Standards (in a good way)...

Today started off great! We had a wonderful presentation from the state Science Coordinator, Barbara Young. She informed us about what STEM is and the processes that go along with it (scientific experimental design, field investigation, and engineering design). She also informed us about specific changes in the standards and why they were made. (ALWAYS helpful!)

The state Math Coordinator, Deborah Wickham also made a great presentation about how the standards correlate vertically through the grade levels and how it is important that each grade level do their part. She was a phenomenal resource to me and helped me to understand why and how the Distributive Property fits into the 5th grade curriculum!

The afternoon was a bit more difficult to take in because the presenter geared the presentation to teachers who teach 2nd grade. It was challenging to try to take everything she was saying and translate it into a 5th grade level activity. I'll just have to make sure I do some serious reflection on the activity afterward!

Tonight... Astronomy! Unfortunately, it's raining so we won't be able to use the telescope, but I can't wait to see what Dr. Hagan has to say! (He's an astronomer at the Science Museum of Virginia!

Science Camp: The Sequel

As much as I am lamenting the end of VISTA (and I am!), I had to get my focus on and start the Virginia Science Institute For STEM Education. Last night was our first night here and we did the typical team-building, get-to-know you activities and then we started right in!

We were tasked with building a theme park centered around an "Earth" theme. Our ride had to withstand the power of a small fan from 2 feet away for 20 seconds. We had paper plates, pie plates, Play-Doh, rubber bands, tape, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, etc. Our group decided to make a ride called "The Revolution: Ride, Revolve, and Regurgitate". Our ride represents the revolution of the Earth around the sun and the Earth's rotation. We used a play-doh container, dowels, tape, cupcake papers, and rubber bands to make a swing-type structure.

Other rides represented the Bernoulli effect, a rock slide, and solar energy. It was a great activity to illustrate how people work together and how people use Scientific process to solve problems. Not to mention, it was a really fun and innovative project!

Presenting to the Board...

The rest of the week was so much more than I could have hoped for! On Tuesday, the kids visited the dining hall and saw all of the behind the scenes equipment. They have an "extractor" which takes all of the liquid out of the wasted food. The leftovers are pumped down to a "pulper" where they are dehydrated. Unfortunately, what could be used for compost must be burned. The dehydrated leftovers are too concentrated with Carbon and Nitrogen to be safely put into the ground on its own. At this point, they don't have the facilities to safely compost the material.

After the dining hall and compost discussion, the kids came back and did tests on the soil and their compost piles. They tested the pH, nitrates, and phosphates. They discovered that their compost piles had nitrate levels that were off the charts! This told them that the worms were doing exactly what they were supposed to do--poop!

The next day, the kids kept track of the amount of trash on campus. We split off into small groups and were asked to pick up litter and put it in our bag. Our small group had an AMAZING discussion about litter. One young lady went to put an egg shell from a native bird into the litter bag. One of the boys told her she shouldn't put that in the bag, because it wasn't litter. So we asked the question: What is litter? Some argued that anything, natural or synthetic, that was out of it's habitat or niche was litter. Others argued that human impact (garbage) created litter. It was a great and thought provoking conversation for all involved!

Unfortunately, on Thursday I had to make an emergency trip to Charlottesville, so I missed out on the trip to the power plant and doing the energy audit. But when I returned, the kids were all about the energy! I knew it went well!

On Friday, the kids had to present their findings to the STARS board (members of the University's Sustainability office). It was unbelievable to me how articulate these young scientists were with their observations. Each group created either a PowerPoint presentation, a movie, or a song to present their findings. They outlined their experiment, their observations, data, and results. They answered the panel's questions with an ease and an informed maturity. One boy in my group, after being asked how he knew the pond was healthy, responded: "I know the pond is healthy because the level of dissolved oxygen is high enough to sustain life." How awesome is THAT?! There was some serious learning going on in the past 2 weeks! It was absolutely amazing to be a part of!

Water, Water Everywhere...

Yesterday felt like the first day of school... and I kinda loved it! It was great to finally meet the kids and get our lesson going! We introduced ourselves by acting as "Secret Environmental Agent Supervisors" by walking into the room to the Mission Impossible theme and wearing black shirts and sunglasses. We totally played up the role! The kids loved it!

We started off the day by tying up loose ends from the week before and, after a series of questions about ecosystems, we did a K-W-L chart: we asked the students what they thought they knew about Mason's ecosystems and what they wanted to know about them. In the meantime, our "Cyber SEA agents" intercepted an email about the water quality of Mason Pond. One of the emails gave data on various tests and the other told a "supervisor" that because the computer had crashed the night before, the data may not be correct.

The kids were astonished and wanted to test the water right away! They asked questions about the water quality and testing and then formulated a method of how to do testing. And we went to the pond, collected data and water samples and headed back to the lab to continue testing. The kids loved it and totally took charge of it. It was awesome to see them go the extra mile to figure out this "mission".

After lunch, we headed to the fitness center (RAC) to talk about water consumption. We took the kids into a team room and talked about what water consumption is, why it's important, and how could we test that? We had 5 gallon buckets and gallon measuring buckets for them to use. Each group chose a shower and tested how much water came out of the nozzle in a minute. My group did 3 trials, manipulating the placement of the bucket each time, to see what method was most effective in catching the greatest amount of water. Little scientists in action!

We then used that data, in addition to our group's average shower time, to figure out how much water Mason students use during a shower and then for their showers over 1 year. They were surprised and were more than ready to make recommendations as to how to lower water consumption on campus.

Something I never thought students could be invested in, was something I saw that they cared about and wanted to find a solution for. These kids were face to face with a relevant problem and, as Secret Ecological Agents, the accountability was on them to help solve it. They were completely invested in their own learning, and the results of this was greater than I ever could have imagined.

Consider me a member of the Problem-Based Learning Cheer Squad. :)

(SIDE NOTE: I will blog about the rest of the camp festivities this weekend. I'm not part of the dirty work for the rest of this week; I'm an extra set of hands for now, and by Saturday I will have had time to process everyone else's lessons and the culminating activity and will be able to write a slammin' entry! :) )

Gum and Gizmos...

Whew! This weekend was a whirlwind, so I'm just now getting to post about Friday's science festivities! :)

We started the day off discussing math integration. The point was made that when we talk about math integration, we discuss math as a means to solving a scientific problem. A student needs to make sure they are using math, not just doing math. I would even go so far as to say that arbitrarily putting math into a science lesson without context does a major disservice to the student.

However, when math is used properly, it leads to discovery. We were given an experiment to do that integrated math. Our key question was: What happens to the mass of gum after it has been chewed for 10 minutes? I hypothesized that if I chew my gum for 10 minutes, the mass will go up. Our group was given 3 types of gum: Doublemint, Trident, and Hubba Bubba. We weighed our gum with the wrappers on using a balance scale and gram stackers and recorded the pre-chew mass. We chewed each type for 10 minutes and then weighed our gum again, wrapper and all, (post-chew) and recorded our data. We found the pre- and post-chew difference, the ratio (difference/total) and then the percent of sweetener and flavorings (ratio x 100).

Much to my surprise, the mass of each piece of gum actually went down! I was able to infer, from the math, that when I chew gum, my saliva breaks down a fairly large percentage of the sweetener/flavoring when I chew gum. And just as it should, this discovery made me ask more questions- do the sweeteners and flavorings have more mass than saliva that dissolve them? What would happen if I chewed for 20 minutes? 30 minutes?

This science experiment was full of discovery and I couldn't have gotten there without the math!

After our experiment, we got to play with Gizmos! The awesome company Explore Learning (check them out here!) has created science simulations (gizmos) for students. Gizmos are organized by grade level and... (gasp!) state standards! However, teachers can use any gizmos they choose to. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, I found out teachers can give access to their students with individual accounts- 6 classes with up to 35 students each. AND---teachers maintain control of what their students can and cannot see on Gizmos; this means that if you're an over-achiever you can set up your gizmos for the entire year, and keep them hidden until the time comes for your students to use them.

Now to the actual Gizmo! For those of you that are still skeptical, as each gizmo was being developed, the people at Explore Learning were doing the real-life experiments behind the gizmo. They were manipulating the independent variables and observing the outcomes, and it shows on the computer screen. When I planted my virtual bean seed, I was able to manipulate the light, the water, and the fertilizer or compost. The resulting plants were almost real!

I found that even though it wasn't the real thing, it elicited the same response as the real thing. I was able to hypothesize, manipulate variables, make observations, draw conclusions, and ask more questions for further discovery.

There are over 450 gizmos and I mean, if I can have this much fun with them, what will they be able to do?! I can't wait to find out!

Tomorrow- TEACHING! Water consumption, here we come!

Misconceptions and Discourse....

Although today was a sit-in-the-classroom kind of day, it was full of information that has begun to pull everything together for me. Science has never been my strong point. I was the kid who could memorize all of the words and processes, but could never explain the concept behind it. Today, I learned that as a student, I was in the majority.

We watched a video where Harvard graduates were asked to explain where the mass of an oak tree comes from. Some said it comes from the water it absorbs, the minerals it takes in, and various other answers. All of the grads were wrong! The mass comes from the carbon that the tree takes in and uses during photosynthesis.

Clearly this didn't affect their ability to get through Harvard and I'm sure they are all successful people. This wasn't the point. The point is that, if students get to this level and aren't retaining concepts taught in elementary and middle school, what else are they falling short on?

Furthermore, how are we to assess what they are falling short on? Written assessments only go so far. Classroom discourse can pull out misconceptions from students and allow them to enter into the conceptual thinking arena.

The teacher's role in facilitating discourse is crucial. The teacher should strive to create an environment where students are comfortable sharing their thoughts. It is also important for teachers provide parameters for discourse exchange and a clear goal or question. Under these conditions students should be able to carry on a respectful conversation (complete with agreements and disagreements) about what they believe about a given scientific topic.

In addition to the over-arching concept of discourse, I learned about the different types of discourse. It is important to tailor the line of questioning for a specific purpose- generating ideas, planning, or making meaning of a concept. This allows teachers to assess understanding and allows students to process the big ideas with each other.

Everything we've done so far just started coming together today! It was great!

Tomorrow- Gizmos, math integration, and prepping for Monday! :)

Out on the Open... River(s)

Today was almost indescribable! But that's not going to stop me from trying to describe it anyway! :) We started off the day at 7:45am at Occoquan Regional Park in Lorton. Dr.'s McBride and Sklarew met us there and went over our "plan of attack" for the day. We were going to start at the harbor, just below the dam of the Occoquan River. Next we would travel down stream to the mouth of the Occoquan to where it meets the Potomac. Finally, we would travel farther downstream on the Potomac. (To get a better idea of where I was, go to the following website http://www.owlva.org/OWL/Trail_Map.html and drag the map in a "northwest" direction)

We were chomping at the bit to get on the boat, but not before we had a friendly discourse between our resident geologist and ecologist. There's no doubt that the area we were exploring was an estuary. The question was: at what point does an estuary become a freshwater river? Geologically, an estuary becomes a river when there is no longer tidal influence. Ecologically, an estuary becomes a river when the salinity is below a certain level. (There's a name and a number for it, but I can only remember so much! :) ) As trivial as this may seem, it's something that I kept in my head throughout the day as I was collecting data.

We were finally turned loose to get on the boat, where we met Captain Mark and his English Bulldog, Beamer. Both of these guys are awesome! When we pulled out and headed downriver, the first thing we noticed was Osprey nests atop the buoys. Captain Mark is so knowledgeable about the wildlife in the area and informed us that the birds in the nests at that point are not adults but young Ospreys and aren't able to fly yet. They're pretty big for being babies-- about the size of a crow!

We soon moved downriver and came to a stop in the harbor. At this point we performed our first test, a turbidity test. We used the Secchi disk to measure the turbidity of the water:

As you can see in the first picture, you put the disk into the water and you measure how far down you can see the disk by the tick marks on the pole (every 2 cm). Next, you bring up the disk until you can see it again, like in the second picture. It took me about 3 tries to figure out how to get accurate measurements, since I was looking down over the tick marks instead of straight at them. I had to make use of the difference in coloration on the pole and the number of tick marks between the coloration the water level where I could see the disk again.

Once I found the two numbers, I calculated the median and discovered that the visibility was about 59 cm at that point in the harbor. It didn't surprise me considering the morning was overcast and rainy.

Our next stop was at the mouth of the Occoquan, where it met the Potomac. There was a dramatic shift in the width of the river, by at least 500 or 600 yards. This allowed for greater "fetch". (I love new words! Until today, I thought fetch was just a "fun" game people play with their dogs) Fetch is a distance of water that a given wind has blown over. That being said, I was interested to see what the changes were from the harbor to the mouth of the river and I wasted no time in finding out!

Dr. McBride asked me if I wanted to do an Ekman drop, and once I found out what it was I was more than happy to oblige! An Ekman Grab looks like a trap of sorts:

The bottom "doors" are hinged and are hooked onto the crosspiece (where the rope is) so they are open. The entire unit is then dropped into the water. Once it hits the bottom, a weight that looks like a bullet is slid forcefully down the rope and this releases the spring that the hooks are attached to, slamming the doors shut and capturing whatever sediment and organisms are on the riverbed.

Dr. McBride and I brought the Ekman grab up and emptied it and sifted the clay away and I was left with this:

There were TONS of bivalves (2-shelled) organisms, like freshwater clams in this sample. In the previous sample a group had pulled up an invasive species called an Asian Clam. They were first spotted in the Potomac in 1968 and came from the southern Asian to Eastern Mediterranean regions and is thought to have entered U.S. waterways via Chinese immigrants who used the clam as a food source. (http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?speciesid=92)

Dr. Sklarew pointed out that although the Asian Clam is considered an invasive species, it's effects on the ecosystem are not completely negative. The Asian Clam is a filter feeder and removes particles from the water and could, perhaps, assist in clearing the Potomac.

The bivalves that I found happened to be native to the Potomac. Being the curious person that I am, I was a little disappointed that the clams weren't open so I could see the inside. But never fear! Captain Mark saved the day! Apparently, he is a Jack of all trades and shucked the clam in a matter of seconds. Karla, the co-director of the VISTA program, brought up a phenomenal diagram of the clam and I was able to find the foot, the ligament, the stomach, and yes, even the anus.

After I finished exploring my clam, we were headed further downstream, near an on-the-water seafood restaurant called Tim's Rivershore. We took our third sample here and our group tested water quality. We tested dissolved oxygen, nitrates, and phosphates. Dissolved Oxygen is an indicator of whether or not the water being tested can support life and/0r how much life is available and respiring. Using our water monitoring kit, we took a sample and put the Dissolved Oxygen indicators in the test tube:

The reddish-pink color indicates that the dissolved oxygen measures about 8 parts per million which is more than enough to sustain life. Good stuff!

We then tested the nitrates and phosphates, as both are indicators of pollution by fertilizers or other chemicals. Thankfully, there was no evidence of nitrates in our sample and there were only trace amounts of phosphate. Less than 1 part per million.

Now it was time for lunch at Tim's. Ordinarily, I would have gone for some steamed clams, especially since I didn't have to pay; but after having examined a clam's anus earlier, I really wasn't in the mood for clams! I decided on a fish sandwich instead!

After lunch we were challenged to create hypotheses and test them using one area that we had studied that day and our group chose water quality. We hypothesized that the pH would go down from morning to afternoon, because the sun was now out. We also hypothesized that salinity would go up because the high tide had gone out and less water with more salt would mean higher salinity. We also hypothesized that the amount of dissolved oxygen would go up because we thought that more plants would be respiring due to the increased sunlight.

We repeated each test, at each previous site on the way back and compared the two data points. pH did not go down, it went up instead. Salinity went up in one region and down in the other. However, the region where it went down is not a region where salinity is typically measured and is considered freshwater. The amount of dissolved oxygen did go up and did so at a remarkably fast rate at each incremental depth marker.

Each group reported out their data and before we knew it we were docked! Time just flew by! It was such a great day and Dr. Sklarew made it a point to thank us for our contributions. I didn't realize that this was the first time a group that he had helped direct had systematically collected data at prescribed points in the river(s). He said what we did today is a precursor to research on the river.

If that's not enough to have you leaving for the day on a high note, I don't know what is! What an awesome day!

Tomorrow- Discourse and Misconceptions :)

Kicknets and Secchi Disks...

No, contrary to what you may be thinking, this is not a post about sports. It is, however, a post about an amazing day! We started off in the classroom learning about the scientists that we are working with. Interestingly, both scientists were turned on to science in elementary school.

As a child, Dr. McBride used to visit the barrier islands off the coast of Georgia and he would wonder how the islands got there. He followed his curiosity through bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D programs. He is now a Coastal Geomorphologist. (Don't worry, I didn't know what it was either!) What he does is examine the coastal regions for changes in its geology. For instance, he was called in as a consultant to help with Exxon-Valdez oil spill clean up. More recently, he and a few other researchers formed hypotheses about the former existence of an inlet on the border of the Eastern Shore of Virginia and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The current land forms indicated that there had been an inlet at that current location and geological radar confirmed the hypothesis. How cool is that?!

In the same presentation, we looked at a satellite map of the coast of Virginia, where the York and James rivers enter the Chesapeake Bay. Both of these rivers seem to make a swift bend northward to a specific point in the bay. Come to find out, they are moving toward a deep spot which was caused by... a meteor! Fun fact of the day!

Dr. Sklarew had 2 influential teachers and his parents that encouraged to pursue science as a career. He started off studying biological behavior of animals then moved into environmental science. He found his niche studying water and eventually began working for the United Nations and traveling the world researching water and water systems.

One study that Dr. Sklarew did was discovering what, if any, relationship the amount of CO2 emissions had with the amount of drinking water in various countries. What he found was surprising: there was a positive correlation. If the CO2 emissions went up, so did the amount of safe drinking water. He did not discover causation, but correlation. An interesting study, nonetheless!

After lunch we headed out to do a field study at the pond. The first thing I did was use a Secchi disk to discover the turbidity of the water. A Secchi Disk is a circle that is split by 2 perpendicular diameters. Diagonal quarters are the same color, either black or white. You lower the disk into the water until you cannot see it. Mark that point on the rope. Next, you raise the Secchi Disk until you reach the point where you can see it again. Take the 2 measurements and average them and that final number will give you the turbidity of the water.

Next, I got to use the kicknets. I couldn't wait to get into the stream and see what critters I could find! I put on the fabulous rubber boots and got right to work!

The kicknets do just what their name says; one person holds the net with the open end facing opposite the current and the other kicks the stream bottom and rustles up the sediment toward the net to attempt to get a sample of the organisms (primarily Macro-invertebrates) that live in that ecosystem. After multiple tries with the kicknets, Eric and I didn't come up with much in the way of Macro-invertebrates. So, we threw caution to the wind and just started lifting up rocks off of the stream bed. We found quite a few samples of algae, some clear jelly-like sacs that could have been egg sacs, a great deal of snails. And this is the kicker, quite literally! I had set the kicknet down so I could look underneath the rocks and when Eric grabbed it on the way out of the stream, we saw that we had caught a fish! Is that bad that it's the first fish I've ever caught? Yes, I've been fishing before!

Next I observed Dr. McBride taking a core sample of the sediment from the bottom of the pond. I'm kind of a geology nerd, so this was totally exciting! He took the core and then stratified it into manageable pieces so that we could more readily look for living things within the core:

Dr. McBride asked for a volunteer to look through the sample and my hand shot up as quickly as I possibly could without looking like... well... a 5th grader! :)

It was interesting to look through the sample. It was tough going, though. All of the sediment was clay. It was clumpy and dried very quickly and I had to continue to rehydrate the clay, And I made sure that I went through the layers with tweezers, just in case I found something. I did find 2 very small worms in the uppermost portion. They curled themselves up in a ball when I discovered them, but once I returned them to a water environment, they uncurled themselves and were about an inch and a half long each!

The first layer was the only layer that I found living organisms. I found organic matter in the subsequent layers, but as I learned later, the oxygen levels in the core sample probably weren't high enough to support life. When the sediment turns a greenish color (it looks like copper that's been exposed to the elements; like the statue of liberty), the oxygen levels are low.

Next, we were able to take a look at the dissolved oxygen levels, the temperature, and the conductivity of the pond.

If you look in the bucket, that cylinder holds all of the probes that take all of the afore mentioned measurements. It is attached to the meter that Dr. Sklarew is holding in his hand in the picture. One person drops the meter into the water while another reads off the measurements, while still another records the measurements. The meter is very sensitive, so as the one who was reading off the measurements, it was very difficult! The numbers never stayed exactly the same, so what I saw in one small second was what was recorded.

The most interesting number was the dissolved oxygen level. 100% O2 level is baseline. If the number is greater than 100%, then that indicates that plant life is in overdrive, as O2 is a product of respiration for plants. If the O2 level is below 100%, that means that animal life is populating the area and absorbing the oxygen that the plants are giving off.

Another interesting number was the conductivity measurement. This number is an indicator of how much salt is in the water. This number can tell whether the water is fresh, brackish, or salty. Of course the pond was considered freshwater, but it was still very cool to see the numbers back it up!

What a great day! I learned so much! If I'm having this much fun, imagine what my students will feel! Tomorrow... out on the boat! :)

Being a Reflective Practitioner....

Yesterday was our final day of the first week of "science camp" and one of the most productive! We were able to look back at our lessons as a team and figure out where we needed to improve and we were given time in class to make those corrections. If only we could have experts in the field with us teachers all the time!!

The most exciting part of the day was doing a run-through of camp. It was awesome to see a plan come together. Each group has done a great job integrating the scenario-- our secret environmental agents have a very important job to do! The sustainability future of Mason is resting in their hands!

As for me, I will spend my weekend celebrating the 4th of course, but also addressing the nature of science in our lesson plan. Where can I point it out in the lesson? How can I make it come alive for our campers? How can I facilitate students asking and exploring their own questions?

This institute is challenging me to think deeply about what's behind the material I teach. I'm learning more about science now than I ever did in school and I'm gaining a great appreciation for the field!

On tap for next week- out on the boat to explore the Occoquan watershed!

The Best Laid Plans...

Today was a day chock full of planning! Seriously... 8 hours of planning! But it was awesome! I can only speak for myself, but I was able to see science in a completely new way and I was pumped to help plan a unit and lesson for the students that are coming next week!

We are teaching week 2 of the camp and our section of the unit is centered around this question: How does water consumption, waste, dining habits/procedures, and energy consumption effect the George Mason University campus community? From there, we took each of the 4 components and broke them into topics to cover for Monday-Thursday with a culminating activity on Friday. Our group chose to focus on water consumption.

In order to tie in the material from the previous week (ecosystems), we decided to take students to the pond to collect water samples. While at the pond, they will be asked to make observations and then ponder whether they think the pond is healthy or not and to justify their answer. They will collect their samples and we will journey back to the lab. Along the way we will discuss the watershed and how water travels on campus. The students will use the pond water to analyze and collect data about its pH, turbidity, coliform content, nitrates, dissolved oxygen, and temperature. (In case you were wondering, we have all of the materials to evaluate each of those things! WHOA! It's like Christmas for a teacher!) Students will then be able to reflect back on their initial observations and decide whether the pond truly is healthy by asking nature of science type questions: What does healthy mean, in terms of the pond? How does our data support your response? Does our data help you define "healthy"? What, if anything, do you think needs to change about the health of the pond? How could we do that?

After lunch, we begin talking about water consumption. We will ask students about how much water they think they use in a day and why that's even important to ask when we're talking about ecosystems. To emphasize this concept, we're taking students on a "field trip" to a dorm. They will go into the bathroom... an adventure in it's own rite... and, with a stopwatch and a bucket, they will collect the water from the shower that flows out in 1 minute. Students will then measure the capacity of their collection. When we return to the classroom, we will find the average time the students spend in the shower and using our previous "shower data" figure out how much water is used in a shower. To make it even bigger, students will use the number of college students at mason to figure out how many gallons of water are used for showers alone on campus.

After we have collected this data, we will be sure to pose the questions: do your results surprise you? Is there anything else we should have taken into consideration when calculating water consumption? We will talk about the results in the context of the STARS rating: Do you think the amount of water used is excessive? If so, do you have any suggestions for cutting down water consumption on campus? What are they and how would you implement them?

To close out the day, we will take 30 minutes for them to compile their information that they will use for their culminating activity. Our "undercover agents" will be producing a multimedia presentation to present their findings and recommendations to the "STARS Board" (the movers, shakers, and rating makers made up of GMU professors and others TBA!) at a "community forum" (community members being parents!). Students will be "strutting their scientific stuff" they have done over the course of 2 weeks by showing what they did, how they did it, what they found, and what they suggest!

Seriously... how totally awesome is this?!

Tomorrow- peer reviewing each others' lessons!

Questions, the Nature of Science, and technology...

Today started off in a less than ideal fashion. For some reason my alarm didn't go off this morning, and I woke up to a phone call asking where I was at 7:47 this morning. Class started at 8. Oops! (FYI... We did make it on time!)

When we got to class, we started right in on developing a question map based on our problem and scenario that we will pose to our campers. Problem: How does George Mason University impact the ecosystems within the campus community? Scenario (Summary): Mason has hired you as undercover investigators to surrounding their efforts to be noted as an environmentally friendly campus and achieve a Sustainability Tracking Assesment and Rating System (STARS) rating. Your job is to investigate the campus and report back to the board of visitors about your findings. (Find out more about what STARS is at https://stars.aashe.org/ ).

We needed to pose questions under our level 1 question (the problem) at levels 2 and 3, becoming more specific as we moved down the hierarchy. Each group brainstormed questions we thought were relevant, arranged them into like-concepts, and placed them into their appropriate levels.

The question map took a great deal of thought and effort to put together. In fact, we spent the entire morning tweaking our map! It is so incredibly crucial that the questions flow and fit together conceptually, so that students can reap the benefits of their own scientific investigations.

After lunch, we were able to have some "play time"! Well, it was playtime for me! We were shown how to use technology designed to aid in scientific investigation. My favorite was the pH probe! We were given 3 diluted soil samples and we placed a USB probe into the samples. The pH was uploaded automatically into a chart and then into a line graph. We were able to use temperature, turbidity (light transmittance), and salinity probes, as well as microscopes! My mind was racing with all of the possibilities with these technologies!

We also discussed the Nature of Science, which is kind of hard to wrap my head around; but that's why I'm here, to sort this confusing stuff out! After a while, I was totally able to see the purpose in introducing the Nature of Science. When students are faced with questions asking them to think about why things are the way they are and intentionally observe the natural world, scientific concepts come to life! For instance, we were asked what a frog was. Do I know what a frog is? Of course! However, can I tell you what it is that makes a frog a frog? That's a little trickier! After that question was posed, I was able to observe a frog. Instantly, there was purpose to my observations. I didn't feel like I was just going through the motions and I truly believe that I observed characteristics about the frog that I wouldn't ordinarily have noticed in any other context. Wow- it's like a whole new world!

Tomorrow- LESSON PLANNING!!! (This may be the first time I've been this excited about it!)

Inquiry, Nature of Science, and PBL... Oh My!

Today was absolutely chock full of awesome science stuff from the get-go! There was no time to waste! We started our first day here at the Elementary Science Institute (here on out referred to as science camp!) by taking a survey. I must say that I felt less than, well, educated at the conclusion of it. I faced questions like "define the nature of science." Huh?!

My anxiety soon faded as we jumped head-first into problem solving. We were given the following scenario: Hurricane Arlene has hit the Chesapeake Bay region and an oil tanker was caught in the storm. Oil is everywhere! How is this oil spill affecting the ecosystem and what can we do about it?

We discovered that one of the animals hit hardest by oil spills are birds, particularly ducks. We were able to design an investigation to make new discoveries about the feathers of a duck, the properties of oil, and cleaning agents. How could our discoveries lend themselves to the cleanup effort? We researched, hypothesized, formulated, procedure-ized, tested, and concluded. We had crash landed into the world of Problem-Based Learning (PBL). And all of this before lunch!

After lunch we were given the task of creating a problem and scenario having to do with measuring the human impact on ecosystems. Amazing discussion and ideas filled the room! But... what fun would it be to tell everything on day one? Until tomorrow... :)