1:1 in a High School Science Classroom

These are my notes and some links from Susan Perkins's presentation "1:1 in a High School Science Classroom" at ACTEM 09. (I got to this session really late, unfortunately, but I had a good excuse! I met Angus King!) This was a GREAT session. Susan is doing EXACTLY what we hope teacher will do when empowered along with students to have digital expression tools (laptops) in and outside of class.

Main wiki: Laptops in the Science Classroom

Honors Chemistry wiki
- used for threaded discussion

We recommend you be consistent using a wiki platform
- if you're using WikiSpaces, stick with it: this lets the kids just keep 1 login
- if you're using PBworks, go with it
- this streamlines the use of wikis across the curriculum, to have a common platform

Another wiki: The Independent Science Project
- the students ARE the scientists in these projects

I am very proud of the fact that I have kids every year that get scholarships because of their science projects
- one student going on an $80K scholarship to WPI because

All your science probes connect directly to your laptop
- Vernier Lab Probes

Teacher sharing Elevator motion graphs using Venier

We've heard a lot today about letting students be creative
- we have students for whom writing is not their forte or cup of tea
- we've used the digital cameras on the laptop, to capture building of atomic structures
- this year I'm going to ask them to take those photos into iMovie
- creative things we can do with the laptop

Many kids are not good writers, but they can explain things well verbally
- we should allow kids to verbalize what they know
- use the built-in audio recorders
- laptops can be used by kids to demonstrate that they got the concepts, they are not stupid

Another teacher in our session asks students to do demonstrations
- Kids took a video of a demo, and then used iMovie to slow down the reaction, then explained what was happening

Can use a strobe light with a digital camera, can set exposure long enough to get a series of exposures

Sue was at a Google Conference
- many, many kids said they were NEVER asked to be creative during their high school years

If we give kids choices and

another creativity example: connecting a camera to the top of a microscope
- designing their own experiment
- taking pictures over time through the microscope
- then students can actually make measurements, observe contrasts, which students can measure

another creativity door to open: ask "how would you solve this problem"
- potato chips: how does a change in pressure affect it?

by opening up the laptops to LET students be creative in a way that is comfortable for them
- some kids are musicians
- some can write a rap about covalent bonding
- if we instead say: write everything you know about covalent bonding, that may not be a comfortable modality for them

we as the educators need to be flexible and say there are more ways to test learning than just paper and pencil

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actem, actem09, creative, creativity, science, classroom

On this day..

• More Marco Torres at ACTEM 09 - 2009
• Marco Torres at ACTEM 09 - 2009
• Reconsidering boundaries on K12Online Presentation Mirroring - 2008
• PD Reflection and Reflection on Cell Phones as Classroom Learning Tools - 2007
• Controlling the Learning Environment - 2007
• Come and get them: 18 new k12online07 enclosures - 2007
• Can't be a 1906 MySpace user - 2006
• Inexpensive podcasting audio recorder? - 2006
• Podcast90: Elluminate Fireside Chat with David Warlick - 2006
• Notes from David Warlick's Keynote - 2006