Spring Break

Spring break — time to play outside for awhile...

Earth System Science Project

Image courtesy of Microsoft Clipart

I've been pondering the idea of a comprehensive, collaborative science project in which students piece together all of the elements of the Earth system. I envision a giant interconnected, interdependent collage/infographic that weaves the myriad perspectives, voices, and creative talents of my students into one vision of what Earth science is all about...

Hear are a few broad guidelines and parameters for the project:

The Earth system is characterized by interactions among the following components:

• atmosphere—the gaseous envelope surrounding Earth
• hydrosphere—the liquid and ice water portions of Earth 
• lithosphere (geosphere)—the solid portion of Earth
• biosphere—the living portion of Earth

Matter and energy cycle among the living and nonliving components of the Earth system via different pathways and over varying amounts of time:

• weather cycle and atmospheric circulation
• climate cycle
• carbon cycle
• Earth’s energy budget
• water cycle and oceanic circulation
• rock cycle
• weathering, erosion, and deposition
• fossils and geologic time
• plate tectonics
• astronomical factors

Students will create the ultimate, illustrated Earth system mural/diagram showing:

• the different components of the Earth system
• the cycling of matter and energy throughout the Earth system
• macro to micro interconnections among cycles of the Earth system
• temporal/spatial fluxes across the Earth system
• the contributions that people in different cultures and at different times in history have made to advance our understanding of the Earth system

Of course, one of the largest challenges is orchestrating such a project. I'm still puzzling over that part—maybe it could look like a giant puzzle...

Reflections — Fossils 3

In 2010, I was nominated for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching—a prestigious honor for math and science teachers in the United States. The rigorous application process provided me with an excellent opportunity to reflect deeply on my classroom practice. Although I was not selected as a finalist, I value my experience in the process. Over the next three blog posts, I would like to share some of what I wrote for my application, which centered around a geologic unit on fossils.

The PAEMST application requires a written narrative on several dimensions of outstanding teaching, including the following areas:

• Dimension 1: Mastery of Science Content
• Dimension 2: Instructional Methods and Strategies
• Dimension 3: Effective Use of Student Assessments

In this entry, I would like to share Dimension 3, Effective Use of Student Assessments...

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I effectively use student assessments to evaluate, monitor, and improve student learning... 

Image courtesy of MorgueFile

Recall the essential learning questions for this project: 

• What are fossils? 
• How do fossils form? 
• What can fossils tell us about past life? 

For this project, students are assessed on the quality and depth of information communicated on their individual fossil ID cards. Specifically, each student is assessed on the following essential learning skills: 

• collecting detailed information from fossil “interviews;” 
• inferring geologic, environmental, and biological change through time based on fossil evidence; 
• interpreting rocks and their fossil content to determine past conditions; 
• describing how fossil evidence can be linked to environmental conditions and biological adaptations of the past.

Over the years, I have refined the “interview” questions to help students maximize their interpretation of clues. The questions have gotten more detailed and specific to better help students uncover the fossil’s life story. What originally began as an exercise in basic fossil identification many years ago has become a quest to understand the life story of a fossil through careful interpretation of evidence—asking essential questions to gain enduring understandings.

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I routinely assess and guide student learning... 

One-on-one discussions: These are individual conversations with students where I ask clarifying questions, ask students to explain their thinking to me, or have students show me a particular science skill. Emphasis is placed on meaningful responses that answer “how” and “why” rather than simply “who, what, when, where.” Example: “Tell me your thinking about… or, Show me how you did… or, What did you observe when…? or, What is your evidence for…?”

Table discussions: Usually conducted at the beginning of class, I ask students to discuss a particular topic or question among their table peers while I walk around listening to (or sometimes joining in with) their conversations. The purpose is to promote peer collaboration as well as check for understanding and/or misconceptions. Example: “With your table group, have a two-minute discussion: What do you think are some physical characteristics that all minerals have in common?”

Lab table talk: As students are working on a lab investigation, I circulate throughout the room and visit each table regularly. I ask clarifying questions as needed and ask students to share what they are doing and thinking. I listen and look for evidence of the science process: 

• setting up safe, controlled laboratory experiments; 
• recording detailed observations; making precise measurements; 
• collecting high quality data; discussing observations and evidence; 
• and analyzing results. 

Lab investigations: At the end of a lab investigation, I will often collect and grade my students’ lab reports to assess their learning. Many of my investigations use an Experiment Planning Guide, which helps students organize and formalize the process of science. I evaluate these planning guides according to the quality and completeness of scientific writing and thinking, particularly whether students can connect their observations, data, and written conclusions to the original learning goal or research question. Example: “An excellent conclusion restates the original purpose (the research question) and summarizes the results of the experiment in a logical, concise manner. An excellent conclusion also includes supporting details and evidence from the data. An excellent conclusion does not speculate on the unknown...”

Quizzes: During each major unit of study, I give one or two quizzes to further evaluate student mastery of science concepts and learning goals. These quizzes ask students to apply what they have learned during the course of a few interconnected lessons and usually involve short written response, data analysis and interpretation, and/or short performance task. Students may use their lab notes and resources during these quizzes, as I feel that using resources is an essential aspect of the scientific process. Example: “Identify two of the minerals from the mineral collection on the front lab table and fully describe the three convincing properties that led you to your identification.”

Projects: Students engage in longer lab investigations (e.g., fossil identification lab) or projects (e.g., physical oceanography research project) once or twice a trimester. I evaluate these projects against holistic “standards of excellence” that clearly define the criteria necessary for excellent learning.

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References

• Boulder Valley School District, 2009 Middle Level Earth and Space Science Curriculum Essentials Document, Earth and Space Science Essential Questions
• Ganse, J., Geology Unit, 8th Grade Earth Science, Fossil and Geologic Time
• Marshak, S., Earth: Portrait of a Planet (Third Edition), W.W. Norton & Company, 2008
• Murck, B. and Skinner, B., Geology Today: Understanding Our Planet, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999
• USGS Education, Schoolyard Geology, Fossils

Reflections — Fossils 2

In 2010, I was nominated for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching—a prestigious honor for math and science teachers in the United States. The rigorous application process provided me with an excellent opportunity to reflect deeply on my classroom practice. Although I was not selected as a finalist, I value my experience in the process. Over the next three blog posts, I would like to share some of what I wrote for my application, which centered around a geologic unit on fossils.

The PAEMST application requires a written narrative on several dimensions of outstanding teaching, including the following areas:

• Dimension 1: Mastery of Science Content
• Dimension 2: Instructional Methods and Strategies
• Dimension 3: Effective Use of Student Assessments

In this entry, I would like to share Dimension 2, Instructional Methods and Strategies...

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I employ a variety of instructional approaches to help students understand fossils...

Rock cycle video and diagram

Students watch a locally-produced video about the Rock Cycle, which identifies the three main rock families, explains how they were formed, and shows many local examples from each family. Students collaborate after the video to complete a blank rock cycle diagram with terms about rock products and the geologic processes that created them.

Rock identification lab

Students engage in a hands-on process of rock identification to learn the various physical properties and characteristics involved in identifying rocks by family and name. As part of the identification process, students must provide convincing evidence to go along with their identification.

Law of Superposition activity

Students infer the relative ages of rock layers in a vertical rock profile by examining and discussing various clues. They discover that, in general, the oldest rocks and rock layers are at the bottom of a rock profile—the Law of Superposition.

Traces of Tracks activity

Students analyze an image of fossilized animal tracks and reconstruct the story of an encounter between predator and prey. Students collaborate to infer the story from the trace fossil evidence.

Finding Clues to Rock Layers activity

Students analyze fossil clues and data contained in rock layers to determine the relative ages of the layers as well as the physical environment in which the organisms lived. In general, the deeper the rock layer the older the fossils buried within. Additionally, various geologic processes, such as weathering and erosion, can expose fossil layers at the Earth’s surface. 

Fossil ID Cards

Over the course of several days, students “interview” various fossils to infer the life story of once-living, but now fossilized, organisms, and create a detailed fossil identification card for each fossil interviewed. This hands-on, inquiry-based lab allows students to fully engage in the process of science by observing fossil specimens; asking key questions; gathering evidence from physical clues and inference; using a variety of scientific resources such as fossil identification books, posters, and diagrams; learning to avoid bias by following the fossil evidence; sharing data and ideas through peer collaboration; and hypothesizing and theorizing about the past geologic environments in which the fossil lived. Students display their fossil cards on large posters for the rest of the school to enjoy. 

Examples of interview questions include:

• What are the fossil’s physical characteristics? 
• How did this fossil move? 
• What did it eat? 
• In what environment or habitat did this fossil live? 
• What was its niche or purpose in life?

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I identify and build on students’ prior knowledge, and incorporate this knowledge in my general teaching strategies...

Image courtesy of MorgueFile

I strive to ensure that my science lessons build logically from point A to point B and that common themes and ideas are continuously woven throughout each unit as well as throughout the school year. My goal is to promote the transfer of understanding from one lesson to another, not just one-time memorization to be forgotten quickly. I regularly ask discussion questions that help activate prior knowledge, that tie different lessons together, and that help students make logical interconnections among various ideas and concepts.

• “Does anybody have a fossil collection? Tell us a little bit about your fossils.”
• “Have you ever been to a museum and seen a fossil dinosaur on display? Where did all those bones come from?”
• “Remember when we watched the rock cycle video? In which rock family would you most likely expect to find fossils? Why?”
• “You can find fossil sea shells up in the Rocky Mountains. How can that be? What do these fossils tell us about Earth history?”
• “Suppose you find a fossil of an X. What story can this fossil tell you? What are some clues you can look for to help explain this organism’s life?”
• “Here is an example fossil. What characteristics do you see? What kind of organism was this? What did it eat? Where did it live? How do you know?”

In the video I produced for my application, I used many of the types of questions outlined above to help students learn how to interview fossils in order to uncover their life story. My goal was for students to develop a non-biased technique for uncovering clues and evidence contained in fossils. For our fossil lessons, it is most important that students learn to “listen” to the fossil evidence with an open mind rather than just try to quickly name the fossil.

The video shows the first day of our fossil lessons, where we worked together as a group to prepare for our in-depth fossil interviews. The following three days after the video, students interviewed fossils, gathered information and evidence from the fossils and various classroom resources, and created detailed fossil identification cards with the inferred life story of each fossil.

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I use instructional strategies and techniques to meet the learning needs of all students, challenging those with stronger knowledge while ensuring learning for less accomplished students...

I utilize a variety of strategies to differentiate for the diverse learning needs of my students, and a few of these are outlined below:

• Creating hands-on, inquiry-based, authentic learning experiences that encourage students to think critically and develop explanations based on evidence
• Encouraging peer collaboration: students working together, talking science together, sharing data and ideas together
• Accommodating for different fossil identification skill levels: 
• Inferring basic to advanced information from fossil clues at increasing levels of descriptive detail
• Interpreting fossil structures from simple (bones, teeth, shells) to complex (type of bone, purpose of tooth)
• Working with incomplete vs. complete fossils (incomplete fossils are much more challenging to interpret than complete fossils)
• Drawing upon multiple intelligences skills and multiple learning modalities: drawing/visualization, writing, questioning, spatial manipulation, kinesthetic/hands-on observations
• Using effective questioning: engaging students (individually and within small lab table groups) with highly effective questions to encourage deeper meaning

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References

• Boulder Valley School District, 2009 Middle Level Earth and Space Science Curriculum Essentials Document, Earth and Space Science Essential Questions
• Ganse, J., Geology Unit, 8th Grade Earth Science, Fossil and Geologic Time
• Marshak, S., Earth: Portrait of a Planet (Third Edition), W.W. Norton & Company, 2008
• Murck, B. and Skinner, B., Geology Today: Understanding Our Planet, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999
• USGS Education, Schoolyard Geology, Fossils