Clicker Question

What does it mean that "55% is lost to respiration?"
A.  The plant is using that energy to produce ATP for its own cellular processes
B.  The plant is using that energy to produce heat for itself
C.  The plant is using that energy to stay hydrated during increased temperatures

*This question is meant to reinforce the concept energy breakdown and can be used to convey the bigger picturer of differences among C3, C4, and CAM plants
*This question did not get revised at all.  I felt it was straightforward and was explicitly linked to my learning outcomes/goals for this particular unit. 


Does this website provided by the Ecological Footprint provide authentic and reliable information about the IPAT model?
Use the criteria outlined on your assigned reading "Evaluating Web Pages," to make your determination.  Be prepared to discuss your rationale and thought process behind your answer in your groups and as a class

A. Yes
B.  No
C.  I don't know

*This question was designed to probe student evaluation of evidence and to assesss student value and utility in the website as an effective tool
*After consulting with Brea, I revised it to read "Be prepared to discuss your rationale and thought process behind your answer in your groups and as a class."  This question is meant as a formative assessment to see if this website is an adequate tool to improve student understanding and also as a formative assessment for students to evaluate evidence/literature. 

The Technology Pep-Talk!

Walking back to my office after Jeff’s lecture I couldn’t help but have a little Eminem moment.  His “I’m not afraid” song is usually on my gym playlist, but this morning it went straight to my teaching list.  My take home message from this morning’s lecture?  Technology is empowering!  Delicious, Prezi, Scoop, twitter, and Skype are not meant to be feared (guilty), but to be embraced, utilized, and maximized.  I feel like I am shedding my beloved dreams of living off the grid, but I came to the slow realization that technology is advancing with or without me, along with everyone else!  As retarded as Delicious and Prezi sound, they are the new paper, ink, fountain pen, and computer. I would be a reckless and careless instructor if I chose not to take advantage of the tools and mentality that technology showcases.  Thanks Jeff!  My world is no longer flat! 

Technology Questions

1.  Should technology be fully embraced in the classroom?  Or feared since students can easily be distracted (e.g., facebook, email)?

2.  How should a facebook relationship be handled between instructor and student?  Undergraduate and graduate levels?

3.  How do you stay organized electronically as an instructor?  Mulitple classes, hundreds of emails, how do you efficiently and effectively deal with it all?

4.  What are the top three technology tools (ipad, blog, website, etc...) you would recommend for a new instructor? 

Applying Active Learning in the Classroom

I really like the foundation that problem based learning builds while in a small group setting.  I believe these are excellent techniques that mirror the scientific method while incorporating apprenticeships of head, heart and hands.  My targeted learning objective is that students will gain a deeper understanding of the translation of knowledge that must occur between research and the general public (extension).  This is especially useful for natural resource students since they deal with wide arrays of background knowledge and misconceptions (ranchers, government, private sector, environmentalists, etc…).  More specifically, students will be able to assess the value of theories, implications, evidence of research and be able to explicitly convey the importance through a popular venue of information.

I would break students into groups of 2-3 and ask them to pick a topic within ecology (that I approve) that has faced difficulty and controversy transferring knowledge from a science/research perspective to the general public.    Students would choose 6 primary literature articles that best illustrate the science behind their topic and transfer major findings and concepts into a newspaper, which includes news stories, feature stories, and editorials.  Students conduct their research of articles independently and use group meetings to share information, edit articles, proofread, and design the pages.  In the newspaper, students will emphasize noteworthy findings and the potential impact, implications, and effects their particular articles will have on their choice topics.  Students will not be graded on the journalism or style of writing, but whether or not they were able to convey the overall concept and importance of the research to the general public.  Can the students take complicated research and effectively decipher and transfer it to rancher Joe in a respectful manner? 

Reflective Assessment #2

The student’s role is to gather information, decipher it, filter it, determine relevancy, enabling the assessment to come full circle in relating information back to the professor.  The amount of assessments that a professor allows his/her students are proportionate to the assessments a student allows a professor.  It almost reminds me of a teeter-totter.  In order for an action to occur, a student or instructor has to first perform an action to stimulate a response/motion/progress.  That action is then reciprocated back through feedback.  A professor cannot successfully meet desired learning objectives if a feedback forum does not exist for the students.  Likewise for students – it is important students realize the power of their feedback and that they actively participate in self-assessments and metacognitive thinking in order to facilitate improved learning.  Students should use assessment as personal roadmaps to gauge their learning experience and decision making processes.  Students have everything to gain and nothing to lose from assessment!  Assessment facilitates self-evaluation that is crucial to any level of learning, which stimulates metacognitive approaches to improved expert learning and transfer.  Assessment also gives a student a voice, enabling motivation and confidence in the learning environment. 

Reflection on Building Formative Assessment Unit

Backward design seemed so straightforward as a sound, fundamental, common sense strategy when reading about.   However, today I was caught off guard and a bit alarmed when creating the unit on formative assessment.  Not once did I think of the Backward Design as an established framework that I could use for this activity.  Instead I incorporated it as primary literature or vocabulary that I believed to be crucial to the formative assessment concept.  It wasn’t until our discussion did I realize that I had completely overlooked Backward Design as a reliable framework to design a unit.  Not only did my overall understanding of Backward Design grow , but the usefulness/utility exposed itself in a perfect Ah-ha moment!  Designing courses/units shouldn’t be confusing or overwhelming, but exciting in the revealing sense of transparency, connections, and purposeful design!

Describing the most salient features of formative assessment to a science colleague would revolve primarily on a positive feedback loop between students and teachers characterized by its ongoing, dynamic, and progressive nature.  It is a learning that is always learning by continuous evaluation of a student’s progress toward a desired goal where new information is gathered and added to guide decisions for future teaching and learning. 

Interview Reflection

Chatting it up with Alberto provided great feedback on my interview questions.  Through the hypothetical interview in class, I realized how important and useful a scenario can be.  This can establish a great context and framework to kick start the interview and hopefully put the interviewee at ease.  I really tried to build progressive questions that could easily be regressed, if need be, to a more familiar topic if the student got nervous/anxious.  This was also my game plan for the “I don’t knows”.  The mock interview also revealed the power that these questions can have to expose a student’s struggles with connections and processes.  I was, however, not expecting the difficulty in biting my tongue when it came to explaining or discussing answers.  I definitely struggled with allowing an assessment to occur instead of quizzing the interviewee for the right answer. 
Little packages of information were mentioned in the class discussion as a useful tool and I whole heartedly agree.  The interview, after all, is a conversation with a purpose and these tidbits provide a helpful semi-formal structure, which may encourage the student to open up and reveal his/her thought processes.  Over the weekend I plan on revising my scenario and I would also like to fit in a drawing of a conceptual model in there somewhere as well.