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PART 2:
And so I’ll let Bob explain some more of it here.
Bob: This is the state of things: technology taking over our lives. If you’re teaching,
if you’re involved with kids, this might be the kind of thing that you’re facing.
This is similar to what happens in the classrooms too. It seems like we need to really engage
kids. This is all about engagement. It’s all about making sure that kids understand
and have opportunities to explore, to be able to work with each other. And that’s what
part of the draw to this was, that I thought was excellent for elementary-school-aged students.
This is a science group, so we’re going to start off with a test. Ready? Periodic
Table of Elements. Which element also means “having guided”? It’s a Saturday morning,
it’s hard to figure it out. I’ll give you the first one. It’s Lead (Pb). What
does a doctor do to a patient? Helium (He). You’re good, Helium. Now you’re rolling.
Next one. What do you do with a dead Chemist? Barium (Ba). Very good! Finally, what were
we asked not to do with this audience? Bohrum (Bh). Very good.
We have designed this for elementary, but it is appropriate for middle school too, you’ll
see. By the end of the workshop, we’d like to have you be able to accomplish these things.
Know how to run a high-interest supplemental science awareness program that can either
be done in an all-school-type setting or could be done in a classroom, so if you’re a science
teacher in the classroom, you may be able to use the materials in the classroom. But
the thing that I thought was exciting about it, I’m a school principal, so for me, it
was to get it up and running in my school and have all students be able to participate.
So that’s our first goal. We want you to be able to know the five different topics
that are highlighted in the posters. I’ll give you some clues. If you look around, in
front of you, up here to the right, you’re getting a kind of idea of what they are. There
are five of them. Become familiar with the content and the layout of the teacher resource
materials for the science topics presented in these posters. You’re going to have time
to interact with the posters, to get an idea of what those are. There’s a ton of materials
that go with it, so we want to make sure that you have an idea of what kind of materials
go with it, that support the different topics in the posters. And then know how to obtain
the materials that are free that you can get for your use.
So, first we have the poster activity for you to get involved and see what the posters
are all about. We’re going to have you pair up. If you have either of these cards, hold
them up please. You guys are group 1. You guys are going to go to the poster on the
left. If you have either of these cards, raise your hands. You guys are a group. You’re
going to go to the poster on the right. What we’re going to ask you to do is to find
the different question sheets that are in front of each of the posters. The question
sheets you’re going to see are leveled. On the left hand side, the yellow ones are
for younger students. And they get harder as you go to the right, the red and then the
purple. So what we want you to do is work in groups. Explore. Figure out which questions
you want to answer. Interact with the poster. Try it out and see what things are there for
you. And again, this is designed to work together, so think about this in the idea of your classrooms
where kids are going to be working together. Go ahead and head over to those things. Take
pencils with you. You might want to take a calculator, especially if you’re on the
one on the right.
Participant: I think these posters at the 7th and 8th grade level…the conceptual students
that I have, even at the 12th grade level, those questions are definitely appropriate.
Bob: Finish up. Final answers.
Participant: But I want the right answer. I want the right answer.
Bob: Yeah, exactly. Haha.
Participant: I’m going to come in at recess to work on this because I need the right answer.
Bob: That’s right, well, this will be up for a month at the school, and they will have
an opportunity to come back, interact, go find out more information, explore, and then
come back and revisit these.