Student Designed Learning

After hearing an amazing presentation from NoTosh at BLC this summer, I decided to let my students design our curriculum this year.  Kind of scary? Yes. Worth it?  Totally. They seriously amazed me with their thoughts and ideas.  They want to learn WAY cooler things than the state of Texas recommends for them. 

So here is how I set it up….On the first day of school they had to submit an idea or question of what they really wanted to learn in anatomy class this year to a google moderator group chat.  On the second day, we took those questions and sorted by topic and then removed the ones that were really just questions they could Google easily.  Some of the Googleable questions were reworked by different groups until they came up with a lot of pretty amazing ideas.  

Here are a few examples of questions my students developed :

How does the brain differentiate between dreams and reality?

Can a serial killers brain be reprogrammed?

Can we create a better system of distributing vaccinations 

in an efficient and accessible manner?

How can we encourage unhealthy people to make better dietary 

choices to improve their overall health?

How can medication be developed to decrease the chance of side 

effects while still helping the patient?

Can we create an alternative to radiation treatment?

No offense to the state of Texas, but these questions are way better than anything a committee of grown-ups could develop.  And they created these in less than 52 minutes...with minimal effort...while they were tweeting...and texting their friends...and playing Candy Crush.  They are capable of so much more than we expect from them.  

I have the questions sorted now into 6 major themes and one category of ‘other’.  The first days of each six weeks will be devoted to taking one of the themes and looking at their questions for that topic and developing our six weeks plan around what they actually want to learn. They take the topics and discover a way to connect to society or a current health and wellness issue. 

Sounds way more exciting than “summarize the human growth and development cycle” or “evaluate models according to their limitations in representing biological objects”.  

We did this in an old fashion kind of way - (especially considering that all 150 of my students are carrying around a brand new school issued iPad) But we were kind of just making it up as we went along so post it notes was the way to go!

So far, we have developed a MOOC in iTunes U [Health Without Borders] with over 27,000 subscribers learning from my class and their creations.   Students have the ability to choose what they teach, how they teach it, and the products have been outstanding so far.   

The Power of iTunes U

When I first posted about iTunes U, I was pretty unsure of how it all worked and how it would fit into my classroom.  Six months later and I cannot imagine teaching without it!  My entire course is set up all in one place for my learners.

My course was original set up in January and I made it public sometime in February.  Today, I have over 110,000 people subscribed to it.  I get emails all the time from people around the world asking questions about the content or if I can offer a certification once they complete my course.  When that many people are looking at your course, it really makes you think about what content you are throwing out there...but in a good way.  The students in my classroom became editors and helped find content, apps, websites, etc. to help with particular topics. They developed a great level of ownership in their iTunes course.

I have also been contacted by several educators asking about different labs or activities I was doing -- some people had great suggestions on how to extend the lesson or how to connect globally and collaborate.  We were able to Skype with a school in New Zealand (we are in Texas) about a blog challenge my class was doing regarding health and diet.  It has opened up so many doors for my students to reach outside of our classroom walls.

My class is now developing a course in iTunes U called Health Without Borders.  This course has my students creating lessons and inquiry based science activities for students around the world. What better way to learn than to teach someone else?  The content is student determined, student developed, and student delivered.  They choose -- their ideas and their lessons....

So far, their course has almost 30,000 subscribers and we have been contacted from students in the Ukraine, Cambodia, and China to name a few.  Mobile learning and iTunes U makes amazing things happen in the classroom.

Piktochart

As we work through the digestive system and nutrition, students will be challenged to convince someone to make a lifestyle change to improve his or her health by developing an infographic. Topics can range from artificial sweeteners to growth hormones in food to fast food in the United States.  Using the website Piktochart, students will develop an infographic of their research. I also found this blog that has a ton of other infographic creating websites they can choose from.   Requirements will include the use of Google Scholar and we will discuss the need for reputable sources for all information used.  After students have completed this assignment, I think we will take it one step further by designing a lab to test what they claim. 

Click and Learn from HHMI

As part of our preparation for Healthy Cowboy Challenge,  we have discussed the heart, coronary vessels, and the effects of adipose on the heart.  We will also discuss the insulin blocking action of adipose when we get to nutrition and digestion in a few weeks. 

Before we begin to measure our clients weekly, I want students to understand how a persons body fat percentage is determined.  I found an app developed by the Howard Hughes Medical Institution called Click and Learn that has GREAT interactive tutorials with higher level thinking questions embedded. The one called "Measuring Obesity" shows the different methods of body fat measurement and has the students develop opinions of the pros and cons of each. 

I will have the students work through the tutorial and form an opinion on the best method, if any, to use to measure our clients body fat percentage for our Health Challenge.  This will help the student when they are working with their client to determine if body fat measurement is something they wish to record over the 12 week project.

Healthy Cowboy Challenge

We are starting our semester project in the next few weeks.  The Healthy Cowboy Challenge has students in charge of creating a healthy lifestyle for teacher on our campus. Students work in teams of 4-5 with one teacher/educator/administrator who volunteered to participate. Students find a community partner in the medical field to mentor them and provide guidance throughout the entire process.  Some groups find personal trainers, dieticians, and other professionals to help give advice as well.  Some students skyped with their professional contact during class, while others met outside of class.  Some professionals actually came to class and met with the teams a few times during the project. 

Students monitor the clients blood pressure, weight, hydration level, measurements, flexibility, and BMI for 12 weeks.  Each Friday, the clients come to class for their weigh in and meet with their team.  The team provides them with one weeks worth of a healthy menu and a work out program that is designed to meet the clients needs. Students develop incentives and provide motivation to their client each week. 

This project covers a large number of my objectives for the year, but many other topics come up along the way.  We start with the muscular system and effective methods of exercise.  Next is the cardiovascular system and how obesity and sedentary lifestyles alter heart function.  Digestion and nutrition are a huge portion of this project as well.  It is easy to tie in multiple objectives.  

As for the technology involved... we use the iPads to monitor the vitals with digital blood pressure cuffs.  We use a Google spreadsheet to keep track of all the data each week.  The document is shared with me, the group members, and the client so they can see their progress.   Clients track their food and exercise intake with My Fitness Pal app and they can 'friend' their group so the students can analyze diets each week and provide suggestions for improvement. We had groups do various things to maintain communication with their client throughout the week - from developing Pinterest boards of healthy recipes to creating a blog to journal, students were very creative and I left it entirely up to them.  Grading this wasn't so easy, but definitely worth it.

Here is a video of our results from last year.  This year we have 28 teachers signed up ready to start in about two weeks! 

iTunesU and Infuse Learning

While working on my iTunesU Anatomy course, I came across a great online science text.  I am not usually a fan of textbooks, digital or hardcover, but this one was kind of cool. E. O. Wilson's Life on Earth was only $1.99 and had an entire section on the human body.  The animations, specifically of the heart were some of the best I have seen. 

I used Infuse Learning to create a few short quizzes over content I want them to understand from this book. They don't have an app that I could find so I just have my first period class type in the link to their website in Safari and have them create the shortcut.  It makes it much faster for the other classes :)

What I loved about Infuse Learning is how easy it is to set up, access, and use in class.  I also love that you can share with other teachers.  You have the option of importing pictures too, which I use often. 


*side note - My iTunesU course is a test right now.  I am trying to see how it works and if its worthwhile to put all my information into one spot for students.  I am about start the unit on the Cardiovascular System so that is the only one with much content at this time. It's a work in progress :)

Xtranormal, EyeExam, and uHear

We used flexible learning stations to learn about the general senses and reflexes.  Learners rotated through several different stations to learn about how the nervous system works.  A full copy of the Nervous System Lab can be viewed on my class website.  One station had the students using the iPad app called EyeExam to determine how well their eye functions.  The app is free and actually pretty good.  Another station used the iPod app called uHear to test hearing.   This one pretty much told all my students they had substantial hearing loss, but we were using earbuds and not in a silent environment so I don't really blame the app.  One of my favorite stations was the creating of a short animation to discuss brain foods and why certain foods were considered good for your brain.  Students could choose either Xtranormal or GoAnimate (both free sign ups) to create a animation of under one minute. 

The Perot, Notability, and Photobucket or Haiku Deck

Today I found out my field trip was approved - which isn't an easy task in a school of over 3,000 students!  My classes will be visiting the Perot Museum of Science in January to find motivation and inspiration to create our Science Night at the Museum (listed below).  The best thing about the Perot is the hands-on nature of the exhibits.  I can't imagine a more interactive experience for my students.

So how does the iPad fit into this?  Well, we are taking the iPads with us. It definitely makes me a little nervous sending them out, but that is why we have them, right??  The groups will be challenged to find a few exhibits that most impress them and photograph them.  The photographs will be uploaded to our class Photobucket account and students will briefly describe how they see they could use that style of exhibit when developing our Science Night.  The photobucket account will be shared with all students to use during their planning of our project so that they can get ideas from each other and see parts of the museum they may have missed.  I also thought about having each group put their pictures in Haiku Deck and present to class when we return, but they wouldn't see students from other classes.  Still tossing that one around.

They will also take notes in Notability and  upload to Google Docs to share with their team.

MyCreate

So according to the state of Texas, it is very important for anatomy students to understand the physiology behind nerve contractions.  While I can completely geek out about sodium potassium pumps and action potentials, my students shockingly could care less.  Each year this is my favorite and least favorite topic to try to get across.  So maybe we will try a more hands on approach...

Using the MyCreate app that I learned about at the iPad Summit, my kids created a brief stop motion that demonstrates an action potential being sent down the axon of a nerve.  My list of supplies:  leftover Halloween candy!  This week I offered to 'buy back' students Halloween candy. (I borrowed the idea of a Halloween candy buy-back from our local pediatric dentist, Dr. Rozas).  

By doing this activity, students had to build a nerve, understand the basic steps of nerve impulse, and understand basic functioning of the neuron.  Thats at least 4 of my objectives for this topic!  The MyCreate app allows them to take pictures and create a stop motion video with a voice over. 

This activity was completed in two 50 minute class periods.  The first day was for practicing and planning and the second day for pictures and voices.  A few groups used a little time the third day to finish.  They had no prior knowledge of nerve structure or function and self taught the majority of this.  

Overall, I am happy with the outcome.  I feel as if I had given them more time, their product would be a little more professional, but this was just an introductory assignment.  We are using shared iPads in my classroom so they only could work on it in my room.  I do feel that they learned neuron structure and function much more than I expected.

Our only suggestions for the app would be an undo button and the ability to maximize the bottom screen so its easier to reorganize pictures if necessary.  

Here are a couple of examples.

Teaching with VoiceThread

Anatomy students were matched up with a first grade classroom within our district.  The first graders Skyped with our class one day and discussed their hypothesis for what they believed was good and bad for their bones (a unit they were studying).  My anatomy students agreed to research and test their hypothesis, being their scientist buddies.  We ran experiments over the next week using chicken bones and the foods the 1st graders suggested.  After a week, we had our first grade buddy class visit us and get results from their lab.  They measured mass, volume, circumference, and force required to break the bone.  Force measurement was taken with a probe and connected to the iPad so they could see the results. 

After the students left, anatomy students created a VoiceThread to teach the 1st graders why they obtained the results.  The best voicethreads were sent back to our first grade buddy class.  Here are a couple of examples of what we sent back to the first graders after their visit.  

Science Night at the Museum

Student Challenge:  Develop an interactive booth that is geared towards elementary aged students that will get them excited about science.  Develop a booth that is both interactive and hands on and forces students to think, but still have fun.

Last year was the first year we had Science Night at the Museum.  All 125 of my anatomy students participated and we had over 500 elementary aged students from our community attend.  We were hoping for 100, so we well exceeded our hopes (and supplies!)  

Booths ranged from small dissections to interactive apps that tested vision, hearing, depth perception, etc.  Some booths had students predict what would happen and then try it out.  Other booths showed students the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.  We used iPads, iPod Touch, MacBooks, Digital microscopes, Pasco probeware, and many other devices to grasp the attention of our young audience.  

This year to increase involvement, Anatomy students created an iMovie trailer to promote the event.  Each group will presented their trailer and we voted on the best of the best.  The winning trailer was sent out to each elementary school in our district to be shown on the student news channel. The video was also shared by our districts on twitter and facebook.

Collaborative Work Spaces

Creating a collaborative work environment has been on my wish list for years.  Finally this year, my grant request was approved!!  I was allowed to design my classroom in anyway I chose.  Out with the terrible desks all lined up in little rows.  Thankfully my district is incredibly supportive of my crazy ideas to teach without walls or restrictions.  My next wish list items will be to teach without being governed by bells or times restraints.  We will see how that goes :)

Nearpod Case Studies

Thanks to the University of Buffalo Science Case Study, I frequently will find a case study to introduce a new unit of study in Anatomy.  The website contains a ton of cases easily searchable by subject, topic, grade level, etc.  A lot the cases are science, but there are also geography, math, and a few others. 

How I use these cases in a 1:1 classroom - NEARPOD! 

I use nearpod to create an interactive presentation that presents the case in a part by part method.  I only give them a portion of the case at a time and often stop to perform an inquiry type lab for them to gain more information about their patient.  Putting the students in the position of doctor increase their motivation to learn - everyone wants to be the one to correctly diagnose and treat their patient.  

Within the nearpod presentation, we label diagrams, take polls, answer quiz questions, and diagnose the patient.  Student iPad screens can be projected onto the smartboard at various times throughout the case to prompt questioning and discussion.