Day 5 - Wrap Up STEM

Today, we finished at Sanford Underground Labs. It was great to help come up with the idea of new ways the Labs could reach out to teachers -- there is so much they are doing! I'm very interested to see what they can get done in the future for educational support.

The other portion of the day was sharing our lesson plan ideas. I must say, I believe we came up with great ideas to implement into classrooms and get students excited about STEM. Even though I don't directly teach STEM - it directly links to Social Studies and ELA by the complex interactions of humans and their environment. Additionally, show me a profession that you don't need ELA to excel in!

Overall, I've met some great people and plan to work with them from across the state!


PS - I like you all, but I'm happy to be home for a bit!

Day 3 & Day 4 of STEM

K - Potassium! Just a bit of humor to start the night. Yesterday, was a long day - but so informative.

DAY THREE reflection: (Since it didn't post last night!)

First, we learned all about Extremophiles - which are just awesome little bacteria that can survive in EXTREME conditions. These little bacteria literally just appear where needed - when they no longer have a food source, they "disappear."

Now, other than what they eat, why are they important? They can help break down Biomass - basically anything, but really think of the use of switch grass, corn stalks, and other materials that are SUPER hard to break down into basic sugars. This stuff is usually waste - we can't use it.  Extremophiles can actually make this stuff usable - that is AMAZING - and turn these products into bio-fuel (and hydrogen as a byproduct).

So - this means that we all could literally use our own biomass to create fuel! THAT is amazing! Imagine not needing to go to a gas station in the future.

The other NIFTY part of extremophiles - because they appear and eat toxic (not toxic to them, however) substances, they can be used to reclaim water. The Homestake Mining process polluted the water - the off chance of trying bacteria colonies to eat all the "junk" ends up making the water safe. The Water Treatment plant even noticed that bacteria level themselves to what is in the water - a diesel bacteria colony rose up and ate up all the diesel.

That night, we wrote our cross-curricular lesson plans (with LOTS of LAUGHS)!

DAY FOUR!

Today, we learned about Engineering.

Did you know, playdough can be made into a circuit conductor? I found that pretty sweet.

Additionally, I learned all about the different ways you can analyze the rocks to actually be able to create the Underground labs.  They then take all the information and create digitized models of how to build it. This portion of the program was pretty interesting.

We also built magnetic fields, which was fun. I can see the other lab we did, making magnet accelerators, as a way to tie the information into US History and the development of different weapons.

We also learned about a really interesting project funded by South Dakota to create C13 in a new form - and massively cheaper! (Oh, and art history was a good choice to take - because the Chillers figured out how to coat the lead bricks in paraffin to keep the lead from getting pours that collect radon.)

Moreover, I learned the differences between linear accelerators and cyclotrons.

Finally, we learned about underground climate when Steve G. shared his research and challenges he faces in writing code and getting down to maintain his equipment.

STEM - Day 2 Reflection

WOW!

I'm getting all kinds of ideas @SanfordLabs.

Yesterday was a bit over my head -- nuclear physics and such. (I learned a whole bunch of terms about quarks, neutrinos, flavors of neutrinos, etc.) That said, we saw the building of equipment underground, and the problems of cosmic rays and data collection.

I can't imagine being in a clean room and wearing FOUR pairs of gloves and still trying to manipulate tiny pieces.

However, I can find the idea of the research going on and how it will impact our world. (Dark matter and Dark particles and how they keep the world together.) I also learned more about our Sun - and how elements always try to get to the stable valley.

Overall, there is "stuff" that I will take away and guide my students to the understanding of the world around them, and I know I've got students who would be BEYOND interested in this.

Sanford Underground Labs

So, I've spent my first day in STEM working on my own learning at the Underground Labs Learning Centers. It has been amazing. I can see numerous lessons to pull the Geology together with Geography: why people choose to settle in certain locations, why people would attempt to mine in the ground, how the ground formation creates new technologies for mining, how seismographs can be used to monitor moon "tidal" pull in rocks. Beyond these: how a mine impacts a town (Seriously - would you move a WHOLE town THREE times?), how a mine needs to be closed down, and general usage / property rights  / water rights impact what can be done (all that legal writing --- tell me that commas don't matter!).

I've also found out that ONE INCH of rain = 12 million gallons of water into the underground mines. That alone is amazing, and I can think of lessons about how that water could be removed, used, ect.

Here's to more learning! Oh, and I've met a bunch of interesting teachers from all over the State of South Dakota! Several of us are already coming up with ways to link our classes and projects to expand student horizons into a global environment!

"Teacher Vacation"

I love the idea of "Summer Vacation" -- note the idea! The connotation of this word implies are lazy days, doing whatever you want.

REALITY: Not enough time in the day to get ready for the next school year, or get all your own summer projects done!

So, here is my reality: Last week I got a much needed break of one point five days at my parents' farm. Followed by two days in a classroom, learning about SLOs for South Dakota. At night, I got to stay and see my sister. This was followed by a seven hour drive back home, a night in my own bed, doing laundry and repacking to head out the next day to a five day training.

So, this leads me to where I am now - in a college apartment waiting for the Sanford Underground Labs STEM workshop tomorrow! I'm exhausted, but excited to see what I can learn!

However, I do long for the idea of Summer Vacation - reading books, grilling, hanging out with family and friends! I need to make more time for all these!

Stuffed Animals and Twitter = LEARNING!

Tonight, I took part in  #whatisschool chat on Twitter. I must say, the conversation was fast and furious - like always, but I come away with so many more ideas. I can jump on to my online PLN in 20 seconds - and that is getting the app or computer up and running. By that time, I can then connect world-wide: asking questions or just putting a thought out there!

Seriously, this is a life saver for me.

We are a small school - being able to go onto Twitter allows me to get other's input, from all over the world! My staff rocks, but I know we end up looking at a problem seeing just our experiences: when we get more input, we can find more solutions to our problem.

My next big hope: opening my class to the power of Twitter. We have used it some to contact state officials, but I can see students using it as a resource for finding information. Why can't a hashtag search lead them to resources for what they are interested in? Why can't we connect outside our area through the advantages of mini-blogging on Twitter (like getting feedback quickly!)?

The answer - we can, and we will.

I've started a new project to help students understand geography.

Say "Hello" to Blizzard - follow his travels on this blog - he has his own page! Or, #FMSBlizzard on Twitter.

The idea is simple, Blizzard is going to show off his hometown of Faith, SD. Then, he is going to head out - where he ends, I honestly don't know! I'm going to package him up, and send him on his way to another teacher - hopefully, they / their class take some pictures, send a tweet, comment on his blog page, email: something to let us know how he is doing, and then send him on to a new place.

I hope to track him world-wide: a stuffed animal and Twitter can be an AWESOME learning experience!

PS - if you want to be the one I send him to next, let me know!

It's the little things...

So, I've not been blogging the past couple of days... there is a reason. 

Our community funded a new school - Four Million Dollars for a pre-k - 12 grade school. I'm sure it is small compared to others - we have one classroom per grade. We have around 200 students, and around 20 staff. We all know each other: it's nice. (Also, one of the reasons that I ended up staying out here for more than year (now on year six!)

This Summer, I've been helping our custodial staff reset the school. It has been very interesting - I've always packed up my room, and loved the look of the building when I come back. I've never really thought about the ENTIRE process of getting those rooms and halls looking that good. (Trust me, I can tell you more about floor care than I EVER thought I would know, and I can also tell all kinds of ways to remove gum from under desks, and how important it is to either make a drawing or have a picture of how each teacher wants their room put back!) 

Hence, the blogging delay. Today, I was working in my room in my "teacher" mode again - sorting all kinds of things out. In fact, I have filled a 55 gallon trashcan with "stuff:" old board game boxes, old old old copies of papers (before I was teaching), and just junk. 

So, here's the point: be thankful for the people who do all the "little" things. The people who take out the garbage, wipe down boards, fix the desks, etc. (Seriously, my room is usually good - I expect the students to take care of their area and I take care of mine.) Also, the secretaries -they help and know things!- NEVER forget them! These "little" people do so many things, and most the time don't get the credit from parents and the community.  

Overall, appreciate everyone!