Since this
unit is 'well' underway now, I feel like a 'reformed' or
'converted' teacher!!!!
I sort of went
into this 'not that excited', and a little bit skeptical
about how much the kids could handle on their own... I am
totally sold on Event-Based Science
now!!!!
It is amazing to
walk into the classroom and see the kids beginning work
without being told what to do.. We had a great idea
evolve yesterday... we put all the 'patient' names on a
circle and the task for each group was to find the
'connections' between them, and draw a line from one to
the next... (same bus, same school, etc.). One group
thought of color coding their lines to indicate the
'connections' (red line = central high, etc.). It was
great! From this circle - web it was obvious that Timothy
Bellows had the most contacts... my kids are all
convinced that he started the outbreak...however, they
also are reminded that just one other person could be the
source who gave it to him... an so on.
One student
wouldn't let the 5 'unconnected' community members go so
easily... he felt Bill Neighbors (retired gardener)
needed to be questioned further about his whereabouts
during the day! These 'characters' are becoming too real
for us!---We call them by first names now! I hope my
students don't take it too badly when they find out the
seriousness of the illnesses some of them
have!
Tomorrow well
get into the lab reports. By the way... many of the
groups came up with the idea of putting the patient info
on cards.. but a few cautious ones want to 'back up' the
files in their journals, just in case something happens
to the cards!
Everyday we work
on Outbreak! I feel more amazed at how reluctant I
was to start this... I was a traditional biology major in
college, did some biochemistry research, am very
interested in CONTENT and the PROCESS of science.. but I
couldn't quite imagine how EBS would work. It SEEMED so
unstructured!
But this is
great... I come in everyday and the kids are so excited..
Today they were disappointed that Tim Bellows only has a
low hemoglobin count. Anyway, my colleague Michelle used
the unit last year and to tell you the truth, when I saw
her kids coloring and pasting, making posters... I
thought... 'How UNSCIENTIFIC' But now I see the
importance of such team building activities. I worked in
an NIH lab this past summer and I learned the meaning of
a good beginning. Kids need time to think about what's
coming next.. we tend to rush them through so
much!
Yvette
