Category: Videos

Handouts are available below

 

Big Idea

 

Strength based comments take a lot of time to write. Recently, it took me 7 hours to enter the comments for each of my students in 6 science classes. It takes this long for a number of reasons: it’s difficult to find comments that match the strength based comments format from traditional comment banks; and, most teachers don’t think about comments until the end of the term or school year – and, as a result, we’re left scrambling to remember what students are strong and weak in. After my 7-hour experience with comments this time, I figured out that I had it all backwards when it comes to comments – and that I can potentially produce strength based comments for my students by starting with comments first (ie. at the beginning of the year/term).

 

Episode Notes

 

• Strength Based comments emphasize a student’s capabilities and aptitudes. Comments about a student will be individualized, specific, and may include the student’s own voice.

• One framework for Strength Based comments has teachers write comments for the following 3 categories for each student: (1) Strengths, (2) Areas for Further Development, and (3) Ways to Support Learning at Home.

• Using a template of prompts from the Yukon ministry of education to come up with a range of comments for each category, I write a list of comments that speaks to the skills and concepts we covered and practiced this term. Then, I copy and paste the full of comments for each student. And, as I go through each student’s report card, I delete the comments that do not apply to that particular student.

• To save time next reporting period, work backwards and come up with the range of comments at the beginning of the term. This will not only help focus my teaching but will also help focus what I’ll be looking for in each student. Then, at the end of term, it will be faster to delete all those that don’t apply.

Thanks for watching, and let’s talk science education again soon.

 

 

Resources

 

Handout(s): Ep61 Handouts – Save Time Writing Strength Based Comments By Starting Them in September

 

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Handouts are available below

 

Big Idea

 

Are you looking for an easy and engaging activity to introduce CER next year? Here’s one you can try – and to add a bit of fun, you’ll be working with a colleague and collecting some summer vacation artifacts over the summer to use as part of a show-and-tell for this CER activity. Don’t worry, it won’t take up much time – no different than keeping a small summer memory box.

 

Episode Notes

 

• CER is a framework to help students write an argument, which is a skill that is taught in our curriculum (under “Communicating” in the BC Science curriculum and under Science and Engineering Practices in the NGSS). Thus, for a CER intro activity, let’s have our students engage in argument – but, let’s make it easy for them to come up with one.

• For this CER intro activity, get a colleague to collect 5-7 unique artifacts over the summer that would paint a picture of what they did during their summer break. This could be a ticket stub to a movie, a seashell from the beach, a sweater they knit – you get the idea. And, you should do the same during your vacation – collect unique 5-7 artifacts over the summer as well.

• When you do your intro class to CER, lay out all the artifacts that you and your colleague have collected and tell students where the artifacts are from. Then, tell your students to use CER to structure their argument to this question: Which teacher – Teacher A or Teacher B – had the better summer vacation?

Thanks for watching, and let’s talk science education again soon.

 

 

Resources

 

Handout(s): Ep60 Handouts – One CER Summer Homework Assignment for Teachers

 

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Handouts are available below

 

Big Idea

 

How do we get more marks out of the projects we assign? This is important because I want to reduce the amount of time I spend marking projects while still getting more feedback and marks regarding my students. This is especially important because switching to Standards Based Grading has forced me to change what I assess and how I should assess it. For example, I now need to assess Planning and Conducting and Designing Solutions (aka. Applying and Innovating). I could assign a bunch of labs and projects – for example – 8 each term and mark each one for a student’s ability to plan and conduct experiments or design solutions. But, that’s a lot of work, and a lot of marking. Instead, I’ve learned how to get more marks off of one project – and this has saved me a lot of time.

 

Episode Notes

 

• Assign projects that allow students to build and test solutions to a problem – AND, the results of these solutions need to be measurable. For each project, require students to build and test multiple prototypes. And, mark each prototype. This sounds like a lot of work, but, I mark prototypes by looking at the measurable results achieved by each prototype, which doesn’t take a lot of time at all.

• For each prototype, record how well the prototype worked against a standard that you set. Record these marks for Designing Solutions. If you require students to make 3 prototypes over the course of the project, then you’ll have 3 marks for Designing Solutions (aka. Applying and Innovating)

• Also, give marks for improvements made between prototypes. For example, if students made 3 prototypes, give an improvement mark between prototype 1 and prototype 2. And, give another improvement mark between prototype 2 and prototype 3. These marks can be assigned to Planning and Conducting.

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Thanks for watching, and let’s talk science education again soon.

 

 

Resources

 

Handout(s): Ep59 Handouts – One Easy Way to Get More Marks Out of Science Projects

 

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Handouts are available below

 

Big Idea

 

An issue some teachers using Standards Based Grading (SBG) are grappling with is that there are no percentages, no cumulative points, no tests out of 50 or 100 or whatever in SBG. Instead, we use proficiency scales and rubrics that assess whether a student’s current level of proficiency is emerging, developing, proficient, or extending. But, how do we determine what’s developing, proficient, or extending? Turns out, we can look to our old standardized exams – especially their answer keys – to help us construct our proficiency scales.

 

Episode Notes

 

• Many old standardized exams have answer keys that show exactly what steps students need to provide for an extended response question to get partial or full marks (see handouts for a sample). From what was told to me, those who marked these standardized exams first spent a day discussing what steps students needed to show in order to get each mark out of question that was out of multiple marks.

• With regards to proficiency scales and standards based grading, we need to sit down with our colleagues and discuss what students need to demonstrate at each proficiency level for each competency, skill or practice so that we know and the students know the expectation at each proficiency level.

• One way we can do this is by having a group marking session where we take test questions and have everyone mark the same question by themselves and then sharing out what proficiency they felt the student had achieved. It’s through these conversations with our colleagues where we can hash out exactly what is proficient, developing, or extending. It doesn’t have to be complicated – you can take a test that you’ve already given students and pass around a few responses for colleagues to discuss.

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Thanks for watching, and let’s talk science education again soon.

 

 

Resources

 

Handout(s): Ep58 Handouts – One Way to Create Rubrics for SBG Using Old Standardized Exams

 

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Handouts are available below

 

Big Idea

 

Are you looking for a way to improve student reading comprehension in your science classroom? Have you tried Bionic Reading? It’s an app that bolds the first few letters of each word in a text – and it’s theorized to help individuals read faster and comprehend more. Does it work in the science classroom? We tried it with our science students, and we invite you to use our handouts to do the same with yours.

 

Watch the video to see how we set up our class experiment

 

Episode Notes

 

• According to their website, Bionic Reading is supposed to guide the eyes through text with artificial fixation points. As a result, the reader is only focusing on the highlighted initial letters and lets the brain center complete the word.
• For students with ADHD, who may be sensitive to a lot of stimulus, the bolded letters may help to ground them to the text. When I asked my students – many of whom did not have ADHD but used bionic reading for my experiment – how they felt using Bionic Reading, many echoed the same thing: that their eyes were able to skip over words more quickly and their minds able to predict the words. This supports that idea that Bionic Reading may help engage the mind more during reading.
• My preliminary results – which include 132 students from Grade 8 to 12 – show that students who used bionic reading – on average – 10 seconds faster with the approximately the same test accuracy compared to those students who didn’t use bionic reading.

Thanks for watching, and let’s talk science education again soon.

 

 

Resources

 

Handout(s): Ep57 Handout – Can Bionic Reading Improve Comprehension in the Science Classroom

 

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Handouts are available below

 

Big Idea

 

Here’s a question that comes up a lot in my workshops: If Standards Based Grading is meant to assess the science skills (aka. curricular competencies, SEPs – science and engineering practices) a student can demonstrate, what about the science content? Aren’t we doing a disservice by not testing to see if students actually understand and know the science content?

 

 

Episode Notes

 

• The content is still there – we still teach content – but the content should be used to teach and practice science skills (aka. curricular competencies, SEPs in the NGSS), which is what we assess in Standards Based Grading.
• Craft better test questions that require students to include content while demonstrating a skill. For example, students could be tasked to write an argument based on data that is given to them on a science test. Students could be required to use the CERR (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning, and Rebuttal) framework for their response. Under the reasoning and/or rebuttal sections, students would need to include science concepts and content that provide explanations to their argument.

 

Thanks for watching, and let’s talk science education again soon.

 

 

Resources

 

Handout(s): Ep56 Handouts – Where’s the Content in SBG?

 

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Handouts are available below

 

Big Idea

 

How do you give retests when using standards based grading? My answer – I don’t give retests. This is an excellent benefit for me in using standards based assessment because, now, I don’t spend additional time creating and marking retests.

 

Episode Notes

 

• Traditional marks book setup focuses on mastery of information and content. Since specific content will only appear only on specific tests, students who don’t do well on specific content would want a retest for the corresponding test.
• A marks book setup where students are assessed on curricular skills and practices using Standards Based Grading focuses on mastery of skill. If a student doesn’t do well on specific skills, they are given other opportunities on future tests to demonstrate mastery of that skill. Thus, I don’t have to give a retest when the focus is on skills and practices because those skills come up over and over. 
• Content still appears on tests. But the content is what I use to evaluate the skills. For example, the argument students craft on a chemistry test need to include chemistry ideas in their response in order for it to be considered PRF or EXT.

 

Thanks for reading, and let’s talk science education again soon.

 

 

Resources

 

Handout(s): Ep55 Handouts – Are There Retests in Standards Based Grading?

 

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Handouts are available below

 

Big Idea

 

Can multiple choice questions be used to assess standards? Yes, they absolutely can. But, to ensure we’re using multiple choice to assess standards effectively, we need to re-examine the multiple choice questions we use and come up with certain types of multiple choice questions we consistently use to assess standards. In this episode, I go over examples of questions I’ve used to assess curricular standards like Questioning and Predicting.

 

Using Multiple Choice in Standards Based Grading

NOTE: Our transcript is below. Download handouts at the bottom of our page and follow along! Or, watch the video.

 

Truth be told, I love multiple choice because crafting good multiple choice questions AND good multiple choice responses is both art and science. When I come across a good multiple choice question, there’s just something about it that makes me say “ah-ha, that’s a cool way of testing that idea” – and I think all teachers sort of geek out that way too. That’s how I approach using multiple choice in SBG – I look to see if a question gives me that “ah-ha” feeling.

 

Thus, there are questions that simply don’t give me that feeling – and these are the stereotypical multiple choice questions that are based on recall – like a question that asks “what is the definition of”. We need to get rid of these questions because they’re more memorization than skill. Having said that, I’m not saying there isn’t going to be content on a standards based test – just that the content will be used differently on our test.

 

So, we need to come up with some types of questions to use for SBG. And here’s the key I’ve discovered to doing this effectively and efficiently: for each competency I’m assessing, I use the same passage types and types of questioning.

 

For standards or competencies related to Questioning and Predicting, I give students the passage type known as Dueling Hypotheses – where I bring up multiple hypotheses to a phenomenon and students need to analyze the hypotheses and form predictions off these hypotheses. Here’s a passage I created where I give students 3 hypotheses for the formation of acne, which is of interest to students. One hypothesis says acne is caused by diet. Another states acne is caused by bacteria and dirt. A 3rd hypothesis says acne is caused by cosmetics.

 

Then, the questions I tend to ask are ones that require students to see which hypothesis will be supported or refuted by specific samples of evidence. For example, if an anti-viral medication were used and Jordan’s face cleared up, which hypothesis would this support?

 

Thus, since I use a consistent format in questions and passages, students get regular practice on how to analyze and predict the effect of different hypotheses. And, because I’m basing passages on the content I’m assessing, I’m providing a variety of examples and hypotheses to students as well. Also, the consistency in format saves me time in creating standards based questions because I’ve already decided on the types of questions I’m going to ask, which is half the battle when coming up with a test. And isn’t this what we – as teachers – want at the end of the day? To save time?

 

Check out my handouts, where I also provide an example of how I assess standards or competencies related to Planning and Conducting.

 

Thanks for reading, and let’s talk science education again soon.

 

 

Resources

 

Handout(s): Ep54 Handout – How to Use Multiple Choice in Standards Based Grading

 

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 start your science storylines so that students are interested? We all use stories to teach science: when we organize the concepts and activities in a specific sequence so that one idea leads logically into another, we’re telling a story. Textbooks offer one type of story – but, best practice is that we come up with our own better storylines – ones based on some of our own interests – because if we’re interested in it, then our students will be interested in it too. Check out this episode to see how we use one type of graph to build interest at the beginning of our science storylines.

Using Engaging Graphs as Phenomena for Science Storylines

NOTE: Our transcript is below. Download handouts at the bottom of our page and follow along! Or, watch the video.

A storyline is simply using a story to organize the scientific concepts a student will learn. In a way, we all tell a story when we teach a unit in science. We organize the concepts and activities in a specific sequence so that one idea leads logically into another. Traditionally, we’ve looked to textbooks for the storyline. But, best practice is that we come up with our own better storylines – ones based on some of our own interests – because if we’re interested in it, then our passions will rub off on the students and they’ll be interested in it. Typically, a storyline starts with a phenomenon and each lesson after that is aimed at addressing and explaining some part of that phenomenon.

One big problem is that many of our colleagues get stuck finding a phenomenon to use for a unit. We think phenomena have to be something in the news, something mysterious or wacky or an odd result or occurrence. These phenomena take time to find and time to fit into what we’re teaching. But, if we’re just getting started using storylines, a simpler and easier phenomenon to start with is that of human history and how it relates to scientific and technological change. And, this is where a graph works so well.

For example, my student teacher is teaching types of energy for the first time and he’s having a difficult time figuring out how concepts fit together. He got this notes package from another teacher that lists one form of energy after another – chemical, hydroelectric, nuclear, solar, wind, etc. And, he’s planning to use this to teach the concepts. Problem is, it’s boring and just feels like a list of facts to know. However, we had a conversation and came up with the idea of teaching different forms of energy generation by tracking how world energy consumption has changed over time. This is what we found online. During our conversation, we also talked about changes in demand over time, the causes for these changes – perhaps due to changes in lifestyle, perhaps due to industry or war. So, I went off and put one of these changes – changes to world population over time – on top of the graph. And here’s what it looks like: in 1804, there was approximately 1 billion people on earth; in 1850, 1.2 billion, and with such a small population increase over 50 years, it’s no wonder there weren’t more energy needs – so traditional biomass is still most popular. However, in the mid 1900s, population growth shot up – 3 billion in 1960, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1987 etc etc – and, as a result, greater energy needs and greater diversity in how we get that energy. Now, we can start talking about each type of energy production and perhaps talk about why we use it, how it’s helped our energy needs, and why there are new types of energy production. Also, consider what other events you can mark on the graph – the advancement of electricity, cars, planes, television, home conveniences like stoves and refrigerators – all this would tell another interesting story. All this came out of a short 10 minute discussion and now I want to teach this unit with this storyline. I’m going to give myself a pat on the back.

Thanks for reading, and let’s talk science education again soon.

Resources

Handout(s): Ep53 Handout – Starting Interesting Science Storylines Using This Graph

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Handouts are available below

 

Big Idea

 

How do you have students practice developing models? Check out what I had my students complete recently – it’s my Video Game Cladogram Activity, which shows how different items are linked to each other. I use this activity to have students analyze, categorize, and create models from data. And, also to teach cladograms. But, even if you don’t teach evolution or cladograms with your students, you can still do this activity because all those skills I mentioned before – analyzing, categorizing, and creating models from data – are ones that all science students should be practicing.

 

 

Developing Models by Using Video Game Consoles

NOTE: Download Handouts below and follow along! Or, watch the video

 

First, a quick rundown of cladograms. A cladogram shows hypothetical evolutionary relationships between organisms and common ancestors. Consider these 4 animals we want to connect together in a hypothetical evolutionary tree: a shark, a bullfrog, a kangaroo, and humans. Here is a cladogram (refer to handouts below). Now, how do we get here? First, we make a table and come up with characteristics that group and divide animals. For example, for the shark, bullfrog, kangaroo, and human, which organisms have a vertebrae. Well, they all do, so we mark an X for each box. Next, which organisms have two pairs of limbs? Sharks don’t have two pairs of limbs, but the bullfrog, kangaroo, and human do – so we mark X’s for them. Next, which organisms have mammary glands? Not sharks or bullfrogs, but kangaroos and humans do. And so on and so forth – we come up with the characteristics that are important to us. It helps to think of simpler characteristics that a lot of animals share and more sophisticated ones that only a few share.

 

Next, we make a Venn diagram. The largest circle represents the most common characteristic – in this case, having a vertebrae – which all organisms have and are therefore found in this circle. Next, we draw a circle within this bigger circle with the next most common trait – in this case, having 2 pairs of limbs. So the animals in this circle will have a vertebrae and have 2 pairs of limbs – which is all animals except for the shark. And so on and so forth. Finally, we convert this Venn diagram into what looks like a tree with branches. We start with the most common characteristic – for example, vertebrae, which all organisms have. The next most common characteristic, two pairs of limbs, a shark does not have – thus, it branches off from the group. Everything after this point shares the characteristic of having 2 pairs of limbs. Then, the next characteristic and the next.

 

In my Video Game Cladogram Activity, I start by giving students 1 sheet of paper that has pictures of gaming consoles. Sometimes I give 2 or 3 sheets, if I want to make the activity more challenging. Just like the animal cladograms, I have students create a data table with characteristics that group and divide video game consoles – for example, students may look at whether the controllers are hard wired to the console or not, how many buttons are on the controller, if the console has a screen built in like the Gameboy. Then, students draw the venn diagram with circles within circles. And, finally, students cut out the consoles and glue the cut outs onto chart paper to make a cladogram. Students use markers to label and add text to their chart paper. The final result is this – and, no two are ever exactly alike – which means we can see what students are thinking without them striving and trying to copy the “right” answer.

 

Thanks for reading, and let’s talk science education again soon.

 

 

Resources

 

Handout(s): Ep52 Handouts – Video Game Consoles (Puzzle Pieces) – Cladograms

 

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