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Listen to this episode to hear how I chose the “winners” of my science fair. Hear how we transformed their “cloud-based” presentations into traditional projects that could go on to compete at the school-wide and city-wide Science Fair. Also learn how I used this as an opportunity to teach the iterative nature of Science Inquiry and how students used what they learned in my Science Fair to improve their inquiry thinking.
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This is where the rubber meets the road. Can students determine the validity of their hypotheses? Listen to hear how I coach students in scientific thinking AND writing as they write up their conclusions to their Science Fair projects. Also hear how I guide my students to writing an Abstract which they use to summarize their entire experimental process. Also, hear how the awesome Language Arts teachers on my team interdisciplinized the Science Fair by creating an independent reading list which students used to contextualize their project in their writing. This has proven especially useful given the new emphasis on the Common Core and literacy across the curriculum.
Links:
Conclusion Directions and Rubric (Gdoc) (PDF)
Abstract Directions and Rubric (Gdoc) (PDF)
Final Paper Directions (Gdoc) (PDF)
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Science Fair is an excellent opportunity to build math skills into your Science class. In this episode, I detail how I guided students in organizing their data into presentable form. I used tutorial videos to help students develop 21st century cloud based data analysis skills. Listen to hear how students researched graph types, selected the most appropriate graph and turned it all into a document that could later be used in a final science fair report.
Video Tutorials:
Making a graph using your Google drive
Inserting a Google graph into a Google document
Instructions and Resources
Creating a Science Fair Graph (Gdoc)(PDF)
Results and Reflection Writing (Gdoc)(PDF)
Data and Results Rubric (Gdoc)(PDF)
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In this episode I continue to share my experiences with students in organizing and graphing their data. I discuss the methods for taking all their data and displaying it in a single table. In addition, I outline how students gain expertise on graph types and decide what type of graph to use for their data. Click the links below to download copies of materials I used with my students.
Creating a Science Fair Graph (Gdoc)(PDF)
Results and Reflection Writing (Gdoc)(PDF)
Data and Results Rubric (Gdoc)(PDF)
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Analyzing data always presents challenges for students. In this episode, I discuss how I approached data analysis with my students. Hear about the hangups we ran into and how the activity unfolded in my classroom.
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How Our Humanities Teacher Helped Make Science Fair Rock!
The awesome Lillie Marshal, 7th grade Humanities teacher joins for this episode of the podcast. She shares how she welcomed Science Fair into her classroom and curriculum and how she used it to teach research concepts. Listen to hear how to work with colleagues to “interdisciplinize” your Science Fair.
Lillie is also an incredible blogger in her own right. She publishes aroundtheworldL.com, a travel blog. She also publishes teachingtraveling.com, a travel web site for teachers.
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In Episode six, I reveal how students went about crating an observation protocol. They know that they are trying to find the affect their trash item has on the growth of plants. But what do they mean by growth? There are many ways in which a plant grows. I’ll explain how I engaged students to create a protocol for what they will measure and how they’ll go about doing it.
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In episode 5, I describe how my students put their procedures into action. I detail how students self pace the activity and how I offer tailored support. I also discuss how I have my students reflect on the process to revise their experimental procedures. Below are links to the web based resources mentioned in the episode.
Critical Thinking Rubric (This is a rubric created by my school and used across the grades)
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Want to know why I do Science Fair in this unusual way? I start this episode with a brief outline of how I do science fair and why. Then I go into how I lead students in writing procedures to test their hypotheses.
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In this episode, students return to science class with background research in hand. They use this research to generate hypotheses. I discuss the way students debate predictions and use their research to back up their ideas. I also explain the hypothesis format I use and how it helps students envision the entire experiment.
