The Space Mag

     For the past few years I have had my Earth Science students make an informational magazine covering the planets, moon and various objects in our solar system.  They digitally design these magazines on their laptops.  I love doing this assignment with them for many reasons.  The number one reason is the experience and the journey they go through to achieve the final product.

     For the last part of our Astronomy unit I wanted my students to be able to experience the wonders of our own solar system. I needed a lesson to do this while still making it meaningful and relevant to my students after they leave my class.  This is why I chose a magazine.  By making this magazine my students practice their research skills, graphic designing, problem solving, APA citations and experience perseverance; all while learning detailed information about our solar system.

**A disclaimer is that my students all have Mac computers, a lot of the programs that I mention are built in, but if you have Photo Shop or Picasa this is possible on a PC.**

   The first thing I would do is make a rubric for a large project like this. It is important you know what you want the students to have.  Before giving them the rubric, give them an organizer. Here is my organizer I give my students to help them get started. Again, for my class this is a HUGE project so there are a lot of different areas of research on my organizer.  The great thing about this, is that it can be shortened and it is extremely easy to differentiate for high ability or low ability students if needed.

The introduction paper is here to give you an idea of all that I require them to do.

  In the introduction it explains that each student must pick a theme and, that the theme must be present throughout the entire magazine.  This really helps bring the magazine together and make it unique.  Here are some examples of different themes and magazines that a few of my students have turned in.

Pixar Theme 
The Big Bang Theory 
The Hunger Games 
Video Games 
Thor


Areas that I emphasize on (and have learned to emphasize on) are the following:

1. APA citation- It is critical that they make the citation as they go and not wait until the end. If they do wait they will have a days worth of citation generating and they will most likely forget which citation goes where. 
2. Color Scheme- They are not allowed to have more then 5 different colors per page.  Anymore looks like the rainbow threw up on the magazine. 
3. Images- Must have at least 3 images per page.  One must be of the actual object, the other two can be relevant to the object. An example of this might be having a picture of the Mars rover, Curiosity on their page.
4. Theme Overload- The personal theme is one of the best things about the magazine, but if you are not careful the students can get so wrapped up in it they lose sight of what they are doing.
5. Table of Contents- I have learned to have them do this FIRST.  It gives them guidance on where to start.  It may seem trivial, but it really does help them get the ball rolling on the project. 
6. Peer Editing- Occasionally I will have someone else just look at their pages and see how the flow is going.  Most of the students end up using a lot of the same sources from NASA.gov, so I have them just look at the overall appearance of the pages. This helps give guidance in the aesthetic area of the magazine. 

This project is long, but there is a huge sense of accomplishment when they are done with it.  They are also very proud of the magazine that they create and it becomes something they like to keep. I usually get the top magazine printed and bound with nice glossy paper.  If I could afford it, or if your school has the money I would definitely print them out for every student! 

If you have any questions please let me know!

The Ole Water Cycle Story Book

            Making the water cycle or rock cycle (or any cycle) into a story is an age old lesson. I have seen and heard of this type of lesson since I was in college.  It is also all over the Internet if you type in any search that resembles “Water Cycle Lessons.”  This year is the first time that I actually did it, and I am here to say that it was AWESOME.  I did this with my Earth Science class this year as a refresher. They study the water cycle as apart of their weather unit in the 8th grade in Indiana. After we spend some time doing precursor lessons over the water cycle I decided to have them create a story of a water molecule going through the cycle.  

Things the story had to include:

• All of our vocabulary words from the unit (which can vary for different levels) 
• 5 different stops along the way
• End in the same place that they started 
• The process and explanation how their molecule moved from one place to the other
• (Including words like evaporation, condensation etc.)
• A relevant picture on each page of their story

What I loved about this lesson again were the conversations I heard while they were doing it.  They were asking each other and myself a ton of questions that were at a deeper level of thinking they have had to use before. They were actually helping peer edit each other’s stories (I did not even have to make them.)  As a teacher it truly was awesome to hear and see this from my students.  It also turned out to be a great assessment on how much they actually understood about the processes of the water cycle.  

Recommended Procedure:

1. Have students write out the path that they are going to take through the water cycle in their journals in a column.  In the column right next to that have them right the process for how they are going to get their molecule from place to place (evaporation, precipitation etc)
2. Then have students figure out what part of the cycle is going on each page of their story.
3. Have them make a rough draft underlining and checking everything off as they go.
4. Final Draft (I had them write it out not type it)
5. Drawings and cover page.

Have fun!

Info-graphic's for ANY science classroom.

        An informational tool that is a bit newer or at least becoming more popular are posters called  info-graphics.  If you google the word you will get hundreds of examples of all different types. An  info-graphic is the use of charts and visuals to represent information an data. They are extremely relevant in today's social media run world.  If you have never hear of them before, chances are you have seen one and didn't even realize it.

        I had my 8th graders this year make an info-graphic about the "Reasons for the Seasons."  This was the first year that It added an extra activity into this section.  The previous two years that I have taught seasons, I noticed that it was an area students struggled in.  After 2 years of the same struggle I decided to add some serious reinforcement to the lesson.  After doing this lessons the students did wonderful on this section of their unit exam. They also remembered it vividly as we studied for our semester final. So in a nutshell...Success!

Here are some of the examples that I got. 

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Example 4

I used the website Piktochart.com.  There are a lot of different websites that can be used to make these, this is just the most user friendly one that I have come across.  I also had them do this project in partners due to time restraints, but it would not be too difficult for a student to do it solo. 

Other ideas that would make great info-graphics 

Lab Reports

They would be a great alternative to summarize data and results.

Chemistry

Most dangerous household chemicals (MS, HS) 

abundance of elements in the body (MS,HS)

rates of different reactions done in class (HS)

Environmental 

Water Shortage (MS, HS)

Groundwater depletion (MS, HS)

Clean water around the world (MS, HS)

Greenhouse gas emissions (MS, HS)

Personal Carbon footprints (MS, HS)

Water pollution (MS, HS)

Different biomes (MS)

Earth Science 

A Geologic Time Period(MS, HS)

Alternative Energies (MS, HS)

The Rock Cycle (MS, HS)

Minerals (MS, HS)

Diamond formation and sales (MS, HS)

Astronomy 

Life Cycle of a star or our Sun compared to other stars (HS)

HR-Diagram (HS) 

Black Holes (HS)

Theoretical Physics (HS)

Newtons Laws (HS)

Biology 

Krebs Cycle (HS)

Anatomy (MS, HS)

A specific system (Skeletal, Nervous etc.) (HS)

Any STD, Mental Disease (MS, HS) 

       As you can see no subject is really off limits.  I always suggest making one yourself first, just too troubleshoot any issues the students may run into beforehand. If you have access to a color printer or have it in the budget,  I would get some posters made and put around school! The kids would love it! 

These two websites will help you get started!

Smashing Magazine 

Visual.ly 

Making Geologic Time Fun & Creative (As if it isn't already?)

     When Earth Science students first learn about geologic time (from now on GT) and big events that have happened in the past, they often have a hard time of grasping how long GT actually is.  It is tough to say that in" GT 100,000 years is a blink of an eye" and for them to understand the meaning of that statement.  So I have them do 2 lessons that I know can really help them become more comfortable with the timeline.

Lesson 1: GT on the Floor

Geologic timeline on the floor 
This lesson is not an original but it is a gemstone!

I measure 4.6 meters of string and have the students tape them around the room in the floor. The students get a stack of the cards that are cut out for them (mine are now laminated and reusable because I know I will continue to do this lesson).
The first day I have them put down the cards where they think they should go (with younger/lower level students I also help in marking the 500 million marks (50cm) and reminding them constantly that each centimeter is 10 million years). This first day is always the most interesting! They usually have no idea when events on the timeline have happened.  The one card that usually throws them off is the Eukaryote cell.  I do not tell them what any of the cards are until we do it together the next day.  Most of the time students will space out all of the cards evenly. Sometimes you see the critical thinking skills of students when it comes to plants moving to land before animals move to land which is always fun. The conversations they have while doing this lesson are awesome.  I also like it because it lets them know that its OK to be wrong sometimes (and that scares the pants off of them.) After they have laid out their cards, I have them draw a copy of the timeline in  their journal (or have them take a picture of it with their phones or laptops). If you wanted to get really intense I would have them write explanations for why they put certain cards in that particular order.  I have never had enough time for this in one class period, but I think it would be really awesome for them to analyze their own thinking processes.
The second day I post the events and the dates on the board and have them remake the timeline. This is usually very eye opening to most of my students when they see the order and times at which these events happened.  After they have recreated the timeline and copied it in their journal we then discuss the events.  This is a good chance to go ever the Eukaryotic cell and some other things they may have never heard of before.



Lesson 2 :GT analogy project

Geologic timeline analogy (I do not recommend doing this lesson for any student who is not in algebra or has taken algebra)

I have them start off with practicing scientific notation. This will get them ready to work with large numbers. This is another paper that is not an original that I got offline.

A lot of my students do not have scientific calculators so I have them use this calculator  on their laptops. This calculator is perfect because it shows the students what the calculator is recognizing that they are inputting.  It also saves their history so when I am checking their numbers I can see the mistakes that they may have made. Depending on what is available to your classroom will effect how you want to do the math section.  For extremely low students, or classrooms with little technology you can to all of the math together and pick just 1-2 objects to make your analogy over.

The students have to pick an object or thing that has a start and finish or a top and bottom.  The most popular analogies they pick are buildings, distances to their favorite vacation spot, length of a river, favorite movie. The best part is they can make it all their own, and no two are ever alike!

Here are some examples of the end products I have received.

Blue Whale GT Analogy 
Michael Jordan's Famous Dunk 
Secretariats Longest Stride
A Favorite Book Analogy
Map Example

 The majority of my students are in the beginning of algebra at the time so I set up the equations for them using this paper.

Once they get the hang of plugging in the numbers into the calculator it all gets a lot easier from there. At this point it is important to make sure they understand what the numbers they calculated actually mean. This takes some time and patience because most of your students will then have to do some subtracting.  This is so the beginning of the Earth correlates correctly with the beginning of the topic they picked (bottom of building, beginning of book, beginning of trip etc.)

***Note: The calculation is how far from the present***  

It is a longer lesson to get through with the math portion, but making it is the easy part! The students usually do not completely grasp the idea and have that AH HA moment until they really start the construction. It is stressful in the beginning of the project but always worth it in the end!I used to have them just make a poster using pages but this year I changed it up a bit.  I allowed them to also use Prezi, Powtoon.com and even Piktochart.com.

Scavenger Hunt Vocabulary Pictures!

        This lesson is exactly what it sounds like.  Students do a scavenger hunt and take pictures of our vocabulary words.  I do this unit for my Weather and Water unit for the 8th grade. I give the students a list of vocabulary words about a month to a month in a half before I actually want them done.  I give them this much time to ensure they have enough opportunities to get certain weather words like fog, precipitation and specific cloud types that we study.  It is also a great lesson because it forces students to be aware of the weather for that amount of time and can give them real life examples.  I allow the students to take pictures in anyway they can, just as long as they have the right cords to transfer them onto their laptops.  This allows them to use their cell phones, tablets, laptops, iPod's and cameras that they may have.  To make sure that the students are not getting their pictures from some other source they must have an "item" in the picture at all times that is unique to them.  It works best when it is something that they already ave on them all the time.  The easiest items I have seen work with this are glasses, bracelets, cell phone covers or the new favorite their faces! Allows them to take a lot of selfies! (I should mention that along the way you want to have mini deadlines.  Have them have 5 pictures by this date, 5 more by this date just to make sure they do not procrastinate).

At the end I give them a few options for what they can do with their scavenger hunt photos.  I also give them a Menu project to give them choice.

Here is an example of a blog an 8th grader of mine did with her photos.

Here is another one that was done slightly different.

This is a Prezi that another student did on Pictures.

These are the Menu Projects I also give my students if you are looking for some more ideas. It is also easy to differentiate the instruction.  If I have higher level students I will not allow them to do an appetizer and if you have lower level students you can have them focus on the desert and appetizer rather than the meal.

This one is in Pages if you have MAC

This one is in Word if you have PC


Modifications for other types of science classes

Chemistry- Different chemicals found in household appliances and foods.
Physics- Different types of energy transfers in everyday life. (electrical, chemical, heat transfer etc.)
Environmental- Pictures of places around town where you could improve the town and why. Places where a rain garden could fit instead of a drain, places to plant shrubs to absorb extra run off or areas that could use improvement. (probably for older students)

Basically any part of your curriculum you can force the students to have a heightened awareness of how this particular science is involved in their everyday lives.

Meet the Scientists Paper/Project

         One of the first projects I like to do with my high school classes is called Meet the Scientists.  This project I did when I was in college as an education student at Miami University.  There are various versions of this lesson that science teachers are usually exposed too depending on the age group they teach.  I have mostly freshman in high school so I start out with a research paper about the scientist  they are assigned.  This also serves as an introduction to APA citation (Which I can then hold them accountable for the rest of the year on other projects).  In this project the students will research more "unknown" scientists that have had a huge impact on our lives. These are the type of scientists they would not normally be exposed too. The list of scientists that I use are comprised of scientists that have made an impact on our society and must be a woman or a person of non-white ethnicity. In a nutshell "No old white guys!"


         In Meet the Scientist I start out with the bell ringer "Draw a picture of a scientist in your journal."   After giving them a few minutes I ask them to raise their hands and share some aspects about their scientists.  I always get the man with the crazy hair, glasses, white lab coat holding some kind of erlenmeyer flask.  Then I ask "tell me some names of scientists that you have heard of before." Too no surprise I always get Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Bill Nye the science guy, some remember Alfred Wegener and Galileo.  Maybe some extras here and there, but these are by far the most popular.

          I then begin to follow with the introduction to the project where we discuss that the stereotypes of scientist do not apply to ALL scientists.  I then give them the scientists and let them pick which one they would like to do a project on.  I make sure to let them know if they pick a scientists of the opposite gender they may have to impersonate them.

         After the students turn in their research papers I introduce them to their project. This will look different for every school depending on the technology they have.  We are very luck at my school in that all of the students have MacBook Air laptops they can take home.  I do have some really good ideas for non-tech classrooms as well.

The Project

I have attached in the paper that I give my students to introduce the paper and for them reference along the way.  Link Here.

Most of my students made 3 types of projects:

1) Whiteboard animations
     a) Here is a link to one on Neil DeGrasse Tyson that a student did in my class.

2) Personal narrative as scientists
      a) Where it was just them dressed and acting like their scientists in the video.

3) Interview of scientist
     a) This is where scientists can either interview each other

4) Making a video as a their scientists


Non-Tech classrooms: If you do not have access to computers or video cameras there is still a lot of things that are cheap and accessible.

Some Ideas might be

• Make a twitter feed on a blank wall and have them draw their profile pictures and write "tweets" that might have come from their scientists. (Also can be fun with the use of hashtags) 
• Have them do an in class presentation as their scientists (more fun in costume) 
• Have them do a meet and greet as themselves in class and as character 
• Or they can have the option of what type of project they do

The Nature of Science

      Like any good science teacher, you usually start off the year/semester with a small unit on the Nature of Science before you dive into your usual curriculum.  For the past few years I have started off with same lessons, because they have worked so well.  The lessons that I have used are pretty common, but with 8th and 9th grade students none of them have usually ever seen them before, so it is pretty exciting. Check out my Nature of Science page to read about what some lessons that I do in the beginning of school!


8th grade science 

The Great Fossil Find 

       I found this lesson in college on this website         http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/gr.fs.fd.html
It is awesome for a lot of lessons, so I encourage you to check it out!  Basically, what the GFF is, is a lesson where students are only given a few cut out fossils at a time and have to try and figure out what the mystery animal is.  Each time they are presented with new fossils they must record how their thought process has changed and why.  The kids really seem to enjoy this and it leads to a really great discussion afterwards of the process of science, and how it is always changing with incoming information. It also gives you a chance to see how your classes do in a group setting right from the beginning, and you can easily figure out who some of the "leaders" in class might be as well as any issues that may arise with that particular class.

I have attached the papers and the narrative that I use in class. I have the narrative on a PowerPoint that I am having trouble uploading.   I usually do this after "syllabus day" because it is also a great way to practice some of your classroom procedures when working in groups. This lessons usually takes the the entire class period and follow up questions the next day. It is a great way to lead into specific vocabulary as well such as hypothesis, theory, prediction, inference and you can refer back to it throughout the year as well.

GFF PowerPoint
 GFF Power Point

The fill in sheet which is the same as the site
Student fill out sheet