I want to thank you all for the wonderful semester. I feel I
learned far more from you people through your proposals and presentations than
from the reading. You all have inspired me as I see your dedication and love
for your students and teaching science. It is my hope that when I have the
opportunity to teach that I may emulate all of you. I have one last website
that I have bookmarked that I just recently realized has a tab for teachers
resources. The PBS news hour website, www.pbs.org/newshour/, teachers resource
tab will bring you to PBS newshour extra, their subject area, lesson plans,
articles, student voices and videos. I feel this is a wonderful resource that
can be used.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Internet Resources
I think one of the most important websites to me
that is very useful for inspiration as well as teaching in all types of subject
matter is your official TEDtalks website. I started watching the TEDtalks because
they were available on Netflix and I became hooked on them and join the
conversation becoming a member.
Another website that I found was very useful is the
center for advancement of informal science education website or CAISE this
website has quite a few resources that are available in PDF form as well as
other formats.
The National Afterschool Association website
provides resources as well as information about healthy afterschool activities,
crime prevention and child development. It also includes quite a few very
useful links.
The Exploring Trees and Ponds Informal Life Science
Activities for Youth website provides wonderful ideas to work with students 10
through 14 in the natural world. Information is given freely although you just
need to create a user account.
Exploratorium afterschool activities website
supplies a bunch of activities that you can do with kids that are downloadable.
Some of these include creating a speaker using Styrofoam cup or a membranophone
out of a water bottle.
The parent website to the previous website also has
a great deal of information on it.
There is The Informal Science Education Association
of Texas website. This website also includes quite a few variable resources as
well as many links to other websites. This one gives you the opportunity to see
what’s going on around the state as well as to find other museums, state parks,
aquariums, nature centers, and other science-rich institutions around the state
of Texas.
The next one is another national resource that
allows you to see what’s going on in the rest of the country as well as also
supplies online resources and allows you to connect with other online
communities.
The local informal science organization is called
the Chihuahuan Desert Educational Coalition. I found this one to be very informative
with a great deal of information of area events as a matter fact it was two
that went on this weekend. The Poppy Festival which included a nature walks
music and food. This was a free educational event for the whole family. As well
as the presentation that was given by the New Mexico State University Chile
Institute that was given also at no charge at the Carlos M Ramirez TecH2O
learning center.
Another local website that can help keep you up-to-date
on what’s going on in the El Paso area is the elpasonaturally blog page. You
can find many events that are being held El Paso area which is on the
environment.
Another one of my favorite websites to check out for
science is the McDonald Observatory website. This one lets you know what’s
going on at the Observatory as well as what’s going on in the sky. The McDonald
Observatory is located in Fort Davis which is approximately two-hour drive from
El Paso and although it is not a free event it is well worth checking out. The
website on the other hand is free and also it’s worth checking.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Course assignment – Reflection 6
This week’s reading starts
with chapter 8; Evaluating Learning Technologies, Barbara N Flagg begins with
the statement that was ever so true, about the abundance of technology in the
last 30 years. I’ve been in technology geek and an adult for those 30 years. I
remember my first computer and IBM AT, it didn’t even have a hard drive and
used the old five and had inch floppy disks. Those were the ones that really
were floppy. Later I got my first hard drive it was huge and had a capacity of
20 MB. I have been building and upgrading computers ever since that time and
owned the ferry first MP3 player made by Creative Labs I can give you a
wonderful history on technology but also save that for another time. The point
of this chapter is to understand evaluating learning technology or this new
technology that has become prevalent in today’s society. One of the statements
at the beginning of the chapter that really got my attention that I feel holds
true in any project is, “By defining what it is you want your users to feel, know,
think, believe, and/or do after exposure to your project, you have a better
chance for success” (Flagg, 2008, p.78). I thought this was eloquent and that
educating is more than just adding knowledge but also should be able to change
attitude. There was an example of teams using PDAs as virtual tour guides that
would give them customized tours depending on their interests. This whole
concept just blows me away. This is an example of how technology is such a
powerful tool that can be used in informal science education but also can
create a little bit of complication in figuring out how to evaluate the impact
of this new technology. The next chapter, chapter 9; Evaluating Collaborations
kind of caught me off guard a little bit as I was considering collaboration has
nearly working with others. But as I see collaboration is also focused on
funding. It’s kind of interesting that I recently became secretary and
treasurer of a nonprofit and have been actively engaging in monetary
collaboration in order to fund a particular event which we hope will produce
enough income to support several youth organizations. So I guess I’ve been
involved in organizational collaboration without even knowing I was. But there
again, that’s a story for another time. I definitely intend to use this chapter
to assist me in my endeavors. Chapter 10; Evaluating Projects That Combined
Different Types of Deliverables, and we discuss projects that are made up of a
combination of different components such as combining an exhibition with interactive
online resources. Oh yeah speaking of online stuff, www.chihuahuandesert.org this
is a local Informal Science Education organization. They’re having a meeting Wednesday,
March 13 6 PM at Avila’s restaurant on North Mesa and Diana Perez of the Carlos
M. Ramirez TecH2O Water Resources Learning Center told me that
everyone is welcome.
References:
Friedman, A. (Ed.). (2008) Framework for evaluating impacts of informal
science education
projects
[On-line]. (Available at: http://insci.org/resources/Eval_Framework.pdf)
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Course assignment – Reflection 5
While approaching these
chapters are the main things I’m taking into consideration is the fact that the
demographics and psychographics of my participants will be quite varied. I’m
not dealing with a homogenous group of students but quite a varied group. I
anticipate my participants to range in age from about 8 to 80. Therefore their
motivations, interests, existing knowledge, expectations, and perceptions all are
quite different. The beginning of the fourth chapter discusses experimental design
choices and introduces randomized controlled trial (RCT) Sue Allen the author
of the first section states that this is a powerful design although admits that
it can be potentially taxing for audience members. So I’m reading on. The next
section of this chapter, authored by Pat Campbell, titled An Array of
Evaluation Design Choices includes table 4-1: Sample Evaluation Design is a
very useful tool in comparing study types. Gary Silverstein gives us Using
Logic Models to Identify Desired Impacts and Audience Objectives which builds
on the previous logic model and creates a flowchart in figure 4-1 titled Logic
Model for the ISE program, which is another very useful tool in considering the
range of outcomes and evidence that can be demonstrated from the activity. But
for my project table 4-2 appears to be the most useful. This table, Impact
Worksheet: Example for Museum Exhibit on How Science and Engineering Drive
Hybrid Vehicles I feel can be modified and used in my project. The last part of
this chapter again authored by Sue Allen is also very useful for me because it
deals with specific issues and evaluation which happens to be its title. I
definitely have a diverse audience with a diverse amount of previous knowledge
coming in therefore I must create an assessment that will be used suable for
children, youth as well as adults. Now chapter 5 is totally aligns with my
project, titled Evaluating Exhibitions. It begins with the Broad Impact As
Applied to Exhibitions discussing, knowledge, engagement, attitude, behavior, and
skills, that was discussed in previous chapters but now in detail as it applies
to an exhibit. The author gives for examples; one on plants; one on robotics;
one on wastewater; one on articulating evidence in everyday life; these are
done with a great amount of detail that I feel may allow me to duplicate the
framework in order to create a viable assessment especially the one on
wastewater which is so close to my project. The end of the section has several
points to take into consideration from realistic expectations, using
nontraditional assessments to match visitors’ intentions and actions as well as
several other things to take into consideration when dealing with exhibitions. Chapter
6 deals with how to evaluate mass media such as television movies radio or any
other media. Although this section does not apply to current my project but I
am a tremendous advocate of using media in informal science education.
References:
Friedman, A. (Ed.). (2008) Framework for evaluating impacts of informal
science education
projects
[On-line]. (Available at: http://insci.org/resources/Eval_Framework.pdf)
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