chemical reactions taking place or used a graph to estimate the equivalence point (the mass of baking soda at which the number (moles) of both reactants would be equal and hence used up). I calculated their molar masses and figured out that with 50 mL vinegar, that point should be somewhere between 5 and 10 grams of baking soda, unless I made an error somewhere. Please let me know if you find a mistake.

I also added the bromthymol blue piece to the lab, which I haven't done before. It’s optional if you don’t have any. It is added in the initial test (1 gram) only, just because I like to introduce indicators as early as possible to use as an example later on when I get the inevitable, “how do scientists know…?” It illustrates one example of the ingenuity that goes into seeing things that can’t be seen.

I've done this lab for a long time, back to my middle school days, but in writing it up this summer I took some of the introductory text from K-12 Outreach: NSF & Science and Technology Center for Environmentally Responsible Solvents and Processes (CERSP)

Here's my version. I'm getting a little fatigued from all the summer work. I am busily working on flashcards, curriculum mapping, etc., and writing these labs is mentally draining - this may be the last one for a while.

Chemical Reactions: Balloon Blow Up

Flashcard Update

Here's a link to my flashcard home page. You can view and study but not download or print unless you have an account ($19.95). There's even an rss feed for anyone who wants to subscribe and get updated as I add and refine cards. I'm about 1/4 of the way through the 400+ terms and have created some image cards. I decided to separate out the image cards - it's a long story but it's essentially a logistical issue - I can maintain the spreadsheet at google docs with vocabulary, and import the terms and definitions wholesale to keep up with revisions, but that doesn't work so well if image cards are mixed in with text-only cards.

So here are the updated files. Eventually I will post these in the sidebar:

UPDATE (7/20/07)

Cards now listed in sidebar

And just for illustation, here are the (incomplete) image cards (view at "100%" or they look crummy):

Vocabulary Flashcard Image Questions



Vocabulary Flashcard Image Answers

Flashcards

I've tried in the past to have students make their own flashcards, but it's been a frustrating experience. First, getting all the index cards together is an ordeal in itself. Second, students ability to write a meaningful, relevant definition of a term is rather limited - they tend to look in a dictionary and copy the first definition they come to without regard to the fact that, for example, "bias" has a slightly more nuanced definition in the hard sciences than the social sciences. Third, their handwriting makes it difficult for them to use the cards effectively. They are sloppy, fill up the card by writing too large or make lots of mistakes and splatter the card with wite-out or scribbled out sentences - it's a mess.

So one of my long-term goals is to make a set of flashcards with NY State regents relevant definitions that I can print and copy onto card stock and let students cut out and use for studying terminology. I may even use color-coded papers for the different units. I'm also trying to enlist the help of my fellow biology teachers through the bioforum listserv.

I've posted the spreadsheet containing all the vocabulary terms found in the New York State Core curriculum on google documents (you need a free google account to view it). This allows me to invite others to "collaborate." In this context, that means contributing definitions or proofreading or editing existing definitions or suggesting images to use, etc. - kind of like a wiki. We already do a lot of sharing of work created individually through the listserv, but not much real collaboration. I'm really more concerned with the idea of collaboration in general than the flashcards in particular.

On my own I have defined all the terms in Unit 1: Science and The Living Environment. The definitions are from my own head, the images were downloaded from the Creative Commons website. Once the terms are defined, I copy them to Flashcard Exchange, where I paid a $19.95 one time fee for an account that allows me to print the flashcards to pdf. I also add the images at Flashcard Exchange, since they can't be embedded in the spreadsheet, and even if they were that wouldn't translate to the flashcard template very well.

I am sharing those pdf's here, even though they may change again if anyone goes in and edits my definitions and finds errors, or better descriptions, etc. I probably will not finish another unit this summer unless I get some help - it's a tremendous amout of time to write out definitions alone, and finding and downloading images takes an additional, sizeable chunk of time. I also need to investigate a little more how easily I can copy the pdf's on my school's riso machines, which I will do later in the summer - If that's a hassle, I may look for alternatives.

Here's how it works. For making a single copy from a printer, print the questions file. Then turn you paper over, re-insert into printer and print answer file on the back of the the question sheets. They align absolutely perfectly on my printer - your mileage may vary. If you have trouble, let me know and I will make a copy where the question side has no lines. For making multiple copies on a copier, I always make single sided documents and then copy back-to-back from the copier. Just make sure they align properly before ruining a large batch.

UPDATE (7/20/07)


See sidebar for links to flashcards.