Educational Methods Commons^™

Applying An Equity Lense To The Danielson Framework, Comfort Akwaji-Anderson, Angela Rowley

Professional Learning Day

This session will focus on applying a lens of Equity to the Danielson Evaluation Framework. Although there are mentions of equitable practices and differentiation in the original Danielson Framework, this workshop will focus on the interpretation of that language and how districts can use the existing evaluation framework to promote Equity and Excellence for all learners.

Stress In Education: Finding Solutions To Combat Negativity And Burnout, Kevin Kusy, Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll

Professional Learning Day

Working in education can be one of the most fulfilling jobs, but the current climate for many staff is filled with stress and frustration. With teachers feeling underappreciated and overworked, mental health issues are on the rise and the climate of many schools has had a negative turn. This session will discuss topics around compassion fatigue, negativity, not feeling connected, and overall discomfort to change.

Real-World Gps Stem Activities, Peggy Steffen

Professional Learning Day

Hands-on activities for students with no/low costs for materials include stories, videos, presentation materials, and career highlights Four modules (Earth, Life, Space, Movement) include 12 lessons designed to support the new science standards and the Common Core. Scenarios highlight STEM applications in satellites, orbital space clutter, energy grids, precision agriculture, global supply chains, aviation, weather forecasting, and conservation.

Code Of The Wild, Patrick Young

Professional Learning Day

K-2 students love to create stories about their favorite animals. Using free software called ScratchJr, participants will learn to teach basic Computational Thinking skills that allow K-2 students to create animated stories about animals in their natural environments. Participants should bring a laptop or tablet.

Teaching With A Full Deck: Card Sorts, Lindsey Herlehy

Professional Learning Day

Card sorts tend to make students do the "thing" we value most: talk. Beyond making matches, card sorts provide opportunities for students to classify, rank, sequence, and mind map while setting a natural context for argumentation and use of the claim-evidence-reasoning framework. Join me for a series of card sorts to explore how this easy-to-prep tool will encourage your students to reason and think critically. Math and science resources will be shared.

Teacher and Student resources available for download

Science For A Brainy Day, Nicole Ross

Professional Learning Day

Interested in Brain-Based-Learning? Come for an informative and hands-on approach about the topic. We will focus not just on understanding how brain development impacts learning, but on how to utilize this knowledge to engage our students with the content we teach every day. Activities will focus less on learning styles and more on how can we ask questions or write assessments that develop executive function in our students?

Inquiry Based Instruction In Chemistry With Games, Karen Ye

Professional Learning Day

Games can be a fun and motivating way to engage students, but they are often used as a means to practice, apply, or review learned content instead of introducing a new concept. In this session, participants will explore the use of common games as a tool for an inquiry-based approach to introducing topics in high school chemistry such as atomic structure and periodic trends.

The Wright Stuff: An Integrative Approach To Stained Glass, Cassandra Wissink Armstrong

Professional Learning Day

In this session we'll explore the scientific and mathematical influences behind the artistic stained glass creations of Frank Lloyd Wright, and use them to create our own Wright-inspired stained glass designs. This is a truly integrative lesson that touches on properties of glass, linear functions, and artistic design.

Problem Centered Teaching By Tomorrow, Cassandra Wissink Armstrong

Professional Learning Day

Problem Centered Instruction is a great way to engage students, integrate content, and inspire learning. However, true problem centered instruction requires a major shift in both teaching and learning, requiring the one thing teachers don't have: time. In today's session, we will look at some simple strategies that teachers can put to immediate use within the classroom to help start the shift towards a student-led, problem centered learning environment.

Data In The Classroom, Peggy Steffen

Professional Learning Day

Put ocean data to work in your classroom. Students use real-time data to explore environmental issues such as coral bleaching, sea level rise and ocean acidification. Activities have a scaled approach from beginner to "design your own investigation" with data tools that will help students get started with online data sets. Please bring your own laptop for this session.

Climate Change - Lost Land, Allison Albert

Professional Learning Day

This session will focus on the impact of climate change on erosion. Participants will explore causes and design solutions through hands on activities and investigation.

What's The Buzz?, Christine L. Moskalik

Professional Learning Day

A fun, interdisciplinary, hands-on activity with circuits, engineering, and bees Teachers will learn how to implement an activity with their students to explore circuit basics, energy transfer, and pollination through a hands-on toothbrush-bot activity that is coupled with a fun storyline involving honey bee communication and behavior.

Inquiry Based Instruction In Chemistry With Games, Karen Ye

Professional Learning Day

Games can be a fun and motivating way to engage students, but they are often used as a means to practice, apply, or review learned content instead of introducing a new concept. In this session, participants will explore the use of common games as a tool for an inquiry-based approach to introducing topics in high school chemistry such as atomic structure and periodic trends.

Stress In Education: Finding Solutions To Combat Negativity And Burnout, Kevin Kusy, Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll

Professional Learning Day

Working in education can be one of the most fulfilling jobs, but the current climate for many staff is filled with stress and frustration. With teachers feeling underappreciated and overworked, mental health issues are on the rise and the climate of many schools has had a negative turn. This session will discuss topics around compassion fatigue, negativity, not feeling connected, and overall discomfort to change.

Track 2 – Environment Design Sprint Challenge, Britta W. Mckenna, Carl Heine

Professional Learning Day

Using Paul Hawkens, “Drawdown – The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming”, as a starting point, participants will take on the question of “What Can I do?” in developing actionable plans and prototypes in a design sprint challenge. Using BOSI DNA to identify areas of team strength, teams will work together to design the most innovative solutions to improve planet resiliency from climate impact. Culminating presentations conclude the event with an overall innovation and impact winner.

Track 1 – Clean Workshop, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

Professional Learning Day

The Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN) Portal was launched in 2010 as a National Science Digital Library Pathways project. It is led by the science education expertise of TERC, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder, and the Science Education Resource Center (SERC) at Carleton College. As of 2012, CLEAN has been syndicated to NOAA's climate.gov portal. CLEAN's primary effort is to steward the collection of climate and energy science educational resources and to support a community of professionals committed to improving climate and energy literacy. Participants will spend their …

Session 3b: Stress....What Is It And How Do I Fix It, Sowmya Anjur, Mary Myers

Professional Learning Day

Join us in learning about stress, its causes, its signs and symptoms and methods for preventing, coping with and/or relieving stress. Popular mind-body fitness methods such as Yoga, Pilates, Qi Gong, and Tai Chi will be examined and performed within this session.

Session 3c: Building A Microbial Fuel Cell, Peter Clancy, Joe Golab, Patrick Young

Professional Learning Day

This project introduces students to the science behind MFCs and provides a practical demonstration about this type of renewable energy technology. The technology produces electricity from the byproduct of bacteria breaking down organic matter. The Alternative Energy Module addresses four Engineering NGSS standards as well as global issues such as energy supply and demand, climate change, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. A microbial fuel cell (MFC) aligns with a United Nations Sustainability Goal, i.e. Clean Energy.

Session 3d: Wind Energy, Mark Carlson, Angela Ahrendt, Nicole Ross

Professional Learning Day

Design, construction, and testing will occur in two stages involving blade shape and number followed by wind tracking and generator gearing. Three NGSS Engineering Standards (Global Issue, Problem Breakdown, and Optimization) are directly addressed. Scientific concepts include circuitry, power, mechanical advantage, and rotational motion.

Session 3h: Learning Progressions Of Elementary Data And Measurement, Karen Togliatti

Professional Learning Day

The foundation for formal statistical and probability concepts is laid in the early grades through investigating both categorical and measurement data. Join us for a quick trip through the progression of categorical data and measurement data analysis from kindergarten through fifth-grade. Example tasks will be provided.

Session 3e: Teaching Using Un Sustainable Development Goals, Donald Dosch, Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll, Crystal Randall

Professional Learning Day

This session will focus on how we are using the UN Sustainable Development Goals as guideposts for curriculum development in several of our different science classes. Students will join us to present some of their varied academic work, and share the importance of these activities in their education. Part of our discussion will focus on scaffolding the learning so that students are able to perform successfully in these contextual and issues-based activities. We will also build in time for participant discussion on current issues and ideas for incorporating them effectively into their own teaching.

Session 2b: Building A Telescope, Peter Clancy, Brooke Schmidt

Professional Learning Day

This is a project suitable for a physics class that covers geometric optics. Students tasked with this project assignment use these principles to select lenses to create a telescope with adequate magnification to read a target with lines of text of successively smaller font sizes. Students also learn how to characterize the telescope by measuring the lens focal lengths, and determining the theoretical magnification and tube. Educators attending this workshop will be given a brief lesson on telescope optics, and will be given the opportunity to select lenses, construct a telescope, and use it to read the target.

Session 2d: Mathematical Play, Karen Togliatti

Professional Learning Day

Our youngest students are equipped with the skills and practices needed to be successful mathematicians. That is, they are curious, creative and innovative. Given the opportunity to engage in mathematical play, students are encouraged to take risks, pursue their own questions, and naturally investigate mathematics. Research shows that this practice is beneficial for all students, regardless of grade level. So, come and play!

Session 1f: Daphnia Magna And Water Monitoring, Julie Polz, Karen Togliatti, Angela Ahrendt

Professional Learning Day

Daphnia Magna, also known as water fleas, are commonly used in water toxicity studies since they are very sensitive to chemical changes in their environment, which make them good organisms to use in water quality testing. We will be testing the effect of six environmental pollutants on the Daphnia heart rate using a microscope, and then measuring their response to each of these pollutants.

Session 1d: Mathematicians Take Risks, Karen Togliatti

Professional Learning Day

The field of mathematics is driven by problems that currently have no known solution. In order to understand these types of problems, mathematicians take risks. They try novel approaches, inventing new mathematics along the way. In much the same way, we want students to be able to take mathematical risks to generate their own mathematical understanding. Join us for a discussion of how to empower our students to become risk-takers in the classroom.

Session 1e: Nuclear Energy: Then, Now And The Future, Peter Dong, Eric Hawker, Elizabeth Martinez

Professional Learning Day

Nuclear power is one of the most feared and misunderstood energy sources available, and its unique advantages - extraordinary power production with no emissions - weigh against its disadvantages - possibility of meltdowns, difficulty of waste disposal, and potential weaponization. This session will explore some of the basics of nuclear power through a variety of interactive activities for students and give an overview of the economics and risks associated with nuclear power. It will also discuss potential future technologies, including fusion, and how they would change worldwide energy production.

Session A-3: Three-Act Math Tasks, Lindsey Herlehy

Professional Learning Day

Participants will engage in a Three-Act Math task highlighting the application of properties of geometrical figures. Developed by Dan Meyer, an innovative and highly regarded mathematics instructor, Three-Act Math tasks utilize pedagogical skills that elicit student curiosity, collaboration and questioning. By posing a mathematical problem through active storytelling, this instructional approach redefines real-world mathematics and clarifies the role that a student plays in the learning process. Participants will be given multiple resources where they can access Three-Act Math tasks appropriate for upper elementary grades through Algebra and Geometry courses.

Session D-1: African Muslims And The Transatlantic Slave Trade, Steven Buenning

Professional Learning Day

African Muslims played central roles in the largest forced migration in human history; the transatlantic slave trade. This presentation employs primary sources from the online collection of the National Humanities Center and from the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database (Emory University). Participants will engage in close reading of two memoirs of Muslim slaves, as well as three newspaper articles written in 1828. In addition, participants will receive geography exercises. A Powerpoint and a full list of helpful resources are included.

Session F-3: Using The Question Formulation Technique In Your Classroom, Susan Bisinger, Lucinda Dittmer

Professional Learning Day

The skill of question formulation can lead to improved learning outcomes, greater student engagement, and more ownership of the learning process. This session presents the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) and guides teachers through strategies for integrating it into their classroom practice. Using the QFT helps students think more critically and independently by asking and evaluating their own questions - whether elementary level, secondary, or beyond. Participants are encouraged to attend the session with an upcoming project or activity in mind. You'll leave with a plan of action!

Session A-2: Lincoln And Douglas: The Debates, The Background And Why What You Say Matters, Lee Eysturlid

Professional Learning Day

This presentation will get at the important meanings and usages of the famous debates for the Senate that took place between Lincoln and Douglas in the state of Illinois. Attendees will gain a working knowledge of the event and explore ways to make use of it in class. Finally, the session will align the materials presented with the Common Core standards dealing with the "integration of knowledge and ideas" as well as "reading and writing for literacy".