Patzke+Journal

__Prompts__ 1) What educational outcomes are called for by sustainability problems and challenges? 2) What habits of mind, language and practice need to be undercut for sustainability problems to be recognized and addressed? 3) What experiences and learning are likely to provoke the (cultural) transformations called for by sustainability challenges?

=February 28, 2014= Wednesday morning Lindsay, Prof. Fortun and I made another visit to the third grade class. While this was an unplanned visit, I wanted to communicate the topics we went over with the class as well as communicate some feedback from Mrs. Seaver in a meeting I had with her in the afternoon.

First, below is a list of topics we went over with the class. Following that is specific feedback from Mrs. Seaver. I think it is important to cater our curriculum to student and teacher feedback in an effort to communicate with these young students.

Overview of Wednesday morning: 1. Kim gave a quick overview of the previous lessons and had great impromptu systems discussion concerning the school as a system. 2. Karin answered (or tried to) student questions (listed below) about the aquaponics system. There were many questions and while I attempted to answer them to the best of my ability, I didn't know all of the answers and told the students that someone (not me!) would have answers for them on Wednesday. 3. Lindsay gave a short presentation about the final project. (more on this below) 4. Karin led a systems story on climate again, building on the previous week's system group and adding issues of energy and climate change to the mix. We used these answers to complete the bulletin board.

Details about the morning: We had a brief conversation with Mrs. Seaver about the possibility of a worm composting bin. While Mrs. Seaver is open to having this in the room, she pushed us to make clear what role bin would play in he class room and how it would be incorporated into the aquaponics system. Furthermore, we discovered that the composting bin in the first grade class room is outdoors, is not used in the winter time, and is used to facilitate composting in a courtyard garden.

Below are the aquaponics questions the students had. Questions related to both the journal they completed daily as well as observations they made independent of the journal. I introduced some new vocabulary like 'hypothesis', 'data', and 'observations' to the class and I think it would be fruitful to work with them to think about their observations and questions in terms of research.

Water: Why is the water different temperatures, both at the bottom and top of the chambers and between the chambers? The students had there hypotheses: Hypothesis one: As the pump moves water from chamber to chamber, the moving water cools. H2: The airvent next to one chamber cools the water H3: both the water moving and the airvent effect the temperature of the water.

Why are their shells in one tank? Why are there different things in each tank?

Plants: How do plants get nutrients? What are the names of the different plants? Why is the algae growing? Will it grow too much? Why is it in the air pump? (I told them to remove it) What's the difference between the top and bottom of plants. (roots and stems) Why do plants turn brown when they dye? Why are some plants dying? (shock and stress of the move)

Animals: How will we know what a snail egg is? (after I described it too them and said I saw a couple of them on the walls, students later found a few, and with the aid of a magnifying glass, actually saw a snail hatch!) Why didn't we put fish in right away? How long does it take snail eggs to hatch? ( I said one month, which is totally wrong). How do we count the snails? (I said count the ones on the side of the wall and put the time of observation)

Putting things together: Students had many questions regarding the journal and what they were observing. They had different ideas about what was going on and I introduced "hypothesis" to them to compare the different ideas they had concerning the water temperature. I encouraged them to keep a record of their observations and we would follow up with them about how to answer their questions.

In regards to the final project: This was the first time I saw the final project, so maybe Lindsay can present it again and Kim can explain the project she has proposed for the final class so that we can all be on board with it. Mrs Seaver strongly suggests that we work this into the rest of the classes we attend. Perhaps a station that the students rotate in addition to systems stations. She also suggested that we have scripts for the students prepared, so that when they are 'stuck' we can help them out to get to the answer that's appropriate. The groups that Mrs. Seaver initially placed the students in (there are 22 students total, groups into five groups -- three groups of 4 and 2 groups of 5) will help to negotiate the diverse learning strategies at play in the class room so that as small group can complete the final video thing. She suggested that instead of letting the students choose which system they wanted to present in the video, we should assign them to the groups. Also, her students need practice both writing and performing for the camera, and we shouldn't have the same expectations for each students. Some students will be find just holding up an image representative of some aspect of a system. But they will need time to prepare such an image.

Bulletin Boards: We populated the bulletin board with three systems maps. An incomplete image is attached here. Answers to the climate system were garnered from the students and Kim has more words to post on the board. The two other systems were 'bad city' and 'good city.' These were not completed, but instead a space for students to write questions was left between the two systems. Probably the students will have lots of questions and we can answer them in class. I will contact Mrs. Seaver next week so we can be prepared to answer the questions. Finally, students will draw pictures to add to the bulletin board.

Climate Change System: This was conducted similarly to the human body system from the first class we attended. Mrs. Seaver was great in getting all the students to participate. We reminded the students of the things they had learned from the last class, including the difference b/t weather and climate and the answers they had from last class. Then we had an 'umbrella' exercise to try to explain the idea of pollution and atmosphere, and global warming. Finally all of the students participated in completing the system map, with help from Mrs. Seaver.

Future systems: The students have two books that they are required to read before next Wednesday. (Images of the covers are attached) The intent is for these two books to be used to populate the bulletin board as well as prepare for lego city.

=February 17, 2014= Reflecting on the experiences of Wednesday when we went to Tamarac Elementary School, and specifically the third grade class on systems, there were several moments when I felt I could have been better prepared. While Brandon and I had a script, there were moments when I wish I knew more about what the students had been studying and how to relate it to the lessons they’d already had. Also, fleshing out the points we would like the students to take away as well as clear introductions and conclusion would be good. While it was clear that the students viewed our entries into the boxes as ‘answers’, I think we could have down more (but I’m not sure what) to engage the students in the types of questions we were asking. Finally, Mrs. Seaver is very interested in having us incorporate the systems into the Lego City the class does later in the semester. I think this is a very good idea and after speaking with her a little more in the class room, I think we might be able to compliment some of the strategies she’s used to get the students thinking about alternatives to an urban environment not based on what the students are used to seeing (roads, cars, big houses, etc) but on what a ‘good’ urban plan might entail (bikes, pedestrian walk ways, coops, more parks, etc).

=February 13, 2014= Yesterday’s class was exhausting. Performing in front of the third graders and trying to make ‘systems’ both relevant and relatable to their own class work and lived experience was difficult. While I only presented once, I can imagine that the groups who presented their work multiple times with smaller groups were probably more exhausted than me and most likely learned more. Some quick notes about the ‘performance’:
 * 1) More scripting, more communication b/t other RPI students
 * 2) More preparation and collaboration with the teachers

=February 6, 2014=

As each ‘systems’ group rehearsed their ‘systems analysis’ in last night’s class some interesting discussions were sparked. First, how do we create a shared vocabulary among our different systems that the students can explore to increase both their own analytic skills and their knowledge of the world? Pollution seems like a relatively general term that had many different meanings and early on we threw out the term “air waste.” Energy seems to re-occur often, but we should be specific to say in each system what ‘energy’ is and how we ‘see’ it in the system. Food as energy for people is different than solar as energy for electricity. Is this reducing the conversation unnecessarily? Should we not create lame phrases like ‘air waste’? Also, we need more visual aids…. =January 27, 2014= Going through the curriculum for “Raising Your Water IQ” the two final goals are not addressed in any way in the assignments: This seems to be for three reasons. One: the two goals of responsibility and stewardship are difficult to cultivate in concrete or clearly defined ways. These ‘new’ forms of criticality that the curriculum attempts to address are difficult to define and ultimately will not be the same between two students. Responsibility and stewardship requires specific contexts, contents, and (political, in the case of Texas) actions. Two: the burden of making these connections falls on the teacher who is given little support or guidelines for facilitating complex discussions of responsibility and stewardship. IT seems like most of this burden is expected to magically appear in the short essays that students are instructed to write and then discuss and compare in class. However, the prompts seem to be more in line with writing up science experiments that with reflecting on the consequences of actions. Three: the curriculum as developed is intended to map onto a standardized assessment for Texas public schools called “ Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills” (TEKS). However, these skills seem to be limited to discrete tasks (making a graph, converting fractions) and less about “humanities” driven learning that require training in critical thinking and reflective thought and action, among other skills.
 * Increase a sense of stewardship for local water resources; and
 * Establish patterns of responsible water consumption.[1]

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