Education Commons^™

Session C-4: Design Your School’S New Innovation Space, Britta W. Mckenna, Lawrence Bergie

Professional Learning Day

Schools are rethinking learning spaces, turning outdated computer labs and tired libraries into vibrant innovation spaces. Maker spaces, collaboration areas and technology hubs that connect applied learning to the real world are emerging. See plans for IMSA's new innovation hub, called IN2, (opening fall 2016) learn how it was designed, and tour IN1 (the prototype of IN2) in a former computer lab. Learners are guided through a design thinking process to reimagine a current space at your school. Participants should come with photos of their potential space/s and room dimensions ready to create a prototype of their new space.

Session A-3: The Box Problem – An Introduction, Ruth Dover

Professional Learning Day

Create some simple boxes with paper and scissors. Then we'll measure the height, area of the base, and the volume. Find formulas, find regressions, and graph the functions. It's a simple activity to engage students and combine many different aspects of mathematics.

Session A-1: Teaching Fields In Introductory Physics, Peter Dong

Professional Learning Day

The concept of a field is integral to all areas of contemporary physics - perhaps as fundamental a concept as energy. Fields are mentioned in several NGSS standards and essential to understand physics at an advanced level. However, fields are not difficult and can be taught in an introductory course with minimal math. Students who understand the basic concept early should have less difficulty understanding electric and magnetic fields in later classes. I will discuss our implementation of a fields unit in our introductory physics course and give examples of simple labs and exercises to help students understand this basic …

Session C-3: Engineering With Reinforced Concrete, Patrick Young

Professional Learning Day

Does your school need a shelter? Whether your students are concerned about tornadoes, sharknadoes, or a zombie apocalypse, reinforced concrete is the answer! Learn about the history and chemistry of concrete. Make your own. Design a test to evaluate the strength of your concrete, based on anticipated threat (the natural or unnatural disaster of your choice). Conduct that test using small, preformed slabs. Making and breaking concrete is easy and fun, but wear your play-clothes. You will get dirty.

Session C-2: “It Is Easy As Pi”, Christine L. Moskalik, Carmela Jones

Professional Learning Day

Participants will work together using pi to try to open an ancient chest filled with treasure!! The chest is protected by a passcode that can only be determined through the activities within the lesson. Enjoy a progressive exposure to pi through this two-part lesson (total 110 minutes) offering a FUN storyline within the context of geometry and circles. With "pi-day" right around the corner, this hands-on, fun, inquiry-based lesson is sure to be a hit with your budding mathematicians.

Session C-1: Ecosystem Disruption: Using Lab And Real-World Examples To Bring Changes In Earth’S Ecosystems To Life, Crystal Randall, Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll, Sowmya Anjur, Don Dosch

Professional Learning Day

The magnitude of the changes occurring in Earth’s ecosystems seems difficult to tackle in the classroom and lab. Here we explore ways to demonstrate the changes in the Earth’s water and carbon cycles in the lab and bring them to life in real-world ecosystems in the classroom.

Session A-2: She Fought For The Fatherland: Gender, War And Memory In The Soviet Union Subject: History, Kitty Lam

Professional Learning Day

John Keegan once wrote, “Warfare is…the one human activity…from which women have always and everywhere stood apart. Women…do not fight…and they never in any military sense, fight men” (John Keegan, A History of Warfare, 76). Yet in the Second World War, an estimated 120,000 Soviet women served in combat roles. This presentation uses photographs of women in combat and images of Soviet war monuments and to help students reconsider wartime division of gender roles. It also prompts students to examine how women’s contributions to war were commemorated in a country that supposedly championed gender equality.

Session A-1: The New Illinois Civics Curriculum: Perils And Pitfalls, Claiborne A. Skinner Jr., Eric Smith

Professional Learning Day

The Illinois Legislature will require all Illinois students to complete one semester in civics in order graduate beginning with students entering next academic year. IMSA adopted a combined one-semester civics/American history curriculum this year that can serve as a critical study in how to achieve the goals the state hopes to achieve. Rather than wrestle with the issue of American History vs. American Government curriculum, we are attempting to present a History of American Government, exploring the origins of our political institutions beginning in the Dark Ages and how these have evolved to meet the needs of the times. We …

There’S A Dragon In My Classroom, Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll

Nature of Science

What makes science, science?

How do we help students make sense of the science they are learning and how it fits in with preconceived notions and misconceptions, social perspectives, and potential controversy?

1. "Investigating The Impact Of Changes In Carbon Dioxide Concentration On Ecosystems", Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll, Crystal Randall

Ecosystem Disruption & Climate Change

Question: Does the concentration of carbon dioxide affect air temperature in a closed environment?

2a: "Illinois Carbon Dioxide Emissions Activity", Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll, Crystal Randall

Ecosystem Disruption & Climate Change

Your goal for this activity is to compare the different sources of carbon dioxide emissions, stemming from the consumption of fossil fuels, in Illinois. To do this you will be working with data spanning from 1980 to 2012.

3: "The Current Extinction: Defaunation & Ecosystem Disruption", Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll, Crystal Randall

Ecosystem Disruption & Climate Change

Information taken from: Dirzo, R. et al (2014). Defaunation in the Anthropocene. Science, 345(401).

Scientists estimate, conservatively, that there are 5 to 9 million different animal species on the planet. But that number is continually changing, and unfortunately, dropping, as we are likely losing 11,000- 58,000 species annually, and evidence suggests that on average, there has been a decline of about 28% in terms of numbers of individuals within a species over the last four decades. Both of these statistics are vitally important. The critical nature of the first is perhaps more obvious, as total loss of a species is …

The Greenhouse Effect: Does The Concentration Of Carbon Dioxide Affect The Air Temperature In A Closed Environment?, Climate Science Investigations - Nasa

Ecosystem Disruption & Climate Change

The purpose of this lesson is to investigate the effect of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration on air temperature in a closed environment.

Pbl Rock And Roll: Tectonics In Illinois, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

Teacher Resources

This sample Problem Based Learning (PBL) unit focuses on creating earthquake friendly buildings and homes in response to the history of seismic activity in Illinois. Students explore concepts of engineering and tectonics. This unit is designed for educators who are learning to implement PBL into their classroom instruction.