Computational Thinking in Computer Science: Video
See the link above to visit Youtube to hear my discussion on discipline-specific literacy within the Computer Science field!
Interactive Infographic
Impacts of Climate Change on Society
Click the link above to view the interactive version of the infographic below.
The use of an infographic deepens understanding of a topic in two ways. The first way is that when students are drafting the infographic, they need to close read the text in order to select the most important information from the text. The second way is that when a reader interacts with a finished infographic, they are exposed to information that is not only important, but also visually appealing and exciting.
Students must be intentional in what they place on an infographic, and the flow of the presentation must make sense. While drafting the above example, I had to read and reference the text several times. The first time I read through the text was to gain an understanding of what was included in the text. The second time I read through it, I determined what sections were the most important to what I wanted others to understand about the topic. Once I selected my sections, I read through them again to pick out the main ideas and essential information for each section. Once I knew what I wanted to include in the infographic, I began to plan each part of the final product. After my plan was made, I had to interact with the text, yet again, in order to synthesize the information and make it my own. That’s a total of four interactions with the text.
Throughout my creation, I also realized I had questions about the information and researched the answers. I felt compelled to include that new information in my presentation, adding to what was required in terms of text. I also found the interactive map to be really cool, and found a way to integrate it into my infographic, but had to find additional information to make this “really cool” feature work. I can visualize my students following a similar path in their creations of an infographic, especially because they spend tedious amounts of time making their PowerPoint presentations “pretty”.
Honestly, I am proud of my creation and I would share it at any moment I could. I can see my students being excited to explain their infographics to the class, and show off what they were able to accomplish. The final product looks very polished and professional, something that student drawings can lack (and some students are painfully aware of this and embarrassed to share their own drawings).
Beginning mid-November of the 2018-2019 school year, seventh graders throughout MPS will begin learning about weather and climate, and the different factors that affect both. My seventh grade bilingual students will be learning about these same concepts, while working on answering the question of how structures can be improved to reduce the amount of damage as a result of severe weather conditions. As a final summative assessment, students will be responsible for the following:
- Ask: Identify the extreme condition and research impacts the extreme condition has on building structures in a region and city of your choice that experiences severe weather.
- Research and Design: Explain why the extreme condition exists connecting to climatic features including but not limited to air mass interactions, atmosphere and oceanic impacts.
- Plan: Teams will design structures that can withstand the extreme weather of the region.
- Create: Teams will create structures following their detailed plans.
- Test and Improve: Test the structures using heat (light), water (watering can), and wind (fan or hair dryer). Then, modify the structure as needed and retest.
- Present: Collect all your findings and present this to your city planning team.
All texts analyzed in this blog post will be used with the intention of preparing students to execute proficient work on their final summative assessment of the weather and climate unit. Each text provides essential background knowledge and discussion topics students must keep in mind while developing their designs.
Because of the structure of bilingual education, this unit will be taught to students in Spanish. All texts will be provided in the Spanish language.
Print Based Texts
NASA (2017) What’s the Difference Between Weather and Climate? Newsela. Retrieved from: https://newsela.com/read/lib-nasa-difference-weather-climate/id/25790/
Summary
This text discusses the difference between weather and climate, how each impact global communities, and how they have changed over time. It may not be immediately clear to students that weather and climate are not synonymous with one another and that weather patterns and climate conditions not only differ from one area of the world to another, but that they have also been changing as a result of climate change. This article provides these concepts for students.
Text Complexity
Quantitative Information
I will be using this text in Spanish when I teach my students, but was unable to find a resource similar to StoryToolz to analyze the quantitative text complexity for a text in a language other than English. I did use Newsela as my source which does include different lexile leveled texts. In Spanish, the lexile level I have chosen for students to read is 740, and in the English text there is a lexile level of 730. Using StoryToolz, I have analyzed the English version.
According to StoryToolz, the average grade level of this text is 7.3 (which would be on target for my 7th grade students), there are a total of 579 words, the average word length is five characters, there are on average 10.3 words per sentence, and there are 53 total sentences. I do agree with the classification of the text being at a seventh grade level, because I believe aside from the word and sentence count, the information is presented in a way that students can understand. The information is easily understandable, and organized in a manner that is helpful to students.
Qualitative Information
From the qualitative lens, this text is easy to read and concepts are easy to understand. The difference between weather and climate is clearly defined for students. For example, in the introduction of the article the text states, “the atmosphere causes changes in weather that you may notice from day to day. Climate is how the atmosphere acts over a long time.” This information is shared with students before they begin to read the rest of the article, so they are able to compartmentalize the information separating weather and climate from the beginning. This text will serve to reinforce the information discussed in their text books, and to inspire further conversation surrounding human impact on weather and climate.
Newsela also has in-text features that allow students to highlight text, take notes, and look up unfamiliar vocabulary to help them navigate the concepts.
Prior to reading this article, students will have read a textbook chapter on both weather and climate so they will have some understanding of the two. Students are also familiar with the concept of weather, as it has been studied related concepts in earlier grades, and weather is something the are able to experience everyday.
Vocabulary students may find difficult
atmósfera, variabilidad, corto plazo, cuán, promedio, granizo, transcurso, pastoreo, invernadero, carbón.
Additional print based texts
(2018) Severe Weather. Discovery Education Techbook. Retrieved from; https://app.discoveryeducation.com/learn/techbook/units/2fa811d9-aafb-44e5-be32-68c440cbb155/concepts/adaf3c0f-d80d-4a54-9b99-1c19b26dc763.
Multimedia Texts
Compton, Dusty (2011) ‘We won’t let you be forgotten’: Obama’s pledge to storm-hit people of Alabama as death toll across the South reaches 329 and it becomes America’s deadliest tornado since Great Depression. Daily Mail Reporter. Retrieved from: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1381398/US-storms-297-dead-thousands-homes-destroyed-tornado-outbreak.html.
Images:
Caption: Before the destruction: The same block of properties in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, before the storms. Seven southern U.S. states were affected by the killer storms.
Caption: Ruins: An aerial view of tornado damage shows entire block of homes in ruins in Tuscaloosa. The death toll of nearly 300 throughout the six affected states is expected to rise further still.
Summary
These two photos compare the before and after photos of damage to a block of properties due to a tornado in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 2011.
Text Complexity
Quantitative Information
The text portion of this selection is quite small. Students will be required to read a total of four sentences or 58 words. According to StoryToolz, in English, the average grade level for this particular text is set at 6.8 which is appropriate for the age range of selected students. This text will be translated into Spanish by the teacher which will allow for the grade level to stay the same, drop, or increase (providing opportunities for differentiation aside from sharing verbally what the text says). Information is easily understandable, especially with the help of the images.
Qualitative Information
Students are able to identify with these images immediately, and can easily draw surface conclusions about what the images show. The images make the extent of damage from the tornado evident. There are topics involved that may be harder for students to identify. These topics include, but are not limited to:
-Social repercussions of destruction
-Monetary responsibility
-Engineering solutions to prevent future devastation
Students will need facilitation in their discussion and though processes regarding these subjects as it is possible many, if not most, of them have been a victim of this type of severe weather. Because of the high number of students my school received after Hurricane Maria, there may be a few students very familiar with these concepts and will be able to shed light into the horrors of the aftermath of severe weather.
Vocabulary students might find difficult
aerial, death toll
Additional multimedia texts
(2018) Categories of Severe Weather and Destruction. Discovery Education Techbook. Retrieved from; https://app.discoveryeducation.com/learn/techbook/units/2fa811d9-aafb-44e5-be32-68c440cbb155/concepts/adaf3c0f-d80d-4a54-9b99-1c19b26dc763/tabs/759da9a7-2edf-4cde-9515-7081ca990764/pages/32e20d7d-c3fe-4056-9665-63789004362e.
Culturally Relevant Texts
Viglucci, Andres (2019) La mitad de las casas en Puerto Rico se construyeron sin permiso. Entonces llegó María. El Nuevo Herald. Retrieved from: https://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/estados-unidos/article199952569.html.
Summary
This news article from 2018 discusses the unique challenge survivors and victims of Hurricane Maria face in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, being a commonwealth of the United States, follows the same construction codes as Florida, however the enforcement of these codes is not enforced with the same toughness, leading to homes built illegally throughout the island. The article estimates that as many as one million homes are built without the correct permits.
The residents of these “illegal” homes are facing great destruction and the government of Puerto Rico is unsure if federal funds, if made available, will cover the repairs of damage because the correct permits are not available. The article poses a large social problem, which is something for students to think about while they are designing their weather-proof structures. If they are to pitch their ideas to a city counsel, the designs must be affordable and practical for the average resident of the region and city they have selected.
The reason this text is culturally relevant, is that many of our students have extensive family currently living in Puerto Rico, or have come to live in Milwaukee following the destruction of Hurricane Maria. This article directly connects the content to them.
Text Complexity
Quantitative Information
There are a total of 2,245 words in this article, one video, and six images for students to view. Because of the reading being exclusively in Spanish, I am unable to find information from StoryToolz regarding the grade level equivalent of the article. Based on my observations and use of StoryTools, I would believe this article to be slightly above a seventh grade reading level, although, with the use of various skills such as close reading and annotation, and strategies such as one-sentence-summaries and 3-2-1 summaries, I believe this article to be accessible to students. Of course, the proper supports would need to be in place.
Qualitative Information
This article will draw students in and give them ownership of the project as they will be able to visualize both themselves and their families in need of the final products they are tasked with designing. Students will need help understanding why construction and building codes exist, why many Puerto Ricans did not secure the proper codes prior to building a property, and why Puerto Rico does not enforce these same codes with the same fidelity as the United States. In middle school, many social problems are difficult for students to understand because they are beginning to transition into a more independent phase of their lives causing them to be more self-centered and less open to the needs of others.
Vocabulary students might find difficult
Informalmente, hormigón, zinc corrugado, magros ingresos de jubilada, régimen, núcleos familiares, damnificados, anuencia
Additional culturally relevant texts
Noticieros Televisa (2017) Ficha técnica del sismo de 19 de septiembre de 2017 en México. Televisa News. Retrieved from: https://noticieros.televisa.com/ultimas-noticias/ficha-tecnica-sismo-19-septiembre-2017-mexico/
The integration of the engineering and design process through use of project based learning (PBL) in order to assess student’s understanding of the Next Generation Science Standards’ (NGSS) Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs) is an area of curriculum development I would like to introduce into my classroom environment. According to the NGSS, in order for students to master the practice of “engineering design” they must be able to, “define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principals and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions” (NGSS, 2018).
Flowchart of the Engineering Design Process
Let’s unpack that science standard from a literacy point of view. The second half of the sentence give us the purpose of the design problem. Students must understand there is a problem in their communities (whether that be local, national, or global) that include scientific phenomena and must be solved using the knowledge surrounding the aforementioned phenomena. Here is where we as teachers need to explicitly show students the connection between science content and the world around them in order to improve conditions for ourselves as humans, but also taking into account the world around us. Through analyzing various texts, videos, photos, social media posts, and more students can begin to construct a solution to the problem, and provide a rationale for their decisions. By giving students a problem to solve, we are allowing them to accept the role of engineer, city planner, activist, scientist, and most importantly, a member of the societies in which they thrive.
But how do we achieve this? How can we find meaningful and relevant texts for students to use in order to inspire them to create solutions to problems facing their communities? And how can we help students to analyze these texts, not only with fidelity, but also independently? Below are a few links to resources teachers may use to select texts regarding problems we face locally, nationally, and globally:
Welcome to STEM Genius! I am extremely excited to be blogging my experiences with STEM literacy concepts throughout not just the next semester, but also throughout my career. I have a strong passion for writing and teaching interdisciplinary STEM curriculum but sometimes struggle with the literacy component. I plan to use live curriculum when discussing literacy concepts throughout this course, and will immediately apply my knowledge when developing new STEM units.
Here’s a bit about me. I am a second year teacher at Audubon Technology and Communication Middle school teaching on an emergency license. I currently teach seventh grade bilingual science, English Language Arts, Spanish Language Arts, and an all girl’s coding and robotics class.
Since I was a child, I knew I wanted to be a language arts teacher. I loved everything about my English and Spanish classes, and couldn’t wait to share my passion with other students for years to come. Science on the other hand, was a disaster for me. I recall long conversations with my parents when grades came out. They always ended in tears. So you can imagine my fear when I found out prior to my first year I had to teach science as well.
Something interesting happened. I found language arts to be extremely challenging to teach, while science was a blast for both myself, and my class. I slowly realized that because I struggled so much with science throughout my academic career, I was able to identify with all of my students and found ways to help them understand the content or present it in a way that made them eager to learn.
This has led to some very exciting professional opportunities for me. I am on my school’s STEM team, and work with the MPS science department as a “Teacher STEM Ambassador” (TSA) developing interdisciplinary middle school STEM curriculum. If you are unfamiliar with interdisciplinary STEM curriculum please visit the following link: Mapping STEM Into the Curriculum. I am also working with the UWM ACCESS CRP grant to develop a middle school girl’s coding and robotics team.
I am looking forward to finding pathways for including literacy in my STEM units and expanding my capacity to teach English Language Arts and Spanish Language Arts. I am a firm believer of an interdisciplinary approach for each skill students need to master in order to become well-educated individuals. Let’s read, write, listen, and speak like scientists, mathematicians, artists, authors, engineers, and beyond!
“If you fail, never give up because F.A.I.L. means “First Attempt In Learning”
— A.P.J Abdul Kalam
STEM Genius 