Student-designed Experiments: Part 5 Data-generating Activities for Labs, Demos, and Computation
Whether in the classroom or at home, how do we initiate the process of student-designed lab or field experiments? The first step is to help the students see potential research questions and the data in the world around them. In this 1.5-hour workshop, we engage in several demonstration activities to help teachers see sources for […]
Part 1 Choosing the Most Appropriate Graph for Your Data
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 […]
Statistics for Teaching Advanced Science: Part 6 Hypothesis Testing Using the Student’s t-test
Parts 5-8 continue the Statistics for Science series to include the skills required in high school Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) science courses. In these workshops, we will learn how and when to use each of the most common statistical tests that are used to test hypotheses. A hand-calculation will be done using […]
Developing and Using Models Part 2
In this 1.5-hour workshop, we will explore 3-dimensional modeling for use in Next Generation science and math courses. Helping prepare students for a career in science or mathematics requires a refined ability to engage in critical thinking about complex systems. Because models are analogies to define real-world processes, structures, or events, they are an efficient […]
Statistics for Teaching Advanced Science: Part 7 Hypothesis Testing Using Tests of Correlation
Parts 5-8 continue the Statistics for Science series to include the skills required in high school Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) science courses. In these workshops, we will learn how and when to use each of the most common statistical tests that are used to test hypotheses. A hand-calculation will be done using […]
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 […]
Part 2 Choosing the Most Appropriate Graph for Your Data
In this 1.5 hr. workshop participants will use an example data set from a Data Nuggets experiment to explore different methods of depicting the same set of numbers in several different ways. We will focus this session on defining the relationship between the research question and the choice of how and what is represented on […]
Statistics for Teaching Advanced Science: Part 8 Choosing the Most Appropriate Stats for Your Data
This is the culminating workshop for the Statistics for Advanced Level Science series. In this session, we will compare the application of different hypothesis tests and discuss how more than one type of statistical analysis may be appropriate for the same set of data. We will look for the key components of research questions or […]
Using Team Challenges to Foster Collaboration
Whether for STEM, foreign language, arts, or humanities, applying information is one of the most effective ways for a student to increase their level of understanding and for a teacher to assess mastery of knowledge and skills. Team challenges include any activity that asks a cooperative group to use what they have learned to accomplish […]
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 […]