Modelling Expansion of the Universe – blog post #48

Teaching The Big Bang Theory to Ontario grade nine science students forces a teacher to embrace their sense of humour. First one must address the prior knowledge the students have which is: The Big Bang Theory is a television show. All good teachers know that they need to meet their students where they are and I had anticipated that my students would be familiar with this tv show so I printed out the lyrics for the theme song before class. The students were happy to sing it; following the bouncing ball on the smart board is always a fun activity!

Eventually we got into the fact that there is actually a theory about how the universe was formed and it is the Big Bang Theory. (It all started with a big bang!) My students were amazed by even this little snippet of information! As I explained the Big Bang Theory to them with the help of numerous visuals and video clips, while constantly referring back to both the lyrics and what they had learned in the chemistry unit, their engagement was obvious by the questions that came pouring out of them. My favourite was: “Why didn’t anyone ever tell me about this before?”

After spending an entire period on the Big Bang Theory I left the class with the thought that the universe is expanding and the promise that tomorrow would be a hands-on activity where we would explore this phenomena. In order to organize a hands-on activity that models how the universe is expanding to students with weak mathematical skills I used my best friend, the internet, to help me come up with a great idea! (This activity is not original to me, it is found on many web pages, I was unable to track down its origin.)

1.      Initiate and Plan = Engage

Together the class used the Smarter Science template to design a testable question. It was: “Can we model how the universe is expanding?”

The variables were:

Independent - Amount of air in the balloon

Dependent - distance between the points

Controlled - shape of balloon and keeping balloon tightly sealed during measuring

In small groups, the students were given a new balloon and a marker. Each group marked six random points onto their balloon. One was labelled home while the other five were labelled A, B, C, D and E in no particular order. 

Using a string to measure the distance between two points

Using a ruler to measure the string

Teamwork!

The surface of the balloon represented a 2-dimensional universe. Each point represented a galaxy with home being the Milky Way.

Each individual then made a hypothesis regarding what would happen to the distance from home to each of the other galaxies if the universe expanded. 

2.      Perform and Record = Explore

Recoding the data

They students measured and recorded the distance from home to each of the other five points. This measurement was taken at time one. We used this data sheet. 

An assigned group member then inflated the balloon to about the size of a grapefruit. This represented time two. The distance from home to each of the five points was measured again, while the air in the balloon was sealed inside.

This procedure of blowing more air into the balloon and measuring the distances was repeated six times and the data was collected in an observation table. 

3.      Analyze and Interpret = Explain

The students graphed their data in a simple line graph of time versus Distance from home point. They used a different colour for each line on the graph and a key to define each line.

4.      Communicate = Extend

In their final report the students had three questions to discuss. They were:

1.      How did the distance from the home dot to each of the other galaxies change each time you inflated the balloon?

2.      Did the galaxies near home or those farther away appear to move the greatest distance?

3.      How could you use this model to simulate the Big Crunch, a time when all the galaxies might collapse in on themselves?

This activity was very successful. It helped students who are not destined to be rocket scientists of astronomers understand our concept of an expanding universe. Although they used simple mathematics, measuring and line graphing, it helped them understand why I am always telling them that a lot of what we know about space has been proved mathematically.

I recommend this activity for hands-on learners of all ages!

From the Space Quarterly Magazine -- Education Section

During the summer of 2011 I had the opportunity to attend the Canadian Space Educator’s conference which is sponsored and held at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). It was fantastic and all expenses are covered by CSA! Subsequently I was interviewed by Randy Attwood from Space Quarterly magazine and am cited as a primary source for his article on the conference. The article appears below.

32 Space Quarterly December 2011

Education

Inspiring the Next Generation of Space Explorers

By Randy Attwood

Randy Attwood has been following the space program for over 40 years. He has appeared on television and radio for over 30 years as a commentator. He is a Senior Editor at SpaceRef Interactive Inc. And Managing Editor of Space Quarterly.

While the space shuttle program was winding down earlier this year, NASA produced several videos profiling the people who worked on the program. Astronauts, mission controllers, and support personnel were asked why they chose to work in the space business. Many had the same answer: they had watched the first Apollo moonwalk at a very young and impressionable age. The idea of going into space stuck with them through school, and they made it their careers.

Now, with the remaining space shuttle orbiters heading to museums and the number of opportunities to fly in space reduced to a minimum, who will inspire today’s young people to follow the same paths to space? Not everyone wants to be an astronaut; some want to be engineers and technicians. But all have a story about a certain event or individual who inspired them to stay in school and follow their dream to space. For many, that person is a teacher.

Approximately every 10 years or so, the Canadian school curricula are revised. In the late 1990s, astronomy and space program material appeared in the grades 6 and 9 science curricula

for most provinces. Not all science teachers have a background in astronomy; so many teachers were suddenly facing classrooms full of eager students with a thousand questions. The teachers cried out for help.

One resource for teachers to turn to is the annual Space Educator Conference held at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) headquarters in Saint-Hubert, Québec. This three-day conference held in early August provides an opportunity for educators to participate in workshops with CSA engineers and scientists. The conference covers space-related, curriculum-relevant topics at the primary and secondary levels.

Marilyn Steinberg is the Program Manager, Space Learning Program, at the CSA. In a recent interview with Space Quarterly, she talked about how it is a challenge to bring space to the students in the classroom: “Space is a natural hook because children tend to look outward. Space is not a concept; it is a context. From that context, you can explain and teach a vast variety of concepts that appear in the science, math, and technology curricula across the nation. The challenge for teachers,” she says, “is how to translate content so students can understand, engage, and apply it to their own experiences.

“The children are glowing with anticipation. They want to get their hands dirty; they want to think about the problem, they want to attack it. For a teacher who does not have a background in space, it is hard to satisfy the students’ expectations. The program we have developed here attempts in a variety of ways to address that. We give [the teachers] the opportunity to live, breath, and know space. We do this by offering the same kind of workshop that we would offer students. “We also want to make sure that the educator community has an opportunity to integrate with the scientists and engineers. The two communities speak vastly different languages. We take the time to train the scientists and engineers. They learn about curriculum, and they learn about teaching strategies. Ultimately, they are speaking the language of the classroom to the educators.”

One of the educators who attended this summer’s conference was Kay Stephen, a high school teacher from Ottawa: “The Educators Conference was amazing. My background is chemistry and biology so I didn’t know a lot [about space]. For teachers without a space background, the textbook is a good starting point. But things are changing all the time in space. After the conference, I felt current with what was happening in space and knew where they were going to next.”

An important aspect to teaching in Canada is STSE, which stands for science, technology, society, and the environment. (In the United States, they use STEM, which stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.) Essentially, STSE is the application of what the student learns in science to other areas, including his or her own environment and daily experiences. It is answering the question, what does this have to do with me?

Applying STSE to teaching space exploration is very important to Stephen: “That is what it is all about. That is where it all comes together. That’s where the kids take all the theory and apply it to real life.”

Stephen teaches applied-level students and says that without STSE, her students would not be engaged at all. “Every day, that’s all they want to do: get their hands on an activity, get their critical thinking engaged, and apply what they are learning.”

Stephen says that the highlight of this year’s conference was the workshop on Mars. “They

have an area that simulates the surface of Mars. They took us through the different labs where the actual research scientist made the presentation. There were no stupid questions. They spoke to me at my level. I can take the information back to my own grade 9 students. I was very impressed.”

The CSA does more than run the educator conference, though. Students can visit the CSA headquarters for workshops, and the CSA also sends presenters to schools. They perform 280 workshops a year. The educators who cannot get to the CSA can access online resources on the CSA Educator website.

And there are other programs for educators to use. The Tomatosphere project, which the CSA co-sponsors, has been active for the past nine years. Tomato seeds that have travelled in space are made available to students to grow and compare to similar seeds that have stayed behind on Earth. Students receive two packs of seeds; they conduct a scientific experiment and compare the germination rates of the two seed sets. Only after the experiment do they learn which pack of seeds had been exposed to a space environment and which were Earth seeds. During the nine year program, Steinberg estimates that 2 million students have participated in the Tomatosphere project.

A major project the CSA is working on for educators will be released a year from now. It

is a 3D interactive program that immerses the student into the space environment. With a Chris

Hadfield avatar as the student’s guide, they will learn to live on the International Space Station or fly the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. All along, they will be given problems to solve that require them to apply the scientific method and understand several important concepts. Their teacher will be linked in to monitor the students’ progress and act as Mission Control. The student avatars will join the Hadfield avatar and shrink down to either explore the internals of a green plant on the space station or examine the insides of a rocket engine on the Soyuz.

The challenge for the CSA? Canada is a large country, and there are thousands of teachers struggling to bring space and astronomy to their students. Unlike NASA, which has education centres spread across the country and a much bigger budget, the CSA is isolated on Montreal’s south shore.

“Many teachers don’t even know there is a CSA. [It’s] Canada’s best kept secret,” points out  Kay Stephen. “Canadian educators need to know that there are grants to get CSA scientists to visit your schools.”

The CSA is about to undergo potentially severe budget cuts. Hopefully the CSA programs, which are meant to help educators across the country inspire our future space scientists, will not be too severely affected.

All photo credits in this blog post: Kay Stephen

Twelve Hour Field Trip is Eleven Hours Too Long -- Blog Post #44

In Ontario our Ministry of Education has a relatively new initiative called Specialist High Skills Majors (SHSM) in our high schools. SHSM is designed to allow students to focus their learning on a specific

economic sector while meeting the requirements to graduate from secondary school.  At our high school, in addition to teaching science and math,  I also run the SHSM Program in Justice: Community Safety and Emergency Services which is aimed at students who may be interested in pursuing a  career in policing, fire fighting, paramedicis, law, social work, child youth worker, border patrol, security, park ranger, etc.

Last Friday the students in our Specialist High Skills Major program had the opportunity to participate in a 12 hour field trip with me. Looking sharp in our black SHSM tee-shirts, we started at Algonquin College where we visited the fire fighting, paramedic and police services labs. After a nutrition (?) break at MacDonald’s we travelled by public transportation to a local rock climbing gym where the students  participated in over 2 hours of training and participating in rock climbing.

Rock climbing is, for the most part, a buddy activity and students who do not normally interact with each another quickly buddied up in order to maximize their participation time. I had no idea that so many of our students are part monkey, or possibly related to Spiderman but they were all extremely adept at climbing and very proud of their accomplishments. I hesitate to describe the “happy dance” that one chronically depressed student did upon reaching the apex of a cliff because it was so graphically disturbing, there was however, pure joy on his face!

By now it was 3 o’clock in the afternoon. All students were respectful and orderly all day.  Five of our students had to leave the group due to either employment or family commitments. The remaining ten went onto “volunteer time”.  Together we taxied over to one of the local elementary school s where our students were the facilitators for the Grade 6 Leadership Camp. If you knew the stories behind the students that were participating you would completely understand why I may be considered, by some, to be a risk taker.

During this camp I made some observations of our students as they interacted with the 11 – 12 year olds.

1.       A new Canadian hesitant to speak English in public and a young lady who has been “thrown away” by her family

An amazing pair who were in charge of an “Agree- disagree” Activity Center.  They came up with amazing topics for the youngsters to debate and asked great questions to keep the debate going! They couldn’t believe how engaged the children were in what they considered to be a boring activity!

2.       An weak academic grade 10 student and a hyper-active grade 11 student who has had to raise himself

A fantastic partnership that ran a “parachute” Activity Center. They both spoke with authority but respect to the students.  They modelled learning and improvised on the fly. At one stage, the ADHD student asked permission from his partner to move over to the adjacent Activity Center where he could see his peer was struggling with a rowdy group of students!

3.       Tiny little gymnast

Single-handedly (until ADHA guyn offered to help) put small groups through their paces as they passed hula hoops around a closed circle. Came up with lots of variations on the theme! Her height may be instrumental in bringing out the caring and compassionate side of people.

4.       Grade 12 girl who keeps her nose clean and flies under the radar

So calm and in command with the tee shirt Decorating Activity that after she had explained the concept to the first group no other group needed instruction and each became calmer and calmer in her presence!

5.       Grade 10 boy, anxious to please!

OOOoooh grade 6 girls love this boy! His self-confidence, energy and deportment make him quite the (young)ladies man! Who knew?

6.       Shy Gradde 11 girl

Her shyness is her biggest obstacle. She really struggled when trying to facilitate each group of youngsters in coming up with their team cheer. Once Michelle was imported to help her the cheering really took off!

7.       Struggling ADD grade 12 girl

Possibly the most flexible, compliant and enthusiastic of the group. She moved from group to group helping where she was needed. She is almost too independent to work with a partner! Her organizational skills (when it comes to others) are phenomenal!

8.       Chronically depressed happy dancer

Our official photographer / videographer for the Leadership Camp. This may have been his big break!

This may all sound very civilized and organized but let me assure you if I EVER comment about the noise level in my class room again please remind me of the sound of 40 excited grade sixers echoing off the walls of a school gym on a Friday night. It is not an exaggeration to say that my ears were ringing for hours afterwards!

So it was a fantastic day on many levels but I am not going to lie to you, by 7 o’clock I was out of Tylenol, I had dined on a potluck supper of salad and potato chips, my head was spinning and I was plotting a way out! At this time the most unlikely student of the group came over to me with a cookie, gave me a hug and reassured me that I could get through this! Can you guess who that student is?

Thank you to this student for reminding me that this is why I teach!

Hands-On Minds-On Math! -- Blog #40

Today in my locally developed math class (grade 9 and 10) we had our first monthly auction and it was AWESOME!

Our entire course is based on the life skill of money. Every day the students both earn and spend money, keep tabs of their money and journal about it. Counting money, calculating change and estimating costs have been three skills we have honed this month. We have our own little micro-economy going on!

At the end of each month we have an auction. Most of my items are donated by my twitter follower and for this I sincerely thank a wonderful PLN community.

The money we use is fake but looks like actual Canadian currency and coins. I felt that using monopoly money would not have had the same impact on the learner’s experience. Students earn money by getting to class on time, helping each other, remembering to put up their hands, and during math games we play on the smart board. They also lose money if they are late, misbehave, etc.

Today I had 5 Xbox games sell for prices between $42.00 - $350.00. A student spent $262.00 on a cup of noodles! Students were especially interested in buying items they could give to their mothers or items that would help with their learning, ie. Packages of pencils, ruler with calculator built in, loose leaf!

Even my silent ESL students who I didn’t even know could talk were swept up in the bidding! The Pinoy twins who I thought were mutes got so caught up in the action they started to YELL! The “bad boy” who is on the brink of expulsion spent all of his money on a set of candles to take home to his mom!

One million thanks to our amazing Educational Assistant who makes my life, and that of our students, easier in this class!

Next month I am going to have a videographer in my room to record our auction! Even describing it while I write this blog makes my heart beat faster! This is one of the richest, most authentic learning tasks I have ever shared with my students. I was doubled over with laughter during some of the bidding, it was so intense. I am filled with love and pride at the accomplishments of this class. Just four weeks ago we were working on “How many nickels in a dime!”

If you have any items you wish to donate to future auctions I am happy to receive them.

Understanding that Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration are Opposites – a hands On Science Activity Blog Post #39

Teaching a grade nine applied science class photosynthesis and cellular respiration and how these two reactions of life are opposites can be challenging, even when only using word equations. Last week I experienced a Eureka moment when some of my students got it!

Photosynthesis:

Carbon dioxide + water + sun’s energy ® glucose + oxygen

Cellular respiration:

Glucose + oxygen ® carbon dioxide + water + usable energy

We started out simply exploring the word “opposite” which I felt was an essential place to start since 1/3 of my students are not native English speakers, 1/3 have learning disabilities and all this happens during the last period of the day! So we reviewed common opposites, which was much more meaningful than reading a definition of the word “opposite”. I gave each child, in turn; a word and they had to tell me the opposite of the word, ie. Black–white, up–down, in–out, etc. This was easy for most of them and so they were proud of their success and eager to experience more!

We looked at a comparison chart of the two reactions and noted that the reactants of one were the products of the other and vice versa. We also talked about how there are different forms of energy and the fact that the sun’s energy was essential to drive photosynthesis and usable energy was produced by cellular respiration.

We watched a short, simple video explaining the concept. We used the smartboard to look at the word equation with symbols to represent each of the chemicals and types of energy. We moved the reactants and products from one side of one equation to the opposite side of the other equation. We drew a picture and colour coded the chemicals. I even made a cut and paste activity where the students had to physically cut out the appropriate chemicals (there were two of each) and glue them onto a diagram.

Finally it hit me! I enlarged all the terms in both equations, including the plus and yield signs, and printed them out on coloured paper, using a one colour for each part of the photosynthesis equation and a different colour for the cellular respiration.  Each child was given one word or symbol. (The paper that had Sun’s energy on one side had usable energy on the other side. Otherwise all the papers were single sided.)

The students broke into two groups according to the colour of their paper. They were then instructed to line up, holding their signs, so they made the equation for photosynthesis. (The equations were prominently displayed at the front of the room.) 

Next they were told to rearrange themselves into the order of cellular respiration. This process was repeated several times with less and less chaos each time. Eventually a student shouted out, “Everyone stay where you are. The person holding the arrow (yield sign) just has to point it in the other direction!” Eureka! The light bulb moment! Slowly the students started to understand, they explained it to one another while the student holding the arrow kept changing its direction and saying, “Look photosynthesis!” Flipped the arrow. “Now its cellular respiration!” flip the arrow. “Now its photosynthesis again!” flip the arrow. “Now its cellular respiration!”

By this time I was euphoric but exhausted. To consolidate the activity we taped our signs onto the wall. One set read the equation for photosynthesis and the other read the equation for cellular respiration.

Try it! It works!

Metamorphosis – Posting #34

During the month of May we have been witnessing metamorphosis in our science lab. This project has captivated students in not only the locally developed, applied and university level  science courses that I teach but also members of the student and staff population that generally avoid the science wing! It has been authentic experiential learning that has captivated the hearts and imaginations of people that I have never had the pleasure of meeting before and more than just the butterflies have undergone a metamorphosis.

In an attempt to save a few dollars we tried to find a recipe for larvae food but found out that this is a closely guarded company secret and something that graduate students have struggled with for eons. It would have been less expensive to simply feed the larvae what they eat in the wild, in this case thistle leaves, but alas spring was unseasonably wet and cold so we were unable to find any thistles in our travels. Fortunately, our Student Success team funded the purchase of the larvae, the larval medium (food) and a picture book describing the metamorphosis process. 

I ordered the live larvae from a biological supply company and they were shipped to the school on exactly the date they were promised. While waiting for the larvae to arrive we learned about what to expect when they came and created our own habitat from an old aquarium tank I just happened to have in the back of my classroom. After viewing a number of videos from you tube we decided that we would:

1.      keep our larvae, pupae and butterflies at room temperature;

2.      modify the old tank so it had a lid and allowed a free flow of air;

3.      get some packets of sugar in stock to prepare sugar water for the butterflies when they emerged;

4.      be able to identify whose larvae was whose by keeping them in separate containers until they pupated but once they were moved into the larger habitat there would be no way of identifying and owning them.

By happenstance our shipment of larvae actually arrived while I was teaching the locally developed class. Because the front office knew I was expecting the shipment and it was clearly labelled as containing live specimens they called into my classroom as soon as it was delivered. This created great excitement amongst the students! When the “runners” brought the shipment up from the office we studied the package prior to opening it. It had large red labels on it reading, “Live Specimens, Handle with Care, Do Not Freeze” which created a beautiful teachable moment for literacy. We read the label, discussed the choice of colour and font size as well as the meanings of the words and phrases. (Proving, once again, that text can take many forms and be found in a variety of situations.)

Mixing up the larval medium (food) for them to feed on proved to be surprisingly difficult which meant that it took long enough for everyone to have a turn at stirring. While we were passing it around the room to stir it we also practised “safe smelling” by wafting its odour towards our nostrils and hypothesized about what might be in the top secret recipe. Lots of excellent ideas were put forward. They included:

·         oatmeal

·         baby pablum

·         wheat germ

·         flour

·         sugar

·         bran

Once we got the medium stirred to an even consistency we each transferred some food into our labeled containers and punched air holes in the lids. Next I demonstrated to the students how to transfer the larvae, using paintbrushes, into their individual containers. The students took the time to examine their larvae with hand lens and exclaimed at their observations – “I can see the bristles”, “Mine has its mouth open!”, “Mine curled up when I touched him!”, “Mine is looking at me!”, “I think mine is dead, no . . . wait, its moving now!”, “Mine is already eating!”

In order to encourage ownership of the project I asked each student to name their larva. Careful handling of living specimen and caring for all God’s creatures was inherent in this project. So much so that a few days later when I realized that my larva was well and truly dead (the only one that actually died) I expressed disgruntled emotions and tossed it into the garbage. The students were outraged! Boy was my face red!

Bowing under pressure from my students I removed the larva from the garbage can, apologized for being disrespectful towards a living (now dead) creature and had to actually have a little funeral for the dead larva! Eureka! They understood the ethics of handling living things, no matter how small or unattractive!

Each student kept a daily journal of their larva’s growth and development. Their daily observations included the date, a sketch of their specimen, and one or two descriptive words. This observation journal formed part of their final assessment for this project. During their observations the students learned about the moulting process of caterpillars. It took about 7 – 10 days for the larvae to pupate, at which time they were transferred into the butterfly habitat we had created out of the old aquarium. Two – three days later the butterflies began emerging. Magic!

For a final evaluation project of the project I had each of the learners in the locally developed course create an eight page illustrated butterfly book. The page break down was:

1. Title page

2. Egg

3. Larvae

4. Pupae

5. Adult

6. Larvae food

7. Adult food

8. Structure and function of the proboscis

The students, and various other members of our school community, were so engaged in the experience of watching the process of metamorphosis that they would often drop by the classroom several times a day. All of my students, in each period, became experts on the entire process because there was always someone coming by to take a look and ask questions. My response to any questions asked by visitors was consistently, “Ask the students.” This allowed the students to discuss their learning and thereby reinforce it.

I was truly planning to take the student produced butterfly books with me to the Smarter Science Unconference next weekend (June 11, 2011) but I have been unsuccessful in finding a sponsor for the cost of my travel (aprox. $500.00). If you know of any grant money or other funds I could access for this reason please contact me via Twitter @EurekaTeacher.