Gardening Program with SAGE Elementary Students

Our Title 1 school is lucky enough to have a decent size outdoor garden that is overseen by community volunteers. One of their goals is to teach our students about the garden.

Because of the that, I offered gardening as a possible elective for my GT (gifted and talented students). See Offering Electives to Elementary Students for more about why and how I offer electives to them. They joyfully selected gardening as one of them.

I also have the privilege of teaching my students multiple years. Along with a brief explanation of the activities for this elective, below is a video about the plants from the outdoor garden that the students created last school year, and one they created this year about our indoor hydroponic garden. (Note: Students are still in the process of composing the individual descriptions of the garden activities they did.)

Description of the Activities

We’ve been shaping our garden, and that comes with a lot of activities during spring and fall. These activities are all very fun. They included: garden class, plant anatomy and good eats. The garden class was very fun. It was basically reading out plant facts from a book. Plant anatomy was where they told us about the plant’s names and different parts.

Outdoor Garden

Our Salazar Green Garden has many diverse types of plants including peppers, tomatoes, rhubarb, mint, two different kinds of plum, peaches, and more! We donate to the Adelante food bank program, a way that Salazar can give back to the community.

Hydronic Garden

We started a hydroponic garden and successfully grew lettuce, cilantro, spinach, and chives.

Healthy Eating

One of the goals of this program was to teach and have the students enjoy healthy foods.

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Connecting School Standards to Gardening Resources

A school garden (however large or small) provides a meaningful context in which students can apply new academic concepts and skills. Whether they are graphing the temperature of their compost pile over time; reading a recipe to make fresh salsa; writing a story from the perspective of an ant; or presenting to a buddy class on the animals that visited their sunflower patch, the opportunities for children to practice traditional academic subjects in the garden are limitless! (Common Core and Next Generation Science in the Garden)

• Standards-Based Learning in a Garden https://www.edutopia.org/practice/garden-based-learning-engaging-students-their-environment
• Connecting the school garden to curriculum standards https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/connecting-the-school-garden-to-curriculum-standards
• From Seed to Plant https://www.monroe.edu/cms/lib/NY02216770/Centricity/Domain/141/fromseedtoplant12-8-15.pdf

Science-Based Valentine Day Projects

I really like using maker education and STEM/STEAM projects to celebrate holidays and special events. My method of teaching new concepts is to use the Stages of Make Education that I presented in Learning in the Making: How to Plan, Execute, and Assess Powerful Makerspace Lessons:

The following Valentine Day projects were completed by my 3rd through 6th grade gifted students. Due to the new skills involved, they were asked to copy the basic instructions. Then as is typical of my students, then went quickly into the Advance and Embellish Stages of Making.

Circuit-Based Valentine’s Projects

NGSS Standards Addressed

• Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.
• Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another

Introduction

I began asking who knew what an electric circuit. Sadly, none did. I showed them Electric Circuits – BrainPop UK https://youtu.be/3LsXGAbwTOQ

Circuit Project 1: Conversation Hearts Box Operation Game

Project Description

The Instructable, Operation Valentine: a Game, a Gift, a Lesson in Electric Circuits, was used for this project. I substituted aluminum tape for the paperclip and pre-wired LEDs instead of the Christmas lights.

What follows is a video that shows how one student took this project from Copy to Embellish of the Stages of Making:

Circuit Project 2: Chibitronic LED Valentine Day Card

For this activity students were asked to create a Valentine Day card by making a paper circuit using a Chibtronic LED and a cardstock switch built into the circuit. I adapted the activity from two activities from their website:

• https://chibitronics.com/2020/02/15/valentine-light-up-card/
• https://chibitronics.com/2020/02/05/happy-valentine-with-light/

I cut out the front “cover” of the card using my Cricut machine to show a heart where the light would shine through. The students chose a piece of colored tissue paper to cover it. Instead of providing a circuit temple, I drew it on the whiteboard and asked the students to draw their own on another piece of cardstock.

This student were from the Copy Stage to the Advance Stage of Making by creating a popup card he figured out and crafted:

A Little Chemistry

NGSS

By the end of middle school, students will be able to apply understanding that pure substances have characteristic physical and chemical properties

Introduction

I showed them Physical and Chemical changes (Brain pop) https://youtu.be/hq8K-dF8_4c

Project Description

I used the following video as my reference for both materials and procedures:

What the students’ molds and candy looked like . . .

A STEM Camp for Young Learners

I just finished a week long – half day STEM camp for learners, ages 7 through 12, half girls and half boys. The energy in the room throughout the week was pretty incredible. There was close to 100% engagement the entire time which is always my goal in teaching. I love turning kids onto STEM, and there is evidence that exposure at a younger age increases the chances of later interest.

Some Evidence of the Importance of STEM in the Early Years

Research tells us that children’s early experience builds brain architecture and lays the foundation for one’s lifelong thinking skills and approach to learning, both critical roots of STEM success. After all, the STEM disciplines require not only content knowledge but also robust thinking dispositions—such as curiosity and inquiry, questioning and skepticism, assessment and analysis—as well as a strong learning mindset and confidence when encountering new information or challenges. These need to be developed in a child’s early education, beginning in infancy and continuing through third grade to lay the roots for STEM success. (McClure et al., 2017) (The Roots of STEM Success: Changing Early Learning Experiences to Build Lifelong Thinking Skills)

According to a new research project, children who engage in scientific activities at an early age (between birth and age 8) develop positive attitudes toward science, build up their STEM “vocabularies” and do better at problem solving, meeting challenges and acquiring new skills. “STEM starts early: Grounding science, technology, engineering and math education in early childhood,” published by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and New America and supported by a National Science Foundation grant, has asserted that “the seeds of STEM must be planted early,” right alongside the “seeds of literacy.” Together, the report said, “these mutually enhancing, interwoven strands of learning will grow well informed, critical citizens prepared for a digital tomorrow.”  (Research: Let’s Move STEM Learning Earlier)

The Camp

Due to the experiential nature of most of my instruction, I use an experiential cycle of learning:

What follows is how I applied it during the STEM camp.

Framing the Activities

The STEM activities were introduced through (1) the use of Brainpop videos and their accompanying quizzes, and (2) tutorial videos and/or webpages with directions. Brainpop videos, due to their animation and humor, have a high interest value for kids, and their follow-up quizzes help to create more active learning. After the Brainpop video introduction, the campers were given an overview of the specific activities through the tutorials. I then would show them the tutorial step-by-step. For some campers, seeing the tutorial in its entirety was enough for them to do the project. Others needed me to go over the project step-by-step using the tutorials as guides. I prefer using online tutorials rather than doing them myself as demonstrations because the tutorials can be projected for a larger image and better viewing by all of the learners.

These specific resources can be found in the slide deck below:

The Doing

The camp consisted mostly of campers DOING the STEM activities. See below for a photographic journey of their engagement in the activities.

Reflection

Activity reflections occurred after the completion of the day’s activities using science journals:

https://www.lakeshorelearning.com/products/el/s/HH258

Journals such as these not only benefit the learners but the educator, too. They provide such good activity evaluation information. For example, the last day of camp, students selected two photos from the week from all of the week’s photos that represented their favorite activities. These were printed for them and they then glued the images into their journals and wrote about them. They then did a verbal check-in to tell the rest of us which ones they selected and why.

When they were sharing these with the rest of the group, one of the girls mentioned that the DIY crystals was her favorite. I was totally surprised. I thought this activity was a dude as the kids didn’t seem that excited about them. I was thinking about dropping it as a STEM activity in the future but now I will, due to her comment, consider using it again.

Our Week in Images

Chemistry – Elephant Toothpaste

Chemistry – Slime

Chemistry – Orbeez Stress Balls

Solar – Solar Cars

Solar – Solar Ovens

Art and Science – Geometric Structures

Art and Science – DIY Crystals

Kinetic Projects – Cranky Contraptions

Kinetic Projects – Helium Balloon Blimp

Kinetic Projects – Motor Boats

 

TED for Teens or Ted-Ed Talks As They Should Be

If I were to subtitle this blog post, it would be something like “reclaiming science education” or “making TED talks palatable and very tasty for young people.”

Cafe Scientifique

I recently become the Cafe Scientifique coordinator for Santa Fe, NM.  I realized after the first session that this program is what TED talks could or should be especially for teens and tweens.  The background and description of Cafe Scientifique . .

Science Café programs engage scientists and the public in conversation on interesting science topics in a highly social setting. The model was established in England, and its popularity led to rapid spread in various forms throughout the world. It has proven very effective in engaging people from all walks of life with science and scientists  In 2007, Science Education Solutions, with a grant from the National Science Foundation, began an experiment to see if the model could be adapted to appeal to high school teenagers. The program, Café Scientifique New Mexico, has proven highly popular with teens in four towns of diverse character in northern New Mexico for the same reason as adult programs: the blend of engaging with scientists informally on interesting science topics and the high degree of social interaction. Café Scientifique New Mexico provides teens a new perspective on the nature of science and a picture of scientists as real people leading interesting lives. The program has proven to be a rich—and fun!—complement to the science they learn in the classroom.

The Cafes contain the following elements:

• Scientist Talk – about 20 minutes
• Teen Interview of the Scientist
• Q & A with the Scientist
• Hands-On Activity
• Food

Scientist Talk

Real scientists are invited to do the talks.  Real is this case means that they are practicing scientists working in labs, research settings, etc. Here are 10 Tips for Finding Great Teen Café Presenters and a blog post Preparing Scientists for a Teen Café.

Once selected, scientists are prepped about how to give a talk to teens.  They are given some guidelines – see Cafe Scientifique New Mexico Guidelines for Presenters.  Scientist presenters are also asked to give a dry run with the program organizers who offer feedback about how to better present to the teens.

The Café Scientifique model has proven to be effective for communicating science to a high school teen audience. Their process for achieving effective science communication between scientist-presenters and teens focuses on overcoming the “information deficit” mode of presentation that most scientists are trained for. Their coaching stresses that effective science communication requires engagement on a personal level that meets the audience where it is in terms of both prior knowledge and social context, while making connections to the teens’ daily lives. (http://teensciencecafe.org/resources/science-communication-in-a-cafe-scientifique-for-high-school-teens/)

Teen Interview of the Scientist

One of the teen leaders (for more information about the Cafe Scientifique teen leaders, see http://cafenm.org/ylt.html) often interviews the scientist. They develop their own questions and use those to interview the scientist.

Example Interviews:

Phillip, a high school sophomore at the Santa Fe Indian School, interviews Nina Lanza, a geologist working on the Mars Curiosity Mission.

Youth leaders conducted an interview with Dr Morton’s pathway to becoming a neuroscientist and zombie expert.  Listen to a lively interview of Dr. Russell Morton, neuroscientist and zombie expert: http://cafenm.org/downloads/podcasts/Dr_Russell_Morton_Interview.m4a.

Q & A with the Scientist

The teens are encouraged to ask questions of the scientist.  Some of the scientist presenters ask questions during their presentation, but time is always provided at the end of the talk for the participating teens to ask questions of the scientist. Many of the scientists also engage in more informal Q & A sessions following the more formal presentation.

Hands-On Activity

Typically as a follow-up to the talk (although sometimes it is done as an introduction to the talks), teens engage in some hands-on activities that support the concepts presented by the scientist.  A sampling of these activities can be found at http://teensciencecafe.org/resource-categories/hands-on/.

Food

To increase the social nature, food is provided with time given for socializing and eating.

Past Cafes and Scientists

• Past Cafes – http://cafenm.org/archive.html
• Past Cafe Scientists – http://cafenm.org/scientist.html

Developmental Appropriate for Teens

The problem of using guest speakers or videos like TED and Khan Academy is that they ask the teens-students to be passive recipients of content.  This often is not the best method for learning especially for today’s learners who are used to grabbing content from online venues whenever they choose.  The Cafes are more appropriate for teens (and many adults) because:

• The talk is limited to 20 minutes to lecture.
• The slides developed by the scientists are visual heavy and slide light.
• The teens are encouraged to develop and ask questions of the scientists.
• Hands-on, multi-sensory activities are used to support the science concepts.
• Food and interactive activities encourage socializing – a huge need and desire of teens.

 Another Model: MIT Blossoms

Another model for using scientist talks with hands-on interactives to engage and immerse students in science is the MIT Blossoms.

The BLOSSOMS Video Library anytime to browse and download lessons to use in your classroom. Every lesson is a complete resource that includes video segments, a teacher’s guide, downloadable hand-outs and a list of additional online resources relevant to the topic. We carefully craft each BLOSSOMS lesson to make your classroom come alive. Each 50-minute lesson builds on math and science fundamentals by relating abstract concepts to the real world. The lessons intersperse video instruction with planned exercises that engage students in problem solving and critical thinking, helping students build the kind of gut knowledge that comes from hands-on experience. http://blossoms.mit.edu/about