POP conneXions to science

More fun than you’d think: A new way of developing academic vocabulary and helping students make connections from POP to 8th grade science standards…

POP/TAP: What kids say about MultiMedia presentations…

A great day and what the kids have to say.

POP: Rescuing a Research Nose-Dive

Going from grrrrr to well, not exactly grrreat, but better…

POP, TAP Cause and Effect Flow Charts

A simple way to take notes, show understanding and connect up all the world’s problems, right?

TAP @ Sunday School – Acting on Global Warming…

Figuring out causes and effects of global warming, deciding what to do about it and comparing the youth group experience with teaching school…

17. Poverty, Population and Education at the root?

Teaching “Root Cause Analysis” and how health of the planet is closely tied to our health.

Day 16: Interconnected World Problems

What did kids get from the powerpoints of world problems? What are they learning about the interconnectedness of world problems? And how were these activities managed?

13. PowerPoints Day 2

A second rather grueling day of kids presenting their TAP powerpoints. It’s going painfully slowly. It takes 5 minutes per student MINIMUM, no way round that I can find.

It’s really important to reduce wait time for getting up their powerpoints. Best is on flash drive. Second best is on a cd. Third is downloaded from their e mail onto the school student server. Fall back is printed pages for projection with our document camera. This option is sometimes the only way for dealing with the Mac/PC photo compatability problems.

IS IT WORTH IT? The big question.

Well, yes we think. Karen and I reminded ourselves that we really do want kids to see the connections between the problems in the world and the middle school science curriculum. And the wide range of problems out there. But do they remember anything worthwhile from each other’s presentations? We’re having them each write “What surprised me about ____?” from each presentation. The “Better Cause and Effect Web” activity that follows will help us evaluate both their enthusiasm and engagement with world problems AND what they learned from each other. So stay tuned. We’ll be getting there by Wednesday of next week.

The quality of their work is better than last year, yay, we learned something But still have a few that don’t get the central issue and phrase stuff in a very passive way. I always finish by asking “But tell us why YOU care about this issue.” and then get the best sound bite of the presenatation.

Need to be careful with how and when to give feedback to the presenters. Too much teacher input during makes them nervous, duh, and slows the process down. I have to talk LESS and let kids talk MORE. A concept I’m still struggling with 26 years in to the profession!

Based on our experiences this year, we’ve tweaked the rubric and ppt guidelines for next and will upload it in the next day or so.

Forgive the slightly rushed sound, that’s because it is! Have a great evening, off to a writer’s conference in Sebastopol to learn how to write non fiction for kids….

Sue

12. Sharing the World’s Problems with PowerPoint Presentations

A scramble to get to powerpoints with finishing up some genetics sheets and it being a mystery minimum day – we don’t know why but, hey, nice to have the afternoon off! Crazy with classes though. Very little high level thinking goes on with such short periods.

School scheduling, there’s a hot potato that really influences how kids learn and the depth vs breadth that can be taught. As well as the practicality of project based learning. I’m really into some kind of block scheduling…

I was disappointed in the level of information in their powerpoints today. Kids who had not understood global warming or what ‘cause’ or ‘effect’ means. It really had not occurred to me that these words are unclear.

When I am feeling pressured, I am a little less kind when critiquing their work and need to really watch that. The point is to TEACH them to be better presenters and not to crush their enthusiasm. But it DOES need to be accurate so I have to comment on that.

I get the overwhelming feeling that most of them are just trying to get the points and are therefore not really getting the real point. I’m not hearing passionate talks about stuff they clearly care about… yet.

Maybe tomorrow will be better. It will be. Oh, I forgot, we have a full evacuation drill tomorrow – another rushed period. But maybe the day after THAT!

Mrs. Mediocrity aka Sue

TAP 11: Introducing the PowerPoints

Nice to be back on the blog. Karen and I got out of step so had to wait a few days so our kids could all start the ppts together (Wth kids being partners across classes, we have to be extra careful to keep schedules, rubrics etc. consistent.)

We assigned it so they would have two weekends to complete it in – they already have the information from their research in the library and on the web. Mostly they need to find great pics, or take them and organize their thoughts a bit.

Their challenge today: Make a short, accurate powerpoint to educate and inspire others to take action on your problem!

Only spent about 20-25 minutes introducing this, resisted the urge to beat it to death!

I wanted to inspire them to get excited and get started. Framed it as “Say you made a powerpoint so great that kids in the class thought Hey, I’m going to be the lights-off nazi at home! , or got kids to donate money to help Haiti, or whatever your problem is.” Reminded how they better be enthusiastic and passionate or choose a different problem!

Asked them “When do people try to persuade you to change your mind, buy something or do something?” Lots of responses like “Ads, friends, parents and teachers. “So what really turns you off?” And the usual litany of too much text, monotone and can’t read the type, with a few, more insightful ideas like “Their graphs and info don’t relate to their title.” and  ”Bad facts make me not believe anything they say.”

BTW, polled them for who likes making ppts and it’s overwhelming how many DO. I mean, it’s work but they like it anyway, so, cool.

Then showed the PowerPoint template uploaded on my homework web page (also in the “Teacher Resources” page under “Research” on www.takeactioncurriculum.org) and went over the boxed requirements only. The rest of the blurb is in the template.

Ended with having them grade a not-great ppt from last year using the rubric.

We went page by page, they held up fingers for points out of 5, then I said what I thought and why. They really like trashing other people’s stuff. Self-righteousness, such a guilty pleasure…  But this time, maybe in a good cause so they truly realize what is expected and feel inspired to do better. Some of the ppts like the Polar Bear one, look slick until you actualy read the content… My personal battle against BS (bad science). Fun to watch them be so dismissive until it’s their powerpoint on the stand.

Noticed that kids were chomping at the bit to get going on this powerpoint when their research had been done. Would be ideal to start it within a day or two. But this will be fine. A few are already stressing about the poster but noooo, this is not the big, scary poster….yet. Poor things, I wonder if they have been scarred by a Sugar-Cube Mission Model project due the day after tomorrow with no instructions. Have to constantly re-assure students, special ed staff and some parents that kids will have lots of support all along the way.

Happy Friday, see you on the due date – Monday 8th of Feb.

Sue