Thanks for coming!
Thanks to everyone who came out! And kudos to Science World and GenomeBC for their roles in this as well. Looked like things went pretty well overall. The website should be fleshed out by weeks end, with the talk videos going up, and pdfs of teaching activities ready for display. Would love to hear some feedback, which you can always leave as a comment (see “leave a comment” text above).
In case, you’re a totally new reader to this website and someone who didn’t participate in the conference, here is the first post reprinted so that you can get a feel of what this website is all about.
- – -
Stuck in here for a day or two (link)
resources for activity
BC Biodiversity and Beyond
Natural Resources Canada
David Suzuki website
for teachers: realclimate.org
Final state of activity
Sustainability resource
“We the undersigned, senior members of the world’s scientific community, hereby warn all humanity… A great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it is required if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated.”
(UCS, World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity 1992)
“At the heart of this assessment is a stark warning. Human activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of the Earth that the ability of the planet’s ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted.”
(MEA, Living Beyond Our Means 2005)
Your Industry:
General Info about your industry/issue
Pro/Con of your industry (from an environmental perspective)
Proposal for Change (POSITION PAPER)
- What is it? How would you implement? Who would be affected? How long would the changes take to make a difference?
- Include how much changes would cost, both for implementation and effect on industry (approximate)
- Optional: How will you explain this proposal to your community?
How will you present it to the class?
Note: the proposal will be evaluated to the class and then you can use the feedback to reshape your proposal
Final Proposal for your industry
Note: activity could end here. Students hand in their individual final proposal.
Priority of each project
As a class or individually, students figure out what projects to implement with the financial constraints (e.g. $1 million).
Students must explain why they made their choices.
Option 1 (proposal only) Marking:
Students show an understanding of the issue, showing more than one side. Can they see counterpoints?
Are the changes plausible?
Is the proposal well-written? (sentence, form, grammar, etc.)
Are the reasons based on researched science? Are the social and economic factors considered?
Option 2 with Marking
Present the proposal to fight for chunk of money – each group provides a written summary of their proposal.
Students individually act as a panel of judges for all industries and allocate funds to projects.
Students must explain their decisions and support their position with valid evidence.
activity
quotes
The province can’t continue to use resources at the current rates. If we don’t change practices, the following industries will no longer exist in the province:
- forestry
- fisheries
- mining
- fossil fuels
- water management (energy and drinking)
- tourism
- agriculture (both plants and animals)
Note: the areas with two subsets could be split depending on size and interest of class.
There should be 3 to 4 students per group.
Students will have to research the following for their industry: (note: they could be encouraged to talk to someone working in their assigned industry)
- general info = what is X, why is it important
- pros/cons = benefits to province (including $) and negative impacts of the current practices
- Students will write a ‘Proposal for Change’. This could include researching environment-friendly practices.
- This proposal will be presented to the class
- Class will critique each proposal. This critique should be constructive and offer ways to improve the proposal for change.
- Students can redesign their proposal based on feedback and submit to the teacher for grading.
Note: All of the industries have pros and cons so the students should find sources that represent both sides.
An additional step would be to have the students rank what steps in what industry are most important and need to be done vs. those steps that could wait.
Things still needed:
- website sources with credible information for teachers
- criteria for assessment
- graphic organizers
Saturday’s Workshop Survey
As another way to capture your ideas, we’d like you to fill out this survey!
quotes to start activity
“We the undersigned, senior members of the world’s scientific community, hereby warn all humanity… A great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it is required if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated.” (UCS, World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity 1992)
“At the heart of this assessment is a stark warning. Human activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of the Earth that the ability of the planet’s ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted.” (MEA, Living Beyond Our Means 2005)
some resources
We can use the Bill Rees powerpoint/talk
And the start of our graphical interface:
Graphic Interface for the Sustainability resource
Your Industry:
Problem facing your group:
General Info about your industry/issue
Pro/Con of your industry (from an environmental perspective)
Proposal for Change
How will you present it to the class?
Note: the proposal will be evaluated to the class and then you can use the feedback to reshape your proposal
Final Proposal
How will you explain this proposal to your community?
Tools for project
What do we need to give the kids so that they can do the project?
We need graphic organizers…
- Problem
- General Research
- Pro/Con
- Analysis
- Proposal for change – be able to answer questions about short term and long term effects
- Present proposal
Can we marry cool activities with the above format? Do we want activities or just have it be about discussion/debate?
Class can evaluate each proposal. Maybe go back to the drawing board after critique.
Do examples for each industry – plus add someone worried about healthy water (hits bioaccumulation area).
Looking at a simulation.
Could put students answers on website.
This is chunk of unit so could start under the umbrella or biodiversity.
How much can we push to change and how much can people handle?
Our main topic
We hope to focus on sustainability from the first talk…
Use case studies, have the students research certain topics (probably from first talk).
Sustainability of Ecosystems from grade 10
Textbook goes over sustainability and biodiversity but skims – would be nice to have kids research
Bring in things like biodiversity, oh deer activity, case studies, create a model system
The B3 under Sustainability of Ecosystems looks best = explain various ways in which natural populations are altered or kept in equilibrium
Format: non-competitive math fairs = students get a problem, parameters to help solve and then communicate results so that others can solve it
groups of 3 who become experts then explain it to others = carousel and jigsaw
two approaches (related): groups of students become ‘experts’ and then do one of two things:
- give two questions to teacher; teacher makes worksheet with all questions; students have to answer all the questions
- students come up with activity to teach classmates
OR we could create a resource-based town (like PG) where every student is given a different role – forestry manager, forester, fisheries, mining, fuels, tourism, etc. – they need to research their roles and then come up with a consensus document on a sustainable plan for their town OR how would an environmental plan affect their position OR become an example of poor practices – what can they do
What about starting with clip from Rees to say that the resources will only last X number of years – what will the town do?
Starting Lesson Plans
We need to match the activity to PLOs to make them most useful to teachers. Connie (from Science World) has brought in the PLOs for high school at the back of the room.
There are many different ways to include information for a lesson plan. Connie has some suggestions:
- Title
- Authors
- Grade Level
- Prescribed Learning Outcomes
- Materials
- Strategy
- Next steps – things that don’t quite fit
Our topic hits many sections including science 8, science 10, biology 11…
Maybe do an activity to correct using the new classifications of Kingdom, Phyla, etc. Let’s tie it into the bigger picture – include the visual picture at the beginning of Keeling’s talk.
Useful blog info!
To login use the link on the left hand sidebar.
Login using the “team…” username. Don’t forget the “…team” password.
Once you’re in, you see what wordpress calls the “dashboard.” The dashboard is something that allows you to look at the activity incoming to the website. i.e. people leaving comments, other websites linking to the site, etc.
To create content, you’ll want to “write a post”. Here you can click on “write” (at the bar near the top), or just use the “write a post” button.
Once you get to the “write” page, this is where you can add a title, and type content in the box. This is pretty straightforward (kind of like using microsoft office).
Adding links
Adding links is pretty easy. Essentially type away (something like “click here to see…”) – Then highlight the word you want for the linking (say “here”), and press the link button above. This will take you to a smaller window, where you write in the website address.
Finding images
There’s lots of ways to find an image, but if you want the ability to publicly share your work. You need to be aware of copyright issues. In the world of web, the mechanisms looking after this is known as “creative commons.” Essentially, this allows people to present their work (be it a photograph, writing, audio, movie, etc) and provide copyright instructions related to how the public can use the image. In this respect, there are two great photo sites worth showing.
1. Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/).
Flickr is cool. It’s a huge (and I mean huge) community of photographers all around world placing their work online. Many folks use it as their central harddrive for keeping images. If you search on Flickr, just enter the keyword at the top. Then what will happen, is that you will get a list of images where that tag word has been used.
Now before you use an image, you also have to filter these images to ensure that copyright isn’t an issue. To do this – click the “advanced search” link (near the search box). This will take you to another page, which you can scroll downwards, until you see a box marked “creative commons.” Check this box, and research. NOW, you’ll see images you can use.
If you see one click on the image. To actually download the image, go to “all sizes” choose a size and hit “download.”
2. Wiki commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page).
This site also rocks. This is a subpage of wikipedia that just collects all media associated with all the different entries on wikipedia. Because you can only use creative commons material on wikipedia, all of the media you find here is good to go!
Adding an image
Also very easy. Leave you cursor in the area of the writing box, where you want the image inserted. Then press the framelike square picture next to the “Add media” tag. This will take you to a page that allows you to pull the image from your computer (i.e. the flickr or wikicommons image you downloaded). As well, the window that opens allows additional features (such as the link you can go to if you click the image), alignment, image size.
Anyway, when you’re happy with these parameters, you can just click “insert image.”
Adding video
WordPress makes it pretty easy to use YouTube videos. If you want to embed a movie into your post, simply use the following code:
Publishing your post
Just hit the publish button!
Re-editing your post
This is also easy. All you have to do is go to “Manage.” Here you’ll see all of the posts on the website, and anyone that you have written, will be accessible (click on the title). Doing this, you will be taken back to the write mode for that particular post.
Biodiversity/Sustainability
Our group:
- Brian Pataky (teacher from Prince George)
- Rishma Swali (teacher from Richmond)
- Pauline Finn (Science World)
- Catherine Anderson (Genome BC)
We are going to build an activity based on two of the talks (Biodiversity and Sustainability) seen yesterday at the Michael Smith Labs conference.
Plate Tectonics: a transdisciplinary approach
Authors: Jim Simonetta, Pat Gordon, Joanne Fox, Elizabeth Lang
Prescribed learning outcomes:
Science 8,9,10: A2: perform experiments using the scientific method, A4 demonstrate scientific literacy, A5: demonstrate cooperative behavior, A6: describe the relationship between scientific principles and technology. A7: demonstrate competence in the use of the technologies specific to investigative procedures and research.
Earth Science 10: D4 analyze the process and features associated with plate tectonics.
Earth Science 11: D1 assess the significance of age dating, the fossil record, and the Geological Time Scale, E3 outline the development of plate tectonic theory.
Geology 12: Demonstrate knowledge of the Earth’s layers. E3 relate rock formations and structures to the forces that create them. E4 analyze structures, processes, and evidence that support plate tectonic theory.
Physics 8: C7 determine the density of various substances. C8: explain the relationship between pressure, temperature, area, and force in fluids
Plate tectonics. A Theory that draws on many disciplines and illustrates the scientific method.
1. Hook: Use a funny/interesting little movie clip to get the students engaged. Here are two of our favorite clips:
2. Introduction: Display the outline of the scientific method to refer back to. Discuss each part of the method.
3. Watch video: presentation of the plate tectonic theory. Ask students to think about the scientific method while watching the video.
4. Matching exercise: Hand out a piece of evidence on a q-card to each student (photo of a fossil, map of earth, mountain range, rocks, graph correlation). Have the students move around and try to find other pieces of evidence that come from the same discipline (physics, math, geology, biology, chemistry.)
5.Hypothesis: With students broken up into their disciplines have them use their evidence to hypothesize how it could support the Theory of Plate Tectonics.
6. Collaborate: pair up each discipline with another one (math with biology, geology with physics.) Have each group present their hypothesis to it’s partner group. And the listening group write up: If they believe the other groups hypothesis and why or why not. And one way to test that hypothesis.
Lesson Two:
6. Present the evidence:Give a power point lecture that outlines the evidence from each discipline and how it was used to support the theory.
Physics: convection currents, magnetic bands on sea floor, density slab pull
Biology: fossil record correlations
Geology: rock types, minerals types and rock ages correlating between plates, glacial striations,
Art/geography: seeing the “fit” between plates
Chemistry: ions in the rock layers, iridium spikes, chemical composition of rocks
Math: separation rates, correlations
7. Activities/demonstrations
1) Model plate boundaries -Use huge soft cookies (or play dough) to demonstrate convergent, divergent and transverse plate boundaries.
2) Model convection currents and plates floating on the asthenosphere -boiling water in a beaker with candle wax on the surface
3) Lab to demonstrate the fossil correlation.
4) continental plate puzzle to reconstruct.
5) paper demo to show the way the magnetic bands on the ocean floor
8. Assessment:
1) demonstrate an understanding of the theory -Create a comic strip that gives a tour or the earth showing the different plate motions and evidence that supports this theory.
2) ask the students to write down 5 things they learned today and have them hand them in as they leave
3) Write a short quiz or fill in the blanks to see what they learned today
4) Have students describe a phenomena (ex. why leaves turn brown, earth quakes), propose a hypothesis and devise a method to test it.
9. Want to know more?
-Field trips: to science world, geological museum
-Guest speakers: experts in the field of geology
-Interesting links: discovery channel, evidence, physics animations, geolocial survey of Canada
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Dr. Brian Ellis’ Talk
Dr. Brian Ellis, Professor, Michael Smith Labs, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences
Dr. Ellis’ research interests are in the area of plant metabolism. His current projects include biochemistry and evolution of metabolic enzymes, discovery of signaling mechanisms through which plants sense and respond to environmental changes, and genetic engineering of crop and forest plants to improve their value. He is also interested in the commercial production of biological control agents for horticultural pests. In 2000/01, he served as co-chair of the Royal Society of Canada Expert Panel on “The Future of Food Biotechnology”.
Click here to view video (mov format – 122Mb)
Brainstorming session
Brainstorming… bring it on! (great movie by the way).
1. What kinds of things would you like to try in your classroom?
The DIY microscopes for sure.
Make a telescope – HOWTO website has a “fancy” one. MacGyver’d it to make it a little easier to construct (teac
2. What are challenges?
Inquiry based learning. How to incorporate student led inquiry to test theories, rather than forcing a set curriculum? The system is kind of screwed – but maybe easier access to materials/experiences that address this issue.
Demands on schools to cover a huge amount of material. This includes not just technical aspects, but also societal elements.
Use of technology is something that should be fostered. Web based learning. Learning these tricks…
Social network computer tools are very useful (also low maintenance)
blogs, wikis, jing, google tools.
Biodiversity is cool… Biology 11 has a significant element on Biodiversity.
American Society of Microbiology
Next year’s teacher conference is in collaboration with the Vancouver Evolution Festival (big year for Darwin!!!)
Crossing over – physics explaining biology. Interdisciplinary approach? science-science arts-science interconnectivity.
i.e. Like heart rate lab – PE – science – math.
3. Care to share any of your successes?
DRAW!
Dr. Patrick Keeling’s Talk
Dr. Patrick Keeling, Associate Professor, Botany, and Scholar of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
Dr. Patrick Keeling is a biologist and Director of CIFAR’s Integrated Microbial Biodiversity program. Dr. Keeling’s research group studies the evolution and cell biology of protists, the most diverse class of eukaryotic organisms (store their genetic material in the cell nucleus) that are mostly unicellular. Although protists compose the vast majority of eukaryotic diversity, little is known about their history or biology. Dr. Keeling’s group uses molecular biology, microscopy and genome sequencing to change that.
Slides not available – but almost all pictures were obtained here (tolweb.org)
Click here to view movie (mov format – 131Mb)
MSL Research Lab Tours
A group of post-doctoral fellows and graduate students hosted tours of the Michael Smith Laboratories.
As a follow-up to these tours, Arshad & Adrienne offer the following additional resources for teachers. Adrienne recommends this list of websites including: EurekAlert! Science News website, the Tree of Life website, and our own Bioteach & Terry websites.
Arshad offers this presentation on Stem Cells for viewing and downloading by teachers who are interested in learning more.
Superconductor stuff
Email from Ryan regarding some of the supplies:
Hi Dave,
I asked Walter Hardy about where he gets his YBCO and magnets for the superconductor demo. He sent me all of the information which I’ve included below. I called Air Liquide, and asked about their services for high schools. Someone would have to go to the Richmond filling station (the only one in the lower mainland) with a stainless steel Thermos (these aren’t too expensive, I have one for my coffee) (It has to be steel, however, the plastic will crack). They will usually fill for free because the amounts are so small. Another possibility is to go to a company in their area that has a supply, and ask nicely.
-Ryan
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Walter Hardy
> Date: October 27, 2008
> To: Ryan Wicks
> Subject: YBCO pucks
>
> Hi Ryan,
>
> The pucks came from:
>
> SCI Engineered Materials
> 2839 Charter St.
> Columbus, Ohio 43228
> Phone: (800)292-8639; (614)486-0261
> Fax: (800)292-8654; (614)486-0912
> Web: www.sciengineeredmaterials.com
>
> The magnets from a company called National Imports, magnetic products
> division:
>
> http://www.rare-earth-magnets.com/
> Phone: 1-888-774-6005
>
> Cheers, Walter.
>
(Note: Just called the superconductor place, and they unfortunately don’t make the discs anymore – they just sell the powder ~ Dave)
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Ryan: Some demos that may be translatable to your schools. Magnetism and high temperature super conductivity. Two fields are very related.
Superconductor work is a part of experimental research in astronomy, condensed matter, and particle physics. These are different subfields in physics, which interestingly enough have different scales.
Ryan personal research looks at condensed matter physics. Anything made up of a lot of particles (macroscopic size things). Look at things like this “cold” (room temperature and cold). Things that are complex and cold. Why does stainless conduct, but not a table. How do magnets works, superconductor materials – how to these work?
Many have industrial applications (computers, etc), some not so much (not yet anyway).
Magnetism demo (1st year student). Doing a demo with a copper pipe, and comparing the time it takes for a magnet to fall through it versus just dropping in the air. (A notable delay in time). In fact, the principles you see here are indicative of the electric turbine.
In a superconductor scenario, you would actually expect the magnet to stay put, since no resistance is present in the system and the opposite force would be allowed to be totally equivalent. i.e. the magnet will float (not fall, not be delayed for that matter, or if you like delayed “indefinitely). Actually, better to read this – a brief overview of the <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meissner_effect”>Meissner Effect</a>.
The linfrost(?) effect is also why you can put your finger in liquid nitrogen (if only for a moment)
Something about textbook writer demonstrating this effect, but putting liquid nitrogen in his mouth, leaving it in just a little too long, and accidently freezing his teeth. In fact, even though his mouth was ok, his teeth shattered and he lost them (get anecdote from Ryan)
UBC physics student lighting a liquid oxygen dewar.
(liquid nitrogen coke can cannon)
Whoa… that’s cool. I want to buy one of those High Temperature Super Conductor discs now. I wonder how much they are?
DIY microscope – MacGyver does Leeuwenhoek
We have Gillian, a graduate student of Patrick Keeling, and Patrick himself running a session of how to make your microscope, specifically a Leeuwenhoek microscope. With practice you should be able to construct a workable microscope capable of somewhere around 100x to 200x maginification.
Bonus is that with this, you may also be able to discuss things like magnification, trigonometry, as you work out the capabilities of your lens.
I overheard Patrick saying that the true genius of Leeuvenhoek was that he made these lens by melting whilst everyone else was trying to grind the perfect lens.
Basically, in true MacGyver fashion, all you need is a pasteur pipette, paper, some Mac Tack, and (dum dum dum) a real live flame. Full list of stuff is below.
First making the lens: (you can also buy premade lens at Efston)
1. Take a pasteur pipette. Pinch either end with finger and thumb, ad then place the middle in the flame. (Here’s the finesse part – that may take a few attempts). When the glass is soft, pull the pipettee apart, and this will create a thin strand of glass (see video below) – you can aim for a length of about one to two hand widths.
2. Once you have this strand, break off one end, so that you have a strand with a free end. This end you will place down into a flame (tilted an angle – if you have propane, great, but if not, you’ll need to hold the bunsen burner at about a 45 degree angle). Drop the strand into the flame, and you’ll see the tip melt upwards, collecting in a ball. If you leave it in there, it will continue melting upwards. Aim to produce an relatively spherical looking glass ball that is about 1mm to 2mm in diameter (see above video).
3. Break at the stem about a cm or so away from the ball (the ball is your lens). This is then going to fit snuggly in between two pieces of cardboard, which will have a small hole drilled into them (say about 1.6mm – essentially small enough that the ball lens won’t fall out). Staple everything together so that the lens is trapped between the cardboard.
4. Over the hole, you can also place some TEM grid over the hole so that a grid is visible whilst viewing. You used a “100 mesh squared grid – part # 1GC100” in class).
5. Just below the hole, put a small blob of thumb tack. Secure to this thumb tack, a cover slip. This is your bridge – by moving your thumb you can alter the plane of observation since the cover slip will move ever so slightly depending on how you gently contort the thumb tack.
And voila – a DIY microscope!
Now… what can you do with this puppy?
Well, obviously, you can look at stuff. Feather strands are good. So is something like onion skin with a bit of staining. A hair. It’s kind of cool just to see the grid actually.
But if you want to get technical, you can also figure out the magnification of your lens. This is relatively simple, although you will need to create a contraption that can hold something like a laser pointer, and align your microscope with it. You’ll also need a dark room – the darker the better if your laser is weak (you can get pretty strong ones here – ask Patrick).
Anyway, here’s a layout of of what you’ll see, and what you need to measure.
And here is the equation you need to plug in.
Dr. Hadi Dowlatabadi’s Talk
Dr. Hadi Dowlatabadi, Canada Research Chair, Professor of Applied Mathematics and Global Change
Prof Dowlatabadi research interests involve systems approach to public policy especially when dealing with scientifically complex issues such as interactions between energy, environment and public health; communicable and vector-borne diseases (HIV/AIDS, malaria, dengue, …); and Global change mitigation, impacts and adaptation. Hadi Dowlatabadi is viewed as something of a luminary in integrated research systems. He’s been credited with almost single-handedly bringing broad-scale assessment models into popular use. Because of his work, climate and energy research can now be observed in an integrated way.
Click here to view movie (mov format – 120Mb)
Dr. William Rees’ Talk
Dr. William Rees, Professor, School of Community and Regional Planning
Prof Rees’ teaching and research focus on the public policy and planning implications of global environmental trends and the necessary ecological conditions for sustainable socioeconomic development. Much of this work is in the realm of human ecology and ecological economics where Prof Rees is best known as the originator of ‘ecological footprint analysis.’
Click here to view movie (mov format – 168Mb)
What we have here (fittingly), is an experiment of sorts.
Stuck in here for a day or two (link)
So the deal here is that we’re going to try our best to use this blog template to keep track of the conference. In other words – things like video of the talks, notes from the activities, and a collection of pictures taken throughout the conference, will be here, on display, for our attendees (and anyone else for that matter) to check out.
Even more exciting – when day two rolls around – is that this blog will hopefully be the hub of activity as our teacher teams go about designing something new and worthy for the teaching community. Stay tuned to see how all of this pans out.
