Celebrating the Solar Eclipse with a Digital Breakout Room, a guest post from Wendy Lentz

Monday, August 21, 2017 is shaping up to be an exciting day for parts of the United States.  The long awaited solar eclipse is upon us and offering excitement, opportunity, and challenge in the education community.  While some schools may still be enjoying summer vacation others will just be dipping their toes into a new school year.  My school district in Missouri will be just four days into the new year.  In anticipation of the big event I have created a digital breakout room (and shared it for you to use below) for my students to complete.  While breakout rooms can be used for any grade level or curricular area, this particular breakout is designed for grades 6-12.  With some additional adult support it could also be use with younger students perhaps in a home school environment or adults at an eclipse party.

As we prepare for this big event, I am keeping three primary objectives in mind, knowledge, safety, and experience.  I desire for my students to gain new knowledge in the science behind the event and in the known history of eclipses.  I also desire for them to be safe and understand what the dangers could be if they aren’t making smart choices. Finally, I want them to truly experience this phenomena with their eyes and their brains.  With all of these things in mind I knew this was an opportunity that couldn’t be passed up.  I imagine my school and most all schools in my area will be planning events for this day.  With that being said I am preparing to be flexible with implementation.  While the breakout could be done on the day of the eclipse I don’t want to chance kids missing the chance to complete the breakout.  We will complete the activity a couple days prior to allow for full participation.

So what is a breakout room?  Breakout rooms began gaining in popularity around the world in 2010.  The former first family was even spotted taking in a breakout room a few years ago in Hawaii. These rooms are physical spaces that challenge the participants to breakout or escape by solving problems, puzzles, codes, and riddles in order to unlock parts of the room leading to an eventual escape, hopefully.  The rooms are themed and typically carry a 60 minute time limit.  My family recently participated in a breakout room for my daughter’s thirteenth birthday.  It was intense and fun.  It was interesting to see how everyone in the group worked a little differently during the challenge and how proud we were when we solved a problem.  Meanwhile, one member of the group constantly begged for clues.  While I won’t name any names his relation to me rhymes with fusband.

My family escaped!

Watch as these newscasters experience a breakout room.

Where is the connection to the classroom?  As breakout rooms grew in popularity, teachers began incorporating the structure into their classrooms as a way to teach or review material while causing students to investigate, solve problems and to build teamwork skills through a highly engaging activity.  This kind of experiential learning and teaching is driven by how something is taught versus what is being taught.  These activities also offer students opportunities to build a resilience to failure and the courage to persevere through a challenging situation or problem.

As the use of breakout rooms in education has expanded, the structure of their implementation has also evolved.  Earliest rooms were designed and built by individual teachers.  In 2015, the website and blog breakoutedu.com began offering quality kits, templates, and breakout plans for teachers to purchase and use.  Recently, some teachers began using a digital version called digital breakout rooms.  These digital rooms offer students the same opportunities to solve puzzles, search for clues, and unlock a variety of locks without additional costs to the teacher.

Here is the link to the digital breakout room for the Solar Eclipse Breakout.  I have not included the answers on the site but I'd be happy to share them with you if needed.  I would highly encourage you to to complete the breakout on your own first to fully experience it; The Cult of Pedagogy would call this Dogfooding.  The base of the breakout is a Google site with embedded information and clues.  Encourage students to read carefully and closely.  Remind them to click on EVERYTHING and think creatively to unlock the locks in the google form.  If students don't enter a lock code correctly the line underneath will remain red, but when it turns blue the lock is unlocked!  Remember that you are just the facilitator.  It is natural for the students to reach a point of frustration when they are stuck. You can help guide them by continuing to offer questions to open their thinking.  Keep in mind that some of the information on the site has no purpose except to inform, these bits of information are called distractors.  When the students unlock all the locks they should submit the form and give the secret phrase to the teacher.  Plan to take photos of student successes and attempts then share with your school community!  I have also included some teacher tips including a 45 minute digital timer, tips for helping students when they are stuck, and a place for participants to leave feedback after the experience.  All of this can be found on a tab in the top right hand corner of the site.  Please keep in mind that the “Teacher Tips” tab is not connected to the breakout room in anyway but everything else on the site is fair game.  If you have questions feel free to email me at lentz-wendy@trojans.k12.mo.us or on Twitter @wendylentz.  Enjoy the eclipse!

Best Way To Prepare Students For Online Science MAP Tests? Do Labs.

Practice tests are now available for the new computer delivered MAP test for fifth and eighth grade science students.

I'll be the first to admit that I was skeptical about the influence of computer based testing for science. I was worried that computer scored questions would result in more "recall" questions. However, after taking the practice test, I was pleased to see that the majority of the questions evaluated the ability of the taker to think scientifically. Many questions require students to set up data tables, or graph data using the information presented within the four corners of the screen.

Science teachers will give their students a better chance to excel if they give their students some screen time with the practice tests. Students need to know that "tab" won't move the cursor between fields and they need a chance to work the "drag and drop" feature. Some time in Excel or Google Sheets won't hurt either. That said, putting kids behind a computer screen won't be the best way to prepare them for the test. The best way to prepare students for the test will be to get them in a lab.

If you want students to be able to fill out data tables and chart the data in graphs, give them opportunities that will allow them to design experiments and communicate the results of the experiments.

Not only will it prepare them for the new tests, it will also give them a chance to enjoy science.

Dissection and Connection: A Day of Learning with Eye-InaBox

Confession:

Until this summer, even after spending three years in the classroom teaching middle school science, I never participated in a dissection lab. That changed while participating in a free workshop at the University of Missouri with our school's science teacher.

The workshop, led by Dr. Folk, was designed to familiarize science teachers with the ShowMe InaBox, Eye-InaBox and Ear-InaBox, kits. The kits are available for one month free check outs through Folk's office.

One of the program's strengths is its ability to connect physical and life sciences. Wave lengths, energy transformations, and chemical changes are taught through a series of hands on labs and lessons on the eye. 

Workshop participants learned how to lead labs on UV light sensitive beads, pin hole lens construction, live planarian responses, and cow eyeball dissection. The kits include readings and all necessary supplies, including the cow eyeballs. All materials are returned at the end of the check out period, with the exception of the eyeballs.

After a few seconds in the sun the beads on the right changed colors.

Because of our science teacher's participation in the Eye In A Box program, our students will benefit from seeing the connections between physical and life sciences. Students will also benefit from our school's connection to a professor who conducts research at a world class university.

They will also get the opportunity to participate in a dissection lab, at no cost to our school, at a much earlier age than their principal.

Information on the Eye-InaBox program can be found through the program's website.

What lessons can schools learn from the Kepler 16 solar system?

As an amateur (and even that is a stretch) astronomer, the kind who can barely track the path of Jupiter's moons, I am fascinated with Kepler 16-b. Kepler 16-b is a circumbinary planet, meaning it orbits not one, but two stars.  A two star solar system forces a paradigm shift for us when we are first exposed to the idea, which makes it a perfect metaphor for classroom and school culture.

Kepler 16-b's orbit is driven by the gravitational pull of stars: Kepler 16-A and Kepler 16-B. These stars are not considered opposite, or competing, but one binary star.

Similarly, master educators are driven by one binary star, with two factors: challenge and support. At different times in the life of a classroom, each mass has a stronger gravitational pull. Master teachers know when to give the stern look, and they know when to smile. They know how to present the rigorous assignment, and the scaffolding necessary for students to meet the challenge.

Likewise effective schools must be flexible enough to exert the forces of challenge and support as needed. Students must be held to high standards, academically and behaviorally. Systems must be in place to help them meet those standards, and support them when they fall short.

Questions to consider:
1.) What aspects of the class or school culture are designed to challenge?
2.) What aspects of the class or school culture are designed to support?
3.) What data is used to determine when the orbit of a class or an individual students needs to be influenced more by one than the other?

One Reason Our School Is A Little Better: Outdoor Classroom

"An individual with a high degree of naturalist intelligence is keenly aware of how to distinguish from one another the diverse, plants, animals, mountains, and cloud configurations in her ecological niche" Howard Gardner.

The students at our school benefit from a few wooded acres that border the campus to the west.  Featuring a small pond, a path, and an amphitheater, the outdoor classroom is a result of the efforts of teachers and community members alike.

Science students are provided unique opportunities to study biology. Animal, fungi, and plant kingdoms are easier to learn when students are able to put their hands on fishing poles, morels, and spades. When rain gauges supplement text books, and a planned project to build a raised flower bed is postponed due to weather, meteorology is more meaningful.  The outdoor classroom also serves as the subject of student produced documentaries and the setting for student produced dramas, filmed and edited with iPads in communication arts classes.

Howard Gardner's multiple intelligence theory includes a naturalist intelligence. Teachers and students at our school are better positioned to leverage the power of this intelligence due to the outdoor classroom.