The End of Earth: Providing Ways to Develop and Synthesize the Mind

According to Gardner (2007), "interdisciplinary investigation is very important [and] is typically motivated by one of three considerations:

1. A powerful new concept has been developed, and it is inviting and timely to test the reach of that concept.
2. An important phenomenon has emerged, and a full understanding of that phenomenon calls for, or even demands, its contextualization.
3. A pressing problem emerges, and current individual disciplines prove inadequate to solve that problem (p.56-58)."

When I came up with the idea for my "End of Earth" PBL unit, I (unknowingly) used number three from the list above to alter current reality and create a pressing problem. As a Language Arts teacher, it becomes very difficult to adequately bring in other disciplines. This unit was based off of a non-fiction article from our text book about the Sojourner Mars Rover. While I have a final project in mind, and will lead my students to that final outcome, creating a sustainable living environment on Mars, I am working on creating both discipline and synthesis throughout the entire unit.

Gardner states that "the disciplined mind has mastered at least one way of thinking-a distinctive mode of cognition that characterizes a specific scholarly discipline, craft, or profession (p.2)." He goes on to say that "research confirms that it takes up to ten years to master a discipline (p.2)." While I know my students will not be spending ten years working on this project, rather 6 weeks, my goals is to begin to develop a discipline by assigning groups to work on one piece of the whole project. For example, one group will be working on creating the habitat. Within that group, smaller groups will be focusing on the physical environment where they will build, materials that can sustain the atmosphere on Mars, etc. Creating these small groups with a common discipline will ensure that they are using different sources to come up with information that will help the entire team to be successful.

"The synthesizing mind take information from disparate sources, understands and evaluates that information objectively, and puts it together in ways that make sense to the synthesizer and also to other persons (Gardner, p. 3). In order to obtain synthesis in this unit, my students will be completing weekly "press releases" that will be shared with the other groups in order to show progress toward the common goal. They will also be participating in weekly discussion posts and writing bi-weekly picture essays. 

Even though this project is taking place in my Language Arts classroom, my students will have to draw on information from other sources and subjects in order to complete the project. Because they will actually be creating a model of their living environment, students will need Math and a concept of scale in order to keep it small enough to fit in my classroom. They will need Science to complete the concepts of space, gravity, and basic human needs for life. They will be writing each week and conveying their information that makes sense to a variety of audiences. Finally, and very importantly, they will be researching all the information they need in order to make their new life on Mars successful.

Gardner, H.  (2007).  Five Minds for the Future.  Boston:  Harvard Business School Press.

Synthesizing the Mind

EduClipper...hmmm...not real sure about this one. I didn't find it to be super user friendly, but was able to figure out how to clip things and create my board. For some reason, at one point, my board seemed to disappear along with my clips. Not sure what happened, so I logged out, logged back in and they were there. Seemed pretty strange... However, here's my board!

I am currently working on a Mission to Mars/End of Earth PBL unit to finish out the school year with my 6th graders. The clips I have included are a lesson plan from NASA, an infographic about landing humans on Mars, a short video (I will probably show the whole thing to my classes), basic info about Mars, and an article I found a while back about people who are paying to participate in a one-way flight to Mars. I think the article will be something that will really spark a lot of discussion with my kids.

The End of Earth and Digital Media

Currently, I am planning a unit based around two readings from our basal reader. The theme of the unit will be space with emphasis on creating sustainable life on Mars. My unit will begin with the readings. I will show the below picture to spark interest (fear, maybe) in my students and start the conversation about what would happen if an asteroid was headed for Earth. Where would be go? How would be survive? While I would like much of my unit to be inquiry based, it will be shared inquiry in that I will be helping to guide them to sustaining life on Mars. I haven't used BigHugeLabs in a few years and had forgotten how user friendly it is! Here's my movie poster!

Until next time...
Happy teaching!

EDIM 508 Introduction

What a cool tool! LemmeTweetThatForYou is a way to create pseudo tweets. I could see my students using this in Language Arts class to create Tweets from book characters or between two different characters. I'm definitely going to check and see if this is blocked at school. If not, I will be using it soon! Here is my introduction Tweet! By the way, that is not me. I just couldn't get it work with putting my real name in. Definitely a glitch that may make it a bit less friendly for my 6th graders....

Inquiry Based Learning: Final Thoughts

What a crazy seven weeks it has been in my Inquiry Based Learning class. Many of the things I thought I knew about IBL were a little off base.

Things I thought I knew...

• A project has to be involved.
• Teachers have to do most of the planning
• Students must work in groups on the same topic all the time

However, I found, while these things may be true part of the time, they are not true all of the time.

Things I Now Know About IBL:

• A project is something that can be used as an outcome of the lesson.
• IBL units can be teacher directed, student teacher shared, or student directed.
• There is opportunity for students to work on different aspects of the same topic to reach a greater goal.
• Formative assessments are a must in order to provide students an opportunity to learn from what they are doing.
• Technology should be involved in order to keep students engaged.
• The 5E instructional model is a great way to plan an IBL unit.

I am currently working on integrating STEM into my Language Arts classroom. This integration will lead to more inquiry and opportunities for my students to learn outside the box. Overall, I am so glad that I took EDIM 513. I have learned many new things and feel that I will be able to successfully integrate more inquiry into my classroom.

The 5E's and Inquiry Based Learning

This week we learned about the 5E Instructional Model. The 5E's are engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. I really like how this model fits into inquiry based learning. It starts by engaging the learner with a topic that interests the students. It then leads students into exploration about the topic. One important link in the evaluation part. As with any lesson, it is important to evaluate student progress throughout the entirety of the lesson.

I really like inquiry based learning. Pair that with the 5E model, teachers have a great guide to work with. Also, Discovery Education is awesome when it comes to the 5E's because each Techbook lesson has the 5E's embedded into it. This month, in my district, we are having the Discovery Education Battle of the Brackets. I'm going to make it a point to share the 5E's with the teachers in my building and encourage them to use this model in their instruction.