Justin Heid

MD

Sun, Dec 15, 2019 10:42 AM
Trash Pie by Krista M. Hoover

I really enjoyed reading this article about one school's Earth Day activity that lead to implementing a school-wide recycling program. The activity had many connections to multiple content areas such as ELA, Writing, Math, and Science. This activity was done before the NGSS and CCSS were implemented but many of those standards were covered in this interdisciplinary project. Other content areas could be incorporate as well with purposeful collaboration with others in a school building. One part of this activity that I found to be very beneficial was the piece on collecting data between school and home lunches. I would have never thought about collecting that kind of data. I think it would be powerful data for students to get a true view of the amount of waste they personal throw away each day during lunch. Inquiry was the approach the school used for this activity. Students had the opportunity to investigate a problem and provide solutions by collecting and analyzing data that they collected. I would be interested in knowing if this activity had any lasting impact on learning overall at this school. Also, did the recycling program continue? I will be using some of the ideas mentioned in this article to help me with my own adventure on getting a recycling program started at my own school because it is nonexistent and students are interested making an impact on the environment.

Fri, Dec 13, 2019 8:37 AM
Smashing Milk Cartons by Debra Monson and Deborah Besser

I feel this article would be beneficial to anyone that's hesitant on doing integrated STEM activities in their classroom or school. The article provides a detailed model on the steps needed for a student-driven integrated STEM activity. One quote that caught my attention as I was reading this article was "interdisciplinary projects that allow students to solve real-world problems can be highly engaging and motivating." It is so true and students need more opportunities to do these kinds of projects across all grade levels. I appreciate that one of the teachers in the article was a kindergarten teacher. I have noticed in my experience that some kindergarten teachers are hesitant to do these types of activities with the their students. There were numerous connections to NGSS and CCSS. The activity of smashing milk cartons was a fun and engaging way to cover the Matter and Its Interactions standards and to go through the Science and Engineering Practices. It had connections to the graphing standards for Math. I would be interested in knowing if this project inspired the teachers to do more integrated STEM activities. Also, I would like to know why they felt that "one piece of this integrate work that could be improved was taking time to explicitly point out the connections between different content areas" would be an improvement. How powerful is it that students can't figure out what content they are in because is flows together smoothly.

Tue, Dec 10, 2019 9:07 PM
Can We Be Garbage Free? by Perky Smith-Hagadone

I feel this article would be a good choice to read if you are interested in learning about the process of scientific inquiry. The activity mentioned in the article goes through the 5 steps of inquiry as described by Paul Anderson on his website which is connected to the NGSS. (www.thewonderofscience.com) It was an activity that shows science in their own world which is the first step for scientific inquiry. The article provided an explanation for each step in the process and how the students were engaged. Furthermore it had many connections to the CCSS as well and could be tied to other subject areas. After reading this article I would be interested in knowing if this inquiry activity had a lasting impact at the school. Also, did it make an impact beyond the walls of the school.