1. As I recount Diane
Ravitch’s journey through many educational reforms, Diane makes two provocative
statements in chapter one that made me reflect.
~Pg. 27 (e-book)
“Policymakers have a theory of action, even if they can’t articulate it, and
the implement plans based on their theory of action, their guess about how the
world works.”
My thoughts: It seemed
as if she was battling with content verse pedagogy. Although she carried
herself as great historian she decided to allow her position change her way of
thinking. She was working to close with the policymakers that she began to act
like them.
~ Pg. 30 (e-book) –“We
will continue to chase rainbows unless we recognize that they are rainbows and
there is no pot of gold at the end of them.”
My thoughts: Many times
people get caught up in the fads/ imaginative figures… people began to believe
that at the end of the rainbow there’s a pot of gold. That’s a fairytale. It’s
simply not true and when people stop being inside of the classroom they began
to forget the experiences of teaching day to day routine after routine. One
might set unrealistic goals for themselves and others around them. However if
you take time to reflect and think about what it is needed they will have a
better idea of student’s futures.
2. Diane explained
a well -educated person by having the ability to listen to others and explain
ideas in a well-rounded way. I would characterize a well-educated person
as a person that has experienced many topics they speak or educate others
about. A person that is well-educated should know that listening is the key
component to communicating respectfully as well as showing others that they are
important in this would and that their story is important.
3. During our discussion
our topic involved weather “our nation is still at risk”. My answer during the
discussion was a loud Yes; however it was presented extremely vague. I got
emotional when I started to think about the deeper issues may keep people
divided, such as: our nation struggles with accepting people for who they are
regardless of ethnic, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic background, which
has a lot to do with their access to education and ability to follow the trends
that Diane speaks about in her book. There are still many people in this world
that do not know the history of education and how it is evolving yet still has
a lot of growing to do when it comes to academic gaps. Although I believe that
one should be accountable for one’s own education once given the opportunity to
be educated. However it is crazy to blame students that may put our nation at
risk because intuitional racism still exists. Is “ignorance bliss”?
Website:
Khan, S. (2009,
September). Hardy-weinberg equilibrium [Video file]. Retrieved
from
http://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/v/hardy-weinberg-principle
Article:
Winterer, J. (2001). A
lab exercise explaining hardy-weinberg equilibrium and evolution effectively.
The American Biology
Teacher, 63(9), 678-687.
Book:
Edward,
A. W. F. (1977). The hardy-weinberg theorem. In Foundations of mathematical
(2nd, Rev.
ed.,2000
pp. 4-8). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
4. My
gaps are in Evolution emphasizing on the Hardy-Weinberg principle. It is
something I rarely teach being that it is one of the questions that appear on
the CSTs every two years. I found three resources that helped me understand the
principle as well as a new way I can teach it in my class. When I viewed the
website, I found a video clip that showed an explanation of the hardy-weinberg
principle. I learned that the principle can be explained much better that then
way I learned in in college. The video explained a concept regarding population
genetics. They gave five basics principles which the principle could apply: 1.
Large population 2. Random mating 3. No migrations 4. No mutation 5. No natural
selection. With those conditions one can determine the proportion of each
genotype and phenotype in a population. If one needed to measure genetic
diversity in a population of endangered species, the hardy- Weinberg
equilibrium can be determined using a simply equation.
Website:
Khan,
S. (2009, September). Hardy-weinberg equilibrium [Video file].
Retrieved from
http://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/v/hardy-weinberg-principle
Article:
Winterer,
J. (2001). A lab exercise explaining hardy-weinberg equilibrium and evolution
effectively.
The
American Biology Teacher, 63(9), 678-687.
Book:
Edward,
A. W. F. (1977). The hardy-weinberg theorem. In Foundations of mathematical
(2nd, Rev.
ed.,2000
pp. 4-8). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
5. Part
1:
Reynolds,
J. A., & Ahern-Dodson, J., (2010, July 1). Promoting science literacy
through research service-
learning-an
emerging pedagogy with significant benefits for students, faculty,
universities, and
communities. Journal of
College Science Teaching, 39(6) 24-29. Retrieved from
http://www.nsta.org/college
Promoting
science literacy includes understanding scientific inquiry, critical thinking
and writing skills, and most of all learning about the global and local
environment as well as developing a since of environmental stewardship. This
article explains the difference between service learning and research service
learning. This article showed that research service learning adds a value to
students’ lives because it demonstrated potential scientific ways of thinking
for one’s society. Although this study was to promote non-majors in colleges,
the benefits I gained were strategies for promoting science literacy to
students that might not be interested in science. This topic is important to my
research topic because my goal was to lead my students in a service learning
project using the school garden. My initial thought was to have them grow
vegetables and keep a track of how many crops we were planting vs. yielding and
donating the food to the local soup kitchen called Richmond Rescue Mission.
However it didn’t seem like it was going to allow students to gain a deeper
understanding of how community gardens are valuable to the school. The idea
seemed as though students would be just working as volunteers and not putting
much input into the creation of the research.
After
reading this article, it made me reflect on some prior thoughts I had. I
realized that in my research topic I should reflect more on science being about
thinking and not just knowledge of content. Before reading this article I
didn’t know that there was a term called “research service learning”. However,
my previous ideas seemed to fit the concept of Research Service Learning. Other
ideas I have were to incorporate a class experiment into a service learning
project, but I thought it should be done after surveying the communities about
health and nutritional needs, then allowing students to think of ways we could
a service the community with the growth of vegetables. Now my thoughts have
changed to doing it the way Julie Reynolds and Jennifer Ahern-Dodson did as
they designed an introductory course for non-science majors to promote science
literacy through research service learning RSL.
The
part that was useful to my research topic was the explanation of “service
learning” and “research service learning” serving different purposes. I learned
that “research service learning” can introduce my students to the scientific
inquiry, identifying research questions, collect and analyze data along with
interpreting results, not to mention reflect critically as they product
research products for their communities. My overall goal is to increase the
interest level and overall science literacy among at risk youth.
Allowing
students to help design research while treating them as colleagues vs.
volunteers I feel that they’d respond positive to the approach rather than
feeling powerless.
The
authors were convincing that students would increase science literacy in one
semester however I have doubts that it can work for my sight. I don’t want to
seem negative but the turnover rate for my students is high. Students change
classes so many times throughout the year. I worry if a semester is sufficient
for my students. Realistically speaking I think less than a semester is too
fast however I might have to split the research projects into two quarters
instead of one semester.
Part
2:
Graham,
H., Beall, D. L., Lussier, M., McLaughlin, P., Zidenberg-Cherr, S., (2005, May
1). Use of school
gardens
in academic instruction. Journal of Nutrition Education & Behavior. 37(3)
147-151.
In
California, school gardens can impact children’s life for health and
instructional purposes. This article gives a research brief about the use of
gardens in academic instruction performed in California. The obtained their
data conducting a survey my mail or email. It was given to all principal in
California from the state superintendent of public instruction. The results
showed that gardens were used to teach science, environmental studies, and
nutrition. The research determined that school gardens were used to enhance the
academic instruction; however teachers needed more training on gardening and
nutrition. This article gave me insight on the reason schools in California are
using gardens and that all grade levels were using them by 1998. The
article also showed that the use of school gardens have increased over the last
decade.
This
article was important to me because I want to include our school garden in my
research topic and this article talked about continuation high schools in
California were using gardens to increase academic instruction. It
also pointed out that there was more urban school using gardens as a method of
teaching than the rural schools. This information provided me with an idea to
start learning about gardens before using it as a tool to increase academic
achievement. The main information this report shows is how teachers need more
professional development with gardening and nutrient, which now brings me to
think, how important is it know everything about gardening? If the focus is
increasing academic achievement then the next question brings me to think, whether
it is truly important to know the details of having a successful garden vs.
inquiring and developing questions about the garden. Since I am plan to use the
garden as a research method I can use the information that I gather by doing a
science inquiry method, I could possibly explain the importance of allowing
teachers to work as with students without knowing everything about the garden
but instead show how not knowing everything can lead to thinking like a true
scientist.
This
particular source is valuable because within this article it has a wealth of
other resource providing additional reports done in California school gardens.
I plan to look up a few resources from this article, one in particular linking
gardens to the California state standard. I would have not ever thought to look
for a resource topic like that, had I not read this article. It also gives me
ideas to look for the newly adopted common core standards in relationship to
gardens or other subject matter across the curriculum of science and health.
I replied to:
Betsy Varellas
Edward Izumizaki
Christina Mignano
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