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Though I am an ardent advocate of technology integration in classroom and school administration processes, I had always tried to use technology as a support to activity based teaching, except in situations in which this was not possible. Whenever I used to get bored, I used to go to the lab and do some experiment (to be shown to my class the following day). I used to do simple science activities back home on weekends. Such experiments and activities had always nullified boredom and brought in happiness. Numerous colleagues of mine have also felt the same way. It had been easy for us to pass on the joy of doing science activities and experiments to students (and their parents). I am sure many of the fellow nsta followers would have had similar experiences. Sharing of our experience may be of immense use to new teachers and teacher trainees.

The very fact that your students liked to work on their project even during recess is the `proof' of the `pudding'. I am sure your students are lucky. Thanks Arlene.

I have been teaching a summer science program for middle school; most of the kids ended up 4th and 5th graders, which was a real change for me. I have been teaching HS math, and there isn't much hands-on, activity-based learning in geometry, at least not as prescribed in the curriculum I had to follow. We have the flexibility to design our own curriculum for the summer program, so I am trying out some things I have never done. I wanted to get the kids outside, exploring and discovering science through their own eyes. This morning,I had the best time with my kids that I have had for a very long time. I wanted them to discover natural selection, so when they asked if I had food this morning, my response was, "why yes, we are going to eat like birds today." They are a little young to understand natural selection from a scientific point of view, but they had heard of Charles Darwin. We then proceeded through a simulation of the natural selection process on both the birds and the beans (bad pun). The kids got to act like chickens, then we had reincarnations of the "losers" into "winners" by giving them the more successful "beak." There was lots of laughter, especially when the successful "birds" became "birdie mamas" and "birdie daddies." Several iterations later, the kids understood that spoon beaks got the most beans, and the beans that were most visible were most eaten, and therefore most vulnerable. From my point of view, I came back from the activity completely energized as the kids. They were happy, I was happy. We are all looking forward to the recap tomorrow. A big part of the success of the activity was related to the advanced prep - everything was organized physically as well as mentally. Even then, we need to learn to adapt the concept to the kids. There were a few challenges with the first group, so the second group had a modified version of the simulation. By the third round, we had it down, and it was great fun. I can't stress the importance of preparation and anticipation. My co-teacher did not look over the materials until this morning, and he was frustrated. His second group cut the activity short, and the third hour was spent watching videos of similar content. The tables are turned for tomorrow - he is responsible for preparing the activities and plans, but as I left at the end of the day, I feel a little stressed and apprehensive about tomorrow - I am not prepared, so I have not played the alternatives in my own head. If we can get our students excited, then the job becomes a million times easier!

Jennifer's post gives an exact account of the rewards associated with acitivity based learning. Stories are very useful as a lanuchpad for interesting activities.

Just an update. We talked about how populations adapt and how individuals adapt the next morning. Of course, kids are always interested in their pets, so we got on to the topic of the incredible array of dog breeds, and how they are the same species, but have very different characteristics. The kids had a great time telling about how their dogs were special, and it gave us the opportunity to compare natural selection to selective breeding. We didn't get into a lot of vocabulary, but the discussions were memorable, and helped tie the activity to the concepts.

Just an update. We talked about how populations adapt and how individuals adapt the next morning. Of course, kids are always interested in their pets, so we got on to the topic of the incredible array of dog breeds, and how they are the same species, but have very different characteristics. The kids had a great time telling about how their dogs were special, and it gave us the opportunity to compare natural selection to selective breeding. We didn't get into a lot of vocabulary, but the discussions were memorable, and helped tie the activity to the concepts. By the way, I enjoyed the post. I have often used Native American stories as a starting point. Some of my favorites are included in anthologies by Michael Caduto and Joseph Bruchac including Keepers of the Earth, Keepers of the Animals, Keepers of the Night, Keepers of Life, and Native American Gardening.

Thanks Jennifer, I think you would agree with me in that stories from different cultures can be a very effective teacing resource.

Hi Panamalai and thread participants,
From your thread title, are you also looking for teacher-based activities (over
student-based activities)? You mentioned the video clips you made to demonstrate experiments in your first post. If this is what you are looking for, there are over 50 teacher demonstrations in the Learning Center. I made a collection out of them a while back that I will share with you here: Favorite Demonstrations for High School/College
Also, the discrepant events discussion thread has a lot of excellent resources.

Thanks, Carolyn.

Panamalai wrote: [color=blue]Such experiments and activities had always nullified boredom and brought in happiness. Numerous colleagues of mine have also felt the same way. It had been easy for us to pass on the joy of doing science activities and experiments to students (and their parents). It’s not just K-12 students that appreciate science activities and experiments. I teach pre-service elementary science methods class that meets once a week for two hours and forty minutes (long time). [/color] The very first class meeting, the students work in small groups to build a vehicle from a set of materials (life savers, straw, note card, etc.) that will travel without their touching it across their table. It is their introduction into inquiry. We do at least 2-3 activities (investigations, experiments, labs) every class. The feedback I get from students is very positive—they enjoy being in class, enjoy science and can’t believe how quickly the time goes by. By incorporating these activities I am modeling for my students science process skills, critical thinking, working together, the enjoyment of doing science—the things that should be taking place in a science classroom.

Kathy wrote, 'The very first class meeting, the students work in small groups to build a vehicle from a set of materials (life savers, straw, note card, etc.) that will travel without their touching it across their table. It is their introduction into inquiry.'

Hi, Kathy

I love this activity. I am going to use it in my physics class the first week of school. It will be a good introduction to our engineering challenges.

I cannot agree with you more. Students are much more motivated when they are doing something. It is very important that we choose good activities. What are some criteria you use so you choose the very best activities?

Thanks Kathy. I wish faculties at colleges of education and university departments of education in developing countries also work like how you seem to be doing. [I remember how our high school physics teachers enjoyed their summer science workshops when PSSC Physics was used to train them, way back in the late '60s, when I was a high school student; that was the time when my interest in PSSC Physics textbook and accompanying paperbacks began]. If your students' interest can be sustained non-stop for 2h 40min, this itself is the proof of the pudding. I think that the best thing that a teacher trainer can do is to motivate teacher trainees and help them sustain their interest so that they can pass it on to their own students along with other pedagogical `goodies' that they experience when working with professionals like you. Thanks for the post.

Ruth asked, "Students are much more motivated when they are doing something. It is very important that we choose good activities. What are some criteria you use so you choose the very best activities? " An important criterion to me, Ruth, is this: Does the activity fulfill the purpose of the lesson? It is one thing to have fun activities and another thing to have purposeful activities that are fun. Often an activity can be the authentic assessment for a unit. After my eighth graders learned about force and motion, they were asked to design and build a vehicle that could hold a raw egg. The egg had to be "sitting" in the vehicle with half of its surface area sticking out, and there could be no seat belt or sticky substance holding it in place. The vehicle was then attached to a trapeze. Two trapezes were set up across from each other. When two vehicles with their eggs were attached, the vehicles were slammed into each other. The last egg still sitting in its vehicle became a testament to which vehicle had the best design. Students needed to incorporate their knowledge of how mass, force, motion, etc. interact, to design egg cars that would protect their eggs from cracking, breaking, or being forced out of their driver seats. They loved the contests, and they loved designing, creating, and testing their vehicles, too. Being allowed to redesign and make modifications along the way just reinforced what they were learning. I would be interested in hearing about others' criteria for determining when to use certain activities.

I love to engage students with stories. I just saw this in the article you linked to at www.brighthub.com: "Good stories can take children away from TV addiction and all related problems, as proved by educational and medical research. Print version of stories can tap the unlimited potential of imagination and creativity in children in a better way than audiovisual ones. I think that there is nothing like a nicely printed storybook." Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/52489.aspx#ixzz1YwwBsqLR

Before I started teaching online, I ran an annual Egg Saver event with 2 parts. Dave was my bowling ball, since it was stenciled on him. He was dropped from 2 meters and students had a volume of 1 liter, certain material restrictions, and their own creativity to protect their egg from Dave. The second part involved a gigantic slingshot. The objective: transport your egg safely the furthest distance. One actually left the field we were using and crossed the highway for a total distance of over 300 meters. It did not survive, but sure made me nervous when I began to see its trajectory. I guess there are safer ways to learn about measurement and design, but Dave and the sling shot sure were some of the funnest ways. :)

The title of this thread is "Activity based teaching and its impact on teachers' emotions". I remember first seeing this and wondering what was meant, and then upon reading I see that indeed there is a positive impact on teachers' emotions when they are allowed to engage with students in relevant, rigorous activity based lessons, and that teachers' morale is negatively impacted when these activities are blocked. The two primary blockers of such activities appear to be the need focus on high-stakes testing and budgetary issues. Does anyone have any thoughts on how these two large obstacles can be overcome?

In another thread I have asked if there are people using the virtual labs at HHMI: http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/vlabs/ , or anything like them. There use might ease budget strains and give students access to things not available in the typical high school. Does anyone believe the morale boost of activities would be altered by the activity being virtual?

Floyd - Overwhelmingly, the teachers and administrators I work with honestly say that students are 100% engaged during science but then will argue that "that science doesn't count" towards AYP. So frustrating! I truly feel that in my district, the only way that science can take its rightful place as an integral part of our children's education is if the administration at each building puts a value on the teaching and learning of science.

I did an Inquiry lesson on density during college. Although I knew about the concept of density, actually until I was quite bored with it, I was captured from the first 5 minutes of this week-long lesson on density. It was all student-driven findings. Since then, it has been "the experiment" that I will NEVER forget. I hope to be able to pass this on to students. They seem to LOVE it so far.

I've really enjoyed reading the different posts in this thread. Going back to the original idea of the impact of student inquiry on teacher emotions, I couldn't help but remember a situation I encountered several years ago. It seems to me that teacher attitude towards the curriculum directly influences student attitudes towards curriculum (I know, many of you just read that and thought, "Well, of course." but it was actually a teacher who didn't seem to understand this that managed to make the case for me). It happened on a regular sunny afternoon in the teacher staff room. All was pleasant until the history teacher walked in, disgruntled about the next unit they had to teach. "This is just the most boring stuff ever! I hate teaching it - but state standards say I have to so I guess I have to. The next two weeks are going to be miserable." Fast forward a week and a half and in comes the history teacher again, positively livid. "These kids act like this material is the worst thing they've ever had to endure. I just don't understand why today's students don't care more about what they're learning." True story. I truly believe that if you're not enthusiastic about the subject you teach, your students can't possibly be. They simply take their cues from us. When we're excited - they're excited - it's contagious. As the original poster pointed out, one of the best ways to stay excited about your subject matter is to stay engaged with it outside the classroom. Science teachers should still practice scientific experiments, read peer-reviewed journals, and engage with other science professionals. History teachers should still be doing ongoing research, reading peer-reviewed journals, and engaging with other history professionals. And English teachers, hopefully they're all still reading and writing their own material...and so on. With all that we do each day and the additional responsibilities placed on us, I realize what a challenge this can be, but I've always believed it's one of the most powerful things we can do not only for ourselves but for our students as well. Your thoughts? Thanks for all the great comments! Kendra