Forcings and Feedbacks in the Southwest

http://climate.nasa.gov/uncertainties/
The entire climate NASA site is great. I am especially interested in the uncertainties...need to look into explanations of questions. Is it getting warmer? Is there more rain in the Southwest this year? I am excited to hear that because of the large amount of snowfall on the west side of the Rockies that our lake (LAKE MEAD) is expected to rise significantly this year. That is great since that is our water source.

NASA, STEM, and PBL

PBL: Our district is beginning to embrace PBL as an effective tool, especially in our Magnet School Programs. I believe PBL is very helpful in not only increasing student understanding but in ENGAGING them in the first place, and establishing interest. PBL REQUIRES practice of skills as described in the "Framework for 21st Century Learning" such as self direction, flexibility, responsibility, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking.

STEM: the core of what students need to succeed in the 21st Century. Science drives new discoveries that are useful and sometimes necessary for life. Technology, as so many of the resources we read and viewed demonstrated, is key to getting things done and with sharing knowledge. Engineering brings the tools needed to study science and develop technology. Math is a core subject that is directly related to the other three STEM areas.

NASA: As we review what has come out of NASA above and beyond space exploration, how can we NOT see the relevance of this program in our everyday lives? The products that have been developed based on and built upon NASA research are phenomenal. The "NASA at Home and City" flash video provides an excellent overview of many of these products. By learning how NASA research led to the development of products such as scratch resistant glass lenses, UV blocking materials used in sunglasses, wireless headsets, Carbon Monoxide Detectors and many more opens our eyes to the value of Project-based learning and how working on one problem can lead to a myriad of other opportunities. 21st century education must help our students learn how to think and work this way.

Web 2.0

"Web 2.0" Tools are awesome!

It is always exciting to learn about and then try some new "free or low cost online software" which is what I have been calling it! In my position in the Clark County School District ( I am the Safe Routes to School Coordinator), we use several tools regularly. Animoto is one such program that we use to share some of our programs and to say thank you. Please feel free to check out a few of them:
· Thank you to participants in a Ride for Reading Event: Ride for Reading Video
· Thank you to participants in our interactive booth at the Las Vegas Science Expo: Sci. Expo Video

This tool can be very useful for short, easy student made productions that include photos. For example, students could photograph examples of a specific science related topic, such as examples of environmental temperature change (photos of thermometers, leaves changing colors/falling, animal fur growth/loss/color change, snow, rain, etc.) and post the video to a class Facebook page, Web site or other. This could be a simple assessment of how the student understands how temperature change affects the environment (Evaluation level in Bloom's).

Some Other Web 2.0 tools that I have used with applications for the students I work with are:

Google tools..for surveys, scheduling, data gathering. These can all be used by students in the classroom to conduct surveys, gather and post classroom data (makes science labs much more meaningful when data from several students in several classes is all gathered together.) This would again allow students to work at the Evaluation level (Bloom's) as they work with this collaboratively gathered information.

MOST EXCITING NEW IDEA FOR ME:
This is my first experience blogging for a purpose. I did start a blog once before to blog about a vacation, but never made it past the first posting. My daughter kept an awesome blog several years ago during her 9 month world trip. Not only was I able to live vicariously through her, I learned about many places to which she traveled, and the blog is still there to review and reminisce. Now, how to use it as an educational tool?

As I read in "Writing with Weblogs: Reinventing Student Journals", I realized that student blogs would be a wonderful way to have students keep journals while saving paper, and making them available for years to come.

How can I use it with students?
Grad Class 2016...a partnership with four of our CCSD schools and Lake Mead National Recreation Area!!
Every year until 2016, which is the 100th birthday of the National Park Service:
Provides, and will continue to provide, a field trip, learning experience, and volunteer activities every year with 4 groups of students. Ideally we would have the same students each year, but we know there will be some transiency into and out of the four schools we are working with. We do hope that in 2016 there will be a core group that have been with us from the start two years ago.
We are using paper journals now, but they will be LOST by 2016 with the transiency of students as well as by just the general responsibility level of the students involved. Wow, with blogs, we could create permanent journals!!

I can't wait to see if blog-journals will work with at least one of our Grad Class 2016 student partnership groups!