Giving back to colleagues

I teach at an international American school in Egypt. My school is only two years old and I am the only specialized science teacher. I teach middle school, grades 6 through 8 and I also teach 9th grade science. This means I have four different curricula to prepare for covering almost all branches of science; life, earth, and physical science. I have taught all branches of science for almost seven years now with various grade levels starting 2nd grade all the way up to 12th grade. I feel I have mastered my subject knowledge, and now because of my Master degree in education, I have mastered more skills at teaching science.

I feel I owe it to my students and colleagues to share this knowledge and all the tips I have gained to teach science in a relevant, effective, and modern way. Because of the lack of time, I have been unable to share as much as I would like and have only shared various articles, templates, and tips through emails and occasional staff meetings. However, in the next academic year, I have decided to take time off from teaching and focus on more learning through sitting in classrooms and substitute teaching. The goal is to gain more knowledge of how others teach science, and how to integrate different disciplines.

As a result, I will have much more free time and will arrange monthly, if not weekly, faculty meetings with elementary classroom teachers. I plan to share all the knowledge I have earned through my master program to perfect their science programs. I feel it is necessary because there is more focus in elementary school on Math and English than there is on science; partly due to lack of specialization, and partly due to lack of skill for teaching it. I also plan to create an online portal to post advice, documents, experiment videos, links, and for quick questions from those who need feedback, perhaps a FAQ or Q&A section on the website.

Unfortunately this is a private school and we do not work with a district here in Egypt, but we do have other sister schools in other part where perhaps I can visit occasionally for the same purpose. The online portal will provide quick access though.

War Vs education?

The United States’ policy on war on terrorism (Friedman, 2010) seems justified, but it does cost a lot of money and even lives. The army has a smart approach into attracting youth into enrollment. They offer good salaries and benefits which is something any person needs. In addition there is a high sense of achievement and satisfaction from serving the country. It is a shame that a similar approach is not pushed for in education.

As money is spent to attract and support the army, money should also be poured into education and jobs that support STEM. A national campaign for awareness and “attraction” should be launched much like is done to get military enrollments. But I do believe parents should be greatly involved.

I live in Egypt where we actually have a very high rate of STEM career graduates each year. The reason being that both parents and students are aware that it holds a higher social status, and will also provide for better money in the future. Those are the same two reasons students in the United States enroll in the army. But the culture here supports this idea and especially parents. They push their children to study hard and pay a lot of money to give them private tuition just to ensure they end up going into engineering, medicine, science, computer science, construction, you name it. There are now many qualified professionals. Our greatest problem here though is the lack of support of the country for these individuals and too many of them end up leaving the country to work at other places that will provide more money and an even better social status.

Friedman, T. L. (2010, January 17). What’s our sputnik? [Op-Ed]. The New York Times [Late Edition (East Coast)], p. WK.8.

Modelling the Solar System

I love teaching the astronomy section in my earth science curriculum. I love teaching earth science in general. There is so much enthusiasm from my students to know so much about our earth and how natural phenomenons occur. Moreover there is so much enthusiasm on my part and I love seeing their expressions when they learn about the solar system, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and where wind and heat waves come from.

This past month my students had been learning a great deal about the solar system and were required to build models of it from what they had learned in class or even elsewhere through internet or school library. I loved watching them plan, and then get their materials and work together as a team while building. They showed maturity, engagements, and ownership for their work.

To model how earth, the sun, and the moon rotate and revolve around eachother, I used three students to represent all three bodies, and each one had to perform his or her motion roles to show the class how it was done. They take turns which makes it fun because they get dizzy! But they get the idea.

There is no limit to how many models can be built to represent a system. Seeing the variety that my students presented of the solar system was very inspiring. I look forward to seeing more in future years!

Natural Disasters

I taught 8th grade Earth science for the first time. I had taught it before as minute parts in chapters but it was a wonderful experience to do it in full blast. I learned just as much as the students have about our world. It is in fact OUR world, and no matter how complicated the lessons can get, it is always relevant. Living anywhere on earth, anyone is prone to one kind of a natural disaster or another. To avoid human loss, one MUST be prepared. To prepare, you need to understand how it all works.

Last year my students and I watched a Discovery Channel documentary called Volcanoes. Seeing is believing. We were blown away by how powerful volcanoes are and their local and global effects. The questions that followed were:
Where are these volcanoes?
Can this happen here?
Instinctively, human beings seek shelter and protection from such force, and the best way to do it is to study volcanoes and their behavior to plan for evacuations ahead of time. However as one of my colleagues once pointed out, there are too many volcanoes on earth to be monitored and a disaster can happen any time.

Another natural disaster we learned about was tsunamis which arise from ocean floor earthquakes creating ripple waves of great height as they reach the shore. They move very fast which may not give inhabitants of nearby areas a chance to evacuate.


Most natural disasters have two main problems: 1) they have low predictability, and 2) there is usually very little time to take a resulting action to save people. However people on Earth did not know much of what we know now in this day and age. We have already avoided many catastrophes and saved lives through predictions, evacuations, and even pre-planning. For example, houses in areas known to have earthquakes are now built on large springs that act as shock absorbents and can withstand the shake better than a regular house. The idea is to teach our students what our mother Earth is capable of, teach them what we already know and have succeeded at accomplishing, and hope that they can use this knowledge to predict, plan, and hopefully even avoid any human loss in the future.

Volcanoes. Discovery Channel Store. Retrieved from http://store.discovery.com/detail.php?p=267629&v=discovery#tabs

Ask A Scientist Website

It was very interesting going through the "Ask A Scientist" website. I like the idea that a real scientist answers your questions. Initially I had asked a question about cells, but I then tried another question; why is the sky blue? The answer was not found, but I clicked on the "don't give up" link and sent my information and my question to the website. A couple of days later I got a response by email, linking me to another wonderful website that answered my question perfectly:
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/misrsky/misr_sky.shtml

Even though this website has been founded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institution, but any science question one may have will be sent to volunteer scientists to ask in any branch of science and not just Biology, Medicine, or as younger students would say, Life science. Most of the instant answers on the website are mainly life science related.

ANother great feaure of the website is its other links to science fair projects, personal health, homework health, and what I enjoyed the most was their "top ten question" link. I just went through different questions and ansswers out of curiosity and it was great fun. I showed my students this website and have posted it on my school website for all curious students to use. It was indeed a great reference!

Website: Ask a Scientist
http://www.askascientist.org
Website: Space Place - NASA
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/misrsky/misr_sky.shtml

Presentation Tools

It really is the 21st century and I keep getting blown away beyond what I ever thought possible, but I do know there is still much more to come. One way is through presentation tools. I saw a tutorial about "Prezi®" which was not only user friendly but looked wonderful, could be accessed online and could be downloaded. I am not a great user or PowerPoint, which is another great tool, but since I have been using a Smart Board recently in my classroom, I do no think I have the choice anymore.

Making presentations has grown to be more fun than ever before with the creative additions that computer specialists keep adding on to the already existing features. But I need to get going and practice a lot, but it is a target worth striving for now and I am on my way.

www.prezi.com

Topics and Tools

I could not help but choose two chemistry websites; one that represents the Periodic Table of Elements, and the other about Mixtures and Solutions.

http://periodicvideos.com/
http://www.fossweb.com/modules3-6/MixturesandSolutions/index.html

The former offers great videos for trials and experiments about each element in the periodic table. These experiments are conducted by professional chemists at the University of Nottinghill, UK. They perform many experiments that would otherwise be unsafe to try in the school lab, but will feed students’ curiosity. These videos reminded me of shows on Discovery Channel such as “Brainiacs” or “Myth Busters” where scientists play and learn rather than traditional ways of learning. They TRY! Showing these videos in class will be fun and educational, and while it is hard to watch them all, it will serve as a great homework assignment. These videos inspire doing many experiments and perhaps even exploring further with elements.

The second website offers many games, resources, and more important, audio stories about solutions. It would be nice to listen to these great stories as an introduction to a lesson or a conclusion. It could be a way to ask them to practice taking notes or summarizing. It is especially helpful for auditory students, and offers a change in theme to listen to a story rather than read a textbook.

The only challenge is that both websites are mostly one directional. They offer information in a creative way, but with a lot less interaction on the student’s part. However it can be easily remedied by using these websites as part of the lesson and building activities around them for inquiry.