Made great progress with the Animal Adaptations class in the last two weeks. Took it to 2 schools, a total of 6 classrooms, grades 2 to 6. And it was a hit in every one. The students loved the chance to pretend to be birds. The teachers loved how excited their students were. And, here's the kicker, they learned something!
Evolution of the class:
Not much has changed since the first time. The one change was that there was no hands-on activity in day one. It was all thinking and discussion. The eating-like-birds gets a bit old after two days, so a third day seemed unnecessary. They get the chance to "observe" the tools and foods in day 2, before making their hypothesis, but I focus more on teaching them the vocabulary of Adaptations on day 1.
So we start by having them pick an animal they know really well. Preferably not a pet-like animal (no dogs, cats, etc) so that we can focus on their natural adaptations, not the adaptations they've made to live with humans. Or, more specifically, the adaptations we've bred them for.
We then list characteristics of the animal and of the habitat that the animal lives in. After we fill the board up with as many things as we can think of, we talk about how the characteristics listed on the left help the animal survive in the habitat. What helps the animal catch the food and eat it? What helps the animal stay warm (or cool)? What do they do, how do they do it? Is that how all animals that live in that habitat survive?
When I'm lucky, which I was in the first classroom, the animal they pick is a bird and the transition to adaptations of birds is smooth. When I'm less lucky, and the animal is a dolphin, I need to make the transition to get them thinking about birds: an animal they don't generally think about often. I found, after some hits and misses, that the way to do it was with different ways that animals move to hunt their food or run from predators. They can run, swim, dig, or fly. Then we can talk about the adaptations of animals that fly, birds. With their example animal, I write down anything they say, relevant or not. With the birds, now that they understand what an adaptation is, they need to tell me what the characteristic is and how it is an adaptation. Does it help them fly, why do they need to fly? Does it help them hide, why do they need to hide?
When the concept map is drawn, we can look at the 7 pictures of birds, and focus on the most important adaptation: the beak.
This conversation kept every student interested in every classroom for the entire hour. I was shocked. And thrilled.
Showing posts with label outreach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label outreach. Show all posts
Friday, January 23, 2009
Friday, December 12, 2008
In a replay of last week..
New school, same lesson. In Hot Stuff this week, again in a 4th grade class, I tried the "Let's review some bad answers" technique... and fell on my face. It worked well in the already engaged, but not sure where to go next class of last week, and was a struggle to use in the less-engaged, more focused on blurting out answers group of this week. It's a great tool in classrooms where they're ready to answer and willing to raise their hands to be heard, thus providing an opportunity for every student who thinks they have the answer to give it. It's a less effective tool in rooms that are, in the words of their teachers, "squirrely." Their lack of respect for the idea of raising their hands to be heard leads to a lack of understanding that what I'm going for is group responses - a thumb's up to say, "yes! this is a good answer," or a raised hand to add "well, it could work if we change some words."
All in all, it was another example of some things work in some places some times. And the rest of the time, come up with something new.
All in all, it was another example of some things work in some places some times. And the rest of the time, come up with something new.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Tried something new...
Tried something new in my 4th grade Inquiry class this week. The lab, Hot Stuff, focuses on heat and energy, asking the basic question, "What can we do to melt the most ice in 2 minutes?" It can be fun during the data collection and hands-on stages. Handing a kid a film canister (oh, and can I mention that half of them didn't know what it was?) full of ice and saying, "Do whatever you want to this except putting it in your mouth or opening it; get it to melt completely melt in the next 4 minutes," tends to get their attention.
But, that writing portion is still a killer. I can't do any of the things I really want to do - a serious hands-on experiment every day, an engineering challenge with every lab (this one would be a great time to build solar ovens or just test different materials for insulation), truly self-directed inquiry - because of the time constraints. I need ways to get every student in the world actually excited about writing. Not exactly easy.
So, I needed something that would get them to, energetically, participate in the steps of how to write up a good question, a good hypothesis, and - MOST IMPORTANTLY - a good plan.
I put up an overhead:
I told them these were answers I had read on another class' papers, and asked them if they were good. They quickly identified (since I didn't make it hard) that C was the right answer on both. The first classroom was VERY enthusiastic about this method. I had hands raised from students who hadn't participated at all in the previous 2 days of class. The 2nd and 3rd classrooms were not as excited about it, but there was greater participation then there would have been if I was just talking. Now, they could see and read the wrong answers themselves. They could discuss what made them right or wrong. It took 5 more minutes, but I think that in the first two rooms, it made hypothesis writing go faster than usual.
So, I tried it with the Plan too. Hoping, desperately, to avoid having students tell me that the plan for their experiment is to, "do their experiment," I gave them three examples:
It worked, in two out of three classes. We still didn't have time to finish our experiments - they'll be melting ice tomorrow too - but it was better. I didn't leave it up on the overhead in the first room - they had the talent to do it on their own. They had been impressing me all week (I had to invent an extra experiment to model on Tuesday, they had finished my regular experiment on Monday), and still managed to get to some of the trials today. The second room didn't work as hard, but they'll start the experiment on time tomorrow. The third room... well, no one told me today was their early release day, so we lost 20 minutes of class. And they work a bit slower still. We'll finish tomorrow, somehow. The teacher has offered extra time after lunch tomorrow.
But, that writing portion is still a killer. I can't do any of the things I really want to do - a serious hands-on experiment every day, an engineering challenge with every lab (this one would be a great time to build solar ovens or just test different materials for insulation), truly self-directed inquiry - because of the time constraints. I need ways to get every student in the world actually excited about writing. Not exactly easy.
So, I needed something that would get them to, energetically, participate in the steps of how to write up a good question, a good hypothesis, and - MOST IMPORTANTLY - a good plan.
I put up an overhead:
I told them these were answers I had read on another class' papers, and asked them if they were good. They quickly identified (since I didn't make it hard) that C was the right answer on both. The first classroom was VERY enthusiastic about this method. I had hands raised from students who hadn't participated at all in the previous 2 days of class. The 2nd and 3rd classrooms were not as excited about it, but there was greater participation then there would have been if I was just talking. Now, they could see and read the wrong answers themselves. They could discuss what made them right or wrong. It took 5 more minutes, but I think that in the first two rooms, it made hypothesis writing go faster than usual.
So, I tried it with the Plan too. Hoping, desperately, to avoid having students tell me that the plan for their experiment is to, "do their experiment," I gave them three examples:
It worked, in two out of three classes. We still didn't have time to finish our experiments - they'll be melting ice tomorrow too - but it was better. I didn't leave it up on the overhead in the first room - they had the talent to do it on their own. They had been impressing me all week (I had to invent an extra experiment to model on Tuesday, they had finished my regular experiment on Monday), and still managed to get to some of the trials today. The second room didn't work as hard, but they'll start the experiment on time tomorrow. The third room... well, no one told me today was their early release day, so we lost 20 minutes of class. And they work a bit slower still. We'll finish tomorrow, somehow. The teacher has offered extra time after lunch tomorrow.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Adapting the Animal Adaptations Class
I taught my Animal Adaptations class (bird beaks) a few weeks ago for 4th graders, and last week for 2nd/3rd. I thought it went well. Two or three of the 7 teachers commented on how interactive it was and that the activity was fun and appropriate. Then I got back the evaluations and found out it "wasn't scientific enough," that the "emphasis seemed to be on competition, not scientific methods," and that they don't believe "it would be valuable to repeat next year."
The summary of the lesson plan is pretty simple: take a bunch of household tools, simplified "bird foods" (i.e. seeds, dried beans or peas to stand in for 'bugs,' pieces of rubber bands mixed in with shredded paper to stand in for 'worms,' etc) and have them test the beaks for successful eating. The inquiry question they're basically answering is: if seeds were the only available food, would a bird who's beak is more like a toucan (fruit-eating) or more like a grosbeak (seed-eating) survive? It requires being a bit competitive - put the food in the center of the table, have two students with different tools see who can catch and 'eat' the most in 1 minute. They first, of course, write out their experimental design and then collect the data during the experiment. It seems like inquiry to me - ask a question, plan a method for finding an answer, use data to support your answer.
What went wrong?
Things to improve on the next time I teach it:
Mostly, I'm sad that this class was so poorly received. Yes, I wish I had more money, more supplies, and more time so that they could get more hands-on activities. But I get 5 hours, over 4 days, to show your kids how to "think like a scientist" and I need to keep it interesting, get their work samples done, and do my best to provide the opportunity for them to 'exceed the standards.' You know it's hard - it's why you have me come in. Why do you make it harder?
The summary of the lesson plan is pretty simple: take a bunch of household tools, simplified "bird foods" (i.e. seeds, dried beans or peas to stand in for 'bugs,' pieces of rubber bands mixed in with shredded paper to stand in for 'worms,' etc) and have them test the beaks for successful eating. The inquiry question they're basically answering is: if seeds were the only available food, would a bird who's beak is more like a toucan (fruit-eating) or more like a grosbeak (seed-eating) survive? It requires being a bit competitive - put the food in the center of the table, have two students with different tools see who can catch and 'eat' the most in 1 minute. They first, of course, write out their experimental design and then collect the data during the experiment. It seems like inquiry to me - ask a question, plan a method for finding an answer, use data to support your answer.
What went wrong?
Things to improve on the next time I teach it:
- In general - my description of how to design an experiment (using variables, setting up a control group, etc) has been lacking this year. I just hadn't remembered to incorporate all the details into the general lecture that introduces that section of the class. So, I have to remember to bring that back in to satisfy the "not enough focus on inquiry" people. I had hoped to allow more self-directed discovery of the best methods, not force-feed it. Oh, well.
- I had done two-students-at-a-time to speed up the data collection (and, honestly, to make it more fun - the competition increased their focus for the most part; if your classroom can't behave and gets too competitive, step in and break up the groups that aren't working). I will need to ponder the options for either (1) explaining more fully that the reason for it is to demonstrate adaptation and survival in competition, or (2) removing that aspect and providing two bowls or having them go one-at-a-time.
- Having time before the scheduled class time to set up stations, thus allowing them to experiment with a wider range of foods and in a more inquiry-focused way. I'd like them to have the chance to discover on their own which tool is associated with which food and which bird. And that's how I wrote the class. It just turned out that in practice, when time was a major issue, it was faster to say, "okay, here's a toucan, what do you think he eats?" and then show them the tongs and say, "these are a good tool for picking up big fruits."
- Then, I need to improve the pre- and post- lesson communication with classroom teachers. One of the problems at this school was that the secretary had done all of the scheduling and I had (apparently incorrectly) assumed that she was communicating a lot of information to the classroom teachers. Somewhere, the communication broke down and the teachers seemed unaware (especially the 2nd/3rd grades) of what the program was about.
Mostly, I'm sad that this class was so poorly received. Yes, I wish I had more money, more supplies, and more time so that they could get more hands-on activities. But I get 5 hours, over 4 days, to show your kids how to "think like a scientist" and I need to keep it interesting, get their work samples done, and do my best to provide the opportunity for them to 'exceed the standards.' You know it's hard - it's why you have me come in. Why do you make it harder?
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Somewhere between Old Things in Old Ways and Old Things in New Ways
Found my way to a December 2005 Edutopia article on the evolution of technology in the classroom. Marc Prensky describes the stages of adopting and adapting that must take place if we're going to use technology well and for "educational progress."
My outreach program is definitely stuck in Old Things in Old Ways. In fact, due to budget constraints and trying to "model lessons in simple ways that can be recreated by the classroom teacher" I am mostly stuck in the position of "Dabbling".
Evaluating my current program and goals I'd like to see implemented to improve the educational value:
1) Dabbling
I want to try using video to enhance the presentations. I count this in Dabbling and not New Things because without funding for a projector and time to implement video thoroughly in the program, it doesn't feel like much of a commitment.
I have been trying to work on ways to put our pre-lesson materials on our website so teachers can prep their classes for the program and have access to appropriate additional materials, but am being held back by time and access to our site development.
2) Old Things in Old Ways
Scheduling and confirming programs with schools is done through email, and my calendar is on my Google account. These are useful ways to make the job easier, but could also be done with pencil, paper, and a phone. Not really anything innovative.
Pre-Lesson materials are typed and emailed to teachers. Again, nothing innovative. The one nod to technology that exists is that by sending as a pdf, these materials can have embedded html links to additional resources that are easy to use.
3) Old Things in New Ways
The Resources binder is now a CD of pdfs, allowing teachers more flexibility in their use, and easier access, rather than flipping through a 2" or 3" binder.
4) New Things in New Ways
I would love to get a projector and be able to show really cool videos to enhance the presentations that introduce the classes. "When we begin adding digital demonstrations through video and Flash animation, we are giving students new, better ways to get information." (Prensky, 2005). I can stand there and show them a model of the heart, have them draw the flow of blood on the drawing of the heart in front of them, but wouldn't it be better to show them this: "Human Atlas: How the Heart Works" before they do that?
Also, they are required to do a lot of writing for the class that I wish they could do on a computer instead. They need to write their hypothesis, experimental design, data collect, procedure, and data analysis. It's all valuable information, and the practice of writing it is important to the inquiry process. They don't know it, but they're really learning some valuable skills while doing all that writing. However, many of these students struggle so much with the act of writing and spelling that they are unable to focus on the science skills they're learning. There is a value to learning to write, but is this the time and place to practice those skills? If students were able to type their data and procedures, we would spend less time correcting spelling or improperly written numbers, and be able to focus more on the processes they're using for science. They can get their ideas down on the paper more quickly, instead of agonizing over the formation of the letters and words. And editing is easier, as we talk about being sure to get all the steps of the process into the plan and they see they've missed something, we need to decide is it easier to erase everything and start over, or try to squeeze something in and use messy looking arrows to show that this step should have happened before that one? With a computer, they could just insert the necessary information.
I would love to be working in classrooms where students could create their work samples on a computer instead of on paper. And we could save a lot of trees in the process! Some might say this is still an "Old Things in Old Ways", but I see that the educational progress - the students gaining experience, ability to focus on the content and not the writing - brings this out of "Old" and into "New." It creates the 'real world scenario' in their classroom and they get to be part of it.
The debate on learning and using handwriting (printing or cursive) versus teaching students typing earlier and emphasizing it as the medium they're more likely to use outside of school and a skill they will need more often is extensive. Here are just a few places where you can read more about the debate: LiquidLearning.com, eLearning Technology.
Resources:
Prensky, Marc. 2005 "Adopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom" Edutopia.com. Available: http://www.edutopia.org/adopt-and-adapt
From "Adopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom"Where do you fit in?
1) Dabbling
2) Old Things in Old Ways
3) Old Things in New Ways
4) New Things in New Ways
My outreach program is definitely stuck in Old Things in Old Ways. In fact, due to budget constraints and trying to "model lessons in simple ways that can be recreated by the classroom teacher" I am mostly stuck in the position of "Dabbling".
Evaluating my current program and goals I'd like to see implemented to improve the educational value:
1) Dabbling
I want to try using video to enhance the presentations. I count this in Dabbling and not New Things because without funding for a projector and time to implement video thoroughly in the program, it doesn't feel like much of a commitment.
I have been trying to work on ways to put our pre-lesson materials on our website so teachers can prep their classes for the program and have access to appropriate additional materials, but am being held back by time and access to our site development.
2) Old Things in Old Ways
Scheduling and confirming programs with schools is done through email, and my calendar is on my Google account. These are useful ways to make the job easier, but could also be done with pencil, paper, and a phone. Not really anything innovative.
Pre-Lesson materials are typed and emailed to teachers. Again, nothing innovative. The one nod to technology that exists is that by sending as a pdf, these materials can have embedded html links to additional resources that are easy to use.
3) Old Things in New Ways
The Resources binder is now a CD of pdfs, allowing teachers more flexibility in their use, and easier access, rather than flipping through a 2" or 3" binder.
4) New Things in New Ways
I would love to get a projector and be able to show really cool videos to enhance the presentations that introduce the classes. "When we begin adding digital demonstrations through video and Flash animation, we are giving students new, better ways to get information." (Prensky, 2005). I can stand there and show them a model of the heart, have them draw the flow of blood on the drawing of the heart in front of them, but wouldn't it be better to show them this: "Human Atlas: How the Heart Works" before they do that?
Also, they are required to do a lot of writing for the class that I wish they could do on a computer instead. They need to write their hypothesis, experimental design, data collect, procedure, and data analysis. It's all valuable information, and the practice of writing it is important to the inquiry process. They don't know it, but they're really learning some valuable skills while doing all that writing. However, many of these students struggle so much with the act of writing and spelling that they are unable to focus on the science skills they're learning. There is a value to learning to write, but is this the time and place to practice those skills? If students were able to type their data and procedures, we would spend less time correcting spelling or improperly written numbers, and be able to focus more on the processes they're using for science. They can get their ideas down on the paper more quickly, instead of agonizing over the formation of the letters and words. And editing is easier, as we talk about being sure to get all the steps of the process into the plan and they see they've missed something, we need to decide is it easier to erase everything and start over, or try to squeeze something in and use messy looking arrows to show that this step should have happened before that one? With a computer, they could just insert the necessary information.
I would love to be working in classrooms where students could create their work samples on a computer instead of on paper. And we could save a lot of trees in the process! Some might say this is still an "Old Things in Old Ways", but I see that the educational progress - the students gaining experience, ability to focus on the content and not the writing - brings this out of "Old" and into "New." It creates the 'real world scenario' in their classroom and they get to be part of it.
The debate on learning and using handwriting (printing or cursive) versus teaching students typing earlier and emphasizing it as the medium they're more likely to use outside of school and a skill they will need more often is extensive. Here are just a few places where you can read more about the debate: LiquidLearning.com, eLearning Technology.
Resources:
Prensky, Marc. 2005 "Adopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom" Edutopia.com. Available: http://www.edutopia.org/adopt-and-adapt
Friday, October 3, 2008
Outreach - After School Crickets
Went to the third site of the after school crickets program today and met with the site director. When I called him 3 or 4 weeks ago and left the message "Hi, I'm the new outreach coordinator and I'd like to the talk with you about the after school Cricket program that was planned 3 years ago but never executed," I got the impression that maybe he didn't remember much about it. Specifically, he didn't remember why he should spend any of his time working with me to get 8 measly hours of after school programs into his building.
After meeting with him today, he's talking about how to get more grants that could bring more of this and similar projects into his club. That tends to be the general reaction. People see this program and get very excited about the possibilities.
Oh, and did I mention the great idea I came up with for my longer classes? I wanted to give them a fun build-it-animate-it challenge but didn't want it to be the roller coasters again (too specific). I found an old idea on the Playful Invention and Exploration website: building a chain reaction based on a nursery rhyme, poem, or story.
I think this will be a great challenge. I immediately started searching for nursery rhymes and came up with about a dozen ideas of animated story scenes I could build. And it could be anything... they could animate a scene from Harry Potter if they want. The only requirement - use the Crickets to take a simple scene and animate it.
After meeting with him today, he's talking about how to get more grants that could bring more of this and similar projects into his club. That tends to be the general reaction. People see this program and get very excited about the possibilities.
Oh, and did I mention the great idea I came up with for my longer classes? I wanted to give them a fun build-it-animate-it challenge but didn't want it to be the roller coasters again (too specific). I found an old idea on the Playful Invention and Exploration website: building a chain reaction based on a nursery rhyme, poem, or story.
I think this will be a great challenge. I immediately started searching for nursery rhymes and came up with about a dozen ideas of animated story scenes I could build. And it could be anything... they could animate a scene from Harry Potter if they want. The only requirement - use the Crickets to take a simple scene and animate it.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Trying to go Paperless
How do you take an Outreach science program and go paperless? This is the question I'm trying to answer. Classroom teachers have that advantage of knowing and controlling the assets their students have access to: PDAs, computers, programs, etc that can help them go paperless. Though budgets may be tight, when you can get those assets into the classroom and use them right, everyone benefits. But, when I go out to some of the more rural schools, I may be faced with classrooms where finding a sharpened pencil is a challenge, let alone having a computer each student can enter their data on.
If my programs were just a hands-on science experience, I could totally do it. My big challenge comes from the state: required work samples for all students grades 3-high school. They need to write out an entire scientific experiment, from question and hypothesis to data analysis and conclusion. Not a small task by any means, and certainly not one that can be done without paper.
I can still cut down though. Teachers used to receive a binder of information (additional lessons, background on the Science Inquiry Cycle, scoring guides, ideas for designing their own lesson) that they may or may not use. This year, they'll start receiving a CD with the same information that they may or may not use. (Personal goal: be able to dress up the CD so it's more than just a bunch of files).
On my side, instead of a dozen notebooks full of random notes, I'm now fully engulfed in using Evernote to carry my information and Toodledo to keep my to-do lists in order. Notes from meetings are typed, not hand written; websites I may need to find again are bookmarked (thanks to Foxmarks); I go nowhere without laptop and iPhone.
There are times my hand twitches and makes me feel like I can't focus without drawing out my plan for the day. But I take a deep breath, open up OmniGraffle and draw a flowchart of my ideas. I've upgraded my Toodledo to a Pro account so I can track subtasks and watch progress get made toward goals I've set, but it still didn't do the visual flowchart of ideas for me. OmniGraffle picked up that piece. And the only thing on my Christmas wish list at this point is a graphic pad (though a Kindle wouldn't be bad either). That should help me make that last push to just being done with paper, at least on a personal level.
Now, to implement as many ideas as I can for doing it at work too.
If my programs were just a hands-on science experience, I could totally do it. My big challenge comes from the state: required work samples for all students grades 3-high school. They need to write out an entire scientific experiment, from question and hypothesis to data analysis and conclusion. Not a small task by any means, and certainly not one that can be done without paper.
I can still cut down though. Teachers used to receive a binder of information (additional lessons, background on the Science Inquiry Cycle, scoring guides, ideas for designing their own lesson) that they may or may not use. This year, they'll start receiving a CD with the same information that they may or may not use. (Personal goal: be able to dress up the CD so it's more than just a bunch of files).
On my side, instead of a dozen notebooks full of random notes, I'm now fully engulfed in using Evernote to carry my information and Toodledo to keep my to-do lists in order. Notes from meetings are typed, not hand written; websites I may need to find again are bookmarked (thanks to Foxmarks); I go nowhere without laptop and iPhone.
There are times my hand twitches and makes me feel like I can't focus without drawing out my plan for the day. But I take a deep breath, open up OmniGraffle and draw a flowchart of my ideas. I've upgraded my Toodledo to a Pro account so I can track subtasks and watch progress get made toward goals I've set, but it still didn't do the visual flowchart of ideas for me. OmniGraffle picked up that piece. And the only thing on my Christmas wish list at this point is a graphic pad (though a Kindle wouldn't be bad either). That should help me make that last push to just being done with paper, at least on a personal level.
Now, to implement as many ideas as I can for doing it at work too.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Day 2: OTS Conference
First: an opening for Outreach Coordinator at the Imaginarium in Anchorage is very tempting. There's a Center for the Performing Arts right across the street. Maybe they need a Theater Technologist?
Anyway, the conference continued to be a source of good inspiration. We dragged ourselves down into mucky areas as we debated the "what comes next" question, how do we move beyond the grant and into sustainability and all that. Our Collaboration of museums work well together on sharing ideas for how to do things during the grant, but because the museums are so different, we all have our own needs and ideas about how the exhibit becomes self-sustaining, or even if it can.
Also, our museum was the stand out of how we ran the program this year, and the only one with a change in direct management of the exhibits between years. Those are our challenges. I don't feel like I have the information and data necessary to make good choices in venues for next year, and I plan on using this year to experiment, collect data and make good choices for the following year. Everyone else had reached more of the types of venues they needed to for their data, and have information for making choices this year.
We also got a chance to hear more about the Imaginarium's Outreach program. They take planes to the villages, sleep on mattresses on gymnasium floors, pack in their own food (so they don't have to eat smoked fish dipped in seal oil), and get to reach entire families with programs and science they'd never see otherwise. Dog sleds, snow mobiles, the Alaska Ferry system, and lots of snow - all to bring science to some of the most rural villages imaginable. And totally worth it.
It was a good day. I've made good contacts for future collaborations. Got to know a guy from the Exploratorium who invited us down for Maker Faire in May. Sounds awesome, and would help me make even MORE contacts at Exploratorium - a very good place to have science museum contacts.
Summary - interesting discussions, great brainstorming, fun conversations and dinner, and an overall good time.
Anyway, the conference continued to be a source of good inspiration. We dragged ourselves down into mucky areas as we debated the "what comes next" question, how do we move beyond the grant and into sustainability and all that. Our Collaboration of museums work well together on sharing ideas for how to do things during the grant, but because the museums are so different, we all have our own needs and ideas about how the exhibit becomes self-sustaining, or even if it can.
Also, our museum was the stand out of how we ran the program this year, and the only one with a change in direct management of the exhibits between years. Those are our challenges. I don't feel like I have the information and data necessary to make good choices in venues for next year, and I plan on using this year to experiment, collect data and make good choices for the following year. Everyone else had reached more of the types of venues they needed to for their data, and have information for making choices this year.
We also got a chance to hear more about the Imaginarium's Outreach program. They take planes to the villages, sleep on mattresses on gymnasium floors, pack in their own food (so they don't have to eat smoked fish dipped in seal oil), and get to reach entire families with programs and science they'd never see otherwise. Dog sleds, snow mobiles, the Alaska Ferry system, and lots of snow - all to bring science to some of the most rural villages imaginable. And totally worth it.
It was a good day. I've made good contacts for future collaborations. Got to know a guy from the Exploratorium who invited us down for Maker Faire in May. Sounds awesome, and would help me make even MORE contacts at Exploratorium - a very good place to have science museum contacts.
Summary - interesting discussions, great brainstorming, fun conversations and dinner, and an overall good time.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Day 1: OTS Conference
Despite my hestitancy in taking over this program, nothing can stop that instinctual desire to improve, control, brainstorm, research, etc, etc that makes me the perfect person for (most of) this program. The presentations and discussions yesterday helped prove that. I couldn't help but be interested in hearing their experiences and ideas for improvement. I couldn't help but start getting excited about how I could improve what I had seen in our exhibit set up and implementation. We've been missing the boat (shuttle) on this one.
I'm still not excited about the extra hours, the truck driving, the dealing with venues, the crowds, the set-up/tear-down. It's a lot more manual labor and organization then education - and I'm too good at teaching to spend so much time on it. That's always been one of the things I really like about teaching through a museum - a higher percentage of time is spent on actually developing curriculum and teaching it then on the bureaucracy and administrative responsibilities of classroom teaching. But, there's a chance I could do this, with minimal suffering.
I'm still not excited about the extra hours, the truck driving, the dealing with venues, the crowds, the set-up/tear-down. It's a lot more manual labor and organization then education - and I'm too good at teaching to spend so much time on it. That's always been one of the things I really like about teaching through a museum - a higher percentage of time is spent on actually developing curriculum and teaching it then on the bureaucracy and administrative responsibilities of classroom teaching. But, there's a chance I could do this, with minimal suffering.
Monday, September 15, 2008
OTS - Anchorage
Headed to Anchorage for a two-day conference for the Outreach to Space exhibit. Unsure what to really expect when I get there, just a general outline of Day 1 - talk about exhibits; Day 2 - talk about how cool Outreach is when you need dog sleds to get you to your schools.
It should be an interesting experience. It is the first of what I hope will be many conferences and professional development opportunities for me this year. I've been teaching science outreach for several years, learning from those who have done the job before me, from research and websites, from experience. And now I'm starting to see it from other perspectives, expanding the resources of experience that I can call on when looking for solutions to problems. It can be overwhelming - there are thousands of educators in the world, hundreds who do outreach. Trying to gain the sum knowledge available from their experiences is more than an lifetime of work.
I was talking to one of the museum's many volunteers this weekend. He comes from the Silicon Valley and the technology-insanity with years of attempting to just keep up with the tons of knowledge that are being produced every day. And now, retired and comfortably living in a calmer world here in Oregon, we were contemplating the value of always being so concerned about knowing what everyone else is learning and doing. If you're always reading the new information, the reviews of the new discoveries, and the debates about them, how much time are you leaving yourself for learning something new yourself? On the flip side, without knowing what's out there, what opportunities do you miss out on? How do you find the balance?
Coordinating the exhibits for the next year or so was not necessarily an opportunity I sought out, but there is a good feeling involved in bringing science out to the community. Perhaps being here and talking with other people who work with these exhibits will help me find something to be excited about.
It should be an interesting experience. It is the first of what I hope will be many conferences and professional development opportunities for me this year. I've been teaching science outreach for several years, learning from those who have done the job before me, from research and websites, from experience. And now I'm starting to see it from other perspectives, expanding the resources of experience that I can call on when looking for solutions to problems. It can be overwhelming - there are thousands of educators in the world, hundreds who do outreach. Trying to gain the sum knowledge available from their experiences is more than an lifetime of work.
I was talking to one of the museum's many volunteers this weekend. He comes from the Silicon Valley and the technology-insanity with years of attempting to just keep up with the tons of knowledge that are being produced every day. And now, retired and comfortably living in a calmer world here in Oregon, we were contemplating the value of always being so concerned about knowing what everyone else is learning and doing. If you're always reading the new information, the reviews of the new discoveries, and the debates about them, how much time are you leaving yourself for learning something new yourself? On the flip side, without knowing what's out there, what opportunities do you miss out on? How do you find the balance?
Coordinating the exhibits for the next year or so was not necessarily an opportunity I sought out, but there is a good feeling involved in bringing science out to the community. Perhaps being here and talking with other people who work with these exhibits will help me find something to be excited about.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Outreach
Over the next few months, I'll be taking the Crickets program on the road. The no-longer-shelved grant is finally getting off the ground and reaching teens in after school programs.
And not a minute too soon.
I met with the director of one of the after school teen clubs I'll be taking the program to, to get a feel for their layout, talk about the requirements, and discuss options for the program. I'll spend 8 hours total at each of the clubs, and it had seemed like enough until I saw this one. In a tiny town in the middle of the mountains, this is a club that barely scrapes by, and offers everything from meals to a place to sleep, games to educational programming. The kind of place that deserves all kinds of support from its community. Not the kind of place that should be broken into to have its new computers stolen. No, not even stolen - gutted. Anything that wasn't traceable. Same as the library and the school that share the parking lot. WHO DOES THAT???
Grr...
I'm taking technology to these kids. I'm bringing them toys that none of them will have access to outside of our 8 hours together. It's not enough. But at least it's something. When I did this with the kids during summer camp, half of the families were talking about getting the kits for their kids after the program. They didn't have to worry about having the computer or the money for the kit. The kids I'll see in this after school program? Maybe 1 of them has a personal computer with internet. They'll be in the workforce a lot sooner than those kids I saw this summer, they'll need the skills for college (if they go). And they don't have access to it outside of a computer class.
We need to overhaul education and the economy. This isn't acceptable.
And not a minute too soon.
I met with the director of one of the after school teen clubs I'll be taking the program to, to get a feel for their layout, talk about the requirements, and discuss options for the program. I'll spend 8 hours total at each of the clubs, and it had seemed like enough until I saw this one. In a tiny town in the middle of the mountains, this is a club that barely scrapes by, and offers everything from meals to a place to sleep, games to educational programming. The kind of place that deserves all kinds of support from its community. Not the kind of place that should be broken into to have its new computers stolen. No, not even stolen - gutted. Anything that wasn't traceable. Same as the library and the school that share the parking lot. WHO DOES THAT???
Grr...
I'm taking technology to these kids. I'm bringing them toys that none of them will have access to outside of our 8 hours together. It's not enough. But at least it's something. When I did this with the kids during summer camp, half of the families were talking about getting the kits for their kids after the program. They didn't have to worry about having the computer or the money for the kit. The kids I'll see in this after school program? Maybe 1 of them has a personal computer with internet. They'll be in the workforce a lot sooner than those kids I saw this summer, they'll need the skills for college (if they go). And they don't have access to it outside of a computer class.
We need to overhaul education and the economy. This isn't acceptable.
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