Lab Safety Rap

New Insight Into Eye Color Genetics!

This article on the Fisher Scientific website sheds new light on the way eye color is determined. Our simple model of blue x blue = blue isn't always the case. The genetics of eye color is much more complex. Read on...
Eye Color Explained

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Higher temperatures are causing Alaska s growing season to become longer

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Higher temperatures are causing Alaska s growing season to become longer

Final Project, Part 2 - The Prezi

Well, I finally finished it. I was able to complete my first Prezi for my AP Bio class. I made this Prezi for teaching about regulation of blood osmolarity via chemical signaling with ADH between the brain, blood, and kidneys. I will be using this Prezi and creating others to walk students through these various negative feedback mechanisms that maintain homeostasis in the body.
This will be posted to my blog at Lathrop Science when I am ready to introduce this unit.

Desire 2 Learn, Group 3 Discussion

It seems that the majority of the posts in our group's discussion centered on the obstacles that many of us will face in trying to implement all the Web 2.0 tools we've learned. Most of us deal with failing technology basis in some form or another, while others have limited access in terms of numbers of computers or slow connections and so on. The point is, as we try to move forward into a modern classroom, there will always be hurdles that we'll have to deal with. Some of us will only be able to get our feet wet with these tools while others will be able to implement the whole gammut. The point is, we should do whatever is possible given our individual circumstances. The more you can demonstrate the need for the technology, the more support you will garner on the administration level when they see the educational impact and power of the tech tools.
I have been in this since the beginning, at a time where I had to bring a computer from my house just to keep an electronic gradebook. But by the time I left my schoo this year, I had 30 laptops and several desktops available for use right in my own classroom and a slew of other instruments available to implementation of 21st century learning. Upon moving to a new school, I am once again starting the year out with minimal access. So I have my work cut out for me and plan to do all that I can to make it work.

Guiding Principles Revisited

Here is my initial post on my guiding principles for technology:

"My guiding principles for technology have always been to give students access to information and tools for doing science. I also want them to be able to develop skills in using technology tools for the workplace. I view my role as their teacher to inspire them to pursue their interests, to nurture their natural curiosity, to guide them in achieving their educational goals, and to act as a mentor in developing science skills and knowledge. Technology is an avenue for achieving these goals. I also use technology to give my students more immediate feedback by providing instantaneous test results, online discussions, access to information regarding my class via my class wiki. Finally, I want to encourage my students to be able to collaborate without them having to leave their home, and to interact with each other as well as others in the global classroom to create, discuss, and share information"

Upon re-reading my initial post I would say that these still hold true for me. However, I have a new awareness of so many new forms of technology that are available that I realize I was not keeping up with what was out there! I plan to incorporate many of these into my teaching this year and plan to keep abreast, as much as possible, of the new technology as it becomes available. Also, I realized that I could use these various tools to teach in a completely different way. My goal is to do more science that involves discussions, creating, and sharing. Also, to incorporate professionals into our classroom via the internet and bring my students into the live science community. Additionally, I plan to urge the administration at my new school to also keep up with the technology by providing access for our 21st century learners. I want to be a forerunner in this effort to modernize and plan to share what I've learned through this class in an inservice this Fall.

Final Project.... phewww!

This was quite the journey... after much deliberation and frustration, I finally settled on which hosting site to use for my class blog. Although I am somewhat at peace with my choice, I am still not completely satisfied. The problems encountered were which site could give me all the posting and publishing options that I wanted and give them to me for FREE! But oh, no, that was being waaay too optimistic. So I found that every single one of them had some catch that I didn't really like. To get all the features I quickly realized I was gonna have to pay for it! Anyway, after experimenting and building 3 different class blogs, I decided to go with Weebly since it's very easy to use and I already had another site with them for my XC Ski Team that I was pretty satisfied with the outcome. Only the Pro version however, allows you to embed... or so I thought. However, I found a little trick to get around that stumbling block. If you use the custom HTML feature, you can paste the embed codes directly in to that window and get the document, or whatever embedded via the free version. I cannot tell you how happy this made me... or how long it took me to figure this out! So here is my new, school-color-coordinated and customized Lathrop Malemute Science classroom blog.
I was able to add Google calendars to each class page that I can use to post assignments, due dates, etc. etc. My students first task will be to learn how to use the blog via the Tips for Blogging Success page. As for their first science related task, I have made an Ecology Voicethread for my AP Bio students to use for the introduction to their Ecology unit. For Chemistry, I am started with a task involving the Periodic Chart but haven't yet got that fully worked out. Additionally, I am still working on a Prezi for my AP Bio as well but I am not quite finished with it. That is soon to come!

Adding an Image to the Blog Sidebar

Found an article on how to add an image to the blog sidebar... involves a trick so to speak with images and linking. To get the details click here to link directly to the article. But i am trying it for myself to see if it actually will work for me.

Yay! It worked! Look! I posted my pic in the sidebar. Neat little trick that could come in very handy!

Good Example of How to Use a Blog

So visited some other class blogs and I particularly liked this one called Scattergood Biology hosted by Edublogs. He has a page on there for his students with links to Edblogs help pages for all the how-to's for logging in, posting, how much to write, etc. etc. I particularly like the links he put there for more info about each point he makes. I thought it was a good set of guidelines so I'll probably do something similar for my class blog. I still am fiddling around with which hosting site to use. I've used Wetpaint before for my first wiki and it's okay but they don't have ad-free versions anymore for educators. The other one I've used is Weebly. It's really good and you can get an ad-free educators page. Here's mine that I made for my XC Ski team. The tech guy at my school recommended Edublogs or Wikispaces for Teachers. He said Edublogs was better though.

Vimeo Science Videos

So Vimeo is kinda interesting. It's a collection of really high quality videos for movie makers to publish their work. I found in the science and technology category, some videos explaining various science concepts in very precise and detailed ways. Some are from people who send in questions then have them answered, such as in the Science Catalyst Live Show - Grade 12 Chemistry. Here is one example of this channel.

The Science Catalyst Live Show:Grade 12 Chemistry from The Science Catalyst on Vimeo.

This one is of an "chemistry" class in middle school in Poland. They are not speaking English so unless you speak Polish you won't be able to understand exactly what they're saying however, the video pretty much speaks for itself. The chemistry they're doing in middle school over there looks way different from the typical middle school in the U.S. These kids look like little professional chemists. The demo they did was very cool!

"Chemistry After Lessons" - Middle School in Cieszyn, Poland from Palo Palacz on Vimeo.

My Photosynthesis Wordle

I would like to use this tool to have students brainstorm words by posting them into the wordle window to show related words for a concept like Photosynthesis. Here's mine!

Hyperlinking Words in a Blog Post

This is a response to Cathy, who asked about Hyperlinking in the blog posts:

If you are using Blogger, this is how it works...
When you are typing up your blog post, there is a little button at the top of your post window in the menu choices that looks like a chain link. Click on that and then past the URL for the website you want to it to hyperlink to for those words.
See here:

Good luck!

Prezi is ImPREZZive

All I can say is "WOW!" I was amazed when I saw the Prezi on how Prezi can be used as a teaching tool! This is a tool I dig! I am so excited to make one of my own. I'm thinking of doing one for my project along with creating a class wiki/blog for my AP Bio and Chem class. Not sure though which topic I'll focus on just yet for the Prezi. I'm thinking maybe something like a Negative Feedback pathway or maybe the comparisons of invertebrate anatomy. As for the wiki/blog, I'm wondering if I should have just one wiki per subject/class or if they should be separate. I'm not sure how to organize it. Any thoughts? Here is a cool little Prezi timeline showing the history of the events leading to the discovery of DNA.

Discovery of DNA on Prezi

PhotoPeach - too cute!

I'm so excited about the prospects of using this tool for a classroom project. I used some photos of mine from a 2 day period last week. It's so simple and quick to use. I could see using this to show case student projects in an elementary classroom. It's so simple a 7 year old could do this! I could also see student using it to show case lab results or project progress. Maybee even tracking data such as in a long term experiment. Here's my photo collage of a 24 hour period last week. We stay busy with 24 hours of daylight!
Scenes of Summer in Alaska on PhotoPeach

Classroom Blogs

Upon browsing the links and articles for WEEK 5, the article on the Top 10 reasons to have a classroom blog was a good list of ways to incorporate a blog into your classroom. I have had a class web page since around 1999 that I created using Dreamweaver. The page was a place for me to post a weekly assignment calendar, resource links for my students to use for various lessons that I taught and also to post announcements to parents. However, it was solely my web page and students had no ability to post information or comment. Then last year I decided to try to use a wiki for a class project. Boy have I come a long way since then! I learned a lot from that first attempt at a wiki. First of all, it was just for one specific project and I used it strictly for kids to post their information and comment on each other's projects. But I really didn't think about using it as my primary communicating device for my class. Now that I see all the other ways it can be utilized I'm really excited about setting one up for this year. Dreamweaver seems like such a archaic tool now to me.
Upon further browsing, the following were helpful to me the "Do's and Donts of Wikis 2" and Eric's Slideshare on the effects on student learning of using a classroom blog in science teaching: Shiny Objects, Classroom Practice and Professional Growth. I'm really excited about incorporating all of these really effective teaching tools, but at the same time it is daunting to think about all the time required to build them for integration and use. Our time for experimentation with them in lesson planning and preparation is so short!

File Conversions & Video

I love YouTube as a resource for science videos. In the past, I've used Real Player to download any videos I wanted to show in my classes. I didn't realize there were other ways to do this. So I tried KickYouTube to check it out. There were no real clear explanations, instructions, etc. about the site and how it works. As for the file formats, I wasn't sure which to select to download. For example what they are and their best uses or purposes. The website video showing the process of downloading was kinda weird... no real help buttons. Anyway, I tried it and I selected MP4 HD, not really sure what this means though. The video downloaded and then it played with Quicktime. So here are my questions about this site/tool:
1. How does this work? Is this site safe/secure?
2. Is anything else being downloaded to my computer along with the video?
3. What file format should I use?
Thanks for any help/info you can provide.
Oh yeah, it also had an embed code link. So here's the video I downloaded.

Downloads: Views: 125468

AK Forest Health Issues - Generate An Argument Activity

Climate related forest health problems linked to warmer and drier conditions have been well documented in Alaska. As a result, many species of trees have been in decline or under attack by various biological and non-biological agents. As a result of concerns about the future of Alaska’s forests, the State Department of Forestry has been allocated state and federal funding to address some of these issues. Your group’s task is to identify which tree species and it’s associated problem is most critical either economically, ecologically, or both to your group and then persuade the Department of Forestry to dedicate it’s research and funds to resolving the problems facing that species.

To Download Activity click here: AK Forest Health Issues

Create a Graph

I think this is a pretty handy tool, especially for those students who can't afford to buy graphing software like Excel. However, I still think Excel is better. Create A Graph is pretty simplistic. I did try to email and download the graph I created but the site was either bogged down or not functioning and it did not work. I've always taught my students how to use Excel, and pretty much all of our graphs are created this way. They become pretty proficient at it in a short time and it is the type of software they'll use in a professional setting. The other reason I like Excel is because I can copy and paste data directly from web data sets into it for graphical analysis and manipulation. I realize Create a Graph can also be saved but I like the ability for students to import their graphs into lab reports. When we create class data sets and groups record their data, I usually have the students directly type their results into a class spreadsheet on my laptop that we they share. Students then graph the data individually or in their lab groups.
I tried to upload a link to a simple little bar graph I made of the types of trees I have in my backyard but couldn't get it to go. I'll try later and post it later if I can get it to work.

...5 minutes later, my graph finally loads and I am attempting to post it into my blog.

Reflection - Using online Data

I found the chapter 6 information on using online data sets to be a really good concise resource for ideas on utilizing online data. I have actually utilized this method of teaching for various topics for many years using an informal form of inquiry (I guess I didn't realize it was inquiry at the time), such as plotting tidal patterns in locations, plotting temperature and precipitation averages in different climate zones to infer the effects of large bodies of water and mountains on these variables. However, I don't think my use of them has reached it's full potential. I would like to more closely follow the inquiry method to get kids developing and writing their own questions and draing their own a conclusions based on the analysis of the data. With the "Generate an Argument" model developed by Sampson, I think this would be a great way to retool these labs that I have already utilized in the past. Having students working in cooperative groups to look at this data and then provide supporting evidence for their conclusions in the form a poster (a great way to utilize Glogster!) that can be shared, discussed, and evaluated to determine the validity of the group's conclusion is a more effective use of this information for doing inquiry based science. I like the listing of resources for data, but I know there are many more out there to be accessed. It's a good jumping off point though.
Here are a few other resources that I've used in the past.
Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO), the CIA World Factbook, the Alaska Climate Research Center, to name a few.

I explored the I Teach STEM site on wetpaint, which had a lot of good resources for specific subject matter. However, the lack of an index to find the type of site I need for a specific topic would make it a more difficult resource to use.

Voicethread & Jing

So I had the great idea that I would experiment and try to make an instructional how-to voicethread on how to embed a screencast. So I opened voicethread and tried to upload my Jing created screencast image (using an embed code) and couldn't get it to accept the file address. Upon reading the help section and forum on Voicethread I discovered that Voicethread currently does not support Jing files. At least not yet. They apparently will be adding this feature at some future date. As of now, you can only add Jing files if you have the paid version, JingPro. So anyway, here is where you go on the Jing site to learn how to embed Jing files:

Digital Video

Here's a video I made of my daughter riding her pony. I will attempt to make another. One of the ways we use the videos in my riding lessons is for kids to be able to critique themselves and their horse on body position, etc. I would like to be able to have kids in my science classes use the digital pictures and video to produce digital "lab reports" for their science experiments, but I don't have a digital camera for my classroom. However, the kids have plenty of cell phones that can record, but no cords for file transfer. Any suggestions on how to get around this issue? Also, is there a particular way to record the video so that the video isn't too large? Thanks.



Okay, so I was able to get the video uploaded, which took around 5 minutes to load. But for some reason, there's no sound.

Reflections for Week 3

Science in Plain English

This method of video production is a great guideline for teaching any concept. I like the fact that no high tech video editing capabilities are required. It is important when using a tool like video production to learn a concept, that the point of the task to learn target concepts is not lost in the complexity of making the project. I look forward to trying to make one of my own. I think my students will like doing this too. However, I do worry about having a quiet place for recording and time to rehearse will be needed, sometimes space in the classroom isn’t ideal for this. I’m curious to know how these other teachers handled this aspect.

Creative Commons
Wikipedia and other similar commons for image resources are great. I use these resources regularly, but still require my students to cite information and get permission to use images that permission isn't explicitly granted on the site. I check out the Creative Commons and found it to be a little confusing. By placing these images in the commons is the owner/creater granting permission to use. I realize all images created are automatically copyrighted but some people don't want their images being used for ANY purpose. Anyway I don't really sea a difference between a Google image search and the creative commons other than the ability to search solely for commons images. Here are some images that are from yesterday here in Fairbanks. We had a crane that was working on a bridge topple over into the river. My husband happened to be driving by right after it happened. Amazingly, no one was injured, even though when my husband first drove by they'd had a guy dangling from the crane in a basket welding the bridge supports only 30 minutes earlier. Later in the afternoon as I was driving by again taking my kid to soccer I snapped some pictures with my cell phone. However, I can't figure out how to get these images off my phone onto my computer (I don't have a data plan)... anyway, I digress, that's a whole other issue. SO... I went to the creative commons and found someone else had posted pictures of the accident. Here is a link.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fairbanksmike/4747229440/

Chap 2 – Digital Images ad Video in Science Teaching

The research has proven that pictures, i.e. visualization tools, can increase student comprehension. I guess I’ve always known this since this is what works best for my own learning. Therefore my teaching style has been focused on incorporated this facet to keep students engaged, increase comprehension, and improve the student’s ability to recall the information. Levie and Lentz likened imagery as a type of advanced organizer. Further research on the effects of video showed that videos in combination with other instructional tools were better for student learning than either the video or the other learning tool on its own. It is important to note that the studies showed that interactive video produced better achievement when the use of the interactive video was guided and structured rather than left to the sole control of the learner.

Here is a summation of the guidelines for best practices in using digital imagery:

1. The photos or video must specifically illustrate the targeted content and address the instructional goal.

a. These have the greatest effect when the imagery interprets what has already been read, connects or organizes the ideas of the text or verifies the reader’s comprehension.

b. Digital imagery is particularly effective in conveying information that might otherwise be intangible such as for microscopic specimens, astronomical objects, etc.

2. There must be meaningful interaction with the imagery.

a. This is achieved through careful questioning strategies that allow students to make observations, draw conclusions, make connections, and note relevance.

3. The imagery must supplement not replace the teacher instruction.

a. It shouldn’t be used as a “filler” but should be used to exemplify concepts that would otherwise be inaccessible such as comparing various ecosystems. Images can also more easily demonstrate small, finite concepts such as precise measuring skills, elaborate diagrams, or microscopic structures.

4. Respect copyrights under the Educational Multimedia Fair Use Guidelines.

a. An interesting point made in this chapter was that of digital quality. The suggested picture resolution for a slideshow in 72 ppi, and to have an image the size of a screen it needs to be 800-1000 pixel wide at 72 ppi. In my experience, this has proven to be a really important concept to convey to students since they will often try to use thumbnail images that have been enlarged in a presentation resulting in a blurred picture that detracts from the presentation. Conversely, if their images have too high of a resolution, the project can become very slow to load on a web page and uses up valuable file space.

Using Jing to Screencast a video

In Chapter 2 of the Tech in the Secondary Science Classroom there are a listing of good web resources for using Digital Video. I tried out this one on Chemistry, it's called Chemistry Comes Alive. They have great videos for some of the more hazardous or intangible chemistry concepts. This was a cool one that shows a phenomenon I'd never heard about wherein a mercury droplet can be made to pulsate like a beating heart. Too cool. Anyway, most of the videos have a text explanation of the chemical concept being demonstrated. This particular video also had targeting questions to get the students thinking and to convey their understanding about what they observed.
http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/jcesoft/cca/pirelli/pages/cca3heart.html

P.S. I tried to screencast this video, but the resulting video was too large (75 mb). Not sure why. So I aborted that attempt.

Embedding a YouTube video

YouTube actually has a lot of great science videos that can be used to instruct both teachers and kids. However, many schools block it to prevent kids from accessing inappropriate content. However, my principal had given permission to show YouTube videos that can be used as a learning tool. To do this if I opened the video at home and then brought my lap top to school with the video open, it would play, however you couldn't go to another video and open it. Now they've actually created a log in window that allows the teacher to bypass these blocked sites. One way I have used YouTube for Chemistry is to show lab demonstrations that are not feasible in the high school classroom due to lack of the proper chemicals or the chemicals are not safely handled in a class environment. For example, when we were learning about the properties of the halogen gases I found a good YouTube video that showed the properties of the halogens and their behavior when reacting with hydrogen to produce acids and other metals. There are tons of videos like this.


I also get ideas for Chemistry demos from YouTube. Here is one that I actually did in class when we were studying exothermic reactions. The kids went wild. It was nice to see the result of the chemical reaction and noting safety precautions before trying these out for yourself.

Embedding Glogster attempt #1

After reading a post by knodelscience on difficulties getting a Glogster poster embedded, I decided to see if I could get it to work. At the bottom of the Glogster poster there are a couple of choices listed (see here: http://screencast.com/t/NmE1NTAw)... (posted using Screencast), aha!
Anyway, I simply clicked "embed to webpage" then clicked the copy button and then pasted it here in my blog. Hopefully this works and you can now see my Glogster poster in this post.

VoiceThread

I first used Voicethread last year with my own children when the volcano in Cook Inlet was threatening to erupt. It was on the news everday since the volcano was threatening to shut down air travel in and out of Anchorage since the volcano lies in the pathway of major airline traffic. My kids had a ball using it in the privacy of our home but were a little uncomfortable when they listened to the playback of themselves. So I tried it with my earth science class this past year for two different projects. The first was on clouds and the second was on the solar system. For the cloud project, they had to take digital photos of at least 3 types of clouds post them on our class voicethread and the record the information regarding each photo. This project seemed simple and pretty doable, however, these are the problems I encountered.
1. The Voicethread site can be a little slow to load and record info and sometimes the info is not save.
2. Others can delete your info unless important precautions as taken to backup the voicethread.
3. My high school kids had trouble getting a clear recording in a class environment and most couldn't do this at home unless they happened to have a laptap w/ built in mics or they had an external mic attached to a desktop computer.
4. The sound volume on the recording was really difficult to get just right so as not to blast the listener or be too quiet to where it couldn't be understood.
5. Even with all the kids these days having cell phones, I still had trouble getting kids to be able to upload their photos to our site. The most common problem was not have a cord to transfer from the phone, or kids not having the ability to email or send the image from their digital camera source.
I still think it was a worthwhile project however, but took twice as long as I anticipated and I spend way more time on technical issues than actually learning/discussing clouds.

In our second attempt at a Voicethread, this time on the Solar System, there was a little more success but we still had problems with slow upload/opening of our Voicethread when all students were logged in and trying to access the project, even though the kids were in teams and each group had a separate login account.
There wasn't the issue of upload pics because we used images from online. The kids were a little more comfortable this go around since they already knew how to use the site and what to expect for a final outcome. They seem to like using this tool for projects and I was able to get kids producing and collaborating and sharing their information.
The final requirement for this project was to do a scavenger hunt of solar system facts (I made a list of questions to find answers to using fill in the blank or short answer) that had to be obtained by review the posts made by the contributers to the project.
Our voicethread had to be kept private due to privacy issues since the students had their names on their identities. But here is a link to the project I made at home with my kids.
http://voicethread.com/#u357661.b456651.i2428402

Screencast.

Here is my first attempt at a Screencast. We are planning to take a horse camping trip this weekend to the White mountains recreation area northeast of Fairbanks. This is a place we like to go in the winter to go xc skiing, skijoring and snowmachining.
Check it out: http://screencast.com/t/OWM5ODY1M

Using my PLN! - After reading nrsfyzix site and seeing the embedded screencast of Vernier's Graphical analysis, I looked into to how to do this on the Jing help menu. So I was able to find out how to add a button for sharing using an embed code. I will later try to make a Voicethread on how to do this!

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TEDx

I've watched several of the TEDx videos today. It's pretty much a collection of various scientific lectures on video. Kinda like YouTube for education. Some of the videos, like the undersea creatures camoflauging tricks had video footage that is on YouTube that I used in my bio classes. Interesting resource. The videos are fairly short and seem to be professionally done. I don't know if I would actually show one of them for my classes, but they are a good resource for me as the teacher. I was also able to finally add TEDx as an RSS feed.

Love the Glogster

Very cool little tool. I made my first glog for my equestrian camp that we put on in the summer. Granted our camp was this past week! But I will definitely use it next summer to advertise my equestrian camp. I can see my students l-o-v-i-n-g this! The ability to print is the best part. Great for making school flyers and then they can post to school website. Awesome, awesome, awesome.
Here is a link to my simple little equestrian camp poster... took me about 20 minutes and I was learning on the fly.
http://gspice.glogster.com/AspenRidgeHorseCamp/

My need to organize!

I am a completely type A personality... therefore it drives me crazy if my bookmarks, folders, house, classroom, anything really, is unorganized. As a result, I wasn't completely happy with using Google Reader. After watching the videos on how to organize Google Reader, I now am much happier with using it. I have now organized all of the blogs and news feeds into tidy folders based on their subject matter. So far I have made folders titled: Science, News, Horse Stuff, Thinking Education, & World Cup Soccer. This has made it much easier to manage the clutter. I do have a question though, can Twitter be part of this on Google Reader too?

Science & Literacy

After reading the Science & Literacy article and the Common Core Literacy standards, I feel pretty confident that I already teach to these standards and have always had these types of guidelines in place for my students. Students whine occasionally "this isn't English class! Why do I have to write so much!" My joking reply is, "the only reason you have English class, is so you can do science!" Ha! Anyway, one of the ways I support literacy is through the requirement of "Pre-labs" I call them tickets into the fun park because they're not allowed to do the "fun stuff" (the actual lab) with out them. These require that the students demonstrate that they have read the lab through completely (and comprehend it) and can articulate the purpose, the procedures they will use and any safety precautions that need to be taken. One way I have adapted this idea for my complex AP Bio labs, is to have the students draw or diagram the procedures with little numbered diagrams of each major step in the procedures. This is a quick way for me as the teacher to assess if they truly have read and understand the procedures for the lab.

As for the Common Core Literacy standards, I'm confident that my district will adopt these (if if our state does not) as we are already moving in this direction anyway with standards for literacy in all content areas. Once important reason for having these standards is to hold teachers accountable, as well as the students. Without a clear set of literacy standards, the type of educational experience a student has is simply luck of the draw, usually depending on the teacher they get. As a result, some teachers who have no idea how or what they should be doing simply flounder and just try this or that hoping that the students come away with something. Too often these teachers don't require any form of demonstration of the student's ability to process, analyze, and share information. They are simply taught at, through lecture, notes, videos, etc. and then required to take a multiple choice test on the information. Don't get me wrong, I use multiple choice questions and they definitely have a purpose, but it shouldn't be the sole form of assessing student learning or understanding. Students should be creating and communicating about their understanding of what they are learning about, not just regurgitating information. By having a clear set of guidelines based on career and college expectations, the students will have clear expectations to strive for and will develop a deeper understanding of the content using communication skills necessary for working and living in the 21st century.

Guiding Principles for Utilizing Technology in the Classroom

My guiding principles for technology have always been to give students access to information and tools for doing science. I also want them to be able to develop skills in using technology tools for the workplace. I view my role as their teacher to inspire them to pursue their interests, to nurture their natural curiosity, to guide them in achieving their educational goals, and to act as a mentor in developing science skills and knowledge. Technology is an avenue for achieving these goals. I also use technology to give my students more immediate feedback by providing instantaneous test results, online discussions, access to information regarding my class via my class wiki. Finally, I want to encourage my students to be able to collaborate without them having to leave their home, and to interact with each other as well as others in the global classroom to create, discuss, and share information.

Okay, so the more I read about Twitter, the more I find that I am not the only one who is not interested in reading random information about people's personal lives. I use Facebook for that to connect with people I know and have real relationships with.... I can see possible a use for it with a network of science teachers if the postings were about specific topics and kept to just those topics... not random postings that are personal.

Twitter makes me nuts!

Still having trouble getting Twitter figured out. I have tried to add the people listed in the links Eric gave us but for some reason I am not doing something right and they are not showing up in the search. I'll try again.

I hate to say it, but after the first week in this web 2.0 class, I'm a little irritated by the format of this class. I was very excited about taking this class and getting the opportunity to build my tech repertoire. I thought I was a pretty tech savvy person and on the forefront of utilization of technology in the classroom, however, the random, unconnected assignments has me feeling rather frustrated and like this may not get me the results I wanted. I was hoping to get some real guidance on specific ways to utilize these various technologies for teaching science. I know its only the first week but still, trying to learn about and implement so many things at once with no specificity has me wondering how it will come into play in my classroom. To quote the first chapter from our book, ."...the technology cannot be discussed in isolation—it must be combined
with a description of the teaching strategy. A description of the manner in
which a pedagogical strategy is combined with technology to teach specific content is
crucial." So I guess I'm hoping that at some point, specific ways in which I can these technology tools to better teach my students that content and get them to share and learn from others will be revealed.

Still getting all this figured out. I've been doing a lot of reading and just trying to absorb and evaluate how this could all be used in my classroom. I would like to see more specifics on some of these science blogs and on Twitter on how these can be used in the classroom without worry of inappropiate sites or irrelevant/inaccurate "stuff" that is just opinions rather that real science. For my ap bio, I will be looking for sites that deal with the required labs and get some feedback on tips, tricks, and alternative materials. Also, it might be interesting to network with these other teachers and possibly do labs jointly and share data for greater sampling numbers.

Introduction

Welcome to Ms. Hamlin's Science blog for Lathrop Malemute students! After teaching at NPH for the last 13 years I am really happy to be able to call myself a Malemute through and through since I am not not only a Lathrop parent but a staff member as well! I look forward to working with and getting to know each of you... although I already know many of you quite well! We are going to have a great year learning about and doing science!