RecycleJack Marine's blog

I am so glad Wil invited me to his institute starting today, July 20, 2009. Although I have been using inquiry based educational lessons over the past seven years, I do not know where I will be teaching in September and I am cautiously optimstic that I will be teaching in a school where inquiry is welcomed!

Hi Everyone,

I hope you can help me spread the word to any 13-17 year olds that you know (and their parents)... The MEERWALD is scheduled to leave on two awesome summer camps - July 20-24th from Liberty State Park to Beach Haven and July 27-31 from Beach Haven to Cape May. Each is a Monday through Friday with a special sail for the parents of the campers on Friday afternoon.

There are a bunch of spaces left and we are offering a $150 'Recession Discount' to anyone who books between now and the start of camp. Regularly $750, now $600 for 5 days and 4 nights of potentially life-changing experiences -- character building, challenging, educational and FUN!

I was born on December 2, 1955 at Albert Einstein Medical Center in North Philadelphia. At that time my parents' house was at 1307 Paper Mill Road in Erdenheim, PA - in Eastern Montgomery County. My sister, my parents and I lived in that house until I was eight years old. I was a child who was very curious about the world around me and even at the young age of seven, I was exploring nature by witnessing giant fish swimming through a small creek behind my house, catching tomato hornworm catipillars in my father's garden and pulling around a dead rat (in a toy wagon) that my cat had brought home. I was also fascinated by the ticks that my dog brought into the house, which when full of her blood would literally crawl up the wall of our den!

WHO IS JACK MARINE?

OK, Mr. Franklin, I missed your strawberry DNA extraction. It's not that I don't find this an interesting subject, it's just that "something got in the way" this morning. I do wonder if my genes or my influence will have an altering effect on my children's habits and behaviors over the course of their lives. I know that my DNA gave both of my teenagers their flat (large) feet and curled toes. I know that my wife's DNA gave our son Max his blue eyes and our daughter Dakota has my brown eyes. Max has recently found new ways to "harness" his appearance to perpetuate an attractiveness to the opposite sex. Is that because of different body shapes originating from our combined (my wife's and my) DNA?

Operational Definitions of Inquiry-Related Terms

This project will focus on several aspects of inquiry that are operationally defined as follows:

How could the word "worm" be a metaphor for science? Because worms are always exploring, moving about in the soil, they are living things and they also have feelings (according to Darwin- http://charles-darwin.classic-literature.co.uk/formation-of-vegetable-mould/)

What's the difference between words and pictures? Pictures can create many opportunities for using words, but words are limited. I liked drawing my idea of science and what I think my students think of science. I associate Chemistry experiments as a visual image of science in general terms. I think the students in urban settings may visualize science as what's in the sky, in water, and walks on land.

Our brain processes information and makes sense of it. We make more connections as we take in more information.

We need to teach children subjects that they can connect to after the lessons. So can children connect to how candy tastes? If they hold their nose, can they "feel" that there are sugars dissolving in the jelly beans as they are chewed- like I can? Can they realistically tell you when they no longer smell scents while holding the right or left side of their nostrils? These are two experiments we tried today.