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The Potomac Highlands Watershed School Environmental Forum Teacher Updates |
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Current eForum: Stream Cleaner Environmental Forum, March 31 through April 25, 2008 Last Updated May 6, 2008
Why we ask for Control Codes on forms When the eForums conclude . . . Change to Thoughtful Questions Form. eForum Lesson Plan (you can also reach lesson plans through the Teacher's Room) February 14, 2008 email from Frank Rodgers Google Earth World Tour of 2008 SCE Forum Partcipants! March 27, 2008 email from Frank March 31, 2008 note from Frank on Surveys
Our challenge. Cacapon Institute's challenge in conducting Environmental Forums and other Potomac Highlands Watershed School activities is to provide a setting where the content is highly relevant to the required curriculum, where everything a teacher needs can be readily found, and where everything works. Making everything work can be more difficult than it appears, because every school system installs filters on their computer networks to both prevent students from accessing inappropriate material, and to prevent harm to their computer system from accidental downloading of malicious software (viruses, spyware, malware, etc.). Because every school system, possibly even every school, does this differently, it is our challenge to develop content and processes that work everywhere. For example, we do not have a required "user name/password" system (the flash activities have a "visitor's" bypass), we do not post streaming video (although we would love to), and we take care that eForum activities do not "feel" like a chat room to school filters that would then kick them off.
How subtle can the problems be? Pretty subtle. For example, the original file names for our Flash activities (like Stream Cleaner) included the word "game." Some systems (one in a Missouri library, one in a WV school system) had filters that automatically kicked a user who tried to access these activities off the web because of the word "game" in the fiel name. We learned of the problem because people told us about it.
If you need something that you can't find, or if something doesn't work for you, we won't know unless you tell us. So, please, let us know – and we will do everything in our power to fix it.
Why we ask for the "Control Code" on forms? We do this to prevent mischief by students and by "unauthorized" users. The potential for mischief is vast, and one of our jobs is to make sure that none of it makes its way to your school computer screens. For example, the control code should "help deter any temptation students might have to toy with the survey (for example sign on as a different school and answer all the questions “wrong”). " We also read every submittal before manually posting it on the website. With numerous classes participating, that will keep us plenty busy during the Thoughtful Questions period.
When the eForums conclude, we'll ask participating teachers to fill out a short survey to help us know what went right, what could use improvement, and how the experience impacted your view of the use of computers in the classroom. We'll also schedule a time for a conference call where we can all just informally talk about it. For example, a conference call following our 2006 Oh Deer! eForum led to a number of significant changes to the time frame and to the POV page format.
Change to Thoughtful Questions Form. We simplified the Thoughtful Questions form on 11/4/2007. Hopefully, students will have less trouble understanding what to do now. However, it would not be a bad idea for teachers to run through it with their students one time - there are six steps and they need to get them right.
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February 14, 2008 email from Frank Rodgers Dear Teachers,
We’re looking forward to a great Stream Cleaner Environmental Forum. Welcome back to returning teachers and hello to new participants. Activity on the site is picking up and that is good. The lessons are available so content can be incorporated into class work or students can begin investigation on their own now.
We’re honored that Jeff Lape, Director of the Chesapeake Bay Program, has taken an interest in the SCE Forum. He wrote a letter to the students -- “Why You Matter!” -- which is posted on the web site. It is to the credit of past participants that the Director of one of the world's premier watershed restoration projects, all 64,000 square miles in six states and all of D.C., will be watching their performance and looking for “new and innovative solutions”. We suggest reading his letter as a classroom activity to save time and strengthen the impact of the presentation. We’ve posted a map image on the link showing other participating schools and would be happy to add photos and “who we are” statements from classes. Just send us a word document and any image the class wants to share.
A few reminders: 1. The SCE Forum is best accessed by going to www.cacaponinstitute.org, clicking on the e-school tab, the high school, and then the eForum phone. 2. Please have the students do the survey first before they start their investigations (link at the top of the eForum). This is not a “test” so encourage students to move rapidly and it will only take a few minutes. The post survey is the same so we’ll be able to report on progress. 3. The teacher “control code” is a word and/or number of your choosing. It is not a password (and could be left blank). We ask you assign a code because it helps identify mischief (students who submit statements pretending to be from a different school will have the wrong code so we can quickly identify bogus statements). If you have more then one class participating change codes to identify different classes. In the past teachers have used flora or fauna, a class nickname, or a time-block identifier. 4. While students can start the lessons and organize stakeholder groups now, Point Of View papers will not be accepted till March 31st with the first round posted Friday, April 4th. We encourage sharing of POVs through an in-class Thoughtful Questions session prior to submitting. This will allow stakeholders to strengthen their POVs before posting to the web.
A last reminder, we’re available days, evenings, and weekends for questions, comments, and concerns and are committed to your class’ success so don’t hesitate to call us.
Sincerely,
Neil Gillies, Executive Director, email to Neil, (home) 304-897-6297 Frank Rodgers, Education & Outreach Director, email to Frank, (home) 304-258-7657
Cacapon Institute,
P.O. Box 68, High View, WV 26808
+++++++++++++ Google Earth World Tour of 2008 SCE Forum Partcipants! Go to http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/1118545/an/0/page/2 The computer must have Google Earth global mapping software (free at: http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html ). Use the link above to show students aerial images of our Chesapeake Bay watershed community of learning. They will see their own school and all the participating schools in roughly the same scale. Click on the “keyhole” link above, choose “View in Google Earth”. After a ~1.0 MB download Google Earth should open automatically. Under Tools choose Play Tour. Each time the tour runs the images will become clearer as the image buffers catch up so the tour will looks better the second or third time. Tour speed can be adjusted at Tools => Options => Touring. +++++++++++++ Also, note that we added a SCE Forum Vocabulary at the top of the Essential Background section.
March 27, 2008 email from Frank
We are excited about the great line up of classes for this year’s SCE Forum. As we get started here are a few reminders…….
And a bit of news. We are pleased to welcome Mount de Sales Academy, Baltimore County, Maryland to the SCE Forum, our first “big city” school. Though if you have seen the Google Earth Tour you see Keyser High School in West Virginia is in an “urban island” too. Please note we have added a vocabulary list to the SCE Forum’s main webpage. The Point Of View (POV) submission form will be active tonight. Stakeholder groups should take care in picking a name – once it is entered it is final! We do not allow individual student names as part of the stakeholder name. To reduce the likelihood of students pulling ideas down from previous SCE Forums we are disabling the Archive link. We have seen some clever students using the Search command on our web site to access past SCE Forum but we discourage that because we want to see students displaying their own talents. You can view past SCE Forums by following these links. http://www.cacaponinstitute.org/eForum_Archives_sceforum_spring_2006.htm http://www.cacaponinstitute.org/eForum_Archives_sceforum_spring_2007.htm
Good luck to everyone. Don’t hesitate to call if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Frank Rodgers, Education &
Outreach Director (Home 304-258-7657)
eMail to Frank
Cacapon Institute
March 31, 2008 note from Frank on Surveys
Each time a survey is submitted the answers are recorded by our web site including the school name and teacher code. I check most evening. If I see an entire class has done a survey I'll send the teacher the results the next day. When I see surveys coming in as a homework assignment (different times and different internet service provider IDs) I'll contact the teacher to find out the deadline for the assignment and summarize the results afterwards. If you want results for individual students ask them to use their initials, or an individual student ID that you understand, as the "teacher code" so each survey can be related back to an individual student.
April 15th is the deadline for requesting project help for Earth Day (April 22) and National Arbor Day (April 25). Dear Teachers, We’ve seen Point of View statements from Jefferson, Moorefield, Massanutten, and Hampshire. Surveys have come in from James Wood, Hampshire, Moorefield, Jefferson, Buffalo Gap, Mount de Sales, and Rappahannock. We’re looking forward to hearing from the other students. Surveys are welcome any time (we have 243 student surveys). We will post the POVs we have this weekend. After Friday, POVs will be posted each evening. No proper names in the stakeholder groups please. Stakeholder group names with actual student names will be changed to initials. So, students who use there name as the group name should look for their initials. The Thoughtful Question phase starts Monday (April 4th through April 18th). They will be posted each evening. Jefferson, Buffalo Gap, and James Wood (and Carol Sandburg(VA), Capon Bridge and East Hardy (WV) Middle Schools) have expressed interest in doing hands-on watershed restoration projects at or near their schools. We can supply materials and assistance and would like to see all the schools do a project but April 15th is the deadline for requesting project help for Earth Day (April 22) or Arbor Day (April 25). Projects are still possible through the end of the school year so we want to hear from you.
Frank Rodgers
The first batch of
POVs are posted and I want to compliment your students on their
often excellent work. We are looking forward to seeing the rest of
the classes post POVs over the next few days as we start the
Thoughtful Questions phase. Thoughtful Questions are always
interesting, and it is wonderful when students challenge others to
think a bit more deeply or differently.
The Thoughtful
Questions phase is always a huge challenge for us at CI, because the
kids don't discriminate well on Step 4 of the TQ form - which is:
As many students
have trouble figuring out what these categories mean, we literally
have go over each entry and try to figure it out so we can post it
in the correct place. Yes, that's as difficult as it sounds. It
would be enormously helpful to us if you would go over the
categories with your students as follows:
As an example of
the problem, I'm looking at the first six TQs, and they include two
questions, two responses, and two statements. It is easy to fix
this today, because there is no possibility that anyone is
responding to a question, because no questions have been posted
yet. Tomorrow is another matter entirely.
We appreciate your
help on this matter, and look forward to reading your students'
work.
Neil Gillies
The Bay program unveiled a new website just as the SCE Forum was starting and a number of their link urls changed. We thought we found them all but Claire found a bad link. You can access the Chesapeake Bay Program Power Point overview presentations at: http://archive.chesapeakebay.net/wqccommtech.htm
Dear Teachers,
The students are doing a great job!
We're still expecting POV posting from a
few schools. Next week is the last full week for dialogue. So, if
POVs aren't in by Monday the chance to engage other schools will be
minimal. We expect to take the last "ask" on Monday April 21st.
Students will then have an opportunity to respond and/or comment
until Friday, April 25th. Consensus papers will be posted daily
from April 21st to the 25th and then posted as they arrive. The
consensus form on the website will be activated April 16th or papers
can be email to us in a Word or PDF document. Photos and/or images
are welcome. (Tips for consensus building at
http://www.cacaponinstitute.org/PHWS%20Signup/teacher%20suggestions.htm)
Please, please, send us lesson plans,
content standards, quizzes, tips, etc that you have developed around
the SCE Forum. We're always looking for ideas to share with other
teachers. We're most familiar with WV and have content standards on
our website but we very much want to strength our support structure
for MD and VA teachers. We want to hear from you.
Please ask students to do the post-survey just like they did the pre-survey (it is exactly the same).
Thanks again for your
participation. We're looking forward to consensus papers to
post. As you are concluding the SCE Forum we'd be interested in
your comments and any comments or thoughts your student might
have on the process.
As a small non-profit we rely on
grants and charitable donations to support the Potomac Highlands
Watershed School including the Environmental Forums for high
school students. Positive feedback is one of the best "selling"
points we have with funders. Without the support of educators
who are using our resources in class we could not succeed. Your
testimony, and the opinions of students, is the basis of renewed
funding for future SCE Forums.
We ask you, and interested students,
to email us their comments (including suggestions for how we
might make the SCE Forum better). Comments may also be sent via
the link in the high school classroom for "eForum Info & Sign
Up" (
http://www.cacaponinstitute.org/PHWS%20Signup/PHWS_Environmental%20Forum%20Signup.htm )
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