Professional Development from Scratch

Maggie Wachtl, a chemistry teacher at MTA, wanted to learn whether she could use Scratch to create manipulatives to enhance learning about Dimensional Analysis. Her students needs to understand for stoichiometry calculations. She has laminated cards to create a manipulative that she'd like to implement in Scratch. In two hours, we moved from an introduction to Scratch to code snippets that get sprites to show a proof-of-concept: inversion of fractions to make reciprocals, sensitivity to the color on which the sprite is drops. She seemed pleased with the start and progress.

I introduced and reinforced the concept that we could get students to share our desire to have them experience differentiated learning. At several points, I said honestly that middle school students could answer some of her questions better than I could. I hope we can quickly move to get both teachers and students to recognize the opportunities in developing projects that the probability spinner that Matt Lunt requested and that Coby, Cole and Charlie are developing.

Working Outside the Bubble

We don't have enough time during CET and after school to share as much as some students can. I needed to meet with the volunteer coordinator at the Topsham Library about preparing for Capstone opportunities. I took that opportunity to meet with Coby. We reviewed:

• Attribution challenges and the underlying cause.
• iMacro as an approach for us to implement for ourselves.
• AppInventor with the emulator to see whether we can generate interest.
• David Shenk's approach to developing expertise.

Coby gets the concept of ITeam and is ready to develop more cases.

Full After School ITeam

A nearly full complement of 7th and 8th grade students participated in ITeam yesterday. For the most part, they attended well to experienced ITeam members sharing their projects. We spent most of our time sharing the projects that exemplify the directions in which we are encouraging ITeam to move this year: Green Screen, Creating the Scratch Spinner App, Alice, presentations to MLTI conference, ... .

New students spoke up when they had questions or when we asked for opinions. They were quiet when we sought suggestions for feedback and improvement. I gave brief meta feedback to students who shared. Cole, Coby and Charlie talked about their project, then worked on it while Drew, and Ariel shared Alice. By the end of our time, they shared progress on the spinner project. Clearly, we have got to find ways to build on students' interests in order to capture and sustain engagement.

Today Jen, Ariel, Laurel, Drew, Coby, and Evan thought that we should continue to encourage feedback as the best way for us to improve. Evan came a little later than others because he had difficulty locating his device. When he arrived, we met individually and he told me about his experiences programming robots. He might be part of a core-group on robotics.

Nova: Making things Smaller

The PBS show Nova has created a new series of four hour-long introductions to exciting new developments in material sciences. David Pogue hosts the show in his quirky and engaging way. On January 26, they aired the Making Things Smaller segment. They introduce nano robots that will help doctors to treat patients. The segments support the work that we have started with ITeam on using smart phones and AppInventor to control Lego NXT robots. Initially, they provide video to the 'trailer.' But eventually they will provide the entire segment.

Watch the full episode. See more NOVA.

They also provide activity resources that we should explore. While we are waiting for the full video, we can use a selection they provide as resources for education.

Japanese Knotweed (Bamboo) on Harpswell Neck Road

Luke is interested in human impact on local environments. We needed a context shot for the Capstone Pilot video clips. The invasion of Japanese Knotweed (Bamboo) on school grounds and here, along Harpswell Neck Road illustrates an important human impact on our local environments.


View Vital Signs Japanese Knotweed in a larger map

Can Capstone Projects help to educate people and manage invasive species?