Education Commons^™

1. Types Of Alignment: Presentations & Demos Assignment, Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll

Sequence Alignments

Pairwise Alignment: DNA

Pairwise Alignment: Protein

Multiple Sequence Alignment: DNA

Multiple Sequence Alignment: Protein

Wellness Reflection, Walker Weyland '17

Examples of Student Work

I have actually become much more aware of my personal wellness in the past year, in the past year I have joined two sports, I have begun making it a priority to eat more healthily, and for the first time since I came to IMSA, I have made sure that I do something fun at least once a week.

Wellness Reflection, Grace Ryan '17

Examples of Student Work

Until this point to contribute to my wellness, I make an effort but sometimes not as much as I could. I generally go to sleep between 12 and 1, prioritizing my homework earlier in the day. This helps to ensure that I get enough sleep, but sometimes means I don’t get as much done as I had planned to.

Wellness Reflection, Hector Correa '17

Examples of Student Work

The first time that I really committed myself to getting in shape and working out was freshman year at Wheaton Warrenville South. Before then my weight was not the best nor my health. But spending about two hours every day after school for two months at the gym really got me to change. That was the first time I had ever committed myself to going to the gym consistently. I lost weight, I gained some muscle and was certainly in better shape than before. I can honestly say that it felt great.

Wellness Reflection, Anonymous

Examples of Student Work

For most of my life, I have done little to nothing to improve my level of holistic wellness. I did sports, but never very intensely. After freshman year, which is when I was at my heaviest weight, I became more focused on my health and how it was negatively affecting my self-confidence. That summer, I started going on bike rides. But cardio alone is in no way enough to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Wellness Reflection, Denisse Avalos '17

Examples of Student Work

I didn’t do much physical activity during first semester junior year mainly out of laziness and lack of motivation. On a good week, I’d probably go to the gym twice therefore, I just kept gaining weight and not really burning off the calories. I started working out more when coming back from winter break. I started going to the fitness center almost every day.

Session E-1: Labs For Waves, Sound, And Optics, Brooke Schmidt

Professional Learning Day

I've been reworking our labs for waves, sound, and light this semester and I would like to share my work with you. These are a mix of both derivation and application experiments. I will also give suggestions for modifications for the middle school level.

Session E-2: Function Fundamentals, More Than X And Y, Carlo Ordonez, Steven M. Condie

Professional Learning Day

How many of your students say that √9 = ±3? This may have to do with a lack of understanding of functions. This session will highlight some of the nuances of functions with less formal, non-formula driven examples with which students can expand their understanding.

Session E-3: Addressing Ngss Engineering Standards With An Alternative Energy Module, Peter Clancy, Mark Carlson

Professional Learning Day

In our Engineering class at IMSA, we have taught an Alternative Energy unit over the last four semesters. We will discuss how the 4 engineering NGSS standards are addressed through the various activities involved with this unit. We will also discuss how the unit has evolved over the last 2 years.

Session D-2: Teaching The Russian Revolution 2.0, Steven Buenning

Professional Learning Day

Early in April 1917, Lenin crossed the Russian border and returned to his homeland, courtesy of a sealed train arranged by the German government. Almost 100 years ago, the Russian Revolution shook the world – and it still does today. Learn how fresh ideas, websites, group activities, a terrific new book, and a teaching unit from the Choices Program (Brown University) – featuring an exciting role play – can energize your classroom. See how the Russian Revolution can ignite your students’ passion for history!

Session D-4: From Guernica To Nuremberg: Teaching Human Rights Themes In Mid-20th-Century History, Peter Carroll, Eric Smith

Professional Learning Day

A critical turning point in modern warfare—aviation, civilian casualties, and population displacement during the Spanish Civil War and World War II—led to the Nuremberg Tribunals and UN Declaration of Human Rights, foreshadowing contemporary debates about bombing, drones, refugees/immigration, and interventionist foreign policies. This session will span World History and US History, drawing from free archival primary sources (graphic and textual) that reveal changing perceptions of warfare.

Session C-4: Mary Lincoln’S Journey, Mary Kerr

Professional Learning Day

Lincoln's Journey will detail in an interesting and objective manner the pivotal points in her life: early feelings about slavery, the decision to leave Lexington and settle in Springfield, IL, being a single mother while her husband was "riding the circuit", her continued support of Lincoln as a national politician, restoration of the White House, and her inability to make positive decisions after Lincoln's assassination. In the end she was able to live on a budget and died with dignity. The presentation follows the book Mary Lincoln's Journey by Kerr and Kerr in which primary sources are emphasized.

Session D-1: Science And Spaghetti Monsters: Addressing The Ethical Issues And Controversy Related To Genomics And Evolution In The Biology Classroom, Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll

Professional Learning Day

As science teachers, we may shy away from addressing the controversy surrounding particular topics in our classrooms in order to maintain focus on content. However, the real world context of knowledge is essential, and the performance expectations in the life sciences as outlined in the NGSS state that students should be able to discuss the ethical issues related to genetic modifications and the nature of science. We will discuss ideas for how to address these topics effectively and help our students understand their importance beyond academics in our global community.

Session F-4: Developing Parametric Equations Using Mathematical Modeling, Mark Kammrath

Professional Learning Day

Designing project to develop student understanding of parametric equations and two modeling situations in which they are applied. No previous knowledge of parametrics is required by the students. The project requires two days of class time, with the remaining work done outside of class. This project is intended to be given three days into a unit on vectors.

Session C-1: Crusades: The Bridging Of The East And West And The End Of The Middle Ages, George Haldaman

Professional Learning Day

This seminar will examine how to make the Crusades an easy concept for high school students to understand. By examining the cultural exchange that occurred between the Christians and Muslims, we will examine the legacy of the Crusades by discussing how they brought an end to the Middle Ages by sharing ideas, diseases, and knowledge. The seminar will also present lesson plans you can use to teach this turning point in history.

Session D-2: Science And The Feminine: A Cultural Examination, Robert Kiely

Professional Learning Day

This session will explore the treatment of the feminine in science and natural philosophy from Antiquity to the 20th century. We will examine different views of the female role in nature and generation, and trace the links between such views and the treatment of women in society. We will also study changing notions of the relationship between gender and mind, and we will consider how such views have affected the place of women in the scientific community.

Session F-3: “It Is Rocket Science”, Carmela Jones, Christine L. Moskalik

Professional Learning Day

All current NASA rocket launchers are no longer useable because all of the available rocket-fuel sources on Earth have been depleted. Participants will serve as NASA engineers tasked with developing non-fuel-based rocket launcher prototypes in an effort to maintain current and future NASA space programs and missions. Model how you will get your students to take off with Rocket Science.

Session F-1: Exploration Geometry: Hands-On Transformations, Lindsey Herlehy, David Hernandez, Karen Togliatti

Professional Learning Day

In this session, participants will engage in a series of hands-on, minds-on Geometry lessons designed to explore the four transformations. By completing several critical thinking challenges, teachers will use the Common Core Mathematical Practices and various manipulatives to investigate how figures rotate, dilate, translate, and reflect within a plane. Appropriate for multiple grade levels, teachers will leave the session with all instructional plans and various ways to adapt the lesson based on the needs of their students.

Session D-3: The Mathematical Wonders Of Pascal's Triangle, Donald Porzio

Professional Learning Day

Most mathematics teachers are aware of the some of the more straightforward connections Pascal's Triangle has to mathematics. Come explore some of the lesser known connections that can be used to peak your students' interest and entice them into exploring the mathematics behind these connections.

Session F-6: “To Infinity And Beyond” – Exploring Ways To Teach An Abstract Concept, Nicole Ross

Professional Learning Day

Imagine a numberless world. I wonder if you can. No need for calculations, or counting tools of man. Imagine all the people living without 1, 2, 3’s…Abstract concepts are often difficult to teach. Students frequently desire concrete examples of calculations or real-world connections to concepts. The concrete becomes increasingly difficult when numbers are extraordinarily large or small. Join us as we explore techniques designed to provide real-world connections and help make numbers, big, small, or infinite, easier to understand.

Session F-2: Simple Chemistry Labs And Activities To Teach Difficult And Important Concepts, Dave Devol, Deb Scarano, Anita White

Professional Learning Day

This will be a hands-on session where participants will perform four chemistry activities/experiments (two of the experiments will be a variation on one theme). The topics will include bonding, equilibrium, and stoichiometry. Teachers will be provided with copies of the activities to take back to their classes. In the spirit of learning together, we ask participants to bring their favorite activity/lab to share with the group (these labs will not be performed, just shared. Bringing an activity to share is optional, not required).

Session B-1: Model Building In Planetary Science And The Ngss, Eric Hawker

Professional Learning Day

In this session I will guide teachers through the steps my students take in Planetary Science to develop a conceptual model of how planetary interiors work. Teachers will then create concept maps from their conceptual models, and then use their models and maps to understand planetary systems other than Earth.

Session B-2: Is Stem Truly For All: Motivating Black And Latino Students To Engage In Stem, Adrienne Coleman

Professional Learning Day

This presentation takes an intricate look at the factors that motivate gifted and talented Black and Latino students to engage in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). According to the literature, the U.S. workforce could employ as many as 140,000 additional Black and Latino college graduates in STEM fields annually if the gap in college completion by Blacks and Latinos closed to roughly match that of the White and Asian student graduation rates. Thus, the goal of this presentation is to inform administrators, educators, and programs of a 5-step motivation-based process that encourages Black and Latino students to engage in …

Session B-4: Stem Integration: Statistics Is The Connection, Karen Togliatti, Lindsey Herlehy

Professional Learning Day

In this activity, participants will complete a STEM-integrated lesson incorporating problems in aerodynamics. Using the mathematical, science and engineering practice standards, they will design and model parachutes to determine a life-size chute to support their body weight. Participants will also consider design criteria for rate of descent, and graphically represent data and mathematical information as a scatter plot.

Session B-4: Who Freed The Slaves? Emancipation And The Sources Of Social Change, David Heineman

Professional Learning Day

Abraham Lincoln argued that all knew slavery was “somehow the cause of the war”. And every student knows that one of the most significant outcomes of the Civil War was the abolition of slavery. But how did this happen? Who actually freed the slaves? In this session, we’ll model a lesson that teachers can use, rooted in historical thinking and primary sources that helps students engage in authentic historical inquiry about a turning point in our nation’s past.

Session B-2: Why World War I? Being Intelligent About The Causes, Lee Eysturlid

Professional Learning Day

This presentation will guide attendees through the complicated and often misrepresented ideas that have formed around understanding why it is that World War I started the way that it did. The focus will be mostly on the military and technological elements. Participants will be ready to teach the topic when they leave, and it suits US and World History teachers (and middle school).

Session B-3: Operation Paperclip And The Rise Of Weapons Of Mass Destruction, Diane Haleas, Matthew Miller

Professional Learning Day

On November 26, 1944 Dutch-American particle physicist Samual Goudsmit and his fellow members of the secret Operation Alsos carefully scoured the private papers of Nazi scientists, uncovering startling information on the extent of Nazi biological weapons experiments. Operation Alsos would give rise to Operation Paperclip – the U.S. government’s effort to bring over 1,600 German and Nazi scientists, doctors, engineers, and technologists to the United States. Also recruited were Nazi war criminals whose scientific prowess seemed to override the U.S. government’s moral qualms. The period from November, 1944 – May, 1945 changed the world as the U.S. government began to …

Session B-1: Messing With The “Rise Of The West”, John Horton

Professional Learning Day

This session will present strategies and lesson plans for World History teachers who want their students to learn how to interrogate the idea that modern European hegemony began in 1492. Was the Renaissance the Renaissance? Does modernity or early modernity have origins in Song China, Abbasid Baghdad, and Mongolian Asia? Does the era of western hegemony begin with the Opium Wars and the repression of the Sepoy Rebellion? We will examine these and other questions in a session that will question some of the basic assumptions about we teach world or global history courses.

Session C-5: Biotech Basics, Elizabeth Martinez, Emily Hood Ferrin

Professional Learning Day

The field of biotechnology is rapidly expanding. What is biotech? What are the applications? How is biotech studied? These topics will be explored as participants engage in hands-on lessons developed at an appropriate level for middle school students. Activities may be used to introduce students to the world of biotech.

Session A-4: It’S A Wrap, Lindsey Herlehy, David Hernandez

Professional Learning Day

Investigate the concepts of surface area, measurement, ratio and proportion through a visual and kinesthetic mathematical investigation. Participants will be presented with the challenge of calculating how many sheets of toilet paper it would take to wrap one of their group members using a limited selection of tools. This session will provide teachers with a wonderful hands-on, minds-on activity that could easily be implemented into any classroom!