In our October newsletter, we met Dr. Peg LeGendre, a Cambridge, MA, K-6 Science Mentor Teacher, who is working with Susan Agger, Coordinator of the CPS Maynard Ecology Center, and colleagues on a Grade 6 Ecosystems Project. From April through to June of this year, classes will visit Black Nook's Pond and investigate its secrets. We caught up with Peg in the planning stages of the district-wide initiative and asked her about what she?d like the students to learn and understand using the Teaching for Understanding framework.

Exploring the Ecosystem (Generative Topics)

The project centers on a unique ecosystem - a small pond on the outskirts of an urban area - chock full of critters, plant-life, and potential data. By taking advantage of their environment, Peg and her teaching colleagues wish to focus student attention on ecosystems, biodiversity, food chains, and food webs.

The Complexities of Life (Understanding Goals)

Part of Peg's planning is coordinating class visits. For example, one class might visit Black Nook's Pond in April to collect data at various points, and another might go in June. Regardless of when they go, Peg says the goal is to help students understand the importance of food chains and food webs (and how they work), the energy flow in communities, seasonal and environmental changes, and the interdependence of all living things.

Observing the World (Performances of Understanding)

Perhaps the most exciting part of the project is the methods that Peg and her colleagues have devised to help students achieve these goals. "We're going to match real-life with eco-ponds," Peg said. Each student will create their own mini-environment and stock it with critters provided by their teachers. As they observe their pond develop in a "laboratory," they'll have a chance to compare similarities and differences with the great outdoors.

Following on from Project COOL, which focused educators on incorporating technology into understanding goals, the students will be using data loggers to record oxygen levels, pH levels, and temperature changes. The data collected by each class will be shared district-wide, so students can compare results from other schools. By using new tools, students become familiar with the basics of compiling scientific data and more comfortable with manipulating it.

Sometime during the Spring the students will be faced with perhaps the hardest task of all. They will be asked to deliberately pollute their own eco- ponds. "We usually have to make our own classroom models, since the kids don't want to see their own polluted," Peg said laughingly. The goal is to make them understand the devastating effects of human interference on an ecosystem, and to help them brainstorm ways to ameliorate such problems in real- life.

The Scientific Process (Ongoing Assessment)

One of the benefits of spacing classes out over three months is that the pond life and water temperature change as Spring progresses. While collecting living samples from Black Nook's and taking biodiversity counts, Peg wants students to note how the types of macro invertebrates and creatures found can signal the health and seasonal stage of the pond. "For example, you would find more leeches and fewer dragonfly larvae in a polluted pond," Peg noted. Peg is also hoping for a substantial rainstorm or two, since the road run-off will alter the pH of the water and vary class results.

Taking their measurements from the data loggers, students will have a chance to experiment with graphing and other tools to quantify and display their findings. And with the whole district participating, students can use both class and overall results to draw conclusions about unique influencing factors and general changes over time.

Real-life Challenges

Combining understanding goals with the teachers' ecosystems science kit and school standards can require time. "I would say that many of our teachers haven't been exposed to Teaching for Understanding," Peg said. "They understand the concepts, they're just not familiar with the language. We're helping to scaffold the learning for teachers and kids."

Peg and her colleagues are also aware of the practical difficulties of such a large project. While amassing temperature and light data, and assessing areas this winter, they've realized that transporting a class of thirty into the middle of the pond to observe light changes will probably prove unrealistic. Instead, kids will have areas spaced around the edges of the pond. They also know that too much much data collection will be overwhelming and too little will not show significant changes.

Juggling teachers' and students' time is challenging, but Peg and her colleagues are optimistic that the culminating performance, where students develop a web presentation showcasing their hard work to their peers and parents, will be a satisfying end to an exciting Spring of mucking around in the mud.

Look for more coverage of the Black Nook's Pond project in a few months, when the students are unleashed on the world!

This month's tip comes to us from Jacy Ippolito, our instructor in the Reading in the Content Areas course:

"When having adolescent students read any text (from a Science, Social Studies, Math, or Language Arts class), teachers must consider not only the difficulties inherent in each text, but also the level of vocabulary and background knowledge that their students possess. As students grow older, wider gaps appear between students' vocabulary and background knowledge. Before reading a new text with a class:

1. Ask students to make connections between the subject matter and their own lives. By asking students to brainstorm questions and anecdotes arising from their own lives, background knowledge can be activated, and the students may be more ready to read a challenging passage. Also, students with less background knowledge may benefit from hearing other students' connections.
2. Ask students to brainstorm words connected to the subject matter. Before reading a new passage, ask students to predict words that they might encounter. Categorize these words on a board, and help the students to organize the words in such a way that they will be able to integrate new words into the existing categories. Introduce a new word or two (from the new text), and show them how to categorize the word. By making semantic categories, students will hopefully be able to make connections between new words and words they already know."

Here's what one teacher said about the practical nature of our courses:

"The facets were put to use in my everyday teaching in the classroom. The main benefit of the class is that it brought important teaching techniques to the front of my mind when I was preparing lesson plans."

William Ward, High School Teacher, C. Leon King High School, Brandon, FL.

March 17-19, 2006

WIDE World will be attending and exhibiting at the NASSP (National Association of Secondary School Principals) Annual Meeting in Reno, NV. We're at Booth 207 and we'll be talking about our new 3 Pathway approach.

March 22-24, 2006

WIDE World will be exhibiting at the Florida Educational Technology Conference in Orlando, FL. We're at Booth 569 - please come and ask us questions.

The new website is up! and we'd like to hear what you think of it. We'd also love to hear any suggestions for improvements or stories to feature. Email: wideeditor@gse.harvard.edu with your thoughts, writing "Website" in the subject line.

It's been six months since we launched the newsletter, and we're doing some self-examination. What articles do you find interesting? Which could you do without? Do you like longer articles about teacher projects or shorter ones about WIDE World's current initiatives? Tell us what you think. Email: wideeditor@gse.harvard.edu with your thoughts, writing "Newsletter" in the subject line.