Finding water on Mars

"One of the most exciting latest discoveries that we have found is evidence for water flowing on the surface of Mars today."

These were the words that Tanya Harrison spoke to my Science 9 class during a Google Hangout.  They were recorded here:

This is the second time that I had that this-is-so-amazing-that-my-students-get-to-discover-this feeling welling up inside of me this year.  The previous time was when we heard from Charis about the work she was doing with pluripotent stem cells.  I outline that CBL in the post Can we teach too cutting edge? 

And it happened again here.  Connecting with an expert not only taught us about what it is like to be the first to receive a picture from Mars, the difference between the Mars rovers, and the future of space exploration.  Our connection gave us up-to-the-minute discoveries, including the discovery of explosive volcanism on Mars that day. You can probably tell that I am still beaming from that experience.  It was incredible.

Connections-based Learning experiences bring a genuineness into the classroom.  They bolster the relationships without and within the class.  Shared experiences like helping end water scarcity or aiding orphans and widows in Ethiopia and promoting reading for pleasure in Uganda create a we're-in-this-together kind of feeling with a class.  Attendance is affected positively.  Student effort increases.  The us (teachers) vs. them (students) position that we can sometimes get into can fall away.  Students are retweeting teachers.  Teachers are retweeting students.  There are high fives.  Dogs and cats start living together in harmony.

Okay, well maybe the last thought is going a little too far.

But add to this that these students constructed their own goals for the #CBLchat with help from me.  I share about the setup for this #CBL experience in How to Design a Connections-based Learning experience. Student responses to our connection were amazing.  Here are just a few of them:

Emily's
Minji's

Jacob's

Hailey's

I end this post with a call for others to join me.  As we take a much needed summer (or winter for those in the southern hemisphere) break and reflect on our past year and where we want to go next year, would you consider including more out of the class connections: serving the community, supporting organizations, interacting with experts, and partnering with classes both locally and globally.  Connecting with experts is just one facet of Connections-based Learning.

 

connectionsbasedlearning.com

Join our growing Voxer community where we share our needs, experiences, trials, triumphs.
Share your connected experiences with the #CBLchat hashtag
Sign up for Connected Learning Partnerships joining classrooms around the world, going live this fall.
Visit our #CBL Google plus community and share a post of your connected experiences
Or make a comment below.

Either way, reach out and join us as we learn about and speak into the happenings around the globe ... and even beyond!

How to design a Connections-based Learning experience

The Google Hangout hasn't even happened yet but it has been amazing to see the learning that has taken place. Taking the time to co-construct learning goals with students has allowed the ownership of the learning to change hands.  It has been wonderful to see students take ownership of the connection and use it for their purposes, teasing out what they want from it and how they know they got what they wanted.  Here I outline the who, why and how of the learning design in a Connections-based Learning activity.

Designing Learning - Who?

Our class' Connections-based Learning is around the solar system and I have set up a Google Hangout with Tanya Harrison, a planetary scientist who has worked extensively on exploring Mars.  From working on the Mars Curiosity Mastcam to working on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Context Camera and the Mars Color Imager at Malin Space Science Systems, she has been contributing greatly to amassing a wealth of information about Mars.

After giving my students a short bio and directing them to her website, I asked students to do their own searching about who Tanya is and what she is all about. I wanted them to follow their own rabbit trails as they first touch on this connection.

What does she blog about?
What Youtube videos has she done?
How does she describe herself?
What are her hobbies?
What does she share on social media?

It is important for students to get a feel for the person with whom they will be connecting.  It is not just about being able to ask the right questions but more so, to start forming their own connections to the expert.  What do they have in common? What is surprising about this person?  What do they like about her?  What might be places of disagreement?

Designing Learning - Why?

Connections-based Learning is all about the why.  My desire is for my students to get out of this interaction not only the most possible, but the most meaningfulness possible: to own the conversation, to get their questions answered, to create their own goals for the interaction.  When students have been given a voice about what they will learn, their engagement rises, their attention is strategic, their excitement increases.  Eventually I am going to ask them to create a response for their interaction.  I want that response to be true to who they are and what they can offer the expert.

Designing Learning - How?

After they began to "know" Tanya (from her own presence online), I asked my students to write learning goals in response to what they know about Tanya.

Here are some of the goals:
- "I'd like to learn and have a better understanding of Mars and the Curiosity mission"
- "I want to know the difference between the Mars Rover and the Curiosity"
- I want to know "how she chose the camera she did"
- I would like to "discover what space photography is and to learn about it"
- "My goal is to successfully understand the concept of how big everything in outer space is"
"Hoping to discover what new technology has been innovated in space photography."
"Hoping to discover how Mars rovers work and function"
"To have Tanya comment on my blog post."

These are their words, not mine: learn, understand, discover.

I also asked students for a sign that they have achieved their goal.
"If I can list 3 differences. . ."
"When I can explain it to others"
"If I learn something new that fascinates me"
"When I can describe how it looks"
When "I am able to understand the difference in physical appearance and function and share it on my Edublog"
"That there is a comment from Tanya on my Edublog post"

One student said: "I would like to learn what it was like to be in the environment of making everything happen."  I asked her to explain further as I knew she was getting at something but it needed clarification.  She ended up with wanting to know, "what it was like working on the rover process and describe the environment -  and how it made you feel." That is the co-construction piece.  I need a chance to have a voice into their goals, to help them extract, refine, clarify, polish.

Once learning goals are co-created, the questions flow easily.  They are meaningful and they are not the teacher's.  They connect with the students own personal goals.  The conversation revolves around the students own curiosity and wonderings. 

Now we are ready.

Getting connected: Finding Experts

 

 

 

I recently had the pleasure of sharing Connections-based Learning with my alma mater.  It was great walking back into the high school with its quadrangular layout and large spacious halls.  I strolled into the library where I would present and the smell took me back to carefree high school days.  A buddy and I would spend our free blocks in the theatre.  If you can imagine it, we would rarely be on the floor.  We would hop from armrest to armrest up, down and across the banks of seats.  The biggest challenge was when we hopped over the aisle into the next bank of seats, from armrest to armrest without skipping a beat.  Thinking about it now it was recipe for ankle pinnings and neck collarings.  For us then, it was something to master, a challenge to overcome, a way to demonstrate expertise.

 

 

 

Every time I have shared Connections-based Learning with educators, I have videoconferenced in an expert.  I not only want teachers to learn about connected encounters but to experience them.  This time we had the pleasure of bringing in Melissa Lavoie (blog: https://adventuresineduteching.com/).  Melissa is an engaging passionate connected educator working as an educational technology special assignment teacher in Timmins, Ontario.  She shared a wealth of ideas and experience with us that ranged from Google Apps for Education to inspiring connected experiences.  I believe the big take-away for the Centennial High School staff was the three places to find experts that Melissa shared.

 

http://digitalhumanlibrary.com/

 

When I first heard about the digital Human Library, I knew that I had to share it with as many people as possible.  I immediately signed up and put the link on the Connections-based Learning site. When I got to connect with the Founder, Leigh Cassell, I realized how special this endeavor really is.  I ended up featuring one of her stories in a post on Inspiring Creative Connections.  The digital Human Library has hundreds of experts in nearly any subject area available to be signed out by teachers and classrooms to share their expertise with students.  It also has links to hundreds of free multi-media tours.  It is a one stop shop for getting connected and leveraging those connections for learning.  Using the dHL to connect students with experts allows for an amazing experience, but Melissa shared with us how she took it one step further and used a dHL expert to share with teaching staff. 

 

For a professional day, Melissa brought in an actor to a staff via videoconference.  The actor shared with the educators not only his story as an actor but got the educators on their feet (and a bit more comfortable in their skin) doing warm ups and improvisations.  Melissa was able to bring to the staff an expertise that she didn't have, a connection that got even the most resistant moving by nature of the authority and experience of an expert.  The experience also shared the power of the digital Human Library use itself.  The educators walked away having been stretched both physically and mentally.

 

http://www.vroc.ca/vroc/en/

 

Making popsicle stick bridges is a great way to teach compressive and tensile strength and the advantages and drawbacks of certain geometric shapes in construction.  Students love heating up the hot glue guns and bringing their structural ideas to life.  I have done this exact activity with my Science and Tech 11 class.  But when I heard about what Melissa did with the activity, I realized how a connection can expand just about any learning experience.  Melissa used the VROC connecting platform to find Professor Francesco Tangorra, a civil engineering instructor from Algonquin College in Ottawa, to join the class with which she was working. (Story on p. 24/25 here).  Virtual Researchers on Call is a platform that connects STEM professors and professionals with Canadian students for interactive learning.  What the engineer did was amazing. 

 

As each student brought their bridge up for testing and applied weights to the structures, Prof. Francesco would be observing via Google Hangout.  When the structure failed, the engineering instructor was able to tell the students where and why the structure broke.  He would share his wealth of knowledge and experience with the students expanding their ideas about what makes structures strong.  The students were completely engaged in the project and came to better understand the artistry and science that goes into making bridges.

 

http://www.exploringbytheseat.com/

 

 

The final platform Melissa shared about that connects students with experts is Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants.  This platform is focused on Science, Adventure, and Conservation.  Melissa shared about an encounter where students were able to experience river rafting through the platform.  Amazing!  Each experience is stored as a Youtube video in the Exploring By The Seat Of Your Pants Youtube channel.  Check out some of the videos as they really give you a perspective on how engrossing this platform is.  Give your students the opportunity to go to the bottom of the ocean, a turtle hospital, a bug zoo, Iceland's glaciers or many other locations with this far reaching platform.
 

One of the four CONNECT facets of Connections-based Learning is Question Experts.  In this day and age with innovative platforms such as these, experts in any area are not far from the students.  I encourage you to take advantage of this connected world and share ideas from willing experts with your students.  Keep me posted about all your incredible connected experiences by sharing in the comments or tweeting out to #CBLchat.

 

The Precarious and Powerful

As I continue to share about Connections-based Learning, I've been emphasizing that connections are powerful.  They tug at the heartstrings of students, relationships form, nitty-gritties are opened up.  There's exposure, bonding, revelation, a call to action.

It's like setting up an introduction for your bestie.  It could end up being just a single thorny encounter.  Or it could go all Beaches and last a lifetime.

So be careful.

This was clearly illustrated in my class' most recent connection with Karishma Bhagani.  Karishma is an NYU student who has invented an inexpensive water purifier that she is hoping to produce on a large scale and provide to needy villages in her home country of Kenya.

As we were approaching Earth Day, Fran Siracusa of Calliope and Jennifer Casa-Todd made me aware of the connection they had with Karishma and how she wanted to share her invention and her passion with students.  The water purifier initiative is called Matone De Chiwit.  Fran and Jen were encouraging classes from all around to make contact.

Matone - "Drops" in Swahili

De - "of" in Spanish

Chiwit - "Life" in Thai

Karishma believes that for a global project like this, a global name that includes the languages of countries most in need of clean water would be appropriate.  Thus: Matone De Chiwit.

I thought this was a perfect connection for my class to make.  We set a date for a GHOA and despite the fact that it was after school time to fit Karishma's schedule, the students were very excited.  They were very patient through initial technical issues and listened intently as Karishma shared her story.  They were ready with questions in order to dialogue further.  As always,  I was impressed with how students stepped up to the plate when communicating with the outside world.  When Mo asked if Karishma thought that Kenya was overlooked in terms of aid and I listened to the ensuing conversation, I really saw how CBL gives a voice to people, whether my own students or the associates with whom we connect.

Our GHOA with Karishma

Here are a couple student posts on the connection:
- Hailey's post
- Quinn's post

The Hangout was the provocation.  The call to my students was: now that we have heard this message, what are we going to do about it.  I left it pretty open, and I said that students could take it as far as they wanted.  They took it further than I could have imagined.

Students are:
- sharing Karishma's message through social media
- sharing the message through posters and posts
- creating Youtube videos
- creating commercials

Not only that but one group of students is collaborating with Karishma to build her a website.  Emails have gone back and forth; they are working on website design; there's plans to consult with the team's artistic director.  There's involvement, investment.

Here is a post from one of my student's digital portfolios:

"This project that we are working on is not only making an impact on the world but it is also impacting me as a person. It is making me step out of my comfort zone and use my head to think about each individual step. Starting this project I decided it would be beneficial to read about the problems that we are trying to help. After reading articles, web sights and papers I have a new found appreciation of everything that I have in my life, and I no longer take things for advantage like I would have yesterday. Now instead of hearing about the struggles people are facing and feeling bad for them, I am making a contribution to one day end those struggles. I will no longer be the person that will stand aside and watch things happen."

- Hailey Smith

These students are working on relationships, developing a world view, letting out their compassion. 

I say be careful when facilitating connections.  But I wouldn't have it any other way.

Can we teach too cutting edge?

Student: "What is the most recent advancement in stem cell research?"

Researcher: "The process I just described to you."

The stem cell researcher had just explained to my class the process of making hiPSC (human induced pluripotent stem cells) from skin cells.  This is an area that she is an expert in, a process for which Shinya Yamanaka recently won a Nobel prize, a process that allows researchers not to have to rely on embryonic stem cells to do their work.  And the students were hearing about it from someone with a PhD in the field, who works with stem cell technology herself.

I don't want you to miss the preciousness of this moment.  The student who asked the question didn't want to hear what had happened in the past, even recent past.  He didn't want to have to wade through the 30,800,000 results that would come if he typed stem cells into a search engine.  The student wanted to know what is happening now.  And he got his answer.  In a field where advancements are happening almost daily, he got the most current answer.  Real-time. With diagrams, even.

• How do you make the medium that sends messages to the pluripotent stem cell?
• What types of diseases can be treated with stem cells?
• Since Dolly, has there been any other cloning of sheep or other animals?
• Do the hiPSC's act exactly like embryonic stem cells or are there differences?

Even. . .

• Is there any truth to what South Park shows us about stem cells?

(which she answered beautifully)

Even. . .

• How do the people you work with feel about the stem cell controversy?

(you're not going to find the answer to that in a textbook or article)

Each student got their answer.

And all this came to my students . . .face to face.

I share that story because the experience galvanized my resolve to explain the importance of Connections-based Learning with the world of educators.  Skyping in a stem cell researcher into my Science 9 class was an amazing, worthwhile learning and connecting experience.  Connecting with experts is one of six facets of CBL: Question Experts.  This facet opens our students to the cutting edge of what is going on in our planet.  But it also opens the door to the hearts of others around the world, and in our own backyard, who are involved in what we are studying.  It humanizes the "scientists": real people who are seeking answers to the most current questions of our world.  Stem cells aren't just "out there" for my students, now.  They are something Charis, our expert and now classroom friend, is working on.

Moreover, this was a connection birthed at a Christmas dinner party with kids running around playing hide and seek and making up dance performances.  I didn't do anything special to make this connection other than to keep my ears open as I go about, listening for possible connections for my students.  And asking my students to do the same.  That is the beauty of CBL, asking ourselves as educators: "what connections do we as a group of 30 people have that can help us learn this concept?"

30 people.  Not 1.  There's a lot of possibilities there.

With the connections my students are making with experts, they have the most cutting edge information at hand that they can share with others.  Some of the connections I helped them make.  Some they made on their own.  Here are a few others:

Skype helps students study Mars rovers

Students work with real life companies for a connections-based learning project

Can we share information and ideas that are too cutting edge, too recent with our students?  Do we want anything less for them?