December, 2010

In December, all of the teachers that were a part of the ICCARS project were assigned to come up with the following for the unit that will use the knowledge and equipment we received from ICCARS:

Theme for Your Unit
Alignment to Specific Content Expectations
Key Knowledge and Skills for Your Students

Deena, John and I had decided that instead of doing a specific unit, that we were going to host a Field Day where all of our Freshmen and Sophmores would complete activities that would use the kites, Kestrels, and the soil thermometers, as well as take water samples from the Rouge River and our own pond (which is something that the DCMST Freshmen had already been doing for years).  The details for this can be found on our Google Doc:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z_zKpkjZ9Wbhzg1_E1FANASB6RF7Fn9FQHMagb26D_A/edit?hl=en&authkey=CIrkptwH

I decided to have Katie read through all of the units that the other schools planned to get an idea of waht everyone is doing so that maybe we can pull ideas from them.

We also had a teleconference on Monday, December 13th, which was recorded and can be found at the following link:
http://www.resa.net/curriculum/curriculum/science/professionaldevelopment/climatechange/

We learned that there was a lot of confusion, and that people still had questions about a lot of the technology, especially the Multipec.  I personally wanted to learn about how to use the Kestrels.  We therefore decided to meet again on Wednesday, December 22nd.  Only a few of us were able to meet, but it was nice to be able to ask any questions that we didn't have time to ask before.

We were also given our next assignment: we have to come up with driving questions for our unit.

September - November, 2010

In September of 2010, I, along with Deena Parks and John Bayerl, were selected to represent the Dearborn Center for Math, Science, and Technology in the Wayne RESA ICCARS project that is sponsored and funded by NASA.  We began by attending a few Monday afternoon meetings at RESA to learn about the ICCARS project (http://geodata.acad.emich.edu/iccars/index.html) and GLOBE (http://globe.gov/scrc).  We also attended two Saturdays at the Knabusch Center, Monroe, where we learned how to fly the large kites, as well as how to attach the different instruments to the kites.  You can see pictures of this as well as pictures of all the different schools represented in this project at the following link: http://picasaweb.google.com/100751655234682764166

We also received a lot of equipment (kites, Kestrels, iPads, digital cameras, etc.) for our school to use.  I have personally learned how to use the iPad to display my guided notes for my math classes onto my white board.  It's a lot easier than using a laptop because it's much easier to attach and detach, and I don't have to worry about leaving my laptop out every day.

I am also lucky to have a senior student (Katie) that we have chosen to do a directed study in where she is helping us with all of the ICCARS stuff.  During the months of September - November, I had Katie keep up with all of the literature and websites that we were told about during our meetings, and I also had her measure out and spool the string for our kites.  She has also been following ICCARS on Twitter and Facebook.

John, Deena, and I decided to use Google Docs to list our ideas of what we would want to do with our ICCARS equipment and training, which can be accessed using the link below.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z_zKpkjZ9Wbhzg1_E1FANASB6RF7Fn9FQHMagb26D_A/edit?hl=en&authkey=CIrkptwH

Welcome

Welcome to my blog!  My name is Jennifer S. Gorsline, and I am a mathematics teacher at the Dearborn Center for Mathematics, Science, and Technology.  I am currently taking part in the ICCARS project through Wayne RESA, and will post all of my ideas for lessons and activities that I will include in my classroom.