I wrote this on July 1st.

I disappeared from my blog, but I managed to find it again in my site administrator.

It’s copied and pasted now for all to see once again.

A little about me,

Well seeing I’m writing this at 330 in the AM, I can be a night owl at times.

I grew up here in Rochester, just minutes from Charlotte Beach- so doing some studies there is a great personal interest to me. I’ve been up and down the pier there thousands of times. I used to run down there 4 to 5 times a week during the summers of my last 2 years of high school and throughout college. I still manage to ride my bike there now and again (my knees aren’t quite what they used to be- then again, neither is my waistline). Anyway, I love that water and I love that beach. Its condition is sad, I’m embarassed to bring friends from out of town by there because of the stink. Its an important part of my life and it needs to be fixed!!!!!

Along with my love of the water is the love of my family. They are the most important thing in my life. Nothing comes before them. Anyone of us would do anything, or give anything to help one another. I love them with all my heart. My heart that belongs to my fiaance. She has done so much for me, and made me look at the world in ways that I never thought I could. She is perfect, and I am the luckiest man on Earth since she is with me.
Things are going well! She has just graduated chiropractic college and is deciding where exactly she is going to practice. Its nice having her around- she keeps me in-line and aligned. OK that was bad, dumb chiropractic humor but she would appreciate it, well, maybe not. Anyway, we just moved into our first house together. Where? Where else? Charlotte!!!!! Both us have been so busy though, so getting the house in order has been slow going. It’s progressing though, we both love it!!

All this and I’m on my way to being a science teacher too. Why? I keep getting asked that question and it keeps changing around and I’m not always sure I’m saying what I want to say. So, as of today, I say this. Science has always been an interest to me + I love kids + I like to show and talk to people about stuff = I thought being a science teacher was a good idea. It seems like everything time I have a job or get involved with something I become a trainer. I guess I have a knack at presenting information I know to people, and helping them along with doing activities pertinant to this information on thier own.

I’ve heard “you should be a teacher” numerous times, from all sorts of people, in all sorts of situations. I finally stopped saying “yeah, maybe” and took some classes to see if it was something that would spark an interest in me. I’ve had my doubts at times, but the more I experience I just know I have to do this. I want this chance to be an influence on so many lives. I can’t wait until I find myself in the classroom.

While I still have much to figure out about my future as a science teacher, I know
many of the aspects I want to convey once I make it there. I want the students to truly keep an open mind. I want them to obtain, and maintain, the ability to question everything in the world around them. That they must not simply accept things thrown at them as “facts” or “common knowledge”. This ability to question is a must. Too often people develop a fear to ask a question because of how they may be judged for not knowing what society has deemed as “the answer”. Going along with this, I want my students to be willing to accept any of the questions from thier classmates, or anyone else for that matter.

I want to develop an inquistive classroom that works together to find common understandings to problems and situations that are presented to them.

NO PROBLEM- BRING EM ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

camp thursday 021

Originally uploaded by mightymarsh.

I just wanted to let all the campers know how impressed I was with the presentations. The PSA’s were awesome too- Are we going to see any of those on T.V. ? I can’t believe how much you were all able to accomplish in only one week’s time. I was a little worried about our presentations at first , but WOW, they came out great.

Did anybody see the front page of the Democrat and Chronicle today? Huge article about beach closures. I envision the campers talking about how they took part in the same sort of water testing that they tell of in the article. I hope they expand upon what is written. Tell others about main points that the article neglects like- the bacteria lurking in the sand, what sort of pollutants contribute to the algal blooms and the impact of the pier. I wish I could hear some of what they would say in reaction to this.

I hope some of them saw this article, it would be a great way for them to see how much thier work directly relates to tests done by other scientists in response to a major issue in thier own community.

One last time- Thanks to everybody involved in the camp- campers, counselors, Al, April, Sarah, parents, Rochester Scholars, the beach comber guy and anybody else I might have forgotten.

This was really an awesome experience for me!

camp day 3 009

Originally uploaded by Julward.

I just have to say once again how much I am enjoying this. It was great to hear that the campers have made so many connections from our activities during the week. When we ask questions, they’re not hesitating to come up with an answer, they’re shouting it out and it feels great. Our first practice run at the presentation had some bumps, no one was 100% sure who was going to talk about what. They took charge and made the decisions of how they wanted to present the material. It was nice to see them caring so much about what they were working on. They really seemed to become more solidified as a group today.

I was so bummed out that our sisters didn’t make it in today. I really would have liked to have seen them up on the chairs, screaming out thier highs and whispering the lows. I hope everything is OK- if you two get to read this, we miss you and loved having you in our group. It wasn’t quite the same today without those wonderful smiles from you two.

I just wanted to say thanks to Katie and Julie, you two have been so awesome.

I also want to say thank you to Al, Sarah and April. You guys are helping us get so much more from our short amount of time with the campers. I don’t think we are even realizing how much you three are doing for us. Everytime we need something you guys already have it there for us, if not you’re running around like mad to get it for us. I just wanted to let you know that all the “behind the scenes” parts of camp that you have done for us is greatly appreciated. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

Let’s wrap this up with another great day!!

camp day 3 008

Originally uploaded by mightymarsh.

It was a really cool day today. This was a fun time for us all playing a little pictionary and watching the campers try to draw some things like pollution and algae. This is really an important time, it seems a little break for a game really brings some smiles to the faces.

I was a little bummed at first because the Enviroscape didn’t seem to cause as much excitement as I thought it would. After our discussion I felt a little better about it though, because our group was making some really important connections from it. They were realizing a little more about how non-point pollution sources have an impact on Charlotte Beach. I was really happy about how Google Earth went. The kids were very excited to see us flying in from a view of Earth from space down to Charlotte Beach. They were fascinated with it and all of them asked how they could get to the site and if we were putting it on the blog.

It was also nice to see that even though they were a little frustrated at first with operating the microscopes, they kept trying and found some cool critters in the water samples. I loved watching them rushing their slides to the TV to show everyone some of the things they had found.

Another great day- Time to bring things together now!!

camp day 2 008

Originally uploaded by mightymarsh.

I really had a great day out there today! Our group did really well at working together to decide upon a design and collect the data. It was great to hear some of the comments the campers made on our bus ride home.

Talking about the “messiness of science”- the campers came up with some great points involving factors that could affect our data, as well as ways we could improve on our collection methods.
Such as:

-Having more time to sample (for more collection points and over more days)
-Suggesting that more techniques could be explored so that samples could be taken at points we did not have access to.
-Pointing out that we sampled at the same distance from shore each time, but the water depth varied as we moved along the beach.
-Making a great observation and connection, in that there was more waves today, so there would be more “stuff” brought into shore.
- Changes in wind speed and direction could change things.
-Suggesting that we should have wet suits since we all ended up dumping a lot of water out of wadders when they came off.

When asking them if they did some science today, they were all very quick to say YES! That felt great. I also loved that a camper said “It was better to experience it, instead of just sitting around and talking about it”. I kinda feel the same way about teaching. It’s nice to go out there and get a little wet.

Secchi disk demonstration 05

Originally uploaded by mightymarsh.

I really had a great time out at the beach today. I like our group a lot, and think were all going to do a great job. Some really cool things took place, but this was truly one of my favorite moments of the day. One of the campers had already had some experience with a Secchi disk from a prior investigation he was involved with. I asked if he would mind showing our group how to use the Secchi disk and explain a little about what it is used for. He was quick to jump at my offer and did a really great job!! The student doing the teaching- I LOVE IT! Hopefully we’ll see some more of this from the group throughout our time together.

This is a great site for printing out ID charts for examination of pond/lake waters.

There are tons of charts with very clear pics of plants and critters- check it out!!

I was exposed to concept maps for the first time a couple of years ago. I found them to be really interesting but I haven’t had any exposure to them until our class time with them. In our little bit of time with them I am interested even more now. I love having the ability of adding Internet links to the C-maps. What a great way to allow someone to deeply explore a concept within the map. This feature can make a C-map three-dimensional, by adding doorways to inner links of knowledge within the two-dimensional concepts and links you see in front of you on the map. What an awesome way to extend beyond the ideas that simply lie in front of you, I love it.

I really liked Novak’s explanation of human memory as “not a single vessel to be filled, but rather a complex set of interrelated memory systems”. This is the way our minds work, but for most part, “learning” still takes place by filling up a young person’s memory with facts and figures without any understanding of the connections between the ideas that are being presented. This is why it is hardest to add the linking words to the C-maps. Poor links between the concepts in the map can definitely be equilibrated with a poor understanding of the relationships between concepts, and point to a need for clarification of the material being presented.

Novak also stresses the point that a C-map is never complete. This is very important, as it allows for revision due to misunderstandings, and also for additions due to deeper understanding of the concepts and their links to other concepts. This in itself is a great concept that we all should come to understand- that knowledge is something that is to be reformed and built upon as learning takes place since it is never truly complete.

Flick’s article goes into a variety of the elements of scaffolding that work to create inquiry in a science classroom. I really liked how he showed the importance of the scaffolding that takes place within the Reflections time in this teacher’s classroom. Opportunities for true inquiry can take place within this timeframe, due to the allowance for open-ended thinking. Students are free to think on their own, in order to develop personal interpretations and draw conclusions based upon information they have gathered. They are allowed to do this without the worry of trying to find a specific answer a prescribed textbook question. They’re using their minds to develop ideas and concepts of their own, without the fear of being right or wrong. Inquiry comes from the struggle of trying to understand something, not simply completing the task of memorizing the known answer to a question.

I also liked that point made in the article that student activity is not to be equated with understanding science. Flick expands upon this by stating that even if all students are actively participating in an activity, some may still not be actively engaged. This makes a very important distinction between participation and engagement, letting it be known that they are not one in the same. Every student can take part in a hands-on activity, but they may not all be getting the same out of that activity. I feel as though this can reinforce the importance of the Reflections time, and how group discussion can help extract the knowledge that can be constructed from information gathered in the activity. This can only allow for some of the students who may have been disengaged during the activity to still take something away from it, and further understand the “bigger picture” that comes from its purposes.

One of the most significant events taking place in our experiment for me came after our presentation. We made a hypothesis that the plume from the river would cause the lake on eastern side of the piers to have a greater conductivity and less clarity than the western side. Our data did not show this, so we struggled to try to come up with explanations as to why our hypothesis was not supported by our numbers. As it turned out, on most days our data would have supported our hypothesis. Charlie was helpful to us in noting that the wind direction would have caused the river to empty more into the western side of the lake. So- we may have been right about the effects of the river on the lake’s water quality, we had just not taken into account the variable of wind on the direction that the plume flows from the river. New contributions from our collaboration with the scientific community allowed for us to rethink our conclusions made from our collected data.

I also wanted to say a little about how we functioned as a group. Mike, Tara and myself all have our own backgrounds and all made our own types contributions to the project, but I feel that in the end we all had a common understanding to our presentation as a whole. What usually happens in past group experiences I have been involved in is that one person takes over and does almost everything him or herself- or the project is broken into parts and individually presented as so. This wasn’t the case with us. We had trouble breaking up the presentation because we had all made the whole thing together and all of us knew the whole thing pretty equally. We did split it up, but we were all free to add points as the others presented since we all understood the project as a whole.

At one point in our presentation, I found myself stumbling to find the word “phytoplankton” when discussing Zebra Mussels and their impact on the problem in Charlotte (something we didn’t even plan to discuss). Tara was there to politely add the word I was looking for so I could continue on. By the way – “thanks again Tara”. We were really on the same page and ready to step in if points were missed.

If anything I was happy that our group came together better than other groups I have been involved with (even despite having to do quite a bit of work in a very short period of time). Helps put some faith into community of learners. While it was a bit stressful, thank you Tara, Mike and the rest of our class!