Workshops, 2008

ALKA SELTZER CHEMISTRY
Ned Bean
Science Department, Milton Academy, Milton, MA
Workshop particippants will try to figure out how to derive, experimentally, the percent composition of baking soda in over-the-counter, (OTC), alka-seltzer. To accomplish this they will use guided and full inquiry methodology, i.e., developing a procedure based on some initial teacher demonstrations with simple materials: indicators, baking soda and vinegar, and preliminary testing. Participants will work collaboratively in developing stoichiometric solutions to this problem and conduct replicate testing with uncertainty analysis. Experimental results will be presented in a short five-minute PowerPoint presentation.

GO HIGHER GO DEEPER – ROCKETRY AND UNDERWATER VEHICLES
Tom Gagnon
Science Department, Milton Academy, Milton MA
Workshop participants will explore ways for students to develop a better understanding of how remotely operated underwater vehicles and rockets are designed and engineered for maximum performance. Participants will be introduced to materials, inquiry-based methods, and laboratory activities that can assist in teaching students how to understand the underlying concepts behind these systems. A discussion of how to incorporate these concepts and activities seamlessly into the physics curriculum and how to better assess student understanding are just two of the underlying themes of the workshop.

INDICATORS FOR INQUIRY
Linde Eyster and Elizabeth Lillis
Science Department, Milton Academy, Milton MA
We will explore the uses of chemical indicators for biological processes. One of these indicators, bromthymol blue (BTB), is a good choice for use in schools because it is both inexpensive and safe. Although BTB use is not uncommon among biology teachers, it is often used in a prescribed manner with step-by-step instruction. With a basic understanding of how BTB works to detect pH changes, teachers can comfortably shift towards a more inquiry-based investigative teaching model with relatively little anxiety about the materials and greater focus on the mode of teaching and learning. The workshop will model how to move from low-inquiry toward high-inquiry formats. We will discuss and demonstrate how to guide students through hypothesis testing and setting up experiments with well-controlled variables. Participants will practice designing experiments using chemical indicators to address life science content standards related to the biology of cells, including topics such as photosynthesis, respiration, human respiratory physiology, germination and maximum temperature tolerance for inanimate organisms.

PERSONAL RESPONSE SYSTEM – MAXIMIZING CLASS DISCUSSION TIME
Brad Moriarty
Science Department, Milton Academy, Milton MA
Created as a tool to help bring discussion to large lecture halls, the Personal Response System (PRS) is used in classrooms and lecture halls around the country at the high school and college level. As teachers allocate more class time to inquiry, the need to focus non-inquiry time increases. The PRS system helps teachers maximize the effectiveness of class discussions and focus them on particular topics and in shrinking time frames. This workshop will introduce the PRS technology in use here at Milton Academy and demonstrate its effectiveness at stimulating conversations and discussions in classes of all sizes. It will also address how to achieve some of the same results without using the technological tools, as well as the requirements for teachers to achieve the best results.

RAMPS AND BALLS
Doug Llewellyn
St. John Fisher College, Rochester NY.
In this interactive, hands-on session, participants learn the different levels of inquiry by rotating through three stations and exploring the phenomenon of forces and motion. Each station demonstrates and elaborates a different level of inquiry as well as the changing roles for the teacher and the student.

REFORMED TEACHING OBSERVATION PROTOCOL (RTOP): PROVIDING FEEDBACK TO IMPROVE SCIENCE INSTRUCTION
Paul Hickman
Science Education Consultant, Andover, MA
Recent education scholarship asks that teachers include active-learning, inquiry-based, and problem-solving strategies in their science instruction (Beichner, 2004). These reform strategies have been proven to spark student interest in science, help students—especially women and underrepresented minorities—learn more and get better grades, and lead students to enroll in advanced science courses (Handelsman, 2004). This session will provide the rationale for studying teaching using video and the RTOP tool. We will engage participants in exploratory use of the tool through selected video segments. The session is targeted to a wide audience of science and mathematics teachers from novice to expert.

Framing Questions

1. How do we break the cycle of “teaching as we were taught”?
2. Does reformed teaching foster greater student understanding?
3. Can we really quantify science teachers’ practice?
4. Will formative feedback accelerate teachers’ professional growth?

SEEING AND BELEIVING: CHEMICAL DEMONSTRATIONS IN THE CLASSROOM
T. David Westmoreland
Wesleyan University, Middletown CT.
Science students at all levels often have difficulty relating abstract concepts to macroscopic observable phenomena.  One effective way to illustrate such connections is the use of well-designed classroom demonstrations.  Good demonstrations clearly illustrate a scientific concept in a way that the student can directly experience by observation, participation, or by becoming an integral part of the demonstration.  A range of approaches will be illustrated with specific demonstrations.  Participants will also be given the opportunity to practice performing and presenting chemical demonstrations.

STIOCHIOMETRY AND A TRANSISTION METAL
Darcy Corson and Kim Samson
Science Department, Milton Academy, Milton MA
This workshop will simulate a lab experience for students who have already learned the basics of stoichiometry understand the multivalent nature of transition metals and are beginning their study of types of reactions.  We will work with a single displacement reaction between copper and iron.  Participants will have the opportunity to do this lab as high school students might, working together as a group to figure out a workable procedure, breaking down into lab partner pairs to gather data and reconvening to compare their results. Members of the group will then have the opportunity to debrief their experiences and discuss ways to include both more and less inquiry for their own students. 

STUDENT-CENTERED PHYSICS LABS
Jim Kernohan
Science Department, Milton Academy, Milton MA
This workshop will present several inquiry-based physics labs, all of which focus on the students. The topic of these labs will be: free fall, temperature, sound, and electrostatics. After a brief overview of each lab, participants will perform them. The presenter will also relate how he and the other physics teachers use these labs and others in Milton Academy’s Grade 9 physics classes and how the inquiry method has improved the course overall.

TABLE TOP TREBUCHETS
Don Donovan
Science Department, Thayer Academy, Braintree MA
Students build trebuchets from popsicle sticks and hot glue.  The topics included in the activity are conservation of energy, momentum, rotational motion, and levers.  Students are able to change the fulcrum position of the lever, have the treb fixed or on wheels, change the length of the slingshot and the angle of the launch pin. 

THE STATE OF HIGH SCHOOL PHYSICS, AND PHYSICS FIRST
Paul Hickman
Science Education Consultant, Andover MA.
Over one million students took at least one course in physics last year and the growth trend continues. The classes of these students are about half female and courses range from purely conceptual to the study of advanced topics. A significant problem does lurk behind all this good news: the serious and growing shortage of qualified physics teachers. The number of schools, once a very small number, offering a physics course for ninth grade students is growing too. Now over 1,100 public and private schools are offering a Physics First option. This is not only good for physics but for the other science disciplines and mathematics too. Could it be that the growing use of active learning strategies and inquiry are at least partly responsible for this growth?

USING INQUIRY TEACHING TO ADDRESS MISCONCEPTIONS IN SCIENCE
Elizabeth Crane and Elizabeth Lillis
Science Department, Brookline High School, Brookline MA.
Science Department, Milton Academy, Milton MA.
In this workshop, we will examine how inquiry teaching can help detect, address, and correct students' misconceptions regarding the world surrounding them.  The emphasis will be on both demonstrations and activities, as well as long-term lab investigations.  To start, all workshop participants will together consider the misconception that "pplants don't respire;" from there, small groups of participants will choose a misconception most relevant to their own classrooms, and design a series of inquiry-based demonstrations, activities, and/or laboratory investigations designed to help students confront and revise their misconception.  There will be a hands-on component as workshop participants try demos and activities.

USING LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES TO FRAME COMMON FIELD INVESTIGATIONS
Matt Bingham
Science Department, Milton Academy, Milton MA.
One of the many ways to boost inquiry is to engage students with authentic scientific problems and questions.  Many environmental science field labs focus on the acquisition of data in the absence of connection to authentic problems.  This workshop uses a local environmental issue, the return of anadramous fish via dam removal, as a template for integrated field student with an authentic problem.  Participants will also be introduced to some common field measurement and data collection techniques (water quality analysis and discharge).  This workshop will be largely conducted in the field.  Participants will work to identify field-work opportunities from their own biology, environmental science, chemistry, or earth science classes that can be applied to an environmental issue local to your school.  We will also discuss ways to extend such a project through a school-university partnership.

USING PROBES AND DATA ANALYSIS SOFTWARE TO FOSTER INQUIRY IN THE SCIENCE CLASSROOM
Michael Edgar
Science Department, Milton Academy, Milton MA.
In this workshop we will explore how using probes and data analysis software in the lab can foster a higher degree of inquiry in the laboratory experience.  This technology has the potential to increase the quality of questions that students ask when they are faced with a problem in the laboratory.  Alternatively, probes and data analysis software can reduce the level of inquiry, and remove the student from the processes that are going on in front of them on the lab bench.  How to do you ensure that students are expected to increase the sophistication of their questions in the lab, and that they are not being removed from the experience by using probes and data analysis software?  We will explore an example in a biology lab and talk about how to make these tools a powerful addition to your Inquiry Laboratory.   We will use Vernier probes in this workshop because it is what we use here at Milton.  Participants do not need any experience with the probes we will be using.

WHAT’S IN YOUR 3-D QUADRAT? THE 3-D QUADRAT PROGRAM 
Zach Smith
The Wright Center for Science Education,
Tufts University, Medford MA
The 3-d Quadrat Program is designed to facilitate an understanding of earth system science.  The Earth system is very dynamic and involves multiple variables that are all interdependent.  These variables included aspects of all five spheres: the atmosphere, the biosphere, the hydrosphere, the lithosphere, and the cryosphere. Too often students are asked to make observations and collect data from only one sphere and do not gain experience in understanding the entire system. 3-d quadrats create a workable sized space that encourages and allows collecting observations and data from multiple interactive parts of the Earth system.  The 3-d Quadrat Program is designed to enhance student analysis of the ecosystem and provide a more realistic and inclusive design for understanding the complete Earth system.  By using 3-d quadrats, students are better able to understand the multifaceted interactions of the Earth system. 3-d Quadrats include cross sections of the atmospheric, the ground surface, the subsurface, and chemical, biological, and physical cycling.