inquiry blog guidelines

Identify:
(1) a topic area
(2) two or three guiding questions

Research: (3) what has been done with learned about this already (literature review)
academic papers and books, practitioner article,
press, popular culture
(4) making contact with the real world of teaching and learning
- have conservations with teachers, students, parents, and report back to YOUR impressions
-look at documents, textbooks, websites...

7 - 8 slides, interactive activity 5 - 10 mins, summary of what you found out, bibliography (resource lists)


- albert T.
- How does observational skills influence scientific thinking?
- Given dissonance between knowledge, how does it affect scientific thinking?
(wrong idea)
-

Bodily Experience: Entrance Slip

            We are learners -- visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. Despite the common psychological
misconception that different learners exists, the reality is that learning strategies are not mutually exclusive to learners. Whether it is sensory experiences, gestures, vocalizations, or observations, embodied learning plays a crucial aspect towards aspects of learning. Familiarization and training of different learning strategies increases the dynamics of learning.  Note only can emphasizing different embodied experiences reinforce important subject material and content, it may be a captivative and engaging tactic as an educator.

             From Henderson and Daina's paper of Experiencing Meanings in Geometry, they emphasized a non-classical approach to learning mathematics. Instead focusing on the abstract nature of mathematics in the classroom, they highlighted alternative strategic learning tactics to accommodate individuals who may not grasp the concept as easy. By making course material more tangible, learning retention and ability may increase. By going against traditional conventions of modern mathematical education  by utilizing sensory experiences, gestures, embodied activities, and representations, students may be capable of making the material more relevant, noticeably applicable, and engaging, the future of education may be transformative -- beyond mathematics, but potentially to an array of interdisciplinary courses.

Exit slip: Inquiry Project

                                                                      Inquiry Framework

Original Post:
(1) Curiosity
(2) Epistemology
(3) Passion

Revised Post:
(1) Curiosity & Epistemology & Deduction
(2) Assessment
(3) Pedagogy

I combined curiosity and epistemology together as a coherent and wholesome topic, while assessment and pedagogy are prioritized in the other two important focuses. The emphasis of assessment and pedagogy now is based on the inadequate standardization of current North American summative and formative assessment. By altering teaching practices to better reflect student assessment, individuals may benefit more greatly than prior generations. In the project I would like to address:

(1) multiple choice impracticality and inequality
(2) exam standardization
(3) probing for higher understanding
(4) learning through mistakes
(5) engaging place for learning

with regards to assessment and pedagogy. Coupled with curiosity and epistemology, I think teachers could be the new renewed educators which future generations needs -- not what students has.


Revisited: Old Post


To teach or not to teach? This is the fundamental question which some experienced teachers question to themselves. However, the phrase may be more appropriated addressed as To learn or not to learn? What is the trifecta foundations of education? Despite the phrased rhetorical and ambiguous question, I believe that the foundations of acquiring knowledge are the most crucial aspects of education. Based on personal anecdotal experience, I believe that curiosity, epistemology, and passion are the three major pillars of education.

        Individuals may argue that knowledge, curriculum, pedagogy, and  may be the most potent aspects of educational inquiry. However, how can one excel without the intrinsic desire to seek observations, answers, and knowledge? This form of learning is known as active learning, which curiosity, epistemology, and passion promotes. Detailed factual learning may be adequate for regurgitation of information, yet it does not build nor expand acquired knowledge as fundamentally as independent learning. Passive learning based on knowledge acquisition which are dependent on an external source -- such as a teacher deliver material -- usually promotes little interaction with the  students themselves.

       Curiosity, epistemology and passion provides the framework of inquiry. John Yamamoto once said that "You do not need to be knowledge experts in every field, but you do need to be inquirers of knowledge -- the rest of the information will follow along." Last summer I visited elementary schools in Prince George for science demonstrations for the local STEM summer camp. One of the most successful and impactful projects with the kids were air-powered paper rockets. To see the amazement of paper rockets made from everyday accessible materials such as paper, cardboard, tape, and scissors fly over a soccer field was almost intangible -- "It [was] mind blowing or mind blasting"  was often exclaimed by the nearby children who witnessed there rockets shoot across space. This was one of many experiences which captivated the collective curious, epistemology and passion within a singular project.


Below is an image of the contraception used to launch these explosive rockets:

Rocket Launcher

Other examples of empowering projects.
(Photos are publically permissible based on UNBC Active Mind Waivers):

Cylindrical Rubber Band Rollers

Newspaper Tower Structures

Grades are not everything, is a common statement often said to reassure student's academic anxiety. Even though there may be some truth which exists in this statement, to a large majority, it is wrong.
Grades are everything; they form the foundation of your success in the future, especially within the academic realm. Do you want to be a doctor, lawyer, nurse, teacher, etc.? Maybe or maybe not. But for the ones who do, you are only recognized as a number to academic institutions -- even though it may feel unjustified or corrupt, that's how our current North American post-secondary is standardized. As a student, your self value as a learner is non-proportionately due to academic grading. The reality is that if you perform academically poor or satisfactory, one's hope of potential opportunities are eroded. Marks can abraid or boaster the foundation of occupational possibilities, whether one likes it or not. Our cultural system is founded on the empirical worth of one individual's capability to perform within schools are based on one's subjective assessment of inequality. The one's which can adapt to the teacher strives, while the one's who struggle against compliance and proficiency of arbitrary test fails; inequality of intelligence is profusely ingraining the notions of what is considered a smart and dumb student.

A grading system implemented at the educational level reinforces the concept of operant conditionings. Good grade equate to positive enforcement while bad grade equate to negative enforcement. Our education systems assigns the black and white ideas of right and wrong to every individuals. Whether external rewards of grades if the justified and practical method of assessing students, it decreases the instrinsic value to learn: our goal is please the teacher, not learning or expanding beyond the classroom. By focusing on inquiry based and progress learning of each individual, it may be more reflective an holistic approach to academically assess students. However, this radical idea would require a cultural change to be enabled to integrate this concept within school systems which may not be widely accepted. By utilizing this model in teaching, each student may

Exit Slip: Welcome vs. Unwelcome Biology & Influence of a Teacher

         Content, content, content. Biology is about content -- or that's how it is assumed as junior high school student. This stigma was apparent and regurgitated throughout the classrooms, halls, and parking lot. Even though I had a passion towards biology, content of biology was very limited by the end of my grade 10 year. Grade 11 biology scared me as I didn't know if I would be good enough -- strong enough -- or remembering enough. The idea of uncertainty and negative rumors were quite unwelcoming to me and thee. However, one of the most inclusive experience a student may experience is with the teacher.

          A teacher makes it or breaks it; one cannot learn from someone who they don't like. Luckily my biology teachers were there for us when we were in need, or when we sought need. By integrating an inclusive and supportive environment for one's classroom, passion towards personal and academic growth can excel beyond the boundaries of the classroom. Through culturally challenging ingrained stigmas about particular courses within school systems, uncertainty and negativity may not override our minds before the next semester even started. In addition, by integrating new and innovative pedagogy within the classroom, one can carter content to specific individuals from an array of perspectives. Holistic is intrinsic. There is no mutually exclusive things in life -- no simplistic absolutes in reality. Thus, we must challenge the singular mindset of the value of another -- we are not only good at one thing and nothing else; possibilities exists beyond stigmas.

UBC Orchard Garden

The crispy air, the cold breeze, the chirps of various birds -- all different from the classroom experience. Learning at the UBC Orchard garden was a refreshing experience when compared to the menial classroom environments. The garden provided a safe and inviting work space which allowed for greater discussional activities and engagement from students. Not only were students more motivated, individuals were explicitly joyful of the outdoor classroom -- some even therapeutic.
One of the most noticeable and apparent differences between the indoor and outdoor environment was curiosity and critical thinking. Especially when we were given a task to artistically illustrate artificial and natural objects within the Orchard garden. The various ideologies and interpretations of collective objects were vastly different from student to student. This simplistic design of a task changed my introspective interpretation of things and how others may see something else -- I am not the only lens, nor am I absolute.