Demo by video?

So, I'm having to do a presentation at a conference next week, and I don't have time to do the demo I wanted. (Also, I don't want to have to take equipment on the road.) I'm wondering if a video is as good as a live experiment. For example, does the video here grab you. It grabs me, but I've done a similar experiment for my students live, and I watched the impact. I can't imagine the video having the same impact.

Teaching Today's Students

One of the technology coordinators from Hoover City Schools showed me this video. It really has me pondering how today's students are aliens to traditional teaching.

NSTA Birmingham Follow-Up

Wow! I can't believe that it's been two weeks since the B'ham conference, and I'm just now getting a chance to post this follow-up thread. Please let me know any questions or comments you have, and thanks for coming by my session.

Birmingham: Be There!

I hope some of you are coming to my home town this week for the Regional NSTA convention. If you are, please look me up. I'll be presenting at the following times, and I would welcome you to attend or to catch me before or after so that we can visit for a bit.

Thursday, 12:30 p.m. Talking About Evolution so Fundamentalist Students Will Listen Sheraton Ballroom IX

Friday, 2:00 p.m. Inquiry: What & Why Sheraton Ballroom IX

(I also be doing a few presentations for It's About Time Publishing on Thursday afternoon in the East Meeting Room D of the Convention Center.) I look forward to catching up with old friends!

Teaching Evolution Follow-Up (NSTA Detroit)

Thanks to all of you who attended my session on teaching evolution to fundamentalists students. I was deeply impressed by the tone with which you approached the discussion. I'm always afraid that the discussion will become a fight, and to me, that's a total lost. I appreciated your questions and comments, and I look forward to hearing more.

I'll be happy to field here any questions that you have. Please simply post a comment and check back later for my response. Also, feel free to share any resources that you think others might find useful in their teaching. This is a tough topic, but I'm becoming more and more hopeful that it's something that we can do and do well.

Inquiry: What & Why Follow-Up (NSTA Detroit & Denver)

Thanks to all of you who joined me for the sessions on the What and Why of Inquiry. I hope the connection between the changes in today's workforce helped you see better the rationale for adopting inquiry so that your students are ready for life in work in a global economy. Also, I hope the 5 Essential Features of inquiry helped you better understand what inquiry is and how to begin adopting it in your classroom. (If you'll clink the link embedded in the title of this post, it will take you directly to the chapter that describes the 5 Essential Features. Hope that helps.)

Please let me know any questions or comments you have about the presentation. I look forward to hearing from you and providing any additional resources that I can.

NSTA folllow-up soon

Thanks to all of you who attended my presentations at NSTA. Like you probably, I'm trying to get back in the swing of things at work after being away. I hope to have those follow-up posts I promised up by Wednesday.

Detroit Bound!

Please let me know if you'll be at the NSTA Regional Convention in Detroit. I'll be there Thursday-Saturday, and I'd enjoy catching up with you. On Friday, I present "Talking About Evolution So Fundamentalist Students Will Listen" at 9:30 a.m. in Cobo Center W2-61. On Saturday at 8:00 a.m., I present "Inquiry: What & Why" in Cobo Center W2-66. Please let me know if you have questions on those sessions or if you're presenting. I'm looking for good sessions to attend.

Hearts & Minds

Many, many thanks to all of you who participated in the Friday, 12:30 p.m., session on teaching evolution to religious fundamentalists. I appreciate the sensitivity and honesty you brought to our discussion. (And, you didn't eat me! I'm not sure why I was so nervous, but I really was. Thanks for your kindness.)

Thanks to Don, one of the participants, for the information from AAAS that I've linked here. A couple of people mentioned other resources, but I didn't write those down. If you have them, please post them as a comment (or e-mail them to me).

I look forward to seeing any questions, concerns, or comments you post. Please let me know how the session helped you and any suggestions you have for improving the session in the future. I plan on giving it again at NSTA regionals and nationals, as long as I can find funding for travel. Watch this blog for updates as to when I'll be presenting, and please join me again or send a friend.

Evidence 4 Inquiry/Falling Through the Cracks

Thanks to all of you who joined me at NSTA for these two presentations. I didn't feel like I was on message well for the Evidence 4 Inquiry session (Thursday at 12:30). I hadn't given that talk in a year, and I felt like it was a little disjointed. I hope the message came through. If you came on Friday morning at 8:00 a.m., I felt much better about that one.

Please let me know any thought that you have on what I said. I'm curious to know what I could do to make the talk more beneficial to the average classroom teacher who is considering getting started with inquiry. I would appreciate any suggestions you have. Also, let me know any questions that you have about anything I said. I'll be happy do whatever I can, including pointing you to resources that might help you with your question or concern.

NSTA follow-up

I promised a follow-up post to my NSTA presentations, but it may be tomorrow before I get those posted. Re-entry was a bear yesterday, and today is going to be just as busy.

NSTA Presentations

Here's my presentation schedule for NSTA this week:

Evidence for Inquiry: Thursday, 12:30 p.m., America's Center, Rm 261
Falling through the Cracks (re: evidence for inquiry; Sponsored by It's About Time Publishing): Friday, 8:00 a.m., America's Center, Room 127
Hearts & Minds in the Classroom (re: teaching Evolution to religious students): Friday, 12:30 p.m., Adam's Mark, Promenade D

See you in St. Louis (NSTA)

I'll be at NSTA from noon on Thursday until noon on Saturday. Let me know if you're going to be there so that we can catch up. I have 3 presentations I'm doing; I'll post my schedule on those early next week.

ASTE vignette

You can get the vignette linking our 3 papers by clicking the title of this post or the word "Link".

ASTE follow-up

Thanks to all of you who attended the session that included the paper set by John Settlage, Meg Blanchard, and me. I'm sorry that we didn't have time to interact on the paper, but I look forward to any comments you want to make here. A link to the vignette appears in the post above this one. You can get my paper by clicking on the word "Link" or on the title of this post.

Those of you who weren't at ASTE may want to scan through the paper to see if it's interesting to you. It describes the model of science teaching that has finally percolated in my head after my sabbatical teaching at Spain Park High School.

SW Minnesota Science and Math Teachers

Thanks to all of you math and science teachers who gave up your evening for Monday's meeting. I was honored by the attention you gave me during my talk, and I look forward to fielding your comments and requests for further information.

Make sure to check out the links to the side for some of the information I mentioned:

For "Rising Above the Gathering Storm" and "The World is Flat", go to the Evidence 4 Inquiry link. Look there also if you want to go deeper regarding why inquiry should be used in our classrooms.

I mentioned several times the NSF curricula that has already been field-tested so that it works with students. To see those, use the Inquiry Resources link. Remember, don't make the mistake I did of trying to develop your own inquiry curriculum. Wow, that was hard!

For number talks, try Googling "number talks". (Use the quotation marks in your search string.) You should find a lot of good ideas that way.

I am very interested in any comments you want to post, and anonymous comments are absolutely fine. If you have any trouble making a comment, feel free to e-mail by clicking my picture to take you to my e-mail link.

Hoover AL Science & Math Reforms

On October 9, I presented a reform proposal to the Board of Education of Hoover City Schools. Ron Dodson helped me develop it. Click the link to see the proposal. If you're a Hoover community member, I'd especially like to hear your comments on the proposal.

The hyperlinks within the proposal probably don't work. If you'll shoot me a quick e-mail request, I'll send you the original Word document with working links.

Evidence 4 site back up

Don't know if you noticed that portions of the Evidence 4 Inquiry site were down. I just fixed the problem, and everything looks to be working again.

Alabama Science Teachers Association

It was great being with my home town crowd at ASTA. Unlucky spot for me--the dreaded 8:00 a.m. presentation, but I had a few noble souls fighting off the sleepies. I gave the Evidence 4 Inquiry talk, and I think it was helpful. If you attended, please let me know your feedback by posting a comment here. Also, see the link for information on "The World is Flat," the book I mentioned. I think all other resources are on the Evidence 4 Inquiry site.

ASTA Follow-up

Check back here later this week for follow-up from the Evidence 4 Inquiry session.