Using Debates to Teach Evidence-based Reasoning
An exciting way to engage your students in their online or in-person class is to use a topic that sparks discussion, research, and the desire to sleuth out additional information. In this 1.5 hr. workshop, teachers will participate in an asynchronous debate (such as a posted homework assignment) and synchronous debate for use during an […]
Using Process Portfolios to Document Thinking and Learning
This 1.5 hr. workshop is dedicated to making thinking “visible” by documenting what influences a student’s thought process and by keeping track of the changes that occur when additional information is acquired. Process portfolios can be used in any subject area where a student’s ideas are evolving: a piece of writing, an experiment, a model, […]
PLT: Fostering an Adventurous Exploration of Our World
Primary Team Goal: To build a strong repertoire of scientific experimentation and data analysis skills in students for mastery of performance-based assessments such as Internal Assessments (IAs) for IB, independent research, or Capstone Projects in AP and PBAT programs. Professional Learning Teams (PLTs) differ slightly from professional learning communities you may belong to in your school […]
PLT: What Will We Take Forward?
Primary Team Goal: To fearlessly redesign the broken aspects of traditional classroom education in response to a year filled with numerous faltering systems and the illumination of unbearable inequities. Professional Learning Teams (PLTs) differ slightly from professional learning communities you may belong to in your school setting in that PLT members come from all over the […]
Using Competitions to Engage Online or In-person Learners
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 […]
Statistics for Teaching Science: Part 1 Measuring and Reporting Uncertainty
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 […]
FREE – Start Making a Game Plan for Great IA Scores
The International Baccalaureate’s Internal Assessment (IA) is a major academic task that for many students is distinctly different from the work they have done in the past. Namely building a strong IA requires students to think and practice experimental design, data formatting, data presentation, and the appropriate analysis of data at a proficient level. DataClassroom […]
Making Thinking Visible
One of the gifts of teaching in the digital age is the ease of which a teacher can gather evidence of thinking and learning. Documentation can occur continuously allowing the assessment of student progress as well as the discovery of holes in their understanding. Each step of the thinking process can be recorded digitally using many […]
Statistics for Teaching Science: Part 2 The Problem with Describing Data Using the Mean
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 […]
Using Puzzles to Teach Pattern Recognition
In this 1.5-hour workshop, teachers will work individually and then as a team to identify a pattern in puzzle pieces that tell the story of a theorem, function, or process. Once the pattern is defined, participants will use the pattern to predict what comes before or what comes next in the series. Testing their hypothesis […]