The Science Department Adapts to a New Way of Teaching & Learning
This is part of an ongoing series about how Eaglebrook teachers and students are adapting to a new Distance Learning model.
Eaglebrook Science Teacher Dan Murphy details what he has been doing with his students in his Earth Science classes this spring. Mr. Murphy began the school year doing flipped classes with his lectures being sent out at the beginning of each week. This allows his students to process the material he would then cover over the week. As students transitioned to distance learning this term, the flipped classroom model was streamlined and appreciated by his students because it allows them to complete assignments at their own pace.
In Mr. Murphy’s Monday announcement to his students, he outlines all his assignments and expectations. In week three of distance learning, he assigned two projects from NewsELA. This site allows Mr. Murphy to track what the students have read and who had awareness of the questions assigned to the reading. NewsELA allows the student to change the article’s reading level. Each article is written a few different times and has a max reading level all the way down to a basic version but regardless of the level they are reading, students still gain exposure to all concepts. The site gives Mr. Murphy a sense of how each student is processing the information.
Additionally, students in Mr. Murphy’s Earth Science classes recently completed a weather tracker lab. Because he has students living all over the world right now, he wanted to seize that opportunity. So, he decided to do a weather tracking lab. “Students are checking their weather in their home town using their desired weather website or local weather station and recording all the various weather variables. Then, when the actual weather comes, they record that data to see how accurate or non-accurate the meteorologist was. Ultimately, they are going to share the data with the whole class and are going to see a global profile of 2020, which will roll into a discussion about Climate Change,” said Mr. Murphy.
During class time, students have been building their own weather stations. Some of the variables the class focused on were temperature, pressure, moisture, precipitation, light, cloud cover, and wind direction and speed. This assignment is “predicated on the materials some students might have at their disposal,” mentioned Mr. Murphy. Some of the instruments needed are a thermometer, which tracks temperature, a rain gauge, which tracks the amount of rain, a wind vane, which tracks wind direction, a snow gauge, which tracks the amount of snow, an anemometer, which tracks wind speed, and a hygrometer which tracks humidity. The majority of his students do not have these instruments at home., They were able to build their own weather stations, however, using materials from around the house. For example, if students had a mason jar and a balloon, they could glue straw to the top of the jar and be able to track wind pressure. Mr. Muprhy explained that “the ultimate goal of the project was for students to go outside and ultimately show how their instrument works.”
Please look for more in our series highlighting Distance Learning at Eaglebrook next week.
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