Welcome to the New Year! Start 2020 off with some 3D Science!

A 3D Lesson in Action ... the real thing - no frills!
The first slide has a video embedded showing a 3D lesson on Osmosis and Diffusion that Cookie completed with her students in December. This is raw video - the entire lesson is there. The supporting slides for the short unit follow in the slideshow.

 

Join the 3D Cafe at STANYS

The Northeastern Section’s 3D Science Café Team is bringing an exciting series of workshops to the annual STANYS conference! 

A-05 Saturday 9:30 A.M. - 10:30 A.M. Convention Center, Highland E
3D Science Cafe: Fun-Size Science: K-5 Science in a 15 Minute Bite!

Gr. K - 5 Teachers, Gr. 6 - 8 Teachers, Elementary Level, Intermediate Level 

Elementary educators are often faced with the dilemma of instructional time for Science. In this workshop, 3-D lessons addressing the NYSSLS standards will be demonstrated in a series of fun-size instructional activities at 15 minutes or less. Sample 3-D lesson series will be demonstrated for both lower and upper elementary. Lessons will engage learners in phenomena, lead them to develop questions, investigate, and make claims about the world using developmentally appropriate instruction strategies. This is a Level 2 workshop intended for K-5 to help you engage in the NYSSLS standards.

Sarah Silvernail NYSMT, SAR Elementary Northeastern

D-40 Sunday 8:00 A.M. - 9:00 A.M. Hyatt Regency, Ballroom A

3D Science Café: Using Student Guides to Navigate the NYSSLS 3-D Landscape...

All levels, Professional Development 

If you are looking for a way to help your students navigate the world of 3-dimensional learning as well as to organize your instruction, this is the workshop for you! Facilitators will share examples of student guides and walk participants through the process of creating their own student guides by modifying templates provided on the 3D Science Cafe Blog. To make the most of this workshop, BYOD. This is a Level 2 workshop intended for all content areas and levels to help you extend NYSSLS standards through lessons and assessments with a framework for student thinking and learning.

Cookie Barker NYSMT, SAR Biology Northeastern; Sarah Fink NYSMT, SAR Applied Sciences Northeastern 

H-04 Monday 8:00 A.M. - 9:00 A.M. Convention Center, Highland D

Know the Destination

Gr. 6 - 8 Teachers, Gr. 9 - 12 Teachers, Intermediate Level, Biology 

Effective instruction requires knowledge of your end goal, or destination. As instructional practice transitions to reflect the 3 dimensions of NYSSLS, assessments must adapt to measure a greater depth of student understanding and application. Explore existing resources for both formative and summative assessment. Increase understanding of how performance expectations drive instruction. Experience digital and traditional tools that can be integrated to enhance assessment. BYOD for a more immersive experience. This is a Level 3 workshop intended for intermediate level science to help you evaluate NYSSLS standards.

Rebecca Shuman NYSMT, SAR Intermediate Northeastern 

H-16 Monday 8:00 A.M. - 9:00 A.M. Convention Center, Aqueduct CD

3D Science Cafe: Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking in Middle School

Gr. 6 - 8 Teachers, Intermediate Level 

Participants will explore grade appropriate strategies for using Mathematics and Computational thinking in the science classroom. Learn to use tools such as graphing calculators, web based data analysis tools, and computational simulations to support scientific explanations. To make the most of this workshop, BYOD. This is a Level 2 workshop intended for all content areas and levels to help you extend NYSSLS standards through lessons and assessments with a framework for student thinking and learning.

Charlene Rydgren NYSMT, SAR Physics Northeastern 

H-40 Monday 8:00 A.M. - 9:00 A.M. Hyatt Regency, Ballroom A

Traveling on the NYSSLS Highway: Engage and Explore

Gr. 6 - 8 Teachers, Gr. 9 - 12 Teachers, Professional Development 

Learning to navigate the NYSSLS can be an overwhelming task. Participants will explore the NYSSLS and Engage in a 3D lesson. Experience what a 3D lesson looks like and Explore new shifts in 3-dimensional learning and phenomena to use in your classroom. Analyze the Science and Engineering Practices and Crosscutting concepts inherent in the 3D lesson. Participants will have time to look at resources and explore the 3D Science Café Blog. This is a Level 1 workshop intended for secondary level science.

Sandra Wilkins, SAR Special Education Northeastern; Kathleen Howard, Plattsburgh City School District 

I-10 Monday 9:30 A.M. - 10:30 A.M. Convention Center, Highland K 

3D Science Café: Curiosity, Questions, and Claims

Gr. 9 - 12 Teachers, Gr. 6 - 8 Teachers, Earth Science, Intermediate Level 

Finding good phenomena for 3-dimensional lessons can be tough! This workshop will focus on providing you tools to peak your student interest and inspire the curiosity that will help them question their understanding of the world. Participants will engage in a lesson and learn to use whiteboards to develop and strengthen student modeling. These tools will be used to construct strong Claim, Evidence, Reasoning statements about the lesson that could be applied to alternate phenomena. Participants will collaborate on resources to enhance content driven phenomena. This is a Level 1 workshop intended for middle/high teachers to explore the NYSSLS techniques to develop stronger student learners.

Kaitlin Fielder NYSMT, SAR Earth Science Northeastern 

I-16 Monday 9:30 A.M. - 10:30 A.M. Convention Center, Aqueduct CD

3D Science Cafe: Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking in High School

Gr. 9 - 12 Teachers, Physics 

Participants will explore grade appropriate strategies for using Mathematics and Computational thinking in the science classroom. Learn to use tools such as graphing calculators, web based data analysis tools, and computational simulations to support scientific explanations. To make the most of this workshop, BYOD. This is a Level 2 workshop intended for all content areas and levels to help you extend NYSSLS standards through lessons and assessments with a framework for student thinking and learning.

Charlene Rydgren NYSMT, SAR Physics Northeastern 

I-27 Monday 9:30 A.M. - 10:30 A.M. Rochester Riverside, Fitzhugh 

3D Science Café: A Roadmap to Units and Storylines

All levels, Professional Development 

You’ve been writing NYSSLS lessons and jumping into 3-dimensional teaching! This workshop is designed to help you take those lessons from a series of waypoints and turn them into a cohesive unit storyline. Facilitators will share several approaches to unit planning and walk participants through the process of unpacking Performance Expectations by modifying templates provided on the 3D Science Cafe Blog. This is a Level 3 workshop intended for science teachers in all areas / grade levels to help you extend your current work with the NYSSLS standards.

Sarah Fink NYSMT, SAR Applied Sciences Northeastern; Cookie Barker NYSMT, SAR Biology Northeastern 

And finally... new this year! Don't leave the conference without taking the opportunity to plan something for your classroom... refine what you learned this weekend during our collaborative work session!

J-27 Monday 11:00 A.M. - 12:00 P.M. Rochester Riverside, Fitzhugh
NYSSLS “Roadside Assistance”: Collaborate with the 3D Science Cafe

All levels, Professional Development
As the annual conference comes to a close, you’ve gathered so many great resources and ideas. Don’t leave wondering when you’ll find the time to take the next step, because the time is NOW! Come collaborate with facilitators from the 3D Science Cafe and gather with fellow educators to dig in to what YOU feel is important for YOUR classroom. You bring an idea, we’ll provide the support you need to bring it to life. This is a workshop intended for teachers of ALL grades, content areas, and comfort levels with the NYSSLS.
Sarah Fink NYSMT, SAR Applied Sciences Northeastern; Cookie Barker NYSMT, SAR Biology Northeastern 

We can't wait to see you this weekend at STANYS 2019! Stop by the Northeastern booth during the Hall of Sections!

Guest post: NYSSLS Transitions, by Jennifer Borowicz

A quick note from the 3D Cafe...

We've got a great post from guest blogger Jennifer Borowicz, a teacher that we've collaborated with several times in the past few years. Jennifer has some great thoughts and questions for us all about the NYSSLS transition. We'd love to have you post a comment or send her a direct email (jborowicz@wscschools.org) to share your reflections on how this works (or doesn't!) in your classroom. Thanks!! --Sarah and Cookie

***

As a guest posting on the North Country 3D Science Café Blog I’m excited to have this opportunity to reach out to others who are incorporating 3D teaching into their classrooms as we transition to NYSSLS.  My name is Jennifer Borowicz and I teach various levels of Living Environment in a suburb of Buffalo.  

In trying to make more strides in transitioning to 3D teaching in my classroom I’m finding that I struggle with how to fully intertwine the science and engineering practices, the cross cutting concepts and the disciplinary core ideas.  At this stage I might be able to incorporate a science and engineering practice, but can’t seem to cohesively structure lessons to have students performing multiple practices to uncover the content for themselves. To try and climb over that stumbling block I have reached for the NYSSLS document for footholds along the way.  However, I’ve found that in trying to firmly plant my feet in those footholds I face larger questions that make the footholds slippery for me. Seeing as my footholds are currently slippery I’m looking to others for support to provide the harness to keep me climbing towards 3D teaching and not falling back down to the ground.  I’m wondering what others might have to offer regarding the following questions. 

1. How are you bridging the transition from our current standards to NYSSLS?  When I go to the NYSSLS document for support and guidance I sometimes find that content I have been teaching may no longer be at the high school level or the focus on the content might be slightly different in the connections the students are expected to make. This is contributing to my struggle in how to build and incorporate 3D lessons and I’m wondering how others are handling this situation.
2. How are you approaching content that you are accustomed to teaching that may now only be directly a DCI at a lower level?  This too is disrupting my thinking. I cannot currently omit testable content and even in the future some of that content would seem to require a place in my lessons for full understanding of the NYSSLS DCIs or simply to refresh prior content knowledge to build knowledge at the high school level.  I’m not sure how to approach transitioning with content changes.
3. How do you work towards incorporating multiple practices throughout a cohesive set of lessons?  I seem to incorporate one practice but then get stuck in how to plan lessons around multiple practices.  So, I have lessons with a practice injected in a place I seem to be able to make it fit. But, then I revert to providing students information.  I don’t have cohesive lessons with multiple practices. I have more traditional lessons with a practice inserted somewhere and I am hanging out in that spot on my climb.  I’m interested in how others have made it past that point.

I have high hopes for what can happen in my classroom and what my students are capable of doing as young scientists in my classroom.  I just need to keep climbing until I can get to a point to provide them the opportunities to be those young scientists in my classroom and I appreciate the support of others as I make that climb.  If you would like to reach me directly my email is jborowicz@wscschools.org.  Thanks for reading and any thoughts you may have as I hang on and keep climbing.

Floating Letters- an Introduction to Observation and Inference

Lightning Before Thunder

This lesson was originally a 3 day exploration in the properties of light waves versus sound waves. While writing this post I realized this is exactly what students need to know to understand why we see lightning before we hear thunder. I plan to tinker with this idea more next year to better connect the phenomena to the student explorations.

Digital Killed the Radio Star

This is my first attempt at integrating MS-PS 4-3 "Waves and their application in technologies for information transfer".

Drop it Like its Hot (a thermal energy transfer lesson)

This is very much a WORK IN PROGRESS! I identified some much needed areas of improvement, but I'd love to hear your suggestions/ feedback. If you try it out, let me know your experiences. A huge thank-you to Sarah Fink for the original idea. I ran with it.... we'll see where it lands.

Saving Barbie's Life (UPDATED)

UPDATED "Saving Barbie's Life" features a student guide and examples of student work. Classroom slides and student guide can be found here.

Reproduction: Increase the odds

While reviewing the standards regarding "Heredity, Growth and Development" I found that I hadn't addressed animal behaviors that influenced reproduction. This short lesson was an effort to engage students in reasoning about the needs of such adaptations, and provided a lead-in to our upcoming "Change Over Time" unit. The slides for this lesson can be found here.

Updated Version of Hot Ice (Chemistry)

I posted my first attempt of the Hot Ice demo as a 3D lesson on the blog 2 years ago (my how time flies!) I now have the most recent version that I did in my regents chemistry ready to share. Included in the slide show is the actual classroom demo with the temperature profile in live time. This version includes a student guide with an annotated class notes section. As far as where this fits in the sequence of topics ... I had finished the bonding unit, where we explored IMFs extensively, and had just begun exploring mixtures with the sand, salt, iron filings separation as a STEM Challenge. My goal was to continue using the concept of IMFs and focus on solutions. This lesson was observed and I have added the observation narrative on the last few slides. The intent of sharing this is to give you a better ideas of what this lesson looked like in class from another professional's perspective.


The Student Guide Template for this lesson can be found here.

Animal Behaviors that Increase Reproductive Success

It's Alive... or is it?

Biodiversity: Can science save an ecosystem from extinction?

Middle School Life Science: Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems

MS:LS 2-1 Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.

If you've never looked into the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's (HHMI) BioInteractive site, NOW would be a great time to do so. This free website is such a wealth of information, ranging from data sets to lesson plans to short videos to full-on inquiry-based explorations. Each resource specifically is linked to current scientific research and provides students with tremendous insight into what science really "looks like."

My middle school class immediately dug into the citizen-science aspect of the WildCam Gorongosa activities. There's no better way to study an ecosystem than to immerse oneself in the trail-cam photos as if we were really there (since a field trip to Mozambique was out of the question)! I could see students at any level using the built in tools (as well as this Field Guide) to key out the different species they observed. As with any citizen-science program, the students felt pretty important when they learned that what they were doing would really be utilized by scientists studying the biodiversity of the area.

While we didn't complete the entire BioInteractive WildCam Lab, we did use several of the resources available (found in their entirety here) to look at how populations changed over time due to different habitat disturbances. It was a great way to not only introduce food chains/webs/pyramids, but to look at how these relationships were influenced when resource availability changed.

Link to Slides and Student Guide we used in class