ImagineIT: Phase Three
Identification of Desired Results
This project’s goals are twofold: from the content side, to model the social nature of science, an often overlooked facet of the nature of science; and from the practice side, to increase student engagement through the use of authentic audiences for sharing learning. The social side of science is a disciplinary core idea. The process of peer review is integral to the maintenance and advancement of scientific knowledge. Without this, the integrity of experimental evidence would be compromised. The sharing of experimental data ensures repeatable, objective results. Publishing work also inspires other scientists to ask new questions and perform new experiments, and thereby advances the field. The complexity of modern science also requires social networks. Although one may be an expert in a specific field, nothing exists in isolation, and the ever-increasing complexity of the phenomena at the heart of new scientific investigations requires the collaboration of many different experts working together. This idea is not science-specific - students will need to engage in these or similar practices in any field of work they may enter. In a world of increasing specification of expertise, and with communication as accessible as today’s digital technologies allow, students must become adept at navigating social networks. By engaging in these practices, students will come to see the nature of science as a human endeavor. By sharing, debating, and revising ideas, students will experience science as a true scientist would, and see how the continual revision of ideas based on experimental evidence leads to powerful understandings of the world.
Determination of Acceptable Evidence
Students will largely demonstrate their experiences with and understanding of the social side of science through participating in activities and then documenting and reflecting on the outcomes. Students will explain their understanding of phenomena based on experimental evidence, and will explain how their understanding changed or evolved through social interaction. Students will interpret these ideas by finding relevant applications to content in their personal lives and sharing this with the class community. Students will demonstrate self-knowledge, and empathize with their peers by reflecting on their and others’ learning processes, and how social interactions may have influenced the development of ideas. These understanding goals will be expressed in the following performances of understanding: creation of digital portfolios/blogs/websites to show ongoing learning and reflection, showcases for specific projects, seeking and sharing learning with elementary/middle grades and university students, maintaining social media presence through class period hashtags, and finding and sharing personal connections to content. Assessment will be ongoing, with time built into the daily schedule for reflection, and outreach opportunities taken as the content provides for. Reflection and documentation will be a large component of the assessment, and will be evaluated using a rubric to assess depth.
To measure student engagement throughout the year, test score and assignment completion comparisons will be made with last year’s data. Authentic audiences will consist of real people with whom students’ work will be shared. These people will ideally represent varied groups, such as elementary students at our other campus, university students, teachers, family, peers, international students, and friends outside of school. The sharing may take place face-to-face or using technology, and may be directly communicated or indirectly made available for viewing. Varying the audience will keep the sharing feeling fresh, and show students that the applicability of their learning is broad and interesting to many other groups.
Planning of Learning Experiences and Instruction
My ImagineIT project will be implemented across multiple sections of a 9th grade physics course at Disney II Magnet. Being a magnet school, the students come from all over the city, and the population is therefore very diverse academically, socially, and emotionally. I see these students every other day on a block schedule for ~100 min. I chose this course as I have the most experience teaching this content and built the course over the last three years. This familiarity will allow me to integrate the project throughout the year, with the goal of having one major element in each unit. I have access to a laptop cart shared between two teachers, which I will frequently need for students to maintain ongoing digital portfolios of their work. There is no designated support personnel for technology in my building.
The main goal of implementing this project is to increase student engagement with all content. Students struggle with understanding the nature of science, including the social aspect, as well as with abstract concepts such as field theory and electromagnetic induction. I hope that through the sharing and reflection processes, students will see others’ struggles and successes, and become more self-actualized learners.
Phenomena-driven inquiry and project-based learning will be the pedagogical strategies I implement this year to engage my students. Project-based learning, the subject of my deep play group, will ground classic physics content in tangible projects, and provide ample opportunity to share and reflect on learning as projects develop throughout each unit. Wonder-driven inquiry will bring content into the real world, spark student interest and imagination, and keep the classroom learner-centered.
Students will create digital portfolios to share and reflect on their work, and will be provided options to do this using different digital tools such as Google Sites, Weebly, Blogger, etc. Within these portfolios students will document the outcomes of their learning, which will take many forms, allowing for creative ways of demonstrating understanding. The Classcraft software will be used to gamify the classroom and build community within teams. Students can use the Penzu software for journaling private reflections on personal progress. Instagram and Twitter will be the primary platforms for students to maintain class hashtags, to share our proceedings with others, and also infiltrate students digital lives.
Using this multitude of digital technologies will hit the TPACK “sweet spot” by embedding the entire course in a social context. Students will associate all content of their freshman science course with public sharing and review of their work. Phenomena-based inquiry will model finding science content in the real world, and set the expectation for students to make connections to the world outside the classroom and share them with others. Grounding content in projects will provide shareable outcomes and a tangible vehicle for refining ideas through feedback.
To demonstrate these ideas, student portfolios and digital class communities such as the social media accounts and Classcraft can be shared with other teachers to model the social classroom.
This project’s goals are twofold: from the content side, to model the social nature of science, an often overlooked facet of the nature of science; and from the practice side, to increase student engagement through the use of authentic audiences for sharing learning. The social side of science is a disciplinary core idea. The process of peer review is integral to the maintenance and advancement of scientific knowledge. Without this, the integrity of experimental evidence would be compromised. The sharing of experimental data ensures repeatable, objective results. Publishing work also inspires other scientists to ask new questions and perform new experiments, and thereby advances the field. The complexity of modern science also requires social networks. Although one may be an expert in a specific field, nothing exists in isolation, and the ever-increasing complexity of the phenomena at the heart of new scientific investigations requires the collaboration of many different experts working together. This idea is not science-specific - students will need to engage in these or similar practices in any field of work they may enter. In a world of increasing specification of expertise, and with communication as accessible as today’s digital technologies allow, students must become adept at navigating social networks. By engaging in these practices, students will come to see the nature of science as a human endeavor. By sharing, debating, and revising ideas, students will experience science as a true scientist would, and see how the continual revision of ideas based on experimental evidence leads to powerful understandings of the world.
Determination of Acceptable Evidence
Students will largely demonstrate their experiences with and understanding of the social side of science through participating in activities and then documenting and reflecting on the outcomes. Students will explain their understanding of phenomena based on experimental evidence, and will explain how their understanding changed or evolved through social interaction. Students will interpret these ideas by finding relevant applications to content in their personal lives and sharing this with the class community. Students will demonstrate self-knowledge, and empathize with their peers by reflecting on their and others’ learning processes, and how social interactions may have influenced the development of ideas. These understanding goals will be expressed in the following performances of understanding: creation of digital portfolios/blogs/websites to show ongoing learning and reflection, showcases for specific projects, seeking and sharing learning with elementary/middle grades and university students, maintaining social media presence through class period hashtags, and finding and sharing personal connections to content. Assessment will be ongoing, with time built into the daily schedule for reflection, and outreach opportunities taken as the content provides for. Reflection and documentation will be a large component of the assessment, and will be evaluated using a rubric to assess depth.
To measure student engagement throughout the year, test score and assignment completion comparisons will be made with last year’s data. Authentic audiences will consist of real people with whom students’ work will be shared. These people will ideally represent varied groups, such as elementary students at our other campus, university students, teachers, family, peers, international students, and friends outside of school. The sharing may take place face-to-face or using technology, and may be directly communicated or indirectly made available for viewing. Varying the audience will keep the sharing feeling fresh, and show students that the applicability of their learning is broad and interesting to many other groups.
Planning of Learning Experiences and Instruction
My ImagineIT project will be implemented across multiple sections of a 9th grade physics course at Disney II Magnet. Being a magnet school, the students come from all over the city, and the population is therefore very diverse academically, socially, and emotionally. I see these students every other day on a block schedule for ~100 min. I chose this course as I have the most experience teaching this content and built the course over the last three years. This familiarity will allow me to integrate the project throughout the year, with the goal of having one major element in each unit. I have access to a laptop cart shared between two teachers, which I will frequently need for students to maintain ongoing digital portfolios of their work. There is no designated support personnel for technology in my building.
The main goal of implementing this project is to increase student engagement with all content. Students struggle with understanding the nature of science, including the social aspect, as well as with abstract concepts such as field theory and electromagnetic induction. I hope that through the sharing and reflection processes, students will see others’ struggles and successes, and become more self-actualized learners.
Phenomena-driven inquiry and project-based learning will be the pedagogical strategies I implement this year to engage my students. Project-based learning, the subject of my deep play group, will ground classic physics content in tangible projects, and provide ample opportunity to share and reflect on learning as projects develop throughout each unit. Wonder-driven inquiry will bring content into the real world, spark student interest and imagination, and keep the classroom learner-centered.
Students will create digital portfolios to share and reflect on their work, and will be provided options to do this using different digital tools such as Google Sites, Weebly, Blogger, etc. Within these portfolios students will document the outcomes of their learning, which will take many forms, allowing for creative ways of demonstrating understanding. The Classcraft software will be used to gamify the classroom and build community within teams. Students can use the Penzu software for journaling private reflections on personal progress. Instagram and Twitter will be the primary platforms for students to maintain class hashtags, to share our proceedings with others, and also infiltrate students digital lives.
Using this multitude of digital technologies will hit the TPACK “sweet spot” by embedding the entire course in a social context. Students will associate all content of their freshman science course with public sharing and review of their work. Phenomena-based inquiry will model finding science content in the real world, and set the expectation for students to make connections to the world outside the classroom and share them with others. Grounding content in projects will provide shareable outcomes and a tangible vehicle for refining ideas through feedback.
To demonstrate these ideas, student portfolios and digital class communities such as the social media accounts and Classcraft can be shared with other teachers to model the social classroom.