Display the below image and ask the question: What are you curious about?
Desired student questions include, but are not limited to, the below: 

• How does blood relate to cycling?
• Does this apply to other sports?
• Does this have to do with "Blood Doping"? 
• Does this have to do with Lance Armstrong? 
• Are there more red blood cells than normal? 
• Does this have to do with energy and exercise? 

​
*Purpose: To surface content related  questions without explicitly asking students. 

Teach how to leverage Arduino Uno to create their own Pulse Oximeter. Click here for instructions and materials. Once complete challenge students to design and conduct an experiment to determine the impact that various types of exercises and activities (breathing through a straw, etc.) have on pulse and oxygen saturation. Students will then hypothesize the relationship between pulse, oxygen saturation and energy use. Experiment must be conducted using appropriate research design methodology. (Control, independent, dependent variables outlined clearly) 

*Purpose: To challenge students to think deeper about energy during exercise and strain, as well as revisit research methodology and promote crosscutting NGSS integration such as engineering, etc. into the lesson. By not addressing "Blood Doping" directly, students are left wondering the relationship between the "Engage" and "Explore" phase further intensifying their curiosity and desire for more content. 

Conduct a lesson on Cellular Respiration, clearly outlining and diagraming the process of Glycolysis, Krebs cycle, and defining organelles such as the cytosol and the mitochondria. Once complete, ask the driving question: How does the processes outlined relate to "Blood Doping". After students share their responses, play the video below: 

Pose the below medical case study to students and challenge them to:

1. Diagnose the patient.
2. Explain diagnosis in the context of new information above (Cellular Respiration, etc.). 
3. Pose a treatment plan

Case
A, 23-year-old, 5’ 9”, 105 lb, caucasian female presented in her physician’s office with a sudden onset of weight loss along, pain when urinating, and chronic extreme hunger. The patient also reported a strange mold-like substance forming in her toilet over the past week.  

*Purpose: To facilitate connection between information obtained during the "Explain" phase and applications of content in the "real world" (note: I hate the term "real world" but application can extend beyond medical diagnostics, etc.). 

As a science teacher, I often get the following statement when working with other educators: "Sparking student interest in the Sciences is just easier. You get to show cool demonstrations and stuff...".

Yes, this is very true. It can be easier.

BUT, I recently had an incredible conversation with a Humanities teacher at my school, and she shared some incredible great resources for leveraging data visualization a method for sparking student curiosity in the humanities. 

If you are not familiar with data visualization, check out this talk. 

By finding a visualization, downloading it, removing specific information (titles, legends, keys, etc.) and displaying it to students, questions emerge. 

For example, this visualization of drought patters over the course of the past 100 years in America can be a powerful spark to build student interest in the Dust Bowl.

Show students the image, say: "What are your curious about?".

Questions will emerge that will vary but ultimately, because of the nature of the visualization, students will not only ask "What does the orange region represent?", they will also notice that similarities exist between the  the 1940s and parts of the 2000s.

Questions will emerge related to differences in farming practices, the economy, polities, etc.

​Suddenly a conversation related to the core causes of the Dust Bowl emerges without even discussing the Dust Bowl directly.

​THEN, the next day (or for homework) show Ken Burn's documentary on the Dust Bowl. Delay the instruction. Delay the mentor! It's how the Hero's Journey operates. 

Below are some excellent Data Visualization Resources: 

• GapMinder
• What's Going On in This Graph? 
• Information is Beautiful 
• New York Times Data Visualizations

Classes start back up tomorrow, and two weeks of winter break provided a much needed break from thinking about teaching...NOT!

Teaching is my hobby, and while I had a nice time, space away from teaching freed up space to peruse my "Idea Dump",a notepad of ideas, sites, or tools that I stumble across over the semester, but did not have to reflect on.

In the spirit of sharing, below is a RANDOM, science-focused list of the top ten curated over the past two weeks. Not sure what I will implement, but I am excited to dive deeper into this list and will post updates as I do. Enjoy! 
​

1. Argument Driven Inquiry
2. Google CS First 
3. Jupyter Notebook 
4. Anonymous Peer Editing
5. Editey HTML Google Editor
6. Panaform VR Creation
7. YouTube Cropper
8. Twist Bioscience 
9. Donkey Car Competition
10. Puzzles from Pictures of Diagrams

Philosophically, I appreciate the debate over grading in schools. I even agree with parts of Alphie Kohn's case against grading. All that being said, in a few weeks I go back to school. To my classroom. To a vocation I LOVE. To a career that provides for my family. And grades are a reality. They are required. They aren't going away. 

Keeping this in mind, it does me no good as an educator to engage in debates around the efficacy of grading. I simply want to serve my students the best I can. And, in some ways, I don't think grades should be terminated. Perhaps it is up to us, as educators, to develop new, and thoughtful "hacks" to our current system. 

To maximize the A-F system in our favor. In a way that serves our students. Builds metacognition. Limits apathy. Motivates. etc., etc., etc. I believe this is possible. And, here's the clincher: IT IS MORE POSSIBLE THAN WAKING UP TOMORROW AND GRADES BEING ELIMINATED. SO, IT'S ON ME TO BE BETTER FOR MY STUDENTS. 

So...in the spirit of sharing super tangible, grassroots techniques, below is what I'm going to try next semester. Disclaimer: It involves some "old school" moves, such as transitioning to a teacher paper and pen gradebook, but please know, it is all in the spirit of pedagogy. In the spirit of my Ed Tech Mission statement if you will. 

1. Organize each topic into 3 standards for simplicity and consistency. (e.g., 1.1-1.3; 2.1-2.3, etc.)
2. Grade one short free response quiz, and one activity/lab per standard. That's it. 
3. Create Google Sheet template for students to track their own performance. The template should be pre filled with standards for the year to instill student awareness of curriculum, and should also automatically generate their grade. Click here for template in my chemistry class. Click here for template in my medical biology class (note: I created these today. They are rough and will change). 
4. Keep track of grades in a paper gradebook and NOT in our school's online system. 
5. Only update grades at the quarter time. 
6. When students ask me "What's my grade?". Respond with "Update your spreadsheet with your grades. Then tell me."
7. When parents ask for, or are interested in, student grade updates, tell them "Your child has a spreadsheet that outlines their grades. Ask them. Here [insert link to students gradebook] is view only link to your child's gradebook that THEY maintain."
8. Inform administration that I will be using this system, rather than the required system of posting grades to our online grade book for parents and students to freaking OBSESSIVELY check. Recite the below rationale: 

This revised system will provide students with the ability to constantly know their "grade" in our class, while simultaneously developing enhanced student awareness of their own performance and build student agency over the grading process. 

I have written in the past (click here and here) about my transition from formal lab reporting to the use of Google Slides as a student form of reporting lab work. 

Today I sat down to begin the arduous process of finalizing all fall semester grades for my sophomore chemistry class and the benefit of using Google Slides their lab reporting format was clearly evident! 

My final "stack of papers" to grade was a shared folder full with our final lab practical reports: a group experiment where students determined the optimal H2-O2 ratio to fill a 2L bottle fo for maximum product upon ignition. 

Not only was I able to grade each project directly from my phone, but embedded video of procedures, screenshots of calculations, and clear images of laboratory procedures made for a meaningful assessment process. 

MORE IMPORTANTLY, the process of student creation and curation of their work using a Google Slide template (click here for the one used in this activity), was fluid, easy, and put the learning, rather than the reporting, at the forefront. 

Below is an embed of one group's  "report".