BSIE 2010: Session 12

Brain, Science, and Inquiry-Based Education K-12 Summer Institute 2010

  Session 12

Reflections on reflections on week 1

Meet in small groups to have a conversation about your experiences with Sudoku.  Start with a brain drain, then do one puzzle together, and discuss both. After the small group discussion, post in the forum below your reflections on your experiences this week with Sudoku.

Half of the group finds Sudoku relaxing and enjoyable. The other half of the group finds it frustrating because of the time it takes; feels like not the best use of time.

Many people have brains that automatically and quickly see the patterns and love this game as a result. Relative to education, I see why some students are angry when given a task or content which doesn't easily sit in their mind's experiences. Time is needed to develop the new skill and I should recognize what comes easily to many in my class could perhaps cause the few who can't fathom meaning to get angry or depressed or just generally shut down.

a self-proclaimed letter person ... hasn't made any connections between the material we've been discussing and the skills needed to solve a Sudoku puzzle; he prefers feeling over logic. We made a connection between his attitude toward Sudoku and getting students interested in topics they initially find boring or unnecesssary.  How do you get a child to try something out for long enough to make connections or start to like the material?

How do you explain why your mind won't allow you to accept something as fun and interesting?  Jessica feels I shold look at it in an artistic way.  So maybe I will try.

I have been getting better at sudoku. I am beginning to notice patterns that I did not see before ... After actually completing a puzzle together I learned that I was spending too much time in one area of the puzzle.

all of the group agreed on the fact that they received an extremely rewarding and gratifying feeling after completing a puzzle. We also found that the time of day that the game was played and the mindset of the participants also largely influenced the outcome of the game.

it's a matter of learning and making it sub/unconscious

I dreaded the Sudoku experience. Puzzling is not in my comfort zone even though I loved math and problem solving as a student. Collaboration ... turned a tense experience into a relaxing and pleasant experience

I liked to play the game in order. Mattie on the other hand noticed numbers that were missing first and it was more helpful for her to jump around.

we each had a different strategy for problem solving. We had a few almost- ah ha moments as we saw how we could solve problems. We helped each other which allowed us to admire the other person ... I learned from Regina to not stay focused on one box of nine numerals, but to leave that square and find other solutions

Meet in small groups to have a conversation about experiences with your mini-projects.  Start with a brain drain, and then discuss.  After the small group discussion, post in the forum below your reflections on your experiences this week with your mini-projects.

more about ADHD in children and the effect of ADHD in the classroom

science being an open-ended process ... perhaps there are some boundaries that science should follow

grant-funding to facilitate community work

the development and evolution of the Brain Drain techniques she uses ("Keeping students in a vacillating state of equilibrium)

Parent involvement ...,  the pros and cons of it.

figuring out how to make a student feel safe to allow for involvement that will lead to engagement

displaying and acting in a culturally appropriate manner

Science and Acting in some ways can go hand in hand and in other ways they can be far apart.  Consciously bringing them togethern will be a challenge because when one is on stage one isn't thinking about science, although many aspects of science are motivating the performance.

Frustrating, exhausting, too open-ended

I do not like open-ended assignment where there is no "right answer".  I become easily overloaded with too much information and self-doubt.

provide a creative outlet for participants to apply our material to topics that interest them.  They have the potential for being a useful classroom tool in that students can apply what they learn in a structured setting to something more free-form and personal, thus giving them more authority to use what they have learned.

Meet in small groups to have a conversation about our discussions this week on brain/science/inquiry/education/conversation.  Start with a brain drain, and then discuss.  What particularly sticks in your mind at this point?  In what ways is your thinking different from how it was when the week started?   After the small group discussion, post your thoughts about our general discussions in the forum below.  

To be perfectly honest  I am dead tired.  I haven't thought so much as I did this week.  The conversations gave me an opportunity to express myself with less fear than usual.

There have been so many ideas generated this week that remind me I still can't settled down with my ideas and think that is that.

I am enjoying all of the differences that are represented here.

our group has realized how important it is to listen to one another and share ideas, especially if these ideas are new

The idea of Science being open-ended is interesting to me.

Rocks are boring, numbers are boring, even words are boring until you can manipulate them to deliver something powerful and that’s what education should do.

Science as Stories! I think I get it now. Science isn't just as it's stated in our textbooks...everything is meant to be analyzed again and again and again. It's a never ending story and that's what will make it accessible as science is pushed into an inquiry of the subject. I really liked the discussion about the Scientific Method. Now I can explain to my students that the method they've been taught is not about reaching one conclusion, but they should look for other conclusions too. They need to consider that crack

Thoughts/subjects this week that stood out in my mind the most were our conversations on dialogue, communication, and culture

interested in the way upbringing and culture lead to certain behaviors in the classroom ... and learning how to further  dialogue/communication with students from all different backgrounds on an individual basis

[students] need to feel that there is a future that they can change

I need to listen carefully to what my students say and give them as much opportunity to speak as possible. I also need to move the conversation away from myself as the central processor and get the students to converse with each other.

the brain is always processing and changing. That means that we always have the opportunity to learn new things. In order to learn more we must be active and engaged learners. This creates more learning and input ... it is important as teachers to be aware of the idea of allowing our students to be active learners and to encourage the students to be active learners.

go ahead and let your students make conversation in class. But don't be too free

I am fascinated by the idea of “random noise” in our brains.

How connected everything is

A week's inquiry into Open-ended transactional inquiry = co-constructive dialogue - Experiences so far

• Does it work, are you engaged/learning?
• What does it take to make it work? from teachers?  from students?
• Can you use it in your classroom?  How? 
• Are you ready to try it here yourself?  Topic?