A fourth grade student was given a lengthy assignment that required much Internet “research.”  I put the word research in quotes since the word was used, but not necessarily in the spirit of its traditional meaning let alone its direct implications in science.

The student spent many hours searching Internet sites for the various facts necessary to complete the assignment. This was not the usual webquest task, but more like a term paper with a seemingly unlimited number of questions. As each answer was found, a website citation was required to be included with the content gleaned from the Internet.

Finally the student hit a wall. Although hard to believe, there seemed to be no information on the Internet about the very specific topic in question. At least none easily accessible with Google.

This so-called student of the twenty-first century, like many others when faced with a digital challenge, simply engineered a digital solution. In this particular case, the question on the assignment was entered into the Ask.com website where it was offered up to the world as one in need of an answer.

And in true web 2.0 form the same student then went ahead and submitted an answer to the question!

Now, with answer and citation in-hand, the ten-year old student soldiered on with his homework providing the answer and necessary web citation.

The story could end here except the student and assignment were not in a vacuum. Many other students were also working on the same assignment scouring the Internet for specific information at the same time. And with ask.com a popular site for answers, it’s easy to imagine that other diligent fourth graders will also cite the answer as found on “the internet” wholly unaware that the answer was supplied by a fellow student possibly only minutes before. While the debate about the appropriateness of such websites like ask.com is one for a later time, it was clear in this assignment that use of the website was acceptable.

Yes, this is an obvious case study in digital citizenship, the read-write web, academic honesty, and even plagiarism (see Plagiarizing Yourself in the Chronicle). It is also a case study in creative problem solving.

Interestingly this same forth grader appeared in this very blog one year ago when he pushed the limits on another assignment when in third grade.

What would happen if you could dive in and out of any particular moment of time within a brilliantly conceived visual interface that marries Prezi with the universe? Well, I’m not sure, but I bet it would look something like ChronoZoom.

I know it sounds silly or cliché but ChronoZoom (www.ChronoZoomproject.org) is really jaw dropping! ChronoZoom takes a 13.7 billion year timeline and makes it fast, easy, and intuitive to move through the history of the universe (or the earth, or humanity, or the industrial revolution) at whatever scale and speed you like.  One moment you are at the beginnings of chemical complexity, the next you are the origins of agriculture.

For many of the “thresholds” there are resources that can be zoomed into providing images, text, and movies.

ChronoZoom was funded by Microsoft Research Connections in collaboration with University California at Berkeley and Moscow State University (the one in Russia, not Idaho) Although it is still mostly empty space, that is something that will change rapidly as it gains traction across the curriculum.

As a free tool, ChronoZoom runs in a web browser like most other websites except the experience is dramatically more interactive.  The project is built on HTML 5 coding that allows it to run on almost any modern web browsing device, and movement around the timeline is smooth, fairly seamless, and best of all in my opinion is that it takes advantage of gesture-input devices giving it a much more natural flow then possible by a mouse alone.

According to the website, “ChronoZoom is an open source community project dedicated to visualizing the history of everything to bridge the gap between the humanities and sciences using the story of Big History to easily understand all this information.”

When zoomed into a topic or “threshold,” the available media presents itself and can be further zoomed into for consumption.

ChronoZoom reeks with potential including the suggested possibilities listed on the site such as:

• Ability to create my personal canvas/timeline/tours
• Ability to generate internal user bookmarks
• Generate a chart dynamically and place it where I want on the timeline
• Display curve and segmented line graphs, plot of events coded for magnitude
• Phylogenetic trees
• Svg drawing
• Filter Exhibits based on subject
• Choose data from data library
• Customize time direction up and down, down to up, left to right, right to left
• Comparison of timeline, Comparison of data, Comparison of data and timelines
• Ability to share my timeline or tour with others via social networking
• Ability to show uncertainty of dates (+/-)
• Ability to show a time range and not only just a specific date in time
• Ability to show multiple interpretations
• Ability to show geo-spacial data

While the traditional applications of ChronoZoom in the classroom are many, it will be the as-yet unimagined uses that will rock education. So take ChronoZoom for a ride and post your travel adventures here.

While much of the tablet-interested world was waiting for the latest iteration of the iPad to be announced today, there was another launch of a great looking “tablet” device yesterday. Vernier.com announced the next version of their LabQuest, the LabQuest 2.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Back in 2007, still years before the iPad was even in diapers, Vernier launched the LabQuest as stand-alone computer interface for their sensors that was more than a LabPro or TI84 graphing calculator, but less than a laptop computer. While revolutionary, and truly a game changer, science education continued advance over the past five years making a second version necessary.

The LabQuest 2 is a completely different form factor and appears to have embraced many of the features, operations, and shape we are used to with our other handheld devices.

It also appears that the fine folks at Vernier have not forgotten about the rest of our devices in that the LabQuest 2 can work with them as well through several connectivity options further changing the game. In fact, I’d go so far as to suggest that that very feature, called the Connected Science System, is an excellent example of a “disruptive technology” and will surely become an industry standard option in for all other similar devices in the future.

I cannot wait to get my hands on one! The release date is in April, but I suspect there will some on hand at our National Conference at the end of this month.

-

TED.com provides “Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world,” as videos (streaming, downloadable, podcasts, etc.) captured during the conferences. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design.

Here are some of my favorite TED videos, and this list corresponds to the list published in our Science 2.0 column this month along with a few more. I have many more favorites as well, but would like to give readers a chance to add to this list.

If you have other science/teaching related TED videos you would like to contribute to the list, please add them in the comments section with a web address and a brief description.

• Ken Robinson Says Schools Kill Creativity
• Bill Stone: Exploring Deep Caves (and Someday the Moon)
• Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry Demo SixthSense
• William Kamkwamba: How I Harnessed the Wind
• Dean Kamen: The Emotion Behind Invention
• Sheila Patek Clocks the Fastest Animals
• Janine Benyus Shares Nature’s Designs
• Theo Jansen Creates New Creatures
• Clifford Stoll on…Everything

Plus…

• Hans Rosling: New insights on poverty
• Blaise Aguera y Arcas runs through the Photosynth demo
• Stephen Hawking asks big questions about the universe

The launch of a formal, deliberate, across the board attempt to produce digital textbooks has arrived. Not just digital version of paper texts. Not just .pdf pages mimicking textbooks. Not just webpages trying to walk like a textbook. No, this is a sincere attempt to redefine the concept and use of a textbook firmly planted in the spirit of the digital. This means the strengths of a digital text are maximized while the weaknesses of such a thing are minimized.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The digital textbook has been around for as long as our digital imagination, which for me has been several decades. The list of challenges to making functional digital texts is lengthy, and by no means have all the items on the list been crossed out. But today we are closer than ever especially now that some serious weight, money and most importantly commitment has been thrown behind the effort.

On January 19^th, Apple launched several products designed to make digital textbooks not only a physical reality, but also a reality across multiple dimensions. First, there is iBooks 2, the primary vehicle for serving up the content to student eyeballs and ears. Second, there is iBooks Author, a free Mac desktop computer application for designing digital texts. Third, the bookstore in iTunes has a dedicated virtual shelf for digital textbooks. And finally, a formidable trio of major textbook publishers has jumped into the Apple digital textbook ecosystem with both feet.

While the iBookstore textbook shelves are pretty thin right now, the content that is available is promising, and will no doubt cause a conceptual redefinition of what a textbook actually is, as well as the expectations student will hold when they arrive to class. A Volume Purchase Program is also in the works so some of the current paradigms of buying digital content will shift as well.

One free digital textbook example that is available is E. O. Wilson’s Life on Earth. At the moment only the first few chapters have been created, but within those pages exist a magical expression of what textbooks could become, well, maybe are in this case. Life on Earth on an iPad held in the portrait position (vertical) produces more of a book-like presentation with 2/3 of the screen in text-heavy scrolling. Simply rotating the device 90 degrees to landscape completely changes the relationship between the words and visuals. Instantly graphics, pictures, videos, and JavaScript or HTML widgets take precedence with the text wrapping around the objects. Using a two-finger pinch-out gesture fills the screen with the imagery. A simple two-finger pinch-in shrinks the visual back to a conventional size. Landscape view also makes the movement through content in a page-turning simulation rather than the scrolling of portrait.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The free application program used to make digital books that play well in iBooks is called simply iBook Author. It has the look of a word processor and the buttons of a website building tool. Taking the software for a spin around the block, I couldn’t help but wonder how long it will take before schools, districts, or even organizations like NSTA collaborate on a grand scale to produce a textbook in a fraction of the time normally afforded to such tasks. Imagine 10 or 50 or 500 teachers each contributing a small but stunningly high quality slice of a digital text. Almost over night, a book perfect for the task goes from a floating light bulb above someone’s head to a complete and completely downloadable textbook. And should an error be found in the book, it can be fixed with an update just like we do almost daily with our other software.

As with many tech-driven changes in the educational ecosystem, digital textbooks will likely have as many unintended outcomes as intended ones. The entry of real digital (oxymoron?) textbooks will be a fun transition to watch, and as a teacher, even more fun to be a participant.

I recently talked with a high school senior who wants to become an elementary teacher. “Working with younger students, one thing I won’t have to think about is technology,” she said. She certainly has some misconceptions about elementary students! I thought about her as I read this issue of Science and Children and the examples of young students using technology for many tasks and in many contexts.

Space and technology seem to go hand in hand. To the Moon and Back show how students in Grades 2 and 3 used the Starry Night resource to gather data on phases of the moon and look for patterns and develop questions. The article includes a rubric, an example of a student journal entry, and a discussion of other technology application on the topic, including iPad/iPhone apps and online simulations. [SciLinks: Moon Phases]

The authors of Caught on Video use videos to document student projects. Students were both the subjects and the videographers as they demonstrated their work. The article has suggestions for incorporating more local videos in instruction. [SciLinks: Engineering Structures]

“No child left inside” could be the subtitle for Trail Blazers. The article describes a project in which 4^th-graders created field guides (on iPods) for the school’s nature trail. Starting with a site study, they also created kits for teachers to use with students to study weather on the trail. [SciLinks: Identifying Trees, Nature]

What technology (if any) is appropriate for primary students? Harness Your Tech Side includes resources from the NAEYC on technology integration in the younger grades and a lesson plan on using technology to create a class book. Smart Boards Rock has pictures of students (not the teacher) at the board, manipulating objects and words. [SciLinks: Rocks]

Virtual Inquiry Experiences incorporated technology into a study of pond insects. Students shared their specimens with scientists who shared (through videoconferencing) the use of an electron microscope—quite an experience for these young students. Another option for younger students as described in Time for Slime, is a digital microscope connected to a projector. The pictures of students show the benefits of  the large projected images. The formative assessment probe Representing Microscopic Life looks at student conceptions and misconceptions about microscope pond organisms. [SciLinks: Microscopes, Insects, Protozoa]

Classroom communications is changing, too. Not an Unfeasible “Extra” shows how students in 4^th grade are blogging about their science learning. The teacher-author offers suggestions for starting a blogging project and a rubric to assess the blog content. In Turtles and Technology, other 4^th graders took on a challenge to protect and advocate for an endangered species. They raised turtles to release in the wild used a variety of technology (blogging, producing videos, creating webpages, and even developing an online game) to inform the community of threats to the turtles.

After reading and reflecting on these articles, future elementary teachers have a lot to look forward to, with students who are very comfortable with technology. Secondary teachers have a lot to look forward to, also, as younger students become more familiar with technology as a tool for learning, communicating, and creating.

Several other articles have SciLinks connections: One Hungry Dinosaur  [SciLinks: Dinosaurs] and Simple Machines [SciLinks: Simple Machines] And check out more Connections for this issue (December 2011). Even if the article does not quite fit with your lesson agenda, there are ideas for handouts, background information sheets, data sheets, rubrics, and other resources.

I’m using probes in some of my chemistry labs, although I’m sure I could be doing more with them. In addition, I’m still trying to learn how to enhance lessons with the interactive board that was installed this year. I recently attended a workshop featuring several Web 2.0 tools that look interesting, but I now I’m feeling really overwhelmed. How can I keep up with all of these tools and strategies so I can teach my students how to use them?
—Julia from Oregon

I’m not sure anyone can “keep up with” the evolving tools and strategies in the field of educational technology. (I’ve been trying unsuccessfully for more than 25 years!) When I look at the entries on blogs such as the Free Technology for Teachers or suggestions from other educators via Twitter or the NSTA listserves I feel your frustration—too many cool tools for the science classroom and too little time to explore them! On top of all of the other day-to-day responsibilities of teaching, it seems impossible to learn about all of the available resources for science classes and design activities for students to learn about and use them in conjunction with the learning goals.

My principal had a saying: School seems to be the place where old people do most of the work while young people watch. So maybe it’s time to switch our model from the teacher as the know-it-all “sage on the stage.” If we want students to become lifelong learners, they need opportunities to learn independently and collaboratively with the teacher not only as a “guide on the side” but also as a partner in the process.

For example, when I was teaching a multimedia design elective, we received a multi-user license for a video editing program. I had dabbled with it, but I certainly did not know all of its capabilities. So I decided to get the students dabbling too. After a brief overview of what I knew, I gave each team of students a different section of the user manual. The students had to explore and experiment with the feature, edit one of their videos using that feature, give a demonstration to the rest of the class, and prepare a one-page introductory handout with step-by-step directions. As the assessment, the teams traded handouts and tried to follow the directions their peers had written.

At first some of the students were annoyed that, when they had a question, I replied, “I don’t know but I can try to help you figure it out.” I sat with each team to observe their problem-solving strategies and collaborative skills (and learn from them). I was astounded at what they figured out and produced in a few class periods.

Recently, a teacher did something similar with the Glogster tool. She showed students the site but then they had to figure out how to create a digital poster that summarized a lab investigation. Although this took a little longer than having students use the standard lab report template, the students had a chance to work collaboratively and incorporate their lab findings into a visual format. Next time, they’ll be more at ease, and the teacher learned about the tool from the students. I suspect she won’t abandon the traditional lab report format but will use this as an option.

This kind of strategy puts both the teacher and the students outside of their traditional comfort zones. The teacher is not the source of knowledge and the students are not passive receptacles. It requires some risk-taking to give responsibility for learning to the students. And students may be frustrated by their new role at first, asking, “Why don’t you just tell us what to do?” But these are the same students who—without formal instruction—have figured out the nuances of video games and mastered the art of texting.

Teachers also may be reluctant to try new things because of the time factor and the perceived need to cover a list of topics. But during the year there are pockets of time that students can use to explore new tools and strategies. For example, at the end of a unit when some students are making up assignments or retaking tests, other students could be exploring new uses for the probes, designing activities for the interactive board or web tools, and preparing demonstrations for the other students. The days before a long break can be also used for these explorations, rather than starting a unit and having to re-teach the concepts after the break.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnieutah/3432012705/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Being part of a military family, Veterans Day holds special significance for me. Members of my family have served in the Coast Guard, Navy, and Army. Wherever I am on Veterans Day, I seek out a way to reflect on the sacrifices and accomplishments of the men and women who serve in our armed forces. This year I had occasion to visit The National WWII Museum while in New Orleans for the National Science Teachers Association area conference. The scope of the exhibition galleries in this 11-year-old museum is overwhelming; the curators and historians took care to present an overview of the war in all theatres, with special emphasis on the amphibious invasions or D-Days. Moving from gallery to gallery, visitors see large-scale illustrations of battles across continents side by side with small objects soldiers carried and brought home, such as the metallic “cricket” clickers paratroopers used to signal one another in the French countryside. A soldier’s bullet-punctured helmet is displayed not far from a pocket Bible, carried by a Marine into battle in the Solomon Islands. In one gallery that focused on the war effort at home, I saw my reasons for being in New Orleans and at the museum come together in a compelling look at science and engineering that helped win World War II.

The exhibit supplies a summary of “Some Wartime Scientific and Technical Advances” that included the Jeep, high-octane gasoline, Teflon, synthetic cortisone, the electron microscope, and M&M’s. Penicillin, discovered and developed in 1928, was moved into mass production during the war, a boon to battlefield medicine. An engineering marvel that contributed greatly to the U.S.’s ability to ferry troops efficiently from sea to land was the Higgins landing craft, invented by Andrew Jackson Higgins of New Orleans. Higgins Industries and its affiliates manufactured more than 20,000 of these boats, which facilitated swifter landings of troops and equipment around the world. General Dwight Eisenhower is said to have called Higgins “the man who won the war for us.”

Another feature of this gallery is discussion of the extensive programs of conservation, salvage, and recycling the American public participated in to aid the war effort. In addition to adhering to rationing programs, Americans delivered tin foil, metal, used cooking oil, and nylon stockings to collection centers. These salvaged materials could be repurposed into shells, parachutes, and explosives. A gallery sign notes the salvage yields of some household items: 30,000 razor blades could yield 50 .30-caliber machine guns. And 30 lipstick cases could yield 20 ammunition cartridges.

As I moved through the museum, gaining a deeper understanding of World War II, I reflected on the American ingenuity and inventiveness that fueled many of the Allies’ strategies. Today’s military embodies this spirit of invention, continuously improving technology and equipment and advancing medical practice to improve care for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. In “With STEM, Almost Everything Is Possible,” Debra Shapiro writes of a remarkable advance in prosthetics research announced at the New Orleans NSTA conference by Colonel Geoffrey Ling, program manager for the Defense Science Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

As a student of science and of history, I could not have asked for more from my New Orleans experience this Veterans Day.  For a glimpse inside the NSTA conference, be sure to browse the NSTA Blog entries from New Orleans. For a virtual visit to The National WWII Museum, visit their website. Teachers and students should visit The National WWII Museum’s website “Science & Technology of World War II” for cool lessons and activities like “Moon Phases and Tides in Planning the D-Day Invasion,” “Waves, Sonar, and Radar” and “Send a Coded Message.”

This year, K–5 teachers from the Baltimore City (Maryland) Public Schools went from thinking they couldn’t teach STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and their students couldn’t learn it to expressing confidence in their skills and in their students’ abilities. This sea change resulted from an Elementary STEM Teacher Clinic held by STEM Master Teachers for teachers from struggling elementary schools with many high-poverty students and a predominantly African American population. The clinic provided 130 teachers from 22 schools with hands-on professional development during the summer and also with equipment, supplies, and books from the NSTA Picture-Perfect Science Lessons book collection, which contains standards-based science content and ready-to-teach lessons.

This morning in New Orleans, as part of the Urban Science Education Leadership (USEL) session, presenters from Baltimore City Public Schools described the clinic and how it transformed the teachers. One key to its success was “every teacher had a coach…having that coach is the most critical component,” said presenter Katya Denisova. When the teachers returned to school in the fall, they had the coach available in their school to help them operate software and equipment and answer their questions. Most of these teachers “had not been exposed to teaching rigorous STEM,” she pointed out. By the end of the clinic, however, their self-assessments showed they greatly increased their knowledge of and skills in scientific inquiry.

Presenter Linda Evans declared, “How great is it to see the kids actually touching things and doing things [in class]!” She said the curriculum was based on Common Core state standards, “infusing literature and using [Picture-Perfect Science Lessons] as the anchor” to “push in STEM, touch on all those content areas.”

Adren Kornegay of Baltimore’s Garrett Heights Elementary Middle School said the curriculum “hit all four of the types of science,” and engaged students as young as kindergarteners in engineering design challenges. Kindergarteners developed a recycling program; second graders designed habitats for hermit crabs and worms; fifth graders created wind turbines. Terrell Davis of Montebello Elementary Junior Academy said even the fifth graders enjoyed the curriculum’s picture books, which helped them “relate to the [STEM] concepts.”

Then the presenters gave the attendees some supplies and turned them loose to explore a motion-and-force activity related to the book Sheep in a Jeep. Groups of three teachers created ramps and rolled a tiny plastic sheep in a plastic jeep down them, then measured how far the sheep traveled. Just as their students would do, they varied the heights and lengths of the ramps and tried using sandpaper to see how it would affect the jeep’s motion. This “inquiry allows students to think for themselves,” observed presenter Evelyn Tolliver. Her students “connected all the ramps and were rolling cars across the classroom,” she said, smiling.

Denisova mentioned that the attendees and other K–5 teachers around the country could take advantage of the clinic’s curriculum, even though they won’t be in the next cohort. “We want you to be STEM advocates,” said Evans. “A lot of our elementary teachers are not comfortable with the content…They really do need support.”

The audience for Colonel Geoffrey Ling’s presentation had a treat yesterday. Ling, who is program manager for the Defense Science Office at Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), said that this conference was “the first national meeting” in which an “amazing breakthrough” would be announced. That breakthrough is a prosthetic arm that a person can control using his or her own brain—a miracle for our troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan and for others with injuries or disabilities.

Ling said DARPA was founded in the 1950s in response to Sputnik and was “set free” to work on “high-risk, high-payoff projects.” He asked teachers to share some great ideas for future science innovations, and each one they called out—such as teleportation and flying cars—may someday be possible, according to Ling, because of the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) that creates an “enabling technology. The enabling technology starts the process.”

He pointed out that many young children don’t know the meaning of “it can’t be done–in their own minds, it can be done.” Only when they grow up do they become “jaded” and closed to the possibilities. Ling says teachers need to be mindful of this and find ways to get students to expand their imaginations. “The brain is very adaptable..That’s like what teachers do [help young brains adapt].”

He also stressed the importance of student teamwork: “Always start with teams. It’s always a team [of scientists and engineers that create these innovations].” He said more than 200 scientists, engineers, physical therapists, and other experts worked on the prosthetic arm, “all inspired by [the] teachers” who taught them STEM.

Ling walked us through all of the steps taken to develop the prosthetic arm. Much of the work was accomplished using monkeys and studying their movements. The monkeys even assisted during the testing of the “remote control” of the arm. They learned how to control it by thinking about what they wanted it to do: Get it to grasp a food treat, then bring the treat to their mouths. Ling forsees that “30 years from now,” humans will drive a car by using their brains to control it. He also predicts “visual prosthetics are around the corner,” and artificial exoskeletons will enable elderly persons to regain movement. ”Grandma can ski again!,” he exclaimed.

During the Q&A portion that followed, educators asked Ling about other possible STEM innovations. For each one, Ling assured them it could be done—and DARPA was working on it. The audience’s amazement and delight was palpable.

To see videos of some of the amazing work of DARPA and its partners, go to

• www.jhuapl.edu
• www.darpa.mil

I talked to one enthusiastic attendee about what he appreciated about Ling’s talk.

Click here to view the embedded video.