Science Lesson

The session I most appreciated at the recent Christa McCauliffe Technology conference was Welcome to Our 21st Century Science Classroom by Paul Facteau from Apple. It was a simulation of a well-run classroom mid-project on a river study. I was a student—I dissected an owl pellet; I tested water samples. I took photos (with the microscope); I generated graphs of my water data. I inserted these products into books and blogs. It was great to see how all the pieces can fit together. It wasn’t about the technology; it was about the learning.

9 of Me--Photoshop Elements

This lesson is for my 5th and 6th grade students at PRES who are in the middle of their first project with Photoshop Elements.

Data Visualization

As I was listening to the keynote address by David Warlick at the Christa McAuliffe Conference in December 2008, I jotted notes on my program. One was the phrase “data visualization is a medium”. That really fit with my current educational strivings. Perhaps because it brings two parts of my professional life together—my years in social research (creating, compiling and analyzing data) and my current work in education. As I strive to have students understand information, visualization can be key. And it can be key to having them get excited by and want more of this information.

Web 2.0 has enhanced data visualization (could I make a bigger understatement?) Examples abound that are beautiful, fascinating, and informative. More clever and useful creations appear daily. (For just a few examples, see Flowing Data .
In the midst of the excitement about Web 2.0 examples of data visualization (and let me be the first to admit that I am so excited about them that it is hard for me to type about them, when I could be busy viewing more of them), we must not loose touch with other ways to visualize data. Edward R. Tufte is passionate about data visualization of the paper variety. Those of us in educational settings have easy access to the physical beings to make data be performance art.

Next week I have invited the students from another elementary school to join those at my school so that we can visually represent the distribution of population and resources in the world. (This excellent lesson, Food for Thought, was developed by Population Reference Bureau. We will follow the performance by using three Web 2.0 tools: Stat Planet, Show World , and a Time Multimedia look at US population.

New Photo Timeline Needed

I posted my WCS fieldtrip timeline created earlier this week with circa Vie. I just read today that they are circa Vie down after January 15th. I have mixed emotions--dismay and relief. Now I'm really in the market for a replacement.

Guatemalan People

circaVie--WCS Fieldtrip Timeline

I used circaVie (times of your life) to make a photo Timeline of field trips by Warwick Community School students during this school year. I love the idea of putting multimedia in timelines. This product is in a beta version--I found enough quirks to make me frustrated. There are other products that do the same thing--any recommendations?