“How long does it take to eat a Freezie?” -- A Math Inquiry: Blog #42

 Since being pumped up from the Science Teachers Association of Ontario’s (STAO) conference last week, where I was awarded the Secondary Schools Science Teacher of the Year 2011 by Youth Science Canada, I decided to do an inquiry based lesson with my math class today.

Some people may have hesitated before trying inquiry based learning with my math class for any number of reasons:

• Class room dynamics are unpredictable

• Each learner is on their own individualized learning plan (IEP)

• A wide range of mathematical ability
•  50% of the students are English Language Learners (ELL)
•  I’ve been out of the classroom for the past 3 teaching days
• This is a split level math class with KNN9A, MAT1L  and MAT2L students present

No worries! I am confident this will work! The inquiry we conducted was: “How long does it take to eat a Freezie?” For those of you unfamiliar with freezies they are basically frozen sugar water sealed inside a flexible plastic cylinder. Kids cut the top off the plastic, push up the frozen treat and enjoy them – especially in hot weather.

Together we brainstormed all the possible variables that needed to be taken into consideration prior to conducting our test. Here is the list that the students generated:

• Temperature -- Frozen or liquid

• How hungry are you?

• Eating techniques

• What size is the Freezie?

• Colour – it was determined via discussion that the students eat their favourite colour faster than others

• How many do you have? Class discussion revealed that if there was only one freezie a person would be more apt to take their time and enjoy it whereas they would gobble it up quickly if there were lots more available to them

• Would you be just eating, or eating while talking?

Since I was the holder of the freezies I was able to inform the students that the freezies were currently: 

•  Frozen

• Large

• Various colours

• They would each get one

• They would just eat and not talk

Next the students each thought about long it takes them to eat a Freezie and recorded their estimate.

Students were then instructed to pull out whatever technology they had in their pocket and find the timer or stop-watch feature on it. This integration of 21^st century technology lead to several teachable moments while the students were amazed that they even  had this capacity on their gadgets, downloaded appropriate apps from the internet and helped each other with this task. Those who had no technology moved to sit with those who did without me guiding them whatsoever.  The collaboration between the students was natural and free flowing! 

Students cut the tops off their freezies, started their timers and sat back to enjoy their investigation. As each student completed their eating task they recorded their time.

By the time all the data was collected and tabulated today’s class was over. Tomorrow we shall move on to analysis. The type of information the students will be expected to extract from the data will depend on what level they are working at. The types of questions that shall be posed range from: “Who ate their Freezie the fastest” to “calculate the mode of the time it took for the freezies to be eaten in our class.”

Because the students are working with data they generated themselves they have ownership of it. This makes the learning task engaging and authentic to them. Learning is fun!

The Evolution of a 21st Century Educator -- post #37

Anyone that is involved in education has heard the phrases “21^st century education” and “21^st century learners” ad infinitum. I don’t know their origin but these words, and more importantly, their meanings slowly crept up on us during the last decade or so.

There are a wide variety of educational, and other, resources which attempt to define and expand on what 21^st century education is, or should be. One of the most succinct and comprehensive is Learning for the 21st Century: A Report and Mile Guide for 21st Century Skills , an American publication from the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills.              

It is outside of my purpose for writing this blog post to argue for definitions around any of the “21^st century . . . “terms. If you are unsure of what I am referring to by these terms, this publication is a good overview of what I understand them to be and I am using this as my standard reference.

This summer I started purging all the paper I have accumulated over my ongoing career as an educator. This included filling recycling boxes with dozens of obsolete Ministry, Board and School publications but much more interesting was the walk-through-time that my own personal binders provided. I have taught many courses over the years; suffice it to say that my binder portfolio included 90% of every science course that ever existed in the province of Ontario along with a smattering of courses from completely unrelated subject areas. Being the type of person I am I have always kept beautifully organized binders for each of these courses, and the more times I taught the course the bigger and more numerous the binders became.

So here is what I observed as I purged through my personal binders. At the beginning of my career I used a lot of material that I photocopied from other educators. These included worksheets, projects, assignments, and even tests. The notes for the students were long and detailed, I would write them word by word onto the blackboard and they would sometimes spend entire periods copying them down. In fact, I remember the advice of my mentor, a master-teacher, gave me during my first year teaching when I had a particularly unruly class, “Just keep them copying out notes all period and they won’t have time to cause any trouble.” Now, I am horrified to think that I actually took this advice and relished in its effectiveness!

Over time the work in my binders became more and more my own. Beautifully designed and produced worksheets, text book activities and lab assignments. All the labs were strictly “cookbook” labs with the purpose, safety, materials, procedure all precisely laid out step-by-careful-step. Observation tables and questions were purposely designed to keep the student tightly focused on the task, analysis and discussion questions flowed one from the other and the conclusion was not even always present! Oh, how magnificent these labs were! The preparation for them, although time consuming, was a very exact affair and I would often leave my classroom at night with everything methodically set up for the next day’s lab -- exactly the right number of beakers, and other required equipment laid out next to my carefully measured and prepared solutions of which I would have neither too much nor too little because I knew exactly what would happen during the upcoming lab.

Do not think, dear reader, that I was alone in my anal ways of teaching high school science. My techniques were widely admired and my resources eagerly sought after by colleagues both near and far. I was well respected for never asking the students a question whose answer could not be found on a specific page of our current text book, for integrating literacy and numeracy throughout my curriculum (before it was cool) by the use of teacher guided practice, for running carefully controlled labs whose outcome was never in doubt and which never took longer than the allotted time. Oh yes! I would proudly share my work with anyone that was interested and even gave workshops and made presentations highlighting my wonderful skills. Imagine how flattered I was when publishers took an interest in my magnificence!

But that was then and this in now. As I continued purging my beautiful binders I could see how my teaching had gradually shifted over time. Some of the change was prompted by the powers that be but most of it was in direct response to what worked and what didn’t work, a little thing we like to call “personal reflection” in the teaching field. Lessons that at one time worked like a well oiled machine had to be tweeked as the nature of the learner changed. Rather than stress myself out because the students no longer carefully read the cookbook lab prior to doing it, sketched out the equipment set up and even answered the analysis questions prior to lab day it was much easier to meet them where they were.

At the time I would have described my evolution as “choosing my battles”, after all one has a finite amount of energy, but in retrospect I see it now as being respectful of who the learners were and what worked for them. Gradually I learned to release control yet facilitate the learning occurring. As the years passed, my binders became less dictatorial and more loosey-goosey. Instead of going from day one to day ninety with rigid lesson plans for each and every day they started to reflect the unit we were working on the “big ideas” that we needed to cover on a weekly basis.

My classroom labs changed from being teacher-directed and controlled as well. Over time I started producing lab handouts with less and less detail filled in thereby allowing the students the opportunity to think about what we were doing. I did, however, keep control of what the lab purpose was; but I expected them to do more of the design, observations and analysis themselves.

Luckily for my students, as the 21^st century progressed I became familiar with the Smarter Science way of teaching science. This approach is strictly inquiry based with the students not only designing and conducting the labs themselves but also coming up with the purpose, or question. Through brainstorming the students generate a list of questions that they are wondering about. Then, they answer the ones they can through research. Due to having 21^st technology in the classroom this research component can be incredibly quick, even as short as five minutes, depending on what the questions are and what strategy the teacher employs. No more booking the library, searching through vertical files, card catalogs and encyclopedias for this generation! Instant access to quality information is the order of the day. The advent of the Internet has truly been a game changer in our quest for knowledge.

After finding the answers they can by research, the students are now left with maybe one or two outstanding questions. Following the Smarter Science framework and 21^st century educational philosophy it is time for them to design their lab investigations to answer the questions they are wondering about. This means they have already established a purpose for doing the lab.

Developing hypotheses often flow from a combination of knowledge acquired during their self directed research and ensuing lively classroom discussions. The teachable moment here is the concept that all hypotheses are acceptable, proving them right or wrong is the point of the lab investigation. Literacy is also naturally built in as the teacher demonstrates the correct method of wording a hypothesis. Since each student “owns” their hypothesis they want to learn how to state it correctly, there is nothing rote or boring about it.

In my binders, which I am now thinking about as historical archives, I actually had activities where I gave the students the crux of the hypothesis and they had to phrase it correctly and even worse than that, labs with the hypothesis given! No wonder there wasn’t any critical thinking happening in their poor little minds.

Once the students have determined for themselves why they are doing the lab (purpose) and what they think the outcome will be (hypothesis) all that  is left for them to do is the fun stuff –design, perform and analyze the lab. This is where it is essential that the teacher is an expert in their field because they are the ones ultimately responsible for the safety of their students. They must ensure that nothing the students propose could potentially cause any harm. They must also be prepared to advise student on various techniques in a just-in-time teaching manner. This means that we teach the technique when the student needs to use it, not when it is on the next page of the text book.

In my binders I had an entire lesson plan with the objective of learning to use a graduated cylinder! I used overheads to show a picture of a meniscus and distributed worksheets with diagrams of graduated cylinders for the students to read the volume level. No actual graduated cylinder was ever in play! I am so embarrassed! And this was a lesson plan I really liked and shared widely!

As I conclude this blog post the recycle truck is actually rolling up my street. Three recycle boxes full to over flowing are being heaved over the side of the truck; all my 20^th century teacher “gold” is being hauled away. It was fun while it lasted but nothing compares to the excitement of teaching the 21^st century way! I wonder what great discoveries my students will make this year, and in the years to come?

Father's Day blog Posting -- #36

Father and Daughter

This blog posting is the entry I sent in to the Geekdad contest in an effort to win some cool geek electronics. Although I did not win it lead me to reflect on where my affinity for inquiry-based learning came from. If this story isn’t a classic inquiry than what is? Thanks Dad!

Here is my Geekdad story:

Many years ago I was engaged to be married. Although I was 100% sure I wanted to be married to the man of my dreams I was not so keen on the actual wedding ceremony. Though a series of compromises the wedding was scheduled for 10 o’clock on a Monday morning. Following the church ceremony there would be a sit down lunch catered by some church ladies, the bride and groom would leave on our honeymoon and the partying would continue at my parent’s house. My parent’s house, which is my childhood home, is a large Cape Cod style house that has seen many parties over the years. These parties include some fantastic teenage parties that my sister and I would host when my parents and brothers went on summer vacations without us. (We couldn’t go! We had to work!)  For sure there had been at least 200 kids in our house dancing and jumping up and down on a number of occasions and although there were a number of consequences on a variety of levels the house itself withstood all the partying unscathed and unchanged.

Family Home

This is where the Geek Dad part comes in. My dad, a trained engineer, spent weeks prior to my wedding day fretting, wandering around the house with a measuring tape and  his trusty slide ruler while scribbling little calculations on scraps of paper and the back of napkins. You may think he was upset that his baby girl was marrying, that he was designing a new suit for himself, or that he was calculating the cost of all these shenanigans. But no! This is not how Geek Dads think! What he was actually doing was calculating how great a load the floors of our family home could withstand. What if there were so many people in the house that it collapsed! This was a very real worry for him!

Naturally, like all good daughters, when my Geek Dad tried to talk to me about the consequences of the partying continuing at our family home I just laughed at him. Who ever heard of a house collapsing from the load on the floors during party? I have been at  many parties and I have never heard of such a thing, have you? Our family home is a sturdily build wooden two story house, we had never had any indication that the floors might collapse. All the woodwork was in tiptop condition. Stop worrying, Geek Dad!

The night before my wedding day my father must have conceded that the after-party would, indeed, be at the family home. The father-of-the-bride is easily lost in the shuffle of wedding plans and he had definitely lost this battle. (The story of the force that is my mother shall be told another day!) As a last resort Geek Dad enlisted the help of our Best Man.  He showed him all of his calculations and explained, as only an over wrought engineer can, the potential danger of the wedding guests enjoying one last cup of tea at our family home the next day. To his credit our Best Man listened politely and nodded attentively as my dad instructed him to make the rounds during the wedding feast and dissuade everyone from attending the after-party. He did not, however, act on these carefully laid plans of subterfuge. 

The wedding went off without a hitch, the wedding feast was enjoyed by all, my new husband and I drove off into happily-ever-after and the after-party was in full swing until the wee hours of the morning. Did the floors cave in? Did the house collapse? What do you think?

I love you, Geek Dad!

Special Education High School Students Plan their Own Science Investigation – Post 23

Recently our locally developed science class started a major lab investigation to observe if bacteria will grow on lemons. When we started this inquiry I had no idea this would become the focus of our investigation, everything has been planned by the students while I have enjoyed the status of guide at the side. If you have been following my other blog postings you may realize how remarkable an achievement this is – this combined class of grade 9 and 10 special education students, who are studying SNC1L or SNC2L with me, includes individuals with a variety of disabilities including autism, fetal alcohol syndrome, mild intellectual disabilities and communication delays: all of these students have individualized education plans (IEPs).

In order to facilitate their investigation I provided them with a photocopied set of the Smarter Science framework Steps to Inquiry (set one) worksheets and I had enlarged posters of the framework on the front board for them to refer to. We used the set one framework because it is designed for use with beginning, exploring and emerging scientists.

Step 1: Observing and Questioning (=ENGAGE)


On day one I provided each student with a freshly cut wedge of lemon and told them that I had read on the internet that lemons could be used as a safe and effective cleaning product yet I was skeptical and not everything that one read on the internet was true. I asked them if any of them had ever heard this or tried to clean using lemons. Since none of them had I invited them all too simply take a slice of lemon and attempt to clean an area of the lab countertops. No further instruction was given and each student was left to their own interpretation of this instruction. After they had all made whatever attempt they chose to clean the lab counter with a lemon wedge they were asked to discard the lemon and wash their hands.

Then we went to page one of the Smarter Science framework worksheets to record what we had observed while cleaning with a lemon wedge. The following observations were shared and recorded:
· Smelled lemony
· Wet
· Not a good cleaner
· Worked better if area was rubbed with a paper towel after
· Lemon got dirty
· You needed to rub hard
· It sounded like scrubbing
· Sticky residue remained on the counter tops

Our next step was to think about using lemons as cleaners. Using the key word “wonder” I prompted the students to think about what they were wondering about as a result of their experience using lemons as cleaners. (Note: Half an hour ago none of these students had any prior knowledge of lemons as cleaners but now they had their own personal experience to draw on.) After some initial hesitancy the list of questions the students came up was phenomenal! Each question was recorded, in abbreviated form, on sticky notes by the students while I modeled this behavior for them at the front of the room. (Although the students were invited to record their questions in pictorial form none did, but some required the aid of their scribes.) In no particular order, these are the questions the students wondered about:
Can lemon juice remove paint?
Do people like squeezing lemons?
Does lemon collect bacteria?
Does lemon juice fade freckles?
Does lemon juice cause rust?
Can lemon juice be used to clean a car?
Can lemon juice be used as wiper fluid?
Is lemon juice expensive?
Does lemon juice remove make up?
Can lemon juice get rid of wrinkles?
Will sunlight change the properties of lemon juice?
Can other types of fruits be used as cleaners?

The following day we started with this list of twelve questions that the students had generated. We needed to sort them into three categories: those that could be answered by research, those that could be answered by laboratory testing, and those that would remain speculative. In order to aid with the sorting process I had prepared a “Question Sorter Template” for the students use and also put a copy of the template on the board so I could model for them what we were doing and they could all engage fully. Each question was discussed at length before being placed in the appropriate column of the question sorter template. The students realized that some questions did not fit neatly into one particular category so these sticky notes were placed on the line between categories. (These students’ excel at oral communication so I use every possible occasion to encourage them to share their thoughts aloud. Interestingly, they are especially patient and respectful with the one student who is often tongue tied and requires extra time to process his thoughts and form his words. )
LAPTOP TIME!
Can you believe that I actually have a class set of laptops that not only work but are connected wirelessly to the internet! Wow! I can barely believe in myself but I am thrilled to report that my school board (Ottawa Catholic) has fully embraced 21st century technology in the classroom. Even better these high need students, who have difficulty remembering usernames and passwords, have been taught to have this information, in writing, available to them at all times.

So we logged on and each student got to work researching the answers to our questions. Many interesting and informative answers were found and discussed during this process. At the end of our research process the question that was the most poorly answered, on the internet, was “Will bacteria collect on lemons?” Therefore this became our lab investigation question.
Personally, I was uncomfortable with the wording of this question and prompted the class several times to reconsider what the question said, what they wanted it to say and if a different choice of words would be better but they were adamant that they liked it the way it was so I left it alone. This was their investigation, not mine. Did I want to empower them of dictate to them? Sometimes it is hard to let go!

Step 2 (a) What could we measure or observe about the object, or event?
“Will bacteria collect on lemons?”

Step 2 (b) What could we change or vary about the object or the event that may affect what we could measure or observe?” = variables
We brainstormed and recorded the following variables on sticky notes which were placed on page two of our framework handout:
· Temperature
· Time
· Adding water
· How many lemons
· Where to get some bacteria
· Size of lemon
· Weight of lemons
· Size of jar / beaker
· Where to put them

Step 3 (a) What will we change? (= changed variable)
This step required extensive discussion, debate and time. It could not be rushed or some students would not understand how this was a controlled experiment. Everyone had several opportunities to voice their ideas and opinions. Elimination votes were taken to narrow down the options. Final answer:
The one variable we will change is where we place the jar with the lemon in it and we will measure or observe how much bacteria will grow.
What this meant to our class is that each pair of students would run an identical lab but each group would get to decide the location of their test lemon, in the beaker.

Step 3 (b) What will we not change? (=unchanged variable)
Now we moved the rest of our sticky notes from step 2 (b) over to page 3 of our framework template and decided on what value to give them.
· Temperature = room temperature
· Time = check every day until we decide to stop
· Adding water = no
· How many lemons = one half, cut width ways
· Where to get some bacteria = one cough per group member onto cut lemon in the beaker
· Size of lemon = medium
· Weight of lemons = use an balance and record
· Size of jar / beaker = 1000 mL glass beaker, no lid or cover

Step 4: What is the question we want to explore?
All we had to do now was simply move some sticky notes to page 4 of our template so our question looked like:
“If we change “where we put the beaker” (changed variable) what will happen to “the amount of bacteria on the lemon” (to b e observed daily) compared to our control?”

Step 5: What is our prediction? State how we will change the variable and predict the outcome?
This was my teachable moment to do some just-in-time teaching about using “If . . .then” statements to make predictions. Each student was guided through the process and wrote their own predictions. In several cases they expressed what they wanted their prediction to say and were then helped to form it into an “if . . .then” statement. There was no student who did not have an idea about what they wanted to predict. The students required a lot of reassurance that no prediction was wrong, it was important to make a prediction using the correct format. The only wrong answer was not to make a prediction. Some students found it very difficult to commit to a prediction yet eventually they all did! In general they looked like:

We predict that . . . if lemons are placed in different locations then they will collect different amounts of bacteria.

We think this will happen because . . . (another difficult sentence starter yet everyone managed to write something eventually.)

2. Perform and Record (=EXPLORE)

All the events written about above fell under the “initiate and plan” (a.k.a engage) stage of setting up the experiment and took our class a full week of 75 minute classes to complete. Yet, as an experienced educator, I believe it was time well spent because the students were engaged in authentic, real life learning, they were being empowered to take ownership of their experimental set up and design and they were working collaboratively throughout.

Because we had determined the values for all of our variables during the design process it was relatively simple to set up the experiment. The students knew exactly what to do because this was their lab and they had invested a great deal of thought and discussion into each step.
Observations: Drawing tables in an extremely challenging task for this group of students. Even when I provide them with a ruler drawing straight lines defies some of their fine motor skills. So, today, I decided to try something different. I hooked my laptop up to the LCD projector and opened word processing software. I brought my printer over to my desk and plugged it into my computer. After typing the heading “Observation Table”, I announced, “Let’s design our observation table together.”

Step by step I showed the class how to set up a table and type in the headings. This information meant nothing to many of the students, but was helpful to a few. We made a three-column table with the heading: Date, day, and observations. Everyone got out a calendar while I explained that if Friday was day 3 then Monday was day 6, not day 4! This concept is challenging to lots of my students but for a student whose exceptionalities includes that they have no understanding of the concept of time it is particularity impossible.

Once we were all satisfied with the design, layout and spacing of the observation table I printed one out for each student and they were delighted! Now all we have to do is make our observations each day. Eventually we will stop the experiment and move onto analyzing, interpreting and communicating our answers. You will be able to read about that in 4 – 6 weeks from now. In the meanwhile, I am content to know that this special education class is learning to think like real scientists!