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Technology & Inquiry Projects: What I’ve Learned from Teaching with Data

Technology & Inquiry Projects: What I’ve Learned from Teaching with Data. Jennifer Leimberer Chicago Public Schools: Boone, NKO Charter LETUS Center, Northwestern University ALM Project, University of Illinois at Chicago. How & Why I Got Computers into My Classroom.

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Technology & Inquiry Projects: What I’ve Learned from Teaching with Data

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  1. Technology & Inquiry Projects:What I’ve Learned from Teaching with Data Jennifer Leimberer Chicago Public Schools: Boone, NKO Charter LETUS Center, Northwestern University ALM Project, University of Illinois at Chicago

  2. How & Why I Got Computers into My Classroom • I wanted my kids to be analyzing all kinds of DATA! • Real-time earthquake data for science • Primary documents for Social Studies • Images: photographs, images from space • Technology gave my students: • Access to data • Tools to analyze it, and • Ways to reflect and share

  3. What We Did at Boone • 1st grant we wrote: 6 desktop computers • Why the classroom instead of the lab? • Big school = Little access to a lab! (once every 2 weeks?) • Wanted kids to have access when they need it & want it • More access provides proficiency! • Where to put the computers? • Started with them all on one wall – where the power plug was! • Too many kids in too small a space! • Spread computers around the room – lots of extension cords! • 2nd grant: 8 laptops with wireless Internet

  4. Pictures of Classroom

  5. Pictures of classroom

  6. Pictures of groups presenting

  7. Inquiry Projects • Struggle for Survival • Growth Rate • Hands On Universe • Family History

  8. Example of a project:Struggle for Survival • Students get a database • Finch population data– 5 years in Galapogos • Beak size, weight, field notes • What changes have happened in the population? • Why did some survive & others not? • What I liked about this project • Got them into complex data • Many kinds of data: tables, scatterplots, bar graphs • Kids did not create the graphs, they interpreted them • Focus was on the analysis of data, making explanations

  9. Struggle Data Base: BGuILE

  10. Example of a project:Family History • Story of their family’s immigration or migration • Why they left, what it was like, why they came • Interviewed family members, wrote letters back home • Transcribed interviews – hard! • Scanned letters & annotated them: What did you find? • Studied differences between cultural groups, histories • Internet research on their home countries’ histories • Became our History Fair projects! • What I liked about this project • Students learned to choose good Internet sources • A very personal project, students connected, celebrated cultures • Their interviews became DATA: evidence for later research • Used their Social Studies data ACTIVELY, not passive history

  11. Example of a project:Growth Rate • Every month collected data • Kids decided what to measure at beginning of year • Height, arm span, foot length, etc • Put data into Excel spreadsheet, added to it all year • Every month did a different kind of analysis • What is “typical”? Mean, median, mode, etc • Where did I fit into the data set? • Comparing subsets within the class • Change over time, how kids grow differently (7th – 8th grade!) • Every month took digital photo of themselves • Great affective connection: Personal connection to the math • With pictures, find student that is median height • Could do: scale, ratios (arm span to height)

  12. Example of a project:Hands On Universe • Students get real telescope images • Planets, stars, galaxies, moons • Students request their own images • We requested Jupiter every 60 minutes for one whole night • Kids analyzed the images • Stacked them in software to measure movement • Determined speed of each moon • Which moon is which? What Galileo did • What I liked about this project • Application of math to a real question: Which moon? • Analyzed their own images – like a real astronomer! • Kids had to come up with a real answer

  13. Tracking Jupiter’s Moons

  14. Tracking Jupiter’s Moons

  15. What We’ve Learned About Managing These Projects • Small groups are great because ... • More kids are talking & sharing ideas • Small groups can look for evidence for their own ideas • Kids’ conversation around the data is important! • Differentiate instruction: Address different kids’ needs • What will they turn in after computer time??? • How do I know they were working? what they learned? • Kids need to keep notebooks, screen captures, pictures • Get the data OUT of the computer and INTO the room! • Student create a model, picture, graph, map – make it visible! • Gives teacher a chance to respond, assess, give feedback • Have something to do while others are on the computers!!

  16. Bring the Data OUT of the Computer

  17. What did my students get out of these projects? • Learning to do inquiry • Play with REAL data • More than "just the facts" • They remember the experience • Benefits for high- and low- students

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