Eclectic Technology

Mosa Mack: Science Detective is a new site that has launched their first science mystery for students in Grades 4 - 8 (although they note students as young as 2nd graders have tested it as have students in high school).

The first mystery, A Growling Stomach, is just over six minutes in length. In addition to the video you will find resources for Band A (Grades 4 and 5) and Band B (Grades 6, 7 and 8). The resources include:

* Class Discussion Guide

* Small Group Discussion Guide/Individual Worksheet

* Vocabulary Cards

* Standards Alignment to Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core Standards

There are also resources for the teacher including:

* Time Codes/Answer Sheets

* Background Information

* FAQ

This is the only video at this point, but they do state that they plan on having more available, with a goal of having "dozens of animated science mysteries" within a few years.

This is inquiry based science where students are asked to use problem-solving techniques. Check out the first video and hope that more show up soon.

You assign students a research project. Many students go to Google, type in a question (without giving much thought), and often become overwhelmed with the amount of information available. Is this a familiar scene?

Think back and make one change, instead of using Google have them use a database? Is that a significant shift?

This post provides a series of steps, taking you through a number of ways you might proceed with a research project and adding in complexity. Scheer begins by explaining a common research project and moves on through a number of areas:

* What is understanding?

* Understanding Searching with Technology

* Stages of Research

* Putting This All Together

* Conclusion

Do you have your students do research projects? Do you find that you are not satisfied with the quality of work being done? This post provides an excellent foundation to help you revamp your process and provide your students with skills that they will use not only in the classroom but also in the future, in both their personal and professional endeavors.

What makes a great teacher? This post explores this question providing some insightful ideas from a variety of writings as well as two additional images that you may want to print out and share with teachers in your school.

Below are some questions you may want to consider.

* Should students be supported in risk taking, know that the end product may not be successful?

* As teachers should be be driving the train, or allowing students to share the role as conductor?

* Should students be problem solvers or should they be problem finders?

There is much food for thought in this post and you may be rethinking your teaching this year after you read it.

In this post Gorman explains why he likes driving questions and how they differ from essential questions. He states "they allow students to work together in the amazing process of divergent thinking." 

Gorman also notes that it is difficult to create good driving questions (and one might say the same can be true with essential questions). The image above looks at questions asked in "educationese" and how one might translate that to a driving question.

In addition he provides links to quite a few resources that include:

* A resource that looks at concepts of the driving question

* A variety of resources on Project Based Learning, including how to craft a driving question (which also includes a video)

* Practice with driving questions

This post from Grant Wiggins explores how Essential Questions are used in classrooms, and provides strategies to help teachers use them so that they become part of student work. Wiggins states "the aim is to use the question to frame specific activities, to provide perspective and focus, to prioritize the course, and to signal to students that, eventually, THEY must – on their own – pose this and other key questions."

A number of examples are provided as is a more detailed description of an essential question. This description states that an essential question has seven parts. The shorthand version is below.

1. Open ended

2. Thought provoking and intellectually challengine

3. Higher order thinking

4. Important, transferable ideas

5. Raises additional questions

6. Requires support and justification

7. Recurs over time

If you are using essential questions, or plan to in the future this post is a great resource!

Teaching students how to ask good questions is important. Great quotes about questions may help them learn. This page provides quotes about questioning, quotes from a diverse group, including George Carlin, Frank Llyod Wright, Anne Frank, Oprah Winfrey, Albert Einstein and many more.

The images may be saved and you could print them out and use them as small posters in your classroom. Challenge your students to come up with a quote about questioning, curiousity and inquiry and consider making an infographic to share.

Are you looking for ways to increase rigor in your classroom? This post provides three strategies as well as a number of examples to help you. The strategies are:

1. Design With Inquiry & Diversity

2. Have Students Create Videos–From Beginning To End

3. Use Virtual Tours

Additional detail is available in the post for each of the strategies and suggestions for adding rigor in ELA and math is also discussed. In fact, the final paragraph states asking "students to write riddles about words, rather than having them simply write a definition...requires students to think at higher levels to complete the activity." Adding rigor may not be as difficult as might think...but it may require that we rethink how we are teaching.