Monday, February 9, 2009

Dear Parents,

As you know our Science Projects will be due next Friday, February 20. In an effort to support our students in completing high quality projects on time, I am allowing the students to stay until 4pm on this Wednesday (February 11) and Thursday (February 12).

During this project time, students will be able to work with group members on projects as well as use the computers, cameras, and other art supplies necessary to their projects.

It will be helpful if you provide a healthy snack for your child.

Thanks,
Matt Callison
mcallison@nhusd@k12.ca.us
510-388-2928

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

___ Yes, my child ________________________ can stay until 4pm on Wednesday, February 11.

When my child leaves this special work time:
__ I will pick my child up.
__ My child will walk home as usual.
__ Someone will pick my child up: _________________________.
__ Other: ____________________________________________.

___ Yes, my child ________________________ can stay until 4pm on Thursday, February 12.

When my child leaves this special work time:
__ I will pick my child up.
__ My child will walk home as usual.
__ Someone will pick my child up: _________________________.
__ Other: ____________________________________________.

I agree that it is okay for my child to stay until 4pm on the days indicated above. I also understand it will be helpful to provide my child a snack for during this time.

Name: _____________________________

Signature: __________________________ Date: _____________

Phone Number Where I Can Be Reached Between 2 PM – 4 PM: ____________________________

Science Project Worktime Permission Slip.PDF

Today I surprised the class with a newt. The students were so excited and full of questions about our new class pet. Our newt doesn’t have a name yet…but I’m sure I will be able to report a new name tomorrow. Here a few photos.

Here we are putting soil into the terrarium.

Here we are planting some ferns.

Here is our newt!

Here we are misting our newts new home.

Here is a “Velcro Poster” that I made as an example of what I expect the students to make. I call this a “velcro poster” because all the pieces of the poster are attached with velcro. This makes a great teaching and learning tool.

Our “teachers” will “build”" the poster in front of their students as they teach the process of photosynthesis. After our teachers leave, the students in other classes can rehearse this new information by rebuilding the poster while explaining the process of photosynthesis.

I made the pieces of the poster with some thicker, white art paper. Using colored pens and pencils and our science book as a guide, I drew the different components. I outlined everything in pen to make it look really sharp. Next, the pieces were laminated (Thanks Brian’s mom!). I painted the background posterboard with some liquid water colors.

Part of the learning that accompanies the Science Project students are working on is:

1. Learning how to work on a big project by breaking it into smaller chunks and,
2. Learning how to meet a deadline that is a ways off in the future (with a big project you can’t just put it off until the night before) 

I created a basic calendar with the class to give them a general idea how to break this project and all its parts up into smaller projects.  These smaller projects have deadlines throughout the month to help keep the students on top of things.  I have revised the calendar a little tonight and wanted to share it with you.

You can download the science calendar here as a PDF file.

I was recently asked by a parent, “Will the projects that are due in February be completed in class?  If not, I’d like to know what is needed & expected.”  What a great question!

Here is my response:

I have told the students I will do my best to give them about 40 minutes a day in class to work on their projects.  Some days, like today, it didn’t work out to give the kids any time.  I have also told the students that there is no way that they will be able to finish the projects by the deadline by only working in the class.  Work outside the classroom is not “required” but is “definitely necessary” if they want to complete the project on time and get a good grade.

I would add to this note, though, that this is definitely a STUDENT project.  There is no expectation that parents do any of this project work.  Any work done at home should be completed by STUDENTS (not parents) and is only being done at home because we don’t have enough time during the school day to do all the things we need to do.

Different students are working on different products (mini-book, song, videos, posters) and so what each student should work on at home will be different.  If you look at the calendar you get an general idea of what students should be working on and when it needs to be finished.  There is a little overlap of dates on the calendar because it is just a general idea of where the students need to be in order to finish on time (February 20).

Because students should be finished with most of their research, I gave the class today two, more detailed explanations and expectations for the “Biome Slideshow” and the “Food Chain Video”.  These expectations aren’t too different than what is expected for the Book and PSA videos.  When I finish those up I will post them here as well.

Slideshow Expectations.pdf

Food Chain Video Expectations.pdf

Please respond with questions or comments by leaving a comment on the blog!

In class we are on week two of a large project.  

Last week the students were divided into groups of 5 or 6 and given a series of products they need to create.  Some of these products involve computers and video cameras, some involve music, art, drama or photography.  All the projects involve many, many skills.  I have listed a few of the skills below:

1. Researching information from a variety of sources
2. Note-taking
3. Citing sources and
4. Learning about and abiding by copyright laws
5. Researching on the internet
6. Exploring what sites can be trusted as a quality source of information and which ones to watch out for
7. Summarizing
8. Creating storyboards
9. Collaborating and discussion with a group
10. Dividing tasks among group members
11. Being responsible for a key part of a larger project
12. Working under the pressure of a deadline
13. Teaching and presenting information in front of peers and younger students

The final due date of this project is February 20, 2009.  The students will then have a week to practice teaching with the materials they created.  Student groups will then probably go into a few first grade and third grade rooms and teach the students the material they have been learning about.

Photosynthesis

1. Create a song, poem, chant, demonstration (think the “Strawberry Milkshake” demonstration from Hidden Villa), or dramatization that teaches the concept and process of photosynthesis.
2. Create an interactive “velcro poster” that you can use to teach and review this process with students. (think “Mud Lab” at Don Edwards)
3. Create a mini-book that explains the process of photosynthesis.

Food Web

Using the biome/ecosystem that your teacher assigns your group:

1. Create a slideshow that introduces your biome and the organisms in your food web.
2. Create “Food Chains in Plain English” (thanks CommonCraft) style video that demonstrates what a food chain is (using example organisms from your food web).  This video slideshow needs to show the movement of energy from Producer to Consumer to Decomposer.
3. Create an interactive “velcro poster” or (clay) model of your food web that students can use to practice making a food web.  This poster should have the same organisms that your slideshow and video have.
4. Learn (and be able to teach) a game that teaches how organisms in an ecosystem relate to each other and effect each other (cause and effect).

Endangered Species

1. Identify an endangered specie in your biome.
2. Research this organism (plant or animal) and why it is endangered.
3. Create a Public Service Campaign that tells others why it is endangered, the impact its extinction will have on the biome, and what people can do to help save this particular endangered specie.  This campaign must include a 30 second PSA (Public Service Announcement) and poster that can be printed and distributed.
4. In the PSA you must show the organism, show and describe its habitat, explain why its endangered, and share steps we can take to help it (stop littering, write a letter, etc.)

Science Project Outline.pdf

One great site for pictures is flickr.com.  flickr.com has a way to search for pictures that photographers allow you to use for your work as long as you give them credit.  This is called a Creative Commons Attribution License.

When you go to flickr.com, make sure you do an advanced search. 

Advanced Search on flickr.com

In the Advanced Search, select “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content ”.  

Check these boxes to search only for Creative Commons content

When you select a picture to look at.  Look at the right sidebar and scroll down.  You will see a label that tells you what kind of copyright the picture has.

This label show the copyright information for the photo on this page.

This link takes you to a page with the Creative Commons copyright information that will tell you what you need to do to use this photo.

Read this to find out how to use this picture legally.

By reading the license above you know that as long as you give credit (you attribute the photo to the person you took the picture) you are okay to use this in your project.  If you use these, legal pictures and correctly give credit to the photographers, we will be able to post your videos and slideshows on YouTube.  If you don’t, we can only use the videos and slideshows in our class.

For our science slideshows, you need to identify where in California your biome and ecosystem are and show that information graphically on a map.  I have found a helpful site with lots of different kinds of California maps.  The maps that will be most helpful to you are “outline maps” or the maps with only a black outline of California.  You will be able to add the information you need on the computer.

http://www.netstate.com/states/maps/ca_maps.htm

In class we have started our science projects.  Our students are creating books, slideshows, and videos they will use to teach other Pioneer students about Living Things, including photosynthesis, food webs, food chains, biomes and endangered species.  We are using books and the internet to research.  As we research we are learning a lot about copyright laws and how they relate to using images from websites.  Here are a three links below you might want to explore at home!

http://www.copyrightkids.org/

http://www.richmond.k12.va.us/schools/jones/Copyright-Kids/index.htm

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/copyrightmystery/?#/copyright/