Author: Kent

Handouts are available below.

Big Idea

Compared to traditional grading, Standards Based Grading (SBG) is a better way of assessing student learning. But, doing SBG takes more time – especially at the beginning. Recently, a colleague showed me how they set up their marking rubric, and one small change has helped me determine a student’s level of proficiency more efficiently while also giving students a bit more information on where they stand.

 

Episode Notes

To get started using Standards Based Grading on science tests:

1. Restructure your tests to have sections that corresponded to a specific standard.
   • For example, my tests generally have 2 (no more than 3) sections that correspond to specific standards (like “Questioning and Predicting” or “Applying” or “Processing and Analyzing”).
2. Provide a proficiency scale at the top of page/test.
   • After marking each section, go back to indicate what level of proficiency the student achieved for given section.

Regarding the Proficiency scale:

1. Check off the level of proficiency instead of highlighting or circling
   • Giving a check mark is faster.
   • If space is provided, a check mark can show progression within a level of proficiency. This way, a student can see how far they are from the next level of proficiency.

 

Resources

Handout(s): Ep82 Handouts – A Small Change that Helps Me Do SBG Efficiently

Our resources are free. We aren’t collecting emails for our resources. However, it would help us out if you liked us on our Facebook page and subscribed to our Youtube Channel. Thanks!

Handouts are available below.

Big Idea

Have you tried using ChatGPT to make a STEM project even more challenging – and since it’s more challenging, there will be more learning involved. Recently, I gave my students the aluminum foil boat challenge. It’s where they take some foil and create a boat that floats and holds up a bunch of pennies. It can be a bit of a simple activity since kids tend to create rafts, stack pennies on it, and then be done with it. Students often don’t go through several rounds of designing prototypes and testing them, which is where all the learning happens. Thus, I asked ChatGPT for help to create a stronger challenge that required students to build and test. More often than not, we see AI as a means of getting an answer to a question; but, this time, I was seeking to get AI to make the answer even more difficult to get to. The results were amazing.

 

Episode Notes

Three things I did to make my foil boat project even more challenging:

1. Providing building restrictions (ie. criteria) for students and ask ChatGPT for suggestions on building criteria.
   • For example, boats need to be at least 3 times longer than they are wide. Boats can only be made of tape and one sheet of foil that is 12 inches by 12 inches. And, boats must have a section or sections where marbles or pennies will not be stacked.
2. Give students performance goals to work towards.
   • For example, a boat that can hold up at least 20 marbles before sinking is Emerging (ie level 1); at least 45 marbles is Developing (2); at least 65 marbles is Proficient (3); at least 90 marbles is Extending (4).
3. Make it a requirement that students build and test at least 3 prototypes
   • Assign improvement marks between prototypes to assess growth between prototypes.

 

Resources

Handout(s): Ep81 Handouts – Using ChatGPT to Make a Better Foil Boat Project

 

Our resources are free. We aren’t collecting emails for our resources. However, it would help us out if you liked us on our Facebook page and subscribed to our Youtube Channel. Thanks!

Handouts are available below.

Big Idea

AI programs like ChatGPT, Magic School, and POE have the potential to differentiate activities for students who are progressing at different levels. In this post, I’m going to share how AI produced a tiered set of review sheets for my students. I asked POE – a web-based AI application for educators – to create 3 separate review activities for 3 levels of proficiency: beginner level, intermediate level, and advanced level of understanding of the material. I share what was produced and some pros and cons to the process.

 

Episode Notes

Pros of generating multi-level worksheets using AI:

• It’s fast.
• It produces some good initial ideas.
• Answer keys and explanations can be provided.
• It does a good job of differentiation when it comes to review activities.

Con

• What’s produced isn’t exactly ready for immediate use. For example, I needed to check the Word association examples to make sure they make sense and aren’t too confusing for students. I also had to format the activities in Word or other 3rd party apps (ie. crossword generator, in this case).

 

Resources

Handout(s): Ep80 Handouts – Making 3 Levels of Word Review Using AI

Our resources are free. We aren’t collecting emails for our resources. However, it would help us out if you liked us on our Facebook page and subscribed to our Youtube Channel. Thanks!

Handouts are available below.

Big Idea

The only way we get better at science skills – like CER – is to practice it constantly and in different contexts. Today, I want to share a quick ice breaker I do at the beginning of class with my students that can also be used to practice CER, which stands for claim, evidence, reasoning. This ice breaker generates a lot of fun discussion, but, unfortunately, comes with a controversial question: When did you stop believing in Santa?

 

Episode Notes

For this ice breaker

• I’ll ask the class to share with the person sitting next to them, at what age did you stop believing in Santa?
• Then, I give them two minutes for some animated discussion – a lot of students have a story of when they found out.
• After, I do a quick tally on a data table. If you teach multiple classes, keep all your class data – thus, you can show class data to students of different classes. 
•  One thing that I’ve come to realize in using ChatGPT is that it’s important to have a good idea of what my goal is when using ChatGPT before I run a query – because just like using Google, if I’m not specific in what I’m asking for – or I do a crappy job at asking – I’m going to get a lot of junk or crap as a response.
• Check video above and handouts below for sample data and sample CER statements.

 

Resources

Handout(s): Ep79 Handout – Santa CER Ice Breaker

Our resources are free. We aren’t collecting emails for our resources. However, it would help us out if you liked us on our Facebook page and subscribed to our Youtube Channel. Thanks!

Handouts are available below.

Big Idea

Looking for a creative AND useful way to start using ChatGPT in your classroom? Then try using ChatGPT to make science riddles! Why science riddles? Because it’s a fun way to have students review science vocabulary. Too often, science vocab review activities have students write down definitions or match words to definitions. But, we can do better. It took me less than 15 minutes to put together a handout with 9 science riddles. 

Episode Notes

Looking to use ChatGPT in a creating fun science riddles for review? Here are a few things I’ve learned:

•  One thing that I’ve come to realize in using ChatGPT is that it’s important to have a good idea of what my goal is when using ChatGPT before I run a query – because just like using Google, if I’m not specific in what I’m asking for – or I do a crappy job at asking – I’m going to get a lot of junk or crap as a response.
• Having a good prompt is a good start. And, for riddle writing, I’ve come up with this prompt, which works great. Refer to handouts!
• When it comes to the terms I want to review, I limit it to 10 items at a time – this is because there is a limit to how much text comes up in a response. A response that is very long will show up over multiple chats, which doesn’t affect accuracy but is a pain to read.
• Ask for more than one riddle for each term because this provides options – perhaps the first riddle is no good but I like the second one – I have options here to choose. And since AI works great at repetitive tasks, there really isn’t a problem asking for more and there is some variety in each riddle too

 

Resources

Handout(s): Ep78 Handouts – Have Fun Reviewing Science Vocab Using Riddles by ChatGPT

Our resources are free. We aren’t collecting emails for our resources. However, it would help us out if you liked us on our Facebook page and subscribed to our Youtube Channel. Thanks!

Handouts are available below.

Big Idea

Getting better at CER is all about finding ways to practice it in the lab. Today, I’m showing a quick demo you can do with your students that gets them to practice CER while answering this question: do hot lemons release more juice than cold lemons? All that’s needed is a couple of lemons, a microwave, a knife, a juicer (or a couple of beakers) and a graduated cylinder. 

 

Episode Notes

Do hot lemons release more juice than cold lemons? Here’s how we put this to the test in class.

• Get two lemons of roughly the same size and cool them for the same amount of time in the fridge – for about four hours to get them really cold.
• Take them out of the fridge, cut one in half, juice each half, and pour the contents into a graduated cylinder for measurement. The best method would be to use a juicer, but if you don’t have one, I recommend using a fork and juicing into a large beaker to capture most of the juice and then to strain out any seeds while pouring into the graduated cylinder.
• Then, put the 2nd lemon into a microwave and heat for approximately 25 seconds. Get the lemon really warm, but try not to overheat because water will escape the lemon when it gets too hot.

After all the juicing, look at the results together and have students write a CER statement by giving them a template.

• First, the claim, which I tell students to say “Hot lemons release more, less, or the same amount of juice than cold lemons”.
• Next, for evidence, I get students to start by saying, “According to my data, x milliliters of juice was released from cold lemons while hot lemons released y milliliters of juice”.
• Finally, for reasoning, I get students to say, “this increase or decrease in juice is because… <and provide reasoning.” I get students to write their statements, and then we share. During sharing, I ask students to compare CER statements and determine which statements written by students were strong and what made them strong.

 

Resources

Handout(s): Ep77 Handouts – Do Hot Lemons Release More Juice? (CER Practice)

Our resources are free. We aren’t collecting emails for our resources. However, it would help us out if you liked us on our Facebook page and subscribed to our Youtube Channel. Thanks!

Handouts are available below.

Big Idea

How can we mark student graphs more efficiently? I’ve started using a one-column rubric, and it’s helped me mark student graphs faster than before because I’m not calculating and adding every single point they get and then giving a mark out of 10 or 15 (or whatever). Instead, I’m looking for 4 things that demonstrate whether a student can generate a graph proficiently – demonstrate those 4 things, and a student is proficient at graphing. If not, the student is developing or emerging at graphing. And, it’s also possible that a graph exceeds expectations too. But, how do we get there? Watch the episode for more details.

Episode Notes

With regards to one-column rubrics…

1. I write down and assess criteria for what it means for a student to be proficient when it comes to a skill or standard.
2. For one-column rubrics for graphing with my science 8 students, my one-column rubric had this set of criteria: students had to draw graphs that were labeled correctly, maximized the space given to them, had a defined and regular scale on the x and y axis, used a ruler to draw out axes and lines, and had clear labeling of different data sets when necessary.
3. Students who fulfilled all the criteria I outlined were proficient in graphing; anyone who fell short would be developing or emerging (with emerging being the lowest level) and this all depends on how much of the criteria is missing from their graphs.
4. It is possible to exceed the expectations of being proficient and get an extending assessment. With my students, this would mean students would select the correct graph – either line or bar – that best represents the data.

 

Resources

Handout(s): Ep76 Handouts – How to Mark Graphs Quicker Using a One-Column Rubric

Our resources are free. We aren’t collecting emails for our resources. However, it would help us out if you liked us on our Facebook page and subscribed to our Youtube Channel. Thanks!

Handouts are available below.

Big Idea

How do you teach CER? This year, I’ve focused a little more time on introducing CER and practicing it before moving onto having students use it on tests and formal assignments. So, when introducing CER, I’m using ig nobel prize winning studies and having students graph and draw conclusions from sample data from the real world of sports and climate.

 

Episode Notes

To introduce CER this year, I’ve done the following activities with my science classes.

1. Use Ig Nobel Prize Winning Studies. Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded to real scientific studies that just so happen to make us laugh. They’re studies that are fun (and silly)! I’ve used one 2015 Ig Nobel Prize winner about bee stings and another about the pee rate of mammals to introduce CER to my students. These studies easily show CER in action.
2. Graph and Analyze Sample Data. I have students graph the number of players in the NHL by birth month. Then, I have the analyze the graph and come up with an argument using the CER framework. On a follow up activity (one that I collect and mark), I have students graph average monthly temperatures of two cities in the world. Then, I have them come up with an argument as to which city in the world the climate data corresponds to using the CER framework.

 

Resources

Handout(s): Ep 75 Handouts – How I Teach CER in Science in 2023

Our resources are free. We aren’t collecting emails for our resources. However, it would help us out if you liked us on our Facebook page and subscribed to our Youtube Channel. Thanks!

Handouts are available below.

Big Idea

This year, I’m trying to find ways of getting students engaged at the start of class and connecting it to the brain breaks I give students during class. Here’s something I tried with my classes recently that worked well – which employed some music and history from the Golden Record placed on the Voyager satellites.

 

Episode Notes

Here’s how I’m using this opener.

1. Before the start of class, hook up my speakers to my laptop and have the Golden Record playlist queued up on Youtube (link included in my handouts below).
2. At the start of class, tell students that I’ll be playing the opening to 5 songs which come from the same playlist. I want students to listen to the songs and figure out what the name of the playlist is.
3. Play 10-15 seconds of each song.
4. After the last song is played, give students 1 minute to talk to their lab partner.
5. Now, I tell students to hang onto their answers. We’ll come back to this later.
6. Start lesson. I try to get through some notes.
7. When I finish a section in my notes and it looks like students need a brain break, I’ll go back to the songs. I’ll ask students what they thought the name of the playlist from which the songs came from is.
8. After, I’ll tell students that the songs come from the Golden Record, which was placed on the Voyager satellites. I’ll give students some history to the Voyager satellites. And, if there’s time, I’ll go to the Golden Record website (link included in the handouts) to view the images on the Golden Record. Ask students to view the images through the eyes of an alien. What would aliens think is going on in the images?
9. The brain break may take between 5-10 minutes, depending on whether I look at the images or not. After, go back to my lesson.

 

Resources

Handout(s): Ep 74 – Using the Voyager Music Playlist as a Science Bellringer

 

Our resources are free. We aren’t collecting emails for our resources. However, it would help us out if you liked us on our Facebook page and subscribed to our Youtube Channel. Thanks!

Handouts are available below.

Big Idea

Teaching students how to measure volume using a graduated cylinder also requires students to learn how to estimate. Here, I share an activity that helps students practice both – estimating and measuring volumes – and has stood the test of time. Shout out to fellow science teacher Dennis Lam for introducing me to this activity, which comes from the BC Science Probe 8 textbook published in 1995. 

Episode Notes

Here is the lab procedure. Download the handouts below for both the lab procedure, data table, and reflection question.

1. Before the lab, get various bottles and fill with water and different food coloring. Label each bottle A, B, C…etc. Also, bring out 3 types of graduated cylinders for students to use: 10ml, 25ml, and 100 ml graduated cylinders.
2. Have each group grab one labeled bottle and all three types of graduated cylinders back to their lab bench.
3. On their data table (see lab handout below), students need to write down the letter of their bottle. Then, students will estimate how much liquid they think is in the bottle. Then, they will record this estimate on their data table.
4. Using their estimate, students will choose the correct graduated cylinder to use. Students need to choose the smallest graduated cylinder that will hold all the liquid they have estimated that is contained in the bottle.
5. Students will pour the liquid from the bottle into the correct graduated cylinder and measure. Then, they’ll record the measurement on their data table.
6. Students will transfer the liquid from the graduated cylinder back into the bottle, close the bottle, return the bottle and grab another. Then, students will repeat steps 2-5 for the next bottle and all other bottles that the teacher has put out.

 

Resources

Handout(s): Ep73 Handouts – How I Teach Measuring Volumes Using This 25-Year-Old Activity

Our resources are free. We aren’t collecting emails for our resources. However, it would help us out if you liked us on our Facebook page and subscribed to our Youtube Channel. Thanks!