Friday, May 13, 2016

Patent Laws, Areas of Shapes and Launching into Structures - June is on its way!

It is weird to think that May is already here and June is just around the corner. However, when I feel the energy in my classroom, it is evident that these Grade 7 students are ready to move and get going into action. This week the goal was to have a short launch into their activity and then send them loose to explore, try and play. The learning goals for this week were:

  • Through understanding forces, we can prevent failure of a structure
  • Understand area is the space taken up by a 2D object
  • Explore the relationship between finding the area of a rectangle to the creation of a formula for the area of a triangle
Science:
This week was the wrap up of the solar oven project since we cooked our s'mores on Friday. With the twist of having students decide if they should make their results of experiments for public or private use, I wanted to take time to explore how this is applied in the world outside our classroom through patents. I decided to have a discussion period where students would understand and question how patents can motivate as well as make it difficult to innovate. 

To launch, I used the Poll Everywhere app to have the students share anonymously how they felt about making the results of their solar oven experiments for others to use. Through the different questions it was identified that:
  • In this project, students made all of the experiments public for others to us, but if there was the option of charging their peers a chocolate bar to use their ideas they would have done so. 
  • If they knew that not everyone in the class had a chocolate bar to spend, there was a slight shift to making it public but the majority still remained keeping it private and charging. 
  • When asked what they think causes people to want to create inventions, the highest ranked choice was because they had a problem to solve, but also the idea of financial rewards appeared. 
After discussing the results of our class data, I walked them through the process of getting a patent and outlining the time and investment of money that is required. We searched on the international database of patents to see if an idea we had for our solar oven was already created. They found this challenging and time consuming. They also saw how inventions that are patented show how to make and produce the invention to everyone online, which they saw as a way to spark ideas in others...if others could find the patent. 

We then took time to ask why inventions had not been created to solve problems such as clean water, when we have made great improvements in cell phone technology. By talking through different world views, they were able to identify that the financial investment required to develop a product would then be gained back by selling the invention. However, if the people needing it have no money to pay, than the inventor would be at a loss of money.

I was really happy that we had this conversation as it allowed the students to see why some of the world's problems have not been solved due to issues that they have never made connections with before. The conversation was enjoyable and worth the period that we spent on it for sure and I would do it again. 

Here is the slide show that was used: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QVrhWcdUsVrspBD0OUMe9Q_1XdaqrlEZBpfen01sp6o 

To get ready for their upcoming structures unit, they are doing a homework assignment that will let them build and also collapse different structures. It is called Catastrophe and the developers have done a wonderful job of applying the laws of physics to the designs. My students have already started using the terms tension and compression without having learned it in class. 

The assignment they are working on is: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1N3Q3ELicDaoT5lAhIY5IwIIWHlU4slCXvFPrDrjK3m4

Next week is the launch of the structures unit and they will be working with another class. Lots of hands on building and exploration to do as we go into the end of the year!

Math: Finding Area
I was able to participate in a Lesson Study done by the Junior School teachers this week which focused on the development of understanding of area. With a focus on conservation and additivity when finding the area of irregular shapes. During the conversation, the idea that students forget these concepts as they begin to learn the formulas of shapes. With this in mind, I wanted to teach the area of a triangle by starting back at the start of understanding area. 

To do this, I told the students that they would be erasing their brains of all past knowledge and we would be progressing together. We talked about how measurements were originally taken by using body parts, but that different sized people would have different sized hands/feet. Then standardized units of measure were created so that everyone knew what was being talked about. We then explored why they were called units squared. For some students they had not thought of this since their younger years, and only now were able to grasp the concept. It was a short review, but important to understand that it is the total number of square units. 

We when looked at the area of a rectangle and saw how it is an array. You have for example, 10 groups of 6 boxes in the rectangle, so we can use that to do it faster. Students they made the connection that this would relate to the base x height formula they had learned. 

Finally we did a paper cutting exploration to show how two triangles make one rectangle. They understood that if we know how to find the area of a rectangle, than cutting up a triangle so that it fits into a rectangle allows us to use our array understanding to find the area. This was then connected with the formula that we then developed together. 

Once all students felt confident with this task, they were put into groups with their own shape that they needed to create a similar slide show showing how to change the shape back into a rectangle and then use this to develop a formula. Groups were arranged on purpose by processing speed so that they could think through the problem together and no one would be left behind. This was because the goal of the lesson was for them to think deeply about how conservation of area can occur. 

Now, they are creating their slide shows and will present to others in small groups next Wednesday. They will have the slides shared as their own "notes" to refer back on for their homework. This will be a good launch for their individual solving of irregular shapes as well. 

Slide show used: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AZP9F2b9kqAH7oDlLUaTZ7ARx8j5nGHvK8Xe8yv45L8 

Friday, May 6, 2016

Solar Ovens Week 2, Oral Evaluations and Climate Graph Intro

So, perhaps as predicted the solar oven project too a little longer than predicted. Due to bad weather, we didn't get the best days of testing. This resulted in the exit interviews starting on Thursday rather than Wednesday and will probably enter into next week. However, we are ending today with the big test of the ovens as well as using them to make SMORES! This last part is the surprise to the students.

Here was the week:

Solar Ovens:
Overall a big success. Students continued to think creatively about how to make adaptations to their ovens, but also find the supportive data in their peers experiments. It was interesting how every solar oven experiment was made public for other individuals to use. This was a big change from the start of the project where students were wanting to keep ideas and results private. Next week we are going to be exploring how this decision to apply patents/copyright on research results can be challenging for overall innovation, as well as encourage it.

The new thing this week are the exit interview. Students are completing a verbal evaluation where they need to identify the modification they made, explain how it harnesses the sun's energy and provide evidence from their peers to show that it works. Providing a verbal evaluation has been great for two reasons:

  1. Students who are verbally strong now have the chance to share their understanding in a manner that suits their preferred communication style. They come prepared, but can explain further without being concerned about the time it takes to write down their ideas. 
  2. Feedback and clarification is automatic. I get very frustrated with written evaluations where the student didn't interpret the question correctly and therefore did not put the right answer down, even though you know they know it. By having it done verbally, I can pose the same question, but then ask clarifying questions afterwards to see if they do understand the material. It is also a great chance, once the evaluation is completed, to provide feedback on both their ability to do a verbal evaluation, but also address the misconceptions or misunderstandings they have about the concept rather than wait 2 weeks to get back their written work. 
Students are coming well prepared which is a big help to me. So far, the results have been quite good as students in this model are better able to share their understanding. If a student is not prepared, they have not been meeting the expectations and have been asked if they would like a chance to re-do or stay with the result. This has also been interesting. 

Materials for this week:

Climate Change and Climate Graphs:
The presentations of each of the IPCC's climate graphs were completed this week. Now a bulletin board has been made outside the classroom to show the connections between different graphs and how the data can tell a new story. This has been effective for the students to see the larger picture of climate change, with the supportive data. 

They also took time this week to explore climate graphs (showing temperature and precipitation). This has been very helpful for the Social Studies teacher who used to take a lot of time to explain how to read them. By having it as a part of their homework and an in class activity, the students are learning how to read them with me, but then going to apply the information in their other class. 

Materials for this week:

Friday, April 29, 2016

Climate Change, Solar Ovens and Exploring Patent Law

Coming to the end of the year, there is always the challenge of how to spark Grade 7 students to keep going as well as create assignments where they can also explore their developing independence. The class had four learning goals this week:

  • Science: Identify how heat is transferred and how heat loss can be reduced. 
  • Science: Look at trends and evaluate the amount of greenhouse gases accumulated over time and propose courses of action to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. 
  • Math: Make inferences and convincing arguments using data and the analysis of data from charts, tables and graphs that compare two attributes investigated. 
  • Math: identify trends/patterns present to come to a conclusion on an argument
Science: Solar Oven Development
This week was day 2, 3 and 4 for the solar oven project. At this point, students had already determined if they wanted to be in a group, or working alone. Many had already identified the modifications they wanted to make to the "base model" and created experiment planners to test their new ideas. They had also thoroughly read through their peer's lab reports from the individually created heat labs completed over the March Break to find ideas and evidence for possible modifications. 

I really appreciated how the students bought into the hypothetical situation of being in an information bubble. They have only the results from their March Break lab reports to reference as evidence for a design modification. By doing this, students were reading through each others labs with a fine tooth comb. What was the biggest take away was how the students were trying to find ways to use the experimental results of an experiment involving putting an ice cube in a cotton or wool sock to justify a modification to their solar oven. They were able to take the results and apply them to a new situation effectively. However, hearing their discussions over how the data could show their modification showed their deep understanding and also some misperceptions of heat transfer that I had not heard until this point. 

Students who had decided to complete their own experiment are now collecting the results and determining if they want to make the results public for others to use. It was also interesting to see their excited faces during the first trial and seeing the results coming in for each modification. Students were then asked by their peers if they would make the results public or not. It was great to see students challenged with the decision of if their ideas should benefit others or just themselves. We will be wrapping up this conversation next week with an analysis of various situations where the decision of sharing scientific results for others use occurred and the outcomes afterwards. Having Grade 7s debate the purpose of copyright and patent laws will be very interesting now that they have their own personal experience. 

Documents used this week:
Since creating their lab reports from the March Break heat labs, they have developed an understanding of what is required in a proper graph. What we have been focusing on is that each graph has a story to tell, and that this story was was only told because someone had a question. When reading graphs their job is to identify what the question was that was asked and how the graph tells the story of the answer. 

I also wanted students to realize that reading a graph is not difficult, but requires them to slowly decode the information. Even the most confusing graphs can be broken down into parts that they can work to understand independently of each other prior to bringing the ideas together. 

There is a range of abilities in the class for how students can interpret visual data. With the range, some students are still working on reading a line graph while others are ready for a greater challenge. To ensure that all students were being challenged in this area, I wanted to find graphs that were all trying to tell the same story, but in a different way. This way my students, no matter which graph they received to work on, needed to tells its story to the rest of the class so that the big picture of climate change could be understood. 

To do this I went to the IPCC and used their graphs and data that explain climate change. I broke students up to work on a graph that reflected their need for challenge. Upon receiving their graph, they had 10 minutes to work independently to work through the decoding document. Then, after the 10 minutes they joined up with the rest of their group to share what they had decoded as well as where they were stuck. The final goal of the week was to create a slide show presentation to share with the rest of the class. In this presentation they needed to show the graph, explain the graph by decoding it, identify the question that was asked to make the graph, the answer to that question as well as the "why should we care". We have now started the presentations and it is really interesting to see students make connections between the stories their graphs told to the stories being told by other groups graphs.

The next step is that a board is going to be made with all of the graphs. Students will then use string to make a physical link between two graphs (one being their own) and identify what story the two graphs together are able to tell. They will then need to explore what next steps can be made to improve the outcome

Documents used this week: