Post CyberBridge Reflection Questions - Eddie Williams

1.         TEAM

2.         TEAM

3.         TEAM

4.         TEAM

5.         What do you see of lasting value as a result of this project for your students as learners?

I believe that the idea that math, science and history are not completely separate topics was a revelation to the majority of our students. These subject areas are addressed separately, by different teachers and students tend to identify them as completed unrelated topics, developing a very myopic view of each area of study. 

          By having different teachers from different areas work together with the students our kids were able to see that all of these topics are not only related, but in many cases, dependent upon each other. The way that science has driven some of the major events in history, and how math is vital to quantifying many scientific principals is a very powerful lesson for our students that they may carry with them throughout the rest of their lives.

6.         What do you see of lasting value as a result of this project for yourself as a learner and educator?

          As a learner, I see myself filtering more of the algebraic concepts I teach through the filters of science and history. Drawing on those other areas to explain new mathematical concepts sparks not only sparks the interest of the students, but my own as well. It forces me to learn more about what the students are being asked to comprehend in their other classes and build on that.

As good teachers know, when you can tie a new idea to something that a student is already familiar with or has an interest in, you stand a much better chance of having that idea stick with the student. Not only does it make the subject matter “come alive”, it also allows students to access the new information in a variety of ways.

7.         What do you see of lasting value as a result of this project for the community?

By taking what the students learned about chemical and physical change and presenting it to the public in the form of that was fun (slime), it gave the community the opportunity to learn a bit about the science, but also to see what middle school students are capable of. In the area our students live in, children are perceived more as a nuisance in the community. Graffiti, gangs and general vandalism are normal when groups of kids are hanging around. This project gave our students the chance to let the community see that they are learning, and want to share that knowledge with others in a fun and entertaining way.  

8.         If you were to do this project again, what would you do differently?

          I would like to do small portions of the pilot in my classroom periodically. Rather than coordinate after school time with other teachers and students, I would set aside bits of time to have the students do small, specific activities and experiments that tie directly to what we are covering at that specific time in Algebra.

          It was nice to work with the other teachers and students that I was not familiar with, but in order to make the pilot work we had to do some of the activities before we taught the Algebraic concept that it would best demonstrate. For example, we made super balls from basic household items. That would have been an excellent activity to introduce graphing of parabolic paths created by the bouncing ball. Graphing parabolas is what we are covering currently.

          I still feel the students got a lot out of the activity, but in the future I would change the timing and do the activities in my classroom. 

Post Science Festival Reflection (team)

- Student engagement

- Visitors' experience

- Effectiveness of created media

- What would you do next time?

The students that joined us at the science festival were excellent and our booth had a constant flow of visitors from the time we opened until well after the festival had ended. Keeping this in mind, if we were given the opportunity to participate in the science festival again, we believe that the two main things we would most likely change would be material preparation and booth set up.

We set up our tables in a horseshoe shape with visitors walking into the horseshoe. We noticed that this created a bottle neck as people trying to enter the booth had to maneuver around those that were exiting. If we were to do this again, a single table across the booth half way in, will allow the students to meet visitors head on, rather than have them squeeze past departing visitors. This set up would also allow us room to project the prepared media onto the back wall of the booth in an adequate size.

The second change would be to limit the amount of time students had to spend measuring and mixing ingredients for our slime. If we would pre mix some of the items we were using, such as the borax and water, or even have pre measured amounts of the ingredients like the glue our students could simply provide instruction to the visitors regarding mixing and not have to focus on measuring out each ingredient. This would also allow our students more time to discuss the other activities we did in the pilot program.

Media Project/Product

I plan to have my algebra students brain storm over the next week to come up with some representation of the difference between Linear Change and Exponential change. I'll give them the option of photo, video, or illustration and then work with the groups to decide on an appropriate media software to present their work. Ideally, the students would be able to have a rough draft by the beginning of the second sememster and revisit their work throughout the second sememster to improve upon their visual representations as their understanding grows.

-Eddie Williams

Algebra / Algebra Support

Castle Park Middle Cyberbridge testing PH liquids

CPM Pilot 3

Castle Park Middle - CyberBridge Pilot Day 1

Project Matrix

Post your driving question or driving question ideas!

Continuity vs.  change 

Mechanisms that allow or stimulate change.

Effects of change on linving and non-living systems

Effects of scientific chemical reactions upon human culture

What was your hands on activity? Could you use this with your students? Could your scientist come to your class and do this activity with you? Reflect on your time today with your scientist.

Our hands on activity included going to UCSD's Star CAVE with Dr. Cooksy to explore the possible applications of looking inside of a molecule using the 3D projector.  The Star CAVE could be used with students if modified to show much simpler molecules and other activities could be scheduled to allow for small group rotation due to needing to take a large number of students to the campus.

We (Don and Eddie) think showing students that technology and media can be used for something other than communication and entertainment would also be of value. So much of our students' time dealing with technology is either texting, emailing, gaming or watching.

The connection between 3d media and the introduction of scientific concepts would get a big buy in from the kids as well.

Dr. Cooksy could not do this activity at our campus with our students, but he could come in and discuss the same molecular interactions and more specifically the interactions associated with the students' area of study and show them in 2D. This could also help to build interest in a field trip to the Star CAVE and UCSD campus.

The information about the molecular structures would be very difficult to visualize without the images that this resource creates and allows students to become familiar with information and data limited to certain student populations, usually of higher education levels.

Dr. Cooksy is a very amiable person and seems genuinely eager to lend his knowledge and expertice to engage our students. I think he will be a great fit to our campus, program, project.

Stuff for mind dump

Agracultre

Tobacco thing standards for life cycle how does the plant get the nutrients to the soil.  Scientists to the soil

Soil deprecition- grow some tobacco.  soil analysis

plant analysis 

how the doest the tobacco how chemical relations within photosynthesis

World cultures

Math issues 

Lung tissue and ties chemical 

Why is it bad for you?  Health tie in bomb bomb bomb?

tie in with science 1 for the full year and science 2 chemistry and science 3 physics

Math linear algebra- graphing plant growth

measurement of soils-percentages of the first generation.