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Showing posts from November, 2024

3D Printer and more Technology in the Classroom (plus the last Step II lesson of the semester)

 The week before Thanksgiving was pretty busy as it usually does as the semester draws to a close with all of its final presentations and final exams. I think that the first thing I want to talk about this week is my final lesson for Step II since I will be writing 5E lesson plans to close out the semester. Unlike the two previous lessons, my time management was poor. I made the strategic decision in the middle of the lesson to forego the evaluation I had prepared since our statistical examination that closes Step II will look at one evaluation in particular. The lesson was productive for my own growth. Upon reflection, I realized why my time management was so bad. On the surface, it looked like I had just allowed students too much time in the exploration section of the lesson. Looking more closely, I realized that I should have stopped the exploration section. Many students gave answers that indicated that either the lesson section's instructions were unclear or that the students ...
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3D Printer and more Technology in the Classroom (plus the last Step II lesson of the semester)

 The week before Thanksgiving was pretty busy as it usually does as the semester draws to a close with all of its final presentations and final exams. I think that the first thing I want to talk about this week is my final lesson for Step II since I will be writing 5E lesson plans to close out the semester. Unlike the two previous lessons, my time management was poor. I made the strategic decision in the middle of the lesson to forego the evaluation I had prepared since our statistical examination that closes Step II will look at one evaluation in particular. The lesson was productive for my own growth. Upon reflection, I realized why my time management was so bad. On the surface, it looked like I had just allowed students too much time in the exploration section of the lesson. Looking more closely, I realized that I should have stopped the exploration section. Many students gave answers that indicated that either the lesson section's instructions were unclear or that the students ...
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Breakout Rooms and Technology to Aid Engagement

 This week we worked through a "Break Out Room" activity in class and then spent the last class of the week designing our own. It made me think about the TED Talk we started the semester with. I feel like part of an educator's role in society is helping kids stay on the right path. The educators in that TED Talk highlighted how absenteeism is one of the strongest predictors of bad outcomes for young people. In this light, it seems like lessons that combine learning and problem-solving in a fun way keep students engaged and in the classroom. I think that our Step 3 learning would be greatly enhanced with peer-reviewed studies that highlight the effectiveness of these lesson types. Armed with that information, I feel like educators will be more likely to embrace novel teaching methods and unique efforts like breakout rooms. I know that when my group worked on them, they were a challenge, although sometimes the challenge arose from the puzzling nature of the question rather ...
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Technology in the Classroom (Part II) and a Growth Mindset

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 This week we looked at some of the real world applications that are available to on the TI INspire calculator. We looked at 4 and each group got to do one of them. My group got the pendulum lab. We got a motion sensor like this: https://www.amazon.com/Texas-Instruments-PWB-1L1-Motion/dp/B00LGNUGUE/ref=asc_df_B00LGNUGUE/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=693276021741&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11727828872040461247&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9011420&hvtargid=pla-570086422041&psc=1&mcid=671d50a168613a4a99f920a50c762d16&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=693276021741&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11727828872040461247&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9011420&hvtargid=pla-570086422041&psc=1 The device measures the distance and speed of an object relative to its position. It plugs into the TI calculator and the data is ...
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Technology in the Classroom with Calculators and Probes

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This week we looked at some regression analysis much like the M&M activity that we did last week. We concluded the week with a cool technology exercise that used a probe which connects to a graphing calculator. The type of probe that is something like: https://www.vernier.com/product/easytemp/?srsltid=AfmBOopc2plpxeTLT4cvApLfJZOq9H3AYvPMdAQnBWNQHHtJ1NJpakyh The probe connects to the calculator which has been loaded with some proprietary software that has various functions. One allows the probe to transmit temperature measures to the calculator.  It allows students to study Newton's Law of Cooling. There is a good worksheet that examines this observation:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lLW4ukiSi1J7jUOpmpJuwvx-tF9B6nhK/view?usp=sharing Where Newton's law of cooling states that:  In any case, it is nice to see how technology in calculators has changed. We did not have a chance to complete the lab but the calculator did display a change in temperature that follows the ...
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