Karin's+update+on+engagement+with+the+class+last+week. 

Notes from Tamarac

Wednesday morning Lindsay, Prof. Fortun and I made another visit to the third grade class. While this was an unplanned visit, I want to communicate to you the topics we went over with the class as well as share 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. While I realize this email may be long to read, I think it is important to cater our curriculum to students and teacher feedback in an effort to communicate successfully with these young students. Finally, there are images (sorry for the large size) attached here to illustrate some of the progress.

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. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">H2: The airvent next to one chamber cools the water <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">H3: both the water moving and the airvent effect the temperature of the water.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Why are their shells in one tank? <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Why are there different things in each tank?

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Plants: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">How do plants get nutrients? <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">What are the names of the different plants? <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Why is the algae growing? <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Will it grow too much? <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Why is it in the air pump? (I told them to remove it) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">What's the difference between the top and bottom of plants. (roots and stems) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Why do plants turn brown when they dye? <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Why are some plants dying? (shock and stress of the move)

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Animals: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">How will we know what a snail egg is? <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">(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!) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Why didn't we put fish in right away? <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">How long does it take snail eggs to hatch? ( I said one month, which is totally wrong). <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">How do we count the snails? (I said count the ones on the side of the wall and put the time of observation)

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Putting things together: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">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" <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">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. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">In regards to the final project: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">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. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">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. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">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. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">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. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">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. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">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.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Bulletin Boards: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">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. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">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. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Finally, students will draw pictures to add to the bulletin board.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Climate Change System: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">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.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Future systems: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">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.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Thanks for reading through this long email. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Karin