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February 2021
Math-infused Science: Part 1 Choosing the Most Appropriate Graph for Your Data
(Tu Feb 2, 7-8:30pm Eastern Standard Time) Students aren’t the only ones who struggle to determine the best way to display data in graphic form. Because there are usually many representations that can be used, and each may encourage the reader to make slightly different conclusions, deciding on the most appropriate graph can be tricky. In this 1.5 hr. workshop, participants will learn a repeatable technique for helping students consider the strengths and weaknesses of potential visual representations. Participants will…
Find out more »Statistics for Teaching Science: Part 1 Measuring and Reporting Uncertainty
(W Feb 3, 11am-12:30pm Eastern Standard Time) All measurements include some degree of uncertainty or error, but how it is reported is decided by the person collecting the data. Because analysis is dependent on the data collected, the method used to report error can substantially impact the strength of the claims made and conclusions drawn. In this workshop, we will explore five ways uncertainty is described using different instruments commonly found at home. We will practice making decisions about the…
Find out more »Remote Teaching and Learning Series: Tips and Tricks for Teaching Online
(W Feb 3, 1-2:30pm Eastern Standard Time) Many of us have the basics to teaching online down, but there are still delays, hiccups, and a suite of things that may go wrong each time we start a video meeting. Little things we learned to do without thought in our first few years to teaching once again plague us, such as handing out materials, knowing if every person is present (when their audio and video are both off), getting full participation,…
Find out more »Remote Teaching and Learning Series: Part 1 Setting Up Your Asynchronous Classes
(F Feb 5, 11am-12:30pm Eastern Standard Time) The purpose of this 1.5-hour workshop is to organize your teaching load into discrete groups that you can access so contact is continuous. I will guide you through the process of creating virtual classrooms using a program called Google Classroom*. This program allows you to build a classroom for each of your courses so your students can find their assignments, turn in homework, get feedback on their work, and receive their grades. Although…
Find out more »Remote Teaching and Learning Series: Building Community Among Students in a Remote Class
(F Feb 5, 1pm-2:30pm Eastern Standard Time) In order to promote intellectual curiosity and advance the collective, individual participants must trust one another so they can take risks, offer ideas, disagree respectfully, and collaborate freely. Starting the year with new students who are not meeting in person as a group will present some unique challenges. Even within a group familiar with one another, this interdependence can be difficult. So, how will you build a collaborative culture in your online classroom?…
Find out more »Teaching students to graph without using additional class time (featuring DataClassroom)
(Mo Feb 8, 8-9 pm Eastern Standard Time) In this free 1-hour workshop, Kristen Dotti from Catalyst Learning Curricula will show teachers three easy ways to integrate graphing and data analysis skills into their lesson plans with the user-friendly features of DataClassroom. Whether you just want a solid graphing interface, or you are drawn to the hypothesis testing and descriptive statistics that are available with a few clicks, this program has a clean presentation that makes telling a story with…
Find out more »Math-infused Science: Part 2 Choosing the Most Appropriate Graph for Your Data
(Tu Feb 9, 7-8:30pm Eastern Standard Time) In this 1.5 hr. workshop participants will use an example data set to explore different methods of depicting the same set of numbers in several different ways. We will define the relationship between the research question and the visual representation of data and address the impact visual presentations make on conclusions. As a participant you will be guided through activities you can use with your students in either a synchronous or asynchronous teaching…
Find out more »Statistics for Teaching Science: Part 2 The Problem with Describing Data Using the Mean
(W Feb 10, 11am-12:30pm Eastern Standard Time) Often by middle school and certainly by high school, students default to the mean as the best way to describe data without much consideration for how they might defend that choice. So, you might think, what’s the harm in that? Everyone knows what is meant by this descriptor, it is familiar and understandable, easy to calculate, and informative, right? In this workshop, we will use an activity to collect data and consider the…
Find out more »Online Approaches to Learning: Using Competitions to Engage Online Learners
(W Feb 10, 1-2:30pm Eastern Standard Time) Competitions are assignments that guide students through a preliminary exploration, data collection, analysis, reflection, and revision in a repeating cycle. This process leans on the scientific method and helps students practice character skills such as persistence, curiosity, critical thinking, and self-direction. For my own purposes, I will differentiate team challenges from competitions in that competitions are assessed with quantitative measurements that allow clear winners to emerge in an objective manner. Participants in this…
Find out more »Remote Teaching and Learning Series: Part 2 Holding Synchronous Video Classes
(F Feb 12, 11am-12:30pm Eastern Standard Time) In this 1.5-hour workshop, we will compare several online video meeting platforms that you may find useful for holding synchronous classes. We will go over the pros and cons of several popular programs (Zoom, Google Meets, Microsoft Teams, and Webex) discussing why you may choose one over another. This is not an IT workshop where we work out technical difficulties, the focus of this workshop will be on the quality of the platform…
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