Wanderings......

Well, It's been a long time since I used this blog. I don't know if blogging is really for me. I just seem be a consumer rather than a creator. But it did feel compelled to write today, so maybe there is hope for me!
I don't know if anyone will read this or not, but it is a good way for me to reflect at this point in time.
What's been going on.....

Using voicethread, google earth, and smartnotebook to make student-generated word problems. Very cool potential to collaborate and increase student interest! My example:

My grade 6 science students have been using charge sensors (PASCO) to explore static electricity and use the scientific method. High interest and involvement!









I found a tool to download youtube/teachertube videos. It helps not to have to freeze the screen to avoid the randomness of related videos. converttube.com I came across it while scrolling through my delicious network's bookmarks.

Building interactive-media rich smartnotebook files for students to explore independantly on their laptops.


I have students working on science fair projects during their activity period at the end of the day. One measuring the heating rate of different colours of water. And another measuring the effect of wind speed and voltage output of a home-made wind turbine that they built.

My daughter who is in grade 2 is doing a project on the effect of salt on the boiling temperature of water.


I had one class sign up for google reader and subscribe to some feeds. I haven't had them do any reading yet in class, but plan to. I wonder if they are using them at home. I know one student has subscribed to a kiiji feed for snowmobiles for sale!

Our school has a subscription to brainpop. Students love to watch Tim and Moby. Note to self: I need a better way to assess what they are learning from the videos.

At the end of last week, my grade 8 cience classes did a DNA extraction, and really not difficult at all to set up and perform.

Students made science safety videos. It took over a month from start to finish, I'll need to find a way to do this better next year. A 40 min time frame every other day, just doesn't do it when set-up takes so long. Maybe organize some blocks of time.

I want to get my student blog up and running again and also teach my students how to comment on other blogs. I came across a great one that could potentially result in some interesting dialogue. Mr. Biche's Science Blog

Wow, that was a lot to get out and I'm really not finished, but maybe I'll feel compelled to write again soon. I will flesh some of these out later. Especially if anyone asks about them.