Michael J Allen

Specialist Teacher Plans

February 13th - 17th

Review

The students have continued working towards the publication of the Rock website over the vacation. They are also working on the Shelter project. Most groups are starting to make the frames for their projects.

The work on the website is going along at a slightly slower pace than I was hoping for.

On Friday, I had to pull the group up and take away some of the free choice they had been offered (for all but three of the group). I had asked them the previous day to sign up for at least two projects to contribute to the Rocks Website Project– not an unreasonable request, in my opinion, since the project consumes two full weeks of the science class, notwithstanding The Shelter project and special requests from Ms. Moll.

Only three students followed this instruction, hence, on Friday the students were assigned a second task and a partner by me. The three students who followed the instructions continued freely exploring whatever they wanted.

The lesson for the group was to use freedom of choice well – otherwise it gets taken away and replaced with mandated teacher-directed tasks!

I have let the students know that both tasks need to be completed by next Friday. They know that if this criteria is not met, then the students will need to complete the work as a homework project over the vacation. If that criteria is not met, then free time will be taken away after the vacation until all required work is completed and handed in.

Let's hope that the students can pull together and work hard to meet the deadline. Let's also hope that their final website will be as impressive as I'm hoping it will be. They certainly have the intelligence and ability to produce excellent work – the question is: can they do it under the constriction of a deadline?

I guess we'll see!!

Rocks, minerals and fossils

Rocks Website Project

Following the example provided by John F. Pattie Elementary, we will start a project to design a website about Rocks and fossils. We will try to answer the following questions and design a site around the work we produce.

Gather Information on the theory of Pangea. Present your findings to the class.
Design a survey of ways people use soil, sand, and rocks. Survey family or family friends. Graph the ways to show the frequency of each usage.
Use clay, shells, leaves, and twigs to investigate how fossils form. Identify different types of fossils, imprints, molds and casts.
Compare and contrast the importance of a rock as seen through the eyes of an artist, a geologist, and a gem merchant.
Collect and label 6-10 rocks. Arrange in a display to share with the class. Write a brief description of the rocks characteristics and origin.
Determine how the minerals of the ocean may be divided fairly among the countries of the world. Make notes for a five minute speech to justify your plans.
Research a volcanic eruption such as Vesuvius or Mount Saint Helens. Write a magazine article about it, as if you were an eyewitness. Include the location of the volcano, when it erupted and other interesting facts about it.
Label the Earth's major plates. Explain the concept of plate tectonics.
Explain the different ways the Earth changes and illustrate each. Include weathering and erosion examples.
Develop a time line to illustrate the earth's geological history.
Draw a series of three pictures to illustrate commonly used products which are made from rocks and minerals.
Make a list of all the ways you can think of that people change the earth's surface.
Design a cut-away model of the layers of the earth.
Develop a VENN diagram to identify, compare, and contrast the 3 types of rocks: Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic. Create a graphic organizer to show the rock cycle.
Design podcasts on rock issues, such as how rocks form, what is erosion, etc.

Rocks and Minerals Links

Invention Challenge 3 - The Shelter Project

(Here is a picture from the Shelter project event from last year.)

Learn about Native American Shelters. Design and make a shelter large enough for four people to sit in. On a cold day in March, go to the local park, construct the shelter and sit in it for a morning!

This week - finish building frames!

Completed Projects

Egg Drop 2012

Here it is: a 20 minute video of today's exciting end to Invention Challenge 2. See all the students and their plucky Egg pilots meet their date with destiny.

Which eggs made it and which ones didn't?

Find out here...

Simple Machines

The Simple Machines project is based around answering the question: 'Do simple machines confer an advantage in doing work?'
The whole project involves both online experiments and 'real world' experiments.

The focus is generating hypothesis, defining the independent and dependent variable, conducting tests, accumulating and analyzing data, and reaching fair conclusions.

The project for this week has the following online components:

The House and the Tool Shed

The Odd Machine

The 'Real World' experiments involve lifting weights using simple machines (ramps and levers) and comparing how much force is required compared to straight lifts. The students search for patterns in the data they generate.