Post #7

1. The EAST Initiative Model was highlighted in Chapter 8 (pg. 133). This model offers four key ideas that support rigorous, community-based learning. If these ideas become part of your classroom culture that you setup as a teacher, how would the students’ experience change from previous experiences where these ideas were not in place?

As an educator, incorporating the practices taken from the EAST Initiative Model into my classroom culture, students’ experiences will differ from previous ones in the following ways:

1. Student driven learning: Empowering students by placing them in control of the learning experience demonstrates respect and generates an intrinsic motivation to accomplish a task.
2. Authentic project-based learning: Challenging students with problems that are relevant to their lives and the community around them gives meaning and purpose to a task that previously had none.
3. Technology as tools: Introducing students to modern practical technologies that are being utilized in the “real” world to solve “real” problems demonstrates respect and trust in their capabilities while also teaching skills that are transferable to the work world.
4. Collaboration: Teaching students the importance and value in teamwork will build social skills and reinforce the idea that the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

2. The author’s pose this question in Chapter 9 (pg. 140): How will you measure the distance each student travels as a learner?” What strategies do you find will work best for you to measure individual student progress throughout your Project Based Learning Unit for this course? When you are defining your assessments, remember our Picocricket and other labs where we found that if we only assessed the final product, there would have been failure. But did those students “fail” in the learning process? Think about the assessments you have created or will create and briefly discuss why you chose to assessment you are giving, at what points in the learning process are you taking measurement of learning, and how will those assessments drive your instruction.

Before defining the assessment to be utilized for my project based learning unit I feel it is important to first define the purpose for assessment. Measuring the degree of learning that occurred relative to the greatest potential of learning that could have occurred is the purpose of my assessment in the PBL unit. Each students’ potential for learning varies and must be taken into consideration throughout the assessment process. Additionally, the assessment should be ongoing. A preliminary assessment should be conducted to establish a baseline to measure progress against. This could be in the form of a pre-assessment quiz, game, discussion, or activity. In addition to providing the teacher a view of the starting knowledge base, the pre-assessment would also serve as a means to peak students’ interests. Throughout the unit the teacher will remain involved as an instructor, facilitator, and motivator. This allows them to experience and assess the learning process firsthand and adjust plans accordingly based on the feedback received. At the conclusion of the unit students will be given a choice of activities to showcase what they’ve learned. Offering  choice allows the student to pick the method of assessment which best demonstrates their knowledge, based upon their unique learning style and experiences throughout the unit.

CyberSmart – 21st Century Skills for Education

a. Safety and Security

Online Identity Theft: Information is Power

Students learn about the methods criminals use to steal identities online. They develop an identity theft prevention tip list and propose ways to communicate their tips to their families.

b. Manners, Cyberbullying, & Ethics

Acceptable Social Networking?

Students explore a scenario in which an angry student creates a false online identity in order to seek revenge. They explore ways to resolve the situation and develop a list of tips to help other teens avoid cyberbullying situations.

c. Authentic Learning and Creativity

Managing Project Teams

Students use a checklist to learn to manage collaborative teams and select digital tools to support collaborative authentic learning projects. Use as a stand-alone lesson or in preparation for team project assignments.

d. Research and Information Fluency

Evaluating Online Resources

Students learn to think critically about their choices of Web sites for research by using an evaluation checklist that discusses the key characteristics of trustworthy sites. A sampling of sites on a topic of high interest to students provides the lesson context. Optional strategies for the use of Web 2.0 tools are included. Extend the lesson to examine the use of Wikipedia.

e. Twenty-First Century Challenges

What’s Your Future?

Find lessons for high school students related to Twenty-First Century Challenges at Common Sense Media.

Differentiated Content Lesson

Unit: Flight Physics

Lesson: Newton’s Laws of Motion Applied to Flight

Objective: At the conclusion of the lesson students will be able to:

• State Newton’s Three Laws of Motion
• Explain and interpret the physical concepts behind the three Laws of Motion.
• Define inertia, mass, force, acceleration, and free body diagram.
• Apply Newton’s Laws to explain how various modes of flight are possible

Activities For Whole Group Instruction:

In a 20 minute interactive lecture students will be introduced to Newton’s Three Laws of Motion and observe demonstrations and videos exhibiting them in action. Utilizing Newton’s first law, students will be asked to draw a force body diagram of an airplane in flight. Students will indicate all forces that act upon the airplane in flight to include thrust, drag, gravity, and lift to understand the concept of balanced and unbalanced forces and how they influence the motion of the aircraft. Incorporating Newton’s second law, students will visit the following website and observe how mass and force affects the acceleration of an object through the interactive demonstration. Lastly, students will pair up to inflate and release balloons to observe how Newton’s third law of action reaction applies to the flight of the balloon and relate it to that of a rocket.

3 Ways to Differentiate for 3 Different Classified Students:

Disability 1: Visual Impairment

These students will be seated towards the front of the class where they can best observe the presentation, videos, and live demonstrations. Presentation slides and class handouts will be made available electronically as well as through enlarged printouts, allowing students to best view the resources. Force body diagrams will be drawn with help of a partner on a large-scale whiteboard. Additionally, the balloon release experiment will be video taped and available to play back enlarged and in slow motion.

The adaptations for this disability are Level of Support and Input. Level of Support was utilized by allowing another student or teacher aide to draw a large scale force body diagram and record the balloon release demonstration. This was important in that it provided appropriate visual aids to be utilized. Input was used by allowing students to be seated at the front of the classroom and view materials electronically or in large printouts. This was important once again, in that it provided appropriately sized visual resources for learning.

Disability 2: Orthopedic Impairment

Students in wheel chairs will be provided an alternate task for Newton’s second law. The teacher will demonstrate to them how the force applied to the wheelchair affects their acceleration and similarly how acceleration varies by mass when an equal force is applied to both.

The adaptation for this disability is Size/Quantity. In modifying the task, students in wheelchairs were given the opportunity to hear Newton’s second law explained, see it in action, and actually feel it at work. This was important because it took advantage of a so called “disability” and turned it into a valuable asset to enhance the learning experience.

Disability 3: Hearing Impairment

Students with hearing impairments will be permitted to sit at the front of the classroom to best hear instruction. All material coved during instruction will be made available through handouts to compensate for anything that may have been missed. Video demonstrations will include closed captioning with volume set to the highest comfortable level. Headphones will also be made available for all videos and while exploring Newton’s second law on the website.

The adaptation for this disability is Input. By providing accommodations through seating arrangement, handouts, speaker volume, and headphones the risk of something being missed due to a hearing impairment is greatly mitigated.

Post #6

1. What is 1 activity that I am asking my students to do?

One thing I am asking my students to do is create a model aircraft to demonstrate different types of lift (fixed-wing, rotary-wing, propulsion, and hot-air).

2. What am I hoping to get out of this learning activity?

From this learning activity I am hoping to give the students an opportunity to apply the principles they learned to a working model.

3. How can I deepen the learning experience?

To deepen the learning experience I plan on creating a competition to judge distance traveled, height reached, max velocity attained, and time aloft. This will prompt the student to brainstorm the pros and cons to each mode of flight and design their models accordingly. A transforming question to ask is, what factors did the early pioneers of flight have to take into consideration to be successful when designing their early prototypes? Since then, what new technologies have improved modern aircraft and how? Lastly, what undeveloped technologies do you think will improve the aviation industry in the future?