The Problem... Create an ICT artifact that expresses the scale of the really big and really small. Why?
Keep things in perspective!
Creative expression in Science class
Facilitate self-regulation
Facilitate a more intuitive understanding of scale of things discussed in Science
Scale Misconceptions There are a bunch of Science misconceptions that come from a lack of understanding of scale. Here is a video about one of these by Misconception Specialist Derrick Muller of the YouTube Channel Veritasium.
The scale of really big stuff and really small stuff can be really hard to comprehend. Here are some ways that people have tried making it easier:
In a Class... Most of the Grade 9 Science course revolves around the very small (atoms and electricity) and the very large (astronomy) and this activity would be perfect for that class. I would present the above examples to a class and have them create their own artifact to illustrate scale with objects from throughout the course. It could be a long-term project that is introduced at the beginning of the course. The students collect the data throughout. As an ICT Artifact, students could continue to contribute as they move through the grades. It would serve as a good anchor point for some big concepts throughout the Science Curriculum. There are tons of different ways students could present the data: infographics, videos, images, apps and more. I would keep the project relatively open to facilitate Self-Regulation. As the teacher, I would provide them with feedback as they build their artifact over the course as well as providing students to critique others.
Check out this blog entry from a few years ago by @emnose. Canoe tripping is awesome. The planning, driving, paddling and portaging all pay off when your alone on a lake in the middle of Ontario enjoying the silence and the stars. In a class... I would only use this activity in a class if right opportunity presented itself: if students were actually going on a canoe trip (I know a bunch of high schools that regular do canoe trips). Students working on their Duke of Edinburgh are actually required to do a trip so it would be a good opportunity for them to earn some of the requirements. The Physics... Believe it or not, there is actually a ton of physics that can be found in canoe tripping. Here are some examples: 1. Buoyancy and hydrodynamics
What canoe shape, size, depth is appropriate for the trip. Can study the drag/friction of the canoe in the water.
Optimal weight and number of people per canoe. Too heavy and the canoe will sit too low in the water and be inefficient to paddle!
Number of canoes needed for the trip.
Optimal paddle length and shape. There is some statics involved in the best paddle length. The shape has to do with hydrodynamics.
This site has a whole bunch of canoe recommendations and images including the one below. A good question may be which one would be most appropriate canoe profile for the trip.
2. Distance-time relationships
Best route to a destination (connections to contours in geography and optimization in math). Students would have to develop some criteria for what 'best' route entails. Easiest? Quickest? Shortest travel time? In the picture below, what would be the best route from the Three Legged Lake Access Point to Clear Lake?
Map is of Massassauga Provincial Park.
Clear Lake is a route we've done a few times.
3. Statics
What is the best way to pack a hiking pack in terms of physics. Would it be better to pack the heavier stuff closer or further away from your body? This can be interpreted as a simple statics problem (see below). How does your body adapt if the centre of gravity of your pack is further away from your back.
Drawn in Penultimate
Carrying a canoe - In terms of statics, is it better to carry a canoe with two people or one? What are some advantages and disadvantages of each. I've never had a problem with 1 person...
Canoes are designed to be carried by one
person but at first it doesn't seem to make
sense from a physics standpoint.
These are just a few examples of how to look at canoe tripping through a physics lens. I'm sure there are plenty more though. Transformative Environmental Education As a Scout leader, I have the opportunity to fairly regularly organize and participate in trips with groups of Scouts. It's something I think every high school student in Toronto should have a chance to experience. We talk about Environmental Sustainability but sometimes we forget what we're actually trying to sustain. Living in the city all year, I sometimes forget about my connection and dependance on nature. In an article I read at OISE for my cohort class (Global Citizenship and Sustainable Development), Julie Johnston stresses the importance of stepping outside the curriculum box by practicing Transformative Environmental Education. She presents education as the primary source of social reproduction and thus where we must start the cycle of understanding, caring for and protecting our environment. Two examples of Transformative Environmental Education she provides (that I could utilized in this Canoe Tripping activity) are:
Sky Awareness - promoting the importance of just looking up! Talking about how the sun tracks across the sky and how you could navigate by the stars. This is easily tied to physics (astronomy).
Bioregion-Based Education - understanding your connection to your immediate environment. Understanding the ecosystem in which you live. This ties nicely into biology and ecology concepts.
21st Century...
Students will be using Real-World Problem Solving and Innovationto help them plan their trip. Concepts from Physics and other courses can help make an actual trip more enjoyable and less laborious.
The activity also has the potential to be fairly long term and Self-Regulatedby students, culminating in the actual trip. Journals kept by students during the trip could be used to self-assess the effectiveness of their plans.
Lastly, there would be few more interdependent activities than a canoe trip, which basically forces everyone to do their part in order for the group to get to a destination. It's an excellent opportunity to demonstrate Collaboration.
What is the safest layout for a Science lab/classroom? Why?
Cover the Science Lab-Safety curriculum expectations in an engaging way
Utilize Third Teacher principles (environment as third teacher) that enables students to take more ownership of their classroom environment (while considering safety)
Each science course has a lab safety component to the curriculum. It makes sense. Lab activities use dangerous chemicals and apparatus. There needs to be procedures in place to ensure safety that the students are aware of. Usually, lab safety is taught over a day or two followed by a quiz. Why not make the way they learn about safety engaging? Minecraft! What I propose is give the choice for students to model the classroom/lab in Minecraft and then experiment to determine the safest way to arrange the classroom would be. They could also figure out procedures for dispensing and collecting dangerous chemicals and the best way to store apparatus. I probably wouldn't force them to use Minecraft. It would be one way they could attempt to solve the problem. The Lesson...
First, to facilitate Self-Regulation,I would discuss with the class what would make a successful classroom layout and have them establish some success criteria. They would then come up with some sort of method for carrying out the task. It may look something like this:
Organize! Students determine roles for constructing the model.
Model the classroom - including desks, lab desks, teachers desk, windows, doors, intercom, materials storage and anything else of note.
Label the safety equipment in the model - fume hood, eye wash station, sinks, fire blanket, sprinkler, fire extinguisher and anything else. Students will really know where all the safety equipment is after this!
Layout - In groups, students discuss how to improve safety by rearranging and experimenting with the layout. Not all safety items are movable but desks and storage of equipment are. This is where students can take ownership of their classroom environment. Different layouts can be discussed and actually implemented in the class.
Material DistributionProcedure - What is the best way to distribute lab materials/chemicals - come up with a plan!
Emergency plan - Plan for an emergency and try it out! With everyone sitting at their desks (in the model) re-enact the procedure.
Make a video. Groups create videos of the student's avatars interacting with their models acting out safety procedures (what to do when there is an acid spill, chemical distribution, etc). Each group could choose a different procedure to demonstrate. They can post their videos on YouTube to share with the rest of the class.
Students could continue to modify the model throughout the year if a layout isn't working or if there is a more unconventional lab that will happen. Why Minecraft?
Whenever tempted to use some form of ICT I think it is important to ask yourself if that is the best way to deliver a lesson or you are just using the tech for the sake of using the tech. If you can't rationalize the tech actually enhancing the learning experience for the students, don't do it. In this case I chose Minecraft for a few reasons:
It provides a Collaborative environment for groups of students to experiment with designs
Students can try different designs in a short amount of time. It's a good platform to support Real-World Problem Solving.
The first person perspective is more personal and engaging for students
The digital environment may be more comfortable to students who would not normally contribute in group discussions
Really, I'm just excited about the idea of using Minecraft in a class
There are limitations to what furniture/equipment you can build in Minecraft but if students are creative enough, they would probably be able to model anything they need for this exercise. One criticism of this may be that students wouldn't take lab safety seriously but I am fairly confident a student is more likely to remember the procedure from a classmate made video about what to do if there is a chemical fire in the class than from a teacher-directed lecture.
Ultimately, I students should decide how they want to come up with their ideal (safe) classroom. They could use Minecraft if they wanted to. For example, an alternative to Minecraft would be Trimble Sketchup (formerly Google Sketchup) or other 3D modeling software. The downside to that would be a loss of the collaboration and first-person immersion within their environment. Experimenting with the classroom in real life may not be practical but is another option.
At the Connect 2013 conference I attended a few weeks ago, I saw a group of middle-school aged kids walking around. The conference was mostly attended by teachers, administration and salespeople so I was a bit confused as to why they were there. Turns out they were a group of Grade 7 students from a school in Hamilton that were there with their teacher hosting a poster session on a really cool project they worked on: redesigning Hamilton's West Harbour... using Minecraft. Apparently, they presented their design to city officials. This CBC article has a slideshow of the creation process. Unfortunately, I missed the poster session and found out about it from my supervisor later (she was super excited about it). What is Minecraft? In case you haven't hear of it, Minecraft is an extremely popular 'sandbox survival' game. What does that mean? You build stuff out of blocks and try not to die. There are 2 main modes to play in: creative and survival. In creative mode you don't have to worry about the dying part so you can just create. Further explanation hereif needed. Minecraft and Education... I am a gamer. I love video games. I think they are a largely untapped source of educational potential so when I hear video games + education I get really excited. As a player of Minecraft, I can see tons of ways the game can provide fun and entertaining ways of teaching math and science. Just to be clear, Minecraft and Education is not a new idea. In fact, there is a version of the game called Minecraft EDUthat is specifically tailored to education. Teachers have more flexibility with the environments their students create in. Here's a video about the growing Minecraft EDU community:
As mentioned in the video, the creator of Minecraft EDU is Joel Levin, the Minecraft Teacher. Most of his work is directed at elementary level students. Check out some gameplay footage from his YouTube Channel. Playing in the Sandbox... In the documentary Minecraft: The Story of Mojang. Peter Molyneux (famous and sometimes controversial ex-Microsoft game developer) compares the evolution of video games to the evolution of Lego. Lego used to be a bunch of blocks that you dump on the floor and build whatever you want with. Now, it is a kit made up of a bunch of specialized pieces that you follow the instructions to build. After you finish building it, you put it on a shelf and leave it there to collect dust. Similarly, Molyneux states the best selling video-games have overwhelmingly become linear, polished products. Though they serve their own purpose as a form of interactive media, they generally leave little room for real creativity or creation. When your done playing it, you put the game it in its case and put the case on the shelf to collect dust. On the other hand, there is Minecraft. Notch (the creator of Minecraft) has done the exact opposite. There are essentially no set goals or creative limits (other than gravity). Minecraft has brought gaming back to the original lego bricks; back to playing in the sandbox. I like to think this analogy applies to education as well. We generally have courses with predetermined outcomes and use the same lessons year after year for different students. So much of what students learn feels useless to them after they pass the exam. Instead, we should be providing students with the tools and environment to create and continue to learn by themselves. Minecraft is one such environment and toolbox that enables students to set their own goals to create without limits in a highly collaborative environment. Teaching with Minecraft in High School... The Hamilton West Harbour and Joel Levin's classroom are examples of elementary school Minecraft projects. Would the game be able to engage high school students in the same way? I think so. Because the game is so open-ended, I believe a teacher could potentially come up with projects that addresses the curriculum from any course. Some projects having to do with physics and math that immediately come to mind are: Physics
Find gravity in the game by experimenting with falling objects. How does it compare to gravity on earth?
Measuring momentum and velocity of a mine cart
Measuring friction on a mine cart track
Study circuit operation using redstone
Examine gravitational and potential and kinetic energy and use it to design and build a roller coaster track
Math
Find optimal ways to mine for diamonds (related to maximizing surface area)
Cost to build different numbers of things (related rates)
Surface area/volume relationships of structures
Analysis of how the random world is spawned based on a seed (ties into Computer Science)
I'll try to explore these ideas and others in coming entries. Why Minecraft? The creation of a product is an integral part of the 21st Century Learning framework, especially for Knowledge Construction,Real-World Problem Solving and Use of ICT to be authentic and transformative. If this is the case, why use Minecraft at all? Why not physically build something? Having a physical product isn't always practical. Time, money, material and size constraints limit what is possible in the physical world. Resources and space are practically infinite in Minecraft. Fairly complicated works can be built fairly quickly, especially when there is effective Collaboration. In addition the game itself is cheap, user friendly and is available on almost any platform. Its accesibility makes it appealing from an equity standpoint. In addition, students on the same server are accountable for their actions and interdependent on the cooperation of all players. After all, there is nothing stopping from one student from completely destroying the work of the rest of a class. Minecraft has potential for awesome Self-Regulation as well. The game responds to the players actions as opposed to telling the user what to do. Students can challenge themselves with goals they collaboratively set with the each other and the teacher. Basically, Minecraft is able to tie in all the neXt Lesson competencies. Learning from Minecraft... In addition to using Minecraft to teach, educators can learn from the game's success in engaging players and inspiring creativity. This article from teachthought.com called '5 Lessons to Learn from Minecraft in Education' highlights some of them. I would add'Be Collaborative'as number 6 the list. Though Minecraft does not have to be played collaboratively, some of the world's largest and most intricate Minecraft constructions are a result of the combined efforts of groups of people.
Education should be about providing students with the tools to create and share their creations. What those Grade 7 students in Hamilton accomplished is an example of how transformative 21st Century Learning can be. Minecraft is just one platform that makes this kind of creation and collaboration possible but it sets a new standard on the possibilities of education.
How does the song I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing) illustrate physics concepts and how has Chris Hadfield's stay on the ISS impact the way the public thinks about Canada's contribution to Science?
Why?
Exposure to seldom heard Canadian point of view on space exploration
Illustrates how Science can directly impact Society
Deepen understanding of physics concepts and address misconceptions
Chris Hadfield is a Canadian astronaut and has been the commander of the International Space Station (ISS) for the past few months. From orbit, he has been taking stunning pictures of the Earth and tweeting them.
Nice pic of Toronto in this tweet:
Tonight's Finale: Toronto, Ontario. Interesting the different things that become more visible at night. twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield/…
Hadfield has drawn tons of media attention for the tweets and videos he has created. This entry is inspired by the completion of Chris Hadfield's stay on the ISS (he returns to Earth tomorrow evening). Have a safe journey home Chris!
The Song...
While on the ISS, Chris Hadfield co-wrote a song with Barenaked Lady Ed Robertson (who was on Earth). The media attention has been surprising (I have heard the song on several different radio stations over the past week).
I think it would be interesting to have a Science class examine some of the lyrics in the song to pick out and examine some of the concepts presented. This blog entry contains some background information on the writing of the song as well as the lyrics and sheet music complete with guitar chords. To turn this into an in-class activity, I would flip the video to the class for homework and provide them with some questions to prompt them thinking about the physics concepts mentioned. I would then provide them with the lyrics in class and would task groups of students with making the connections and checking the claims (and see how much creative license Hadrield and Robertson take!). They could then present their results to the rest of the class to start discussions on the topic. This activity requires student-directed Knowledge Construction because essentially they have to generate their own questions and figure out how to solve them. Below I have identified some of the lyrics that may be used in class discussions:
"Pushed back in my seat/Look out my window/There goes home"
At what point in the mission is Hadfield 'pushed back in his seat'? What is he experiencing? What is the physics behind that feeling? (an illustration of inertia and acceleration)
What would he feel this while orbiting in the ISS?
There is a common misconception about the lack of gravity an orbiting astronaut would experience. Really there is gravity, the weightlessness is attributed to the fact that the ISS is actually in free-fall around the earth.
"I can hear your voices bouncing off the moon"
This is more than just a metaphor! What is he referring to?
"All black and white just fades to grey/Where the sun rises sixteen times a day"
Why does the sun rise 'sixteen times a day'?
Why does the ISS not fall to earth?
This is a good way to introduce the concept escape velocity
This site contains interesting facts on the orbit of the ISS.
"Eighteen thousand miles an hour/fueled by science and solar power"
This also relates to escape velocity and can be used to calculate kinetic energy of the ISS (see below)
"At half a thousand tons/Ninety minutes Moon to Sun/A bullet can't go half this fast"
Check the validity of this statement! How fast do bullets generally travel?
How much kinetic energy does the ISS have compared to a bullet?
The ISS started a pieces on Earth. How did we get the kinetic energy of the ISS to that value?
"What once was fueled by fear/Now has fifteen Nations orbiting together here"
and...
"You can't make out borders from up here/Just a spinning ball within a tiny atmosphere"
These quotes give us some perspective and are an opportunity to explore deeper questions about our place on the planet and in the universe and the role of science in our society
Curriculum...
This lesson is flexible because of the student-constructed knowledge aspect. They ask the questions that they will answer. Because of this, it could potentially be appropriate in any high school Science/Physics class.
There's some interdisciplinary opportunity here too. Hatfield's Twitter pictures would be awesome to study in a physical geography class. It could also potentially be an appropriate topic of discussion for a civics class. The obvious connection is to a music class...
21st Century...
Students will have to use internet resources to answer their questions about the lyrics. The fact that the material is presented as a song (and video) will appeal to a broad range of high school students. It also models another possible medium that they can use to present material for assignments: through song!
Other internationally funded Science projects (Ex. The Large Hadron Collider)
More material... Here's another Ed Robertson blog entry on Science and Songwriting. Awesome quote: "If you want to improve your songwriting, work on your math and science." Some trivia: the Barenaked Ladies do the theme song to Science-laden TV comedy Big Bang Theory. This is another cool Hadfield video where he talks about how he takes the pictures from the ISS.
The problem... Experiment with designs and materials to build a structure that enables a truck to cross a chasm (between 2 desks). Why?
Build an intuitive understanding of forces and load paths
Make use of the engineering design process
Encourage collaboration, knowledge construction and real-world problem solving
Ode to the Bridge Builder...
While reading this blog post, feel to play what I like to think of as the Anthem of Civil Engineers: Ode to the Bridge Builder by the awesome Kyle Gabler from the awesome game World of Goo (available for desktop, iOS, Wii and more) Bridges are awesome (I use the word awesome a lot when I talk about Civil Engineering stuff because it is all awesome. Big + heavy + awe-inspiring = awesome). The bridge building challenge has been a key go-to for physics and science teachers. Usually it goes something like: use the provided materials (toothpicks, spaghetti, balsa wood) to span the gap between two desks. The team with the bridge that supports the most weight is the winner. Its Collaborative nature also makes it a standard team-building exercise. I want to pull this classic into the 21st Century by tweaking the challenge a bit. Into the 21st Century...
The modifications I would make are as follows:
Success Criteria: Bridge is able to support the weight of a (weighted toy) truck crossing over it while satisfying the constraints.
The usual challenge of building the bridge that supports the most weight isn't representative of Real-World Problem Solving. Instead, if a teacher chooses to make it a competition, the winner may be the cheapest bridge (the ethics of the lowest bidder standard is a good discussion topic in classes!)
Instead of providing the students with the materials to build the bridge, provide them with nothing. They will have to experiment to find out what materials are best to use.
Real constraints! Set a material price limit. I would set this very low (a few dollars?) to prevent them from using just a straight 2x4 or steel which would be acceptable based on the success criteria.
Make the span huge. Note: huge is a relative term. It depends on how long you want students to spend on it!
Time to Play... Students may want to dive straight into the building of the bridge but it should be stressed that they should do some research and planning before building. This doesn't have to be boring research though. It can be hands on and engaging. Having the students decide what materials to use supports Knowledge Construction. Students will have to experiment with a host of materials, taking into account their strength, weight, and cost. They will also need to decide what to affix the members together (if it even ends up being constructed with multiple members). Physically experimenting with different designs can be time consuming, and time is money. Student can experiments with different designs using simulations instead. I say the more fun, the better. Save the boring simulations for the pros (at least in younger grades). Although World of Goo is not your typical physics simulation program, it helps develop an intuitive understanding of structural design (as long as they are reflecting on what they build and how they can improve their designs while playing). Another (free) web-based game that is more specifically for bridge design is called Cargo Bridge. Ultimately, the groups should decide what simulation program they would like to use.
Screenshot from World of Goo
Curriculum Connections...
I see this activity as at the beginning of a physics course or at the beginning of a unit on forces. It is a good formative assessment for a teacher to learn about students' preconceptions about forces and building. During the design process, students can analyse the external forces in the structure, a part of the grade 12 physics curriculum. If done at the beginning of the unit, the teacher can use it as context for the rest of the unit.
The Problem... How much energy do you regularly use? How much of an impact will you have if you reduce your energy use? Why?
Students examine and visualize the extent of their regular energy use to get an intuitive sense of what energy really is
Bring big sustainability topics into science classes
Visualizing Energy... This is a video I found a while ago on TED-Ed:
This video is full of important Science, Math and Sustainable Development topics. It helps students visualize energy use (hard to visualize by itself) in terms of lightbulbs (easier to visualize). He discusses the fact that we need more substantial, systemic change than just 'eliminating plastic bags' to really make a difference in the world. The video has been flipped on TED-Ed, meaning that in addition to the video, it has questions and extra resources for students. It is a good place to start a conversation on difficult topics such as sustainable power generation and personal energy use. Today I will focus on the personal energy use aspect. Flipped to a class, the questions given on TED-Ed can act as a homework check for a teacher as well as a formative assessment about their current understanding of the topic. Personal Energy Audit Watching the video, I was reminded of a project from third year where I had to perform a Personal Energy Audit by tracking my energy use over the course of a week. We then had to analyze our results and create a plan to reduce our energy consumption. Here are some of my results from that project:
The hardest part about collecting the data is figuring out the rate of consumption of each item. Most of them require the application of Ohm's Law (V=I/R) to find out the current. The natural gas can be found from utility bills and transportation can be approximated by mileage and gas consumption. This is where a Google Spreadsheet would come in handy. Each student could be assigned a different item and figure out how much energy it consumes for each hour/kilometre/month in operation and record the value and any assumptions. They could record their findings on the spreadsheet so the rest of the class would be able to see it. They could then use their classmates' values to Collaborativelycalculatetheir total energy consumption by just keeping track of approximately how long each appliance is running and multiplying it by the consumption. The collaborative aspect of the task makes it much less laborious for each student while emphasizing the need for authentic and necessary collaboration. Be Critical... After performing the analysis, they would be responsible for creating an Action Plan that they can use to figure out how to reduce their energy consumption which they will put into practice. They should then compare their results to the number of lightbulbs given by the presenter in the video and critically analyze his assumptions. As an extension, the whole class can look at the total energy consumption and find out how many lightbulbs that equates to. Group discussions can be used to develop strategies for reducing power consumption as a school/community and educate their peers on the issue. The investigation gives the students a great feel for the scale of their impact compared to the assumptions in the video. They can validate the speakers assumptions based on their own data and determine whether their personal impact is worth the effort it may require. Curriculum connections... In terms of curriculum, the assignment requires appropriate research, unit conversions, energy conversions, record keeping and data management, and basic electricity and energy calculations. Based on these expectations, Grade 11 or 12 Science would probably be appropriate. I think an interesting application would be for students to start the project in Grade 9 (or earlier) and track their energy use until Grade 12. This way they can evaluate and improve their own plans for reducing their energy consumption. On the 21st Century Continuum... Depending on how far a teacher wants to go with this project, I think it has the potential to be transformative in all dimensions of the 21C framework. The best part of it is that they can put self-constructed knowledge to good use with their Action Plans and set a good example for friends and family members by implementing them.
D2L Today I attended a D2L training session. D2L would provide students doing an Energy Audit with the tools to collect the data, discuss the results and share the results with each other. They would also be able to share their results across schools and boards and track their progress over the years. Future Lesson Ideas
Nuclear Power Generation and Energy Return on Investment (EROI)
