Professional - and Personal - Development

Some weeks I can't seem to keep up with myself or my students. This has been one of those weeks. My poor Math 11 students - all 5 of them in two different classes (which run simultaneously!)- deserved a teacher more prepared to differentiate instruction, but all I could do was go back and forth between the two groups  (pre-calculus and apprenticeship and workplace) with muddled explanations. Somehow I needed to explain the ambiguous case of the sine law and the usefulness of stacked bar graphs at the same time. Luckily we found one example of a useful stacked bar graph in biology 11. Unfortunately, I finished Friday afternoon knowing that neither of the pre-calculus students understood that there was an ambiguity much less why I cared. The physics 12 students who I check on couldn't understand the point of the game their teacher was using to help them understand parabolic motion, and I was of very limited help. Biology 11 students struggled with natural selection and variation, the math is going to get harder next week, the service class was disappointed that their plans didn't work out for the Terry Fox run, it seemed that the book of Romans wasn't captivating my religion 10-12 students, and I even struggled with the science 6/7 lab class.

So why do I love teaching?
I think it is the promise that next week just might be better - maybe I'll see the light come on in a student's eyes. Maybe one of my students will understand the connection between the quadratic equations I help them learn and the population biology or the physics that they are learning.

Maybe something we do in class will be the bridge between where they are now and the place they want to go - or maybe it will just be an interesting detour. Either way, I want to help my students explore the possibilities. So I keep trying, keep learning, keep struggling to become a more effective teacher.

This week I started another online course - Inquiry Through Science & Engineering Practices - from Montana State University. I'm hopeful that some of what I learn I'll be able to use to shape the way I teach - and by extension - the way my students learn.

(I should probably take Physics 12 next!)

Back to School - It's New Year's Eve

Labor Day marks the end of summer holidays for most British Columbia students - there are a few who have already started the 2013-2014 school year, and some university students who won't start classes until a little later in September - but for most students today is New Year's Eve. New clothes, pencils, markers, backpacks, and routines.

We teachers have been working for at least a couple of weeks to ready our selves and our classrooms. Tomorrow we'll tell our students a little about our own summer, but mostly listen as students describe theirs. We'll hand out text books and course outlines, talk about expectations, and try to keep a little of that feeling of anticipation alive. I expect that my students will be endearing, entertaining, and even challenging - at least I hope they will be.

This year I hope to showcase student work on one  of my chalkboards, and student artwork on the back wall. Right now my classroom looks a little bare because there are two great big spaces just waiting for someone's - or several someone's - masterpieces.

In the meantime - this is how I spent part of my Labor Day weekend:

 (The description below is from the geocaching website with my editorial comments bolded and italicized.)

Library shelf is a cache located in Scenic Canyon Park. Fairly rugged terrain, but a great cache to combine with Cake Topper, Pillar Assault, and Crevasse Rock. (We did all four, plus hid one or more new caches.) The cache is located on the edge of a cliff and is not suitable for children.(I'm quite certain that I would never have done this on my own, but I had a great time with other "responsible" adults - and one soon-to-be 8th grader!)

The cache is a larger sized lock n lock (camoed of course), with a book theme ....bring a book along to trade when you come! (I forgot to bring a book, but I would be willing to go back to trade books. Luckily the Rutland branch of the Okanagan Regional Library is much more convenient!)
 
There are many ways you can access the cache, depending if you are hiking up from the bottom or top. The park has recently expanded, but the new area isn't very clearly marked yet, but some newer maps do already have the new part on it. If you enter via Gallagers Road just go through the gate next to the private property, (that is what we did) and if you're coming up from Pillar Assault there are several shoots to make your way up. (That's how we got back up - walking back along the Greenway would have been the easier way out, but life is full of challenges.)
 
IF you are comfortable with a bit of rock climbing the cache isn't too hard to get to, but it sits in a very precarious position on the edge of a cliff where there is a lot of loose/unstable rock ...PLEASE be EXTREMELY careful ...if you are the least bit unsure bring a rope incase the rocks below you slide or break away ...you DON'T want to fall off this cliff ...it's a long ways down!! (We did not use safety ropes, and at least one person was heard saying "Jordan, don't tell your mom!")
 
There is a small ledge that if you're so inclined you could relax and read and take a break. (We just took pictures.)
 
Please be careful when removing and re-hiding the cache ...it's hiding spot is designed so the cache doesn't itself fall victim to a rock slide ...please re-hide it carefully ...Thanks :) (You are welcome)

(The view from back up from "Pillar Assault" - the one cache we found near the bottom of the canyon.)


This was exactly what I needed to do before school starts tomorrow - face a challenge, work really hard, and remember that there is life outside my classroom. 

Now I wonder what amazing things my students did over the summer.

Happy New Year!

 

Holey Moley! and other connections

One day in Chemistry 11 class Last school year I mentioned an earthcache I would like to find – Holey Moley! http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=23a88c4a-698b-4399-a753-0294dfbbe5f5

This cache is located in Scenic Canyon Regional Park not too far from Okanagan Adventist Academy, and features some interesting geology – the canyon was formed by water flowing quickly downstream when Glacial Lake Penticton drained. The rock banks contain cobbles imbedded in a matrix of calcite or quartz (Okanagan Geology, MA Roed & JD Greenough, eds., 2004, pp. 92, 184-185).

Our class discussion revolved around the chemical reactions which we would expect calcium carbonate, CaCO₃ to undergo. Calcite is one form of CaCO₃, and students remembered that limestone is also made of CaCO_3. We discussed stalactite and stalagmite formation in caves, and then moved on to predict a reversible chemical reaction. We first came up with a word equation:

Calcium carbonate in the presence of dissolved acid reacts to form the most common oxide of carbon and water.

and then filled in the chemical symbols they had learned:

CaCO_3(s) + H⁺_(aq) -> CO_2(g) + H₂O_(l)

When students attempted to balance this equation they realized that they needed to account for the calcium ion:

CaCO_3(s) + H⁺_(aq) -> CO_2(g) + Ca²⁺ _(aq) + H₂O_(l)

They also needed to balance the hydrogen ions on each side of the equation and to document the observation that this reaction is reversible:

CaCO_3(s) + 2H⁺_(aq) <-> CO_2(g) + Ca²⁺ _(aq) + H₂O_(l)

I was quite happy with the way our discussion had helped students make some real world connections to the work we were doing in class. However, the connections don’t end there. One of my students, W, came to me some time later to tell me that he had been to the earthcache site, and was disappointed to find out that the nearby rocks didn’t bubble like he thought they would when he moistened them with acid. I wasn’t sure why and had to search through one of my resource books (Okanagan Geology, p.184) to discover that the rock matrix which isn’t soluble in acid is quartz. 

This last week I finally found time to go to ground zero myself, and was able to fulfill the requirements given by the cache owner:

1)      Take a picture of you and your gps at the site of the cache. Instead of including a picture of myself or my GPS I took a picture of my bottle of acid.

     

2) Answer the following via e-mail:
A) Why do you think there is more calcite in the rock at this area in particular and what does this tell you?
The rocks around this area in particular contain calcite that either crystalized from calcium rich lava or was deposited there by water with a high mineral content. Once this area became exposed to weathering after the river cut through the ground creating the canyon, exposing the rock to a totally new environment, acid rain dissolved the calcite within the rocks and they would simply crumble and fall from the rock face into the creek causing the unique holes you see now. This is known as dissolution due to chemical weathering. Chemical weathering is most common in areas that have large concentrations of limestone and acidic water whether acidic water from pollution or naturally occurring. This is because limestone is largely composed of calcite which is a reactive compound.
B) Chemical weathering is not the only process at work that is carving this rock face, name one other process you think is breaking the rock face down. 
You are able to see veins and deposits of calcite in many of the rocks you can pick up from the ground. This is testable by applying a drop of hydrochloric acid and seeing the calcite within the rock effervesce (not that you carry acid around with you...). 

 Oh, but I do carry 0.1M HCl_(aq) with me, at least when I’m forewarned!

When I posted pictures and an abbreviated story of my adventure on Facebook W commented that he had just found a chunk of crystal clear calcite. Besides dissolving it with acid how could he know?

The connections continue. . .the opportunities for adventure multiply. . . I just love my job!

Oh, one more thing. . . what caused the layers on Layer Cake Mountain? 

Well, two more things . . . why are the deposits by Angel Warm Springs orange? Is that like the orange color at Yellowstone?

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Celebrating 55 My Way

I'm getting ready to celebrate my 55th birthday, and am trying to decide what I want to do to mark this milestone. Ryan and I hiked the Grand Canyon from South to North to celebrate my 50th, and that was a wonderful (and exhausting, and in some ways scary) way to celebrate. I don't need to do something that major this year, but I am ready to take on a challenge.
I've survived and learned to thrive again during these past 5 years, and I want to celebrate my accomplishments with a multi-day project. I'm trying to decide between hiking the High Rim Trail between Highway 33 and Vernon, or biking or hiking the Kettle Valley Railway between McCulloch and Naramata - or, since I've already biked and hiked from McCulloch to June Springs, maybe I should do something else. I just can't think what else.

I do want to be outdoors, to be able to take pictures, geocache, and see only a few other people. However, I don't necessarily want to be all by myself very much of the time. The perfect situation for me (not necessarily for the others in my life!) would be to have my kids, and maybe some of my friends, take turns hiking or biking with me along a trail that I do. I don't have to camp along the way - regular road access to the trail would make coming home in the evenings easy.

Does anyone have suggestions? feedback? any volunteers?

Foods and Nutrition S&T Friday

One of my students brought this video to class for show and tell. A great discussion followed.




One of our favorite lines was; "death by potato is rare. . ."

Stewardship of the Environment - a perspective I hadn't thought of

 Our discussion last week didn't include using de-extinction as a learning tool to use to help a threatened species. I'm including a link to a National Geographic blog post, and then the last few paragraphs of the article which looks at the feasibility of cloning a mammoth in light of learning more about the technology so it can be used to clone still living, but endangered species or perhaps just to fund raise for other preservation efforts.



 http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/03/12/mammoth-deextinction/
Conservation boost
Despite these many hurdles, Schuster does not dismiss the possibility of cloning a mammoth, especially with improvements in genetic techniques. “Every time a journalist asks me about this, one of those hurdles has been taken out,” he says. “I think it’s a little irresponsible to stand there and say it’ll never happen, but that doesn’t mean we should spend money on it. Maybe it would be better spent on preserving endangered species today.”
Can we really justify trying to bring the mammoth back from extinction when all three species of living elephant are in danger of joining it? “If you’d interviewed me two or three years, ago, I would have been much more aggressive against it,” says Hildebrandt. He has changed his mind after struggling with efforts to conserve other large animals like the Sumatran rhino. Only a few hundred remain, and many are so old that no amount of assisted reproduction will help them to breed. “Our only option is to clone them,” he says.
Mammoth-cloning projects might act as an attractive funding magnet in a way that conservation projects of little-known rhinos cannot. “The mammoth may be able indirectly help future conservation projects, by developing cloning technologies that could help modern species,” says Hildebrandt. It’s a sobering thought: as impossible as cloning an extinct animal might sound, the one good reason to try is that it might prevent a number of species from suffering the same fate.

It seems that every issue I use to add interest to my classes requires me to think about issues from a new perspective and then to ask students to also think. I love connections between the curriculum and real life!