bogusia's blog

A couple years ago, my oldest son went to preschool. He was a bright kid, and also my first, so I spent a lot of time with him before hand, teaching him the letters, numbers, shapes, etc. By the time he started preschool, he knew all the letters, and of course he knew how to write his name beautifully. I was so proud of him, and was excited for him to go to school and continue his learning.

Of course, at preschool, they (re)taught all the letters and numbers. And at home I continued teaching him about letters, and then also about words, how they are composed of letters, and how each letter represents a sound, etc. By the end of preschool, he was able to read some words, especially phonetically.

Then, he went to kindergarten. Since he went to French school, the emphasis was on teaching oral French as opposed to written language. He still had me on his back with the writing and reading, and in Polish School (on Saturdays) he learned to write and even handwrite words. But at his daily school he wasn't even expected to write his name on his artwork. Later in that kindergarten year, the teacher finally started teaching the alphabet, and again, he learned his letters...

Introduction

This paper focuses on externalvisual representations and how they are used by expert and novicescientists.  First, I define the term“expert” as used in this paper.  Then Ilook at representations in sciences and math.  Finally I compare the novice and expertdifferences as they relate to interpreting and constructing visualrepresentations.  Along the way, Iexamine a very interesting and applicable extension of the informationprocessing theory, the cognitive load theory, and how it relates to visualrepresentations and expertise. 

The Expert Scientist

Most days, I post new Hexa-Trex puzzles without a solution (see top left corner of this website). I would like to inspire people in solving the puzzles and posting their answers as comments of the puzzles. If you solve the puzzles and post it as a comment, you can get a free book filled with Hexa Trex puzzles: "The First Book of Hexa-Trex Puzzles", by Bogusia Gierus and Alex Gierus.

To win, all you have to do is be the first one to solve the new puzzle (the one that has no solution). Press the "more" under the Daily Hexa-Trex Puzzle, and you will have an opportunity to comment on this puzzle. Post the solution and if your solution is first and correct, you win the free Puzzle Book. Just make sure you include your address (if you don't want to leave your address as a comment, use the "Contact" (top right) to write me an email with it). Every time a new puzzle is posted, a new winner will be available, so if you don't win one day, just wait for the next puzzle.

Have fun... HAPPY PUZZLING!

Here is an easy contest for high school kids passionate about science:

Perimeter Institute wants to hear from Canadian highschool (CEGEP in Quebec) students who are passionate about science. Produce a 30 second or less video on why you love science. Then, submit your video and register online for a chance to win an all expenses paid round-trip to Hawking at the Perimeter on June 20, 2010.

Here are the Contest Details.

I had many requests for a step by step instruction of making the "Hydraulic Crane".

Although this wasn't my construction (one of my brilliant students did this one for a project that I assigned), I can figure out the basics from what I saw.

Note: The following is only meant as a start for anyone that wants to try this project. However, everyone has their own twist to every assignment, every design. Use your imagination to make the crane better, and your own!

Materials:

• 30 mL syringes (x8)
• dialysis tubing (or any other kind of plastic tubing for connecting the syringes together)
• wood (for crane construction and for base)
• anchors (to hold the tubing in place)
• bottle with water (or any other weight to counter balance the crane arm)
• a scoop (any kind of shovel)
• Screws / Nails / Nuts / Bolts
• + Other miscellaneous materials.

Procedure

Introduction
Some things are easier to learn than others. Piaget, one of the fathers of the constructivist movement, talked about two types of learning: assimilation and accommodation (Atherton, 2009). Assimilation and accommodation are the two complementary processes through which awareness of the outside world is internalized (Atherton, 2009).
In assimilation, the perceptions of the outside world are incorporated into the internal world model without changing the structure of that model, but potentially at the cost of "squeezing" the external perceptions to fit (Atherton, 2009). In accommodation, the internal world model has to accommodate itself to the evidence with which it is confronted and thus adapt to it, which can be a more difficult and painful process (Atherton, 2009). Accommodation has everything to do with conceptual change, and is the starting point of the many theories concerned with misconceptions.

My grade 11 students have an ultra secret facebook group dedicated for studying physics and chemistry (their sciences). I don't actually know what goes on in this group... I tried to become a member of their group, but they rejected me (hahahaha). But they have my website as a link, so I guess I'm supposed to be a useful link to their studies. So maybe in a way I can influence them even though I'm not a member of their silly little group... (HEHEHEHE)

Here is an awesome website they (and anybody else who wants to) can use to study physics (that is if they don't have enough physics with me during regular school hours). It has great notes, interactive stuff, simulations, practice questions with answers, and many many more practical applications. The best part of it: It's FREE for anyone to use. I hope my students will go and visit this site and use it on a regular basis: THE PHYSICS CLASSROOM.

Growing up, children have a plethora of experiences that have to do with the concept of force. Even before they start talking and knowing the word “force” they have an intuitive understanding of the concept of push and pull. It doesn’t take long for a child to figure out that pushing their brother will result in him moving in the same direction. Babies realize from very early on that things fall down. (A common game among babies and parents is the “baby drops toy – parent picks up toy – repeat many times until parent loses patience”.) This environmental input of the force of gravity acting on an object, thus accelerating it towards the earth gets absorbed by the child’s awareness, and becomes second nature to the child. Most children will ask a parent about these phenomena. The parent then tries to explain these phenomena in terms of sophisticated words such as force, gravity, energy, power, and push / pull. The adult might go in depth or just quickly dismiss the inquiry, depending on the adult’s actual knowledge of the phenomenon, the parent’s interest in scientific principles, or even the time and place of the question. Based on these explanations, and the instances of hearing the words of force or gravity in context, children start to associate what force actually means in terms of their world around them.

I was impressed from the very moment I read about Knowledge Building in the Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences (Sawyer, 2006, pp. 97 - 115). As a science teacher, I see the enormous potential of this learning philosophy, and cannot wait to apply it to my existing teaching repertoire. In order to implement the principles of Knowledge Building, I must understand it fully and understand how to apply it. To this end, I am writing this thought paper with two articles on Knowledge Building as a backdrop. The first is “Learning to Work Creatively With Knowledge” by Carl Bereiter and Marlene Scardamalia (2003) and the second is “Student-Directed Assessment of Knowledge Building Using Electronic Portfolios” by Jan van Aalst and Carol K. K. Chan (2007). The first article serves as the theory portion of my understanding of Knowledge Building. The second article provides an example of Knowledge Building in practice and presents a possible way of implementing the innovative learning environment as well as assessing students in the collaborative Knowledge Building setting.