TechKnow Science Teacher

Hello!  My name is Geoff Freymuth, I am your student’s 7^th grade Science  teacher on the Challengers Team.  I wanted to start off the year by introducing myself.  Prior to teaching  science at Jefferson Middle School,  I was the Instructional Technology  Specialist for JMS.  I have previously taught 6th and 7th grade science at Edison Middle School.  I have  received both a Bachelors Degree in Biology and a Masters degree in Technology from the University of Illinois.  I am currently finishing a second Masters degree from Miami   University in Zoology.  I will be using Schoology.com for posting important dates, assignments, study links, discussions and more.  I am looking forward to a great year with your students teaching science.

Contact Information: freymuge@champaignschools.org        Http://techknowteacher.com

217.351.3790  7:30-9:00 am & 2:35-3:30pm

Download and print an introductory flyer here.  Freymuth Intro

 Course Objectives

An objective of this course is to have students appreciate the nature of science and become engaged by its fascination and wonder.  Other goals of this course include:  (1) to further develop their science process and study skills, (2) to learn to work cooperatively and collaboratively with fellow classmates, (3) to express ideas clearly and process information in a clear and organized way, (4) to understand concepts and transfer learned knowledge to new situations, and (5) to form a basis for future science classes.

Course Content

Science in the seventh grade continues to be integrated in scope, combining units from life, earth, and physical science.  It is an activity- and inquiry-based program and engages students by studying interesting topics in science, relevant to their own world.  There are a variety of learning activities utilized, and most include thinking, talking, and writing about what one discovers.  There is a heavy emphasis on concept and skill development.

Units of Study:

Life Processes (Life Science unit) – The students will explore the origin and transfer of the energy needed for life, including the processes of photosynthesis, transpiration, osmosis and diffusion. This unit will include an overview of the human body and its systems (digestive, respiratory, circulatory, excretory, skeletal and muscular, nervous, and endocrine).

The Cell and Heredity (Life Science unit) – Topics in this unit include the cell, its structure and processes, reproduction, development, heredity, DNA, genes, chromosomes, mitosis, and meiosis.

 Light (Physical Science unit) –This unit introduces light as a form of energy, the relationship among light, heat, and color, and the theory of color mixing.  The behavior of light, mirrors and images will also be explored.

Electricity and Magnetism (Physical Science unit) – Electricity and magnetism are key elements in our everyday lives.  The students will learn about the nature of electricity and magnetism, the relationship between them, and the ways in which they are utilized and controlled.

Particles and Chemistry The students will explore interactions of energy and matter, including changes in state, conservation of mass and energy and the chemical and physical characteristics of matter.

General Procedures & Assessments

Science Notebooks: Each student is responsible for bringing their spiral to class.   Students will keep class work, homework, tests, projects, labs, etc. in the notebook.   During the school year, the notebooks will be graded.  At that time, the science section will be checked carefully.

Science Calendars:  Students will be expected to use a plan book daily  to organize weekly assignments.  For the first few minutes at the beginning of each week, all class work, homework and major assignments for the week will be recorded.  The Weekly Science Calendar & daily Warm-Ups will be  a daily assignment.

Quarterly Assessments:  At the conclusion of each quarter, an assessment in the form of a standardized, multiple-choice test will be administered.  The district has developed these assessments.

Other Assessments:  Tests, quizzes, projects, etc. that I have designed will be incorporated into the curriculum.  In general, there will be a test or project for each unit covered in class.  Quizzes will be given continuously throughout the year to assess progress.

Science Materials Required

• Spiral Notebook (which will include a table of contents, notes, labs and activities)
• An adequate supply of #2 pencils and pens.
• A copy of Science Plus Technology and Society, Blue level (provided).

Assessment of Course Grade

All components will be assigned a point value, depending on importance, and the grade includes the following areas: (1) daily assignments (warm-ups, notes, class work, Notebook-checks, homework, and PACE (Participation, Attendance, Cooperation, Effort) and (2) major assignments (tests, labs, projects, presentations, and quizzes).

**If a student shows proficiency on the topics being taught they may take the quiz for that unit early and work with on an independent project of their choosing.

Field Experiences Web Portal

How often to Central Illinois students get a chance to learn in outdoor environments?  Two Champaign teachers, Geoff Freymuth and Josh Wiechert have set out to provide East Central Illinois Teachers an online resource that would provide teachers with a maps, contact information and resources of local natural areas including; many unique ecosystems including sand hill prairies, cypress swamps, old growth oak and hickory forests, wetlands, rivers, prairies, sand dunes, ponds, lakes and streams. Many of which can be found a short distance from Central Illinois.  Freymuth and Wiechert are students in Miami University’s Global Field Program.   As students in the Global Field Progrem they are getting firsthand experience with inquiry-driven education, environmental stewardship, and global understanding.  GFP students join a growing network of leaders who work collaboratively to bring about change in local and global contexts (Project Dragonfly, 2010).  To help local teachers bring about change they have created the web portal, East Central Illinois Field Experiences, which includes 17 unique sites selected for their value and diversity all within easy field trip distance for area teachers.  Teacher in central Illinois will be able to use the web portal to help them give students inquiry and field experiences.

A recent article in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution brings to the forefront the need for students to have outdoor experiences.  Students have a collective ‘extinction of experience’ and James Miller reports that “childhood is a logical starting point in the search for long term solutions to species loss and habitat destruction” (Miller 2005).   Schools are then the next logical place where students can experience nature where they might otherwise not have the opportunity (Freymuth 2010).  Individual teacher’s attitudes and perceptions can have significant impact on how conservation education is address in the classroom.  Unfortunately it appears that local schools may be lacking in providing those experiences for students. While 98% of teachers report that is important for students to experience natural areas only 23% provide those opportunities for students (Freymuth 2010).  There appears to be a strong desire to teach conservation issues, 98% 100% of those surveyed report is important for students to learn about local and global concerns respectively, while at the same time receiving few quality educational materials as reported by 84% of the teachers surveyed.  61% of teachers report to research and find their own materials to use for conservation education (Freymuth 2010).  This survey also revealed that this ideology and desire for conservation education is not generally supported with the school district’s curriculum and opportunities for field experiences. This is one of the key reasons that Freymuth and Wiechert decided that such a resource was needed for area science teachers.

Science teachers will also be able to use the web portal to find resources and lesson plans from organizations like the Aldo Leopold Foundation, Project Wild, Project Wet, as well to local organizations like the Champaign County Forest Preserve, and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Freymuth and Wiechert’s goals are to expose teachers and students in East Central Illinois to the natural environments in Illinois and increase student awareness of environmental issues impacting them locally. It is also hoped that teachers will be more likely to conduct field observations and inquiries if they have a readily available online resource highlighting unique ecosystems in their area that are accessible for field trips.  As part of the Field Experiences web portal A second goal would be to demonstrate to elementary and middle school teachers that education and experiences are key to changing attitudes of elementary and middle school students towards conservation as well as providing experiences to interact observe and enjoy natural environments

Buffalo Trace Prairie, Mahomet Illinois

Dick Bartlett from the National Environmental Education & Training Foundation said that “Aldo Leopold’ land ethic is more relevant to the 21st century than when conceived in the early decades of the 20th. Solving global environmental challenges will require ecologically literate leader-citizens who embrace this ethic.” (Aldo Leopold Foundation, 2010).

Science teachers Freymuth and Wiechert predict that if the teachers had an online resource to share ideas, lesson plans and it had maps, directions, contact information, species and ecosystem resources that they would be more likely to take the students to the natural areas on field trips.  Wyner suggests that or effective conservation education the use of local environmental issues can engage diverse range of students but must first start with the teacher’s involvement (Wyner, 2010).  As part of the development of the web portal Champaign science teachers were polled about the web site.  The results showed that 91% would use the web portal “Field Experiences” to engage their students in outdoor learning and inquiry projects.

The results of the project can be viewed be viewed by visiting the web portal along with this map highlighting 17 of the unique local areas students can visit with teachers.

Aldo Leopold Foundation. (2010). Leopold’s Land Ethic. Retrieved November 5th, 2010, from The Aldo Leopold Foundation: http://www.aldoleopold.org/About/LandEthic.pdf

Freymuth, G. (2010). Conservation Education in Elementary and Middle Schools. Community Engagement Lab 1 , 1-5. Miami University, Conservation Science and Community.

Miami University. (2010). Project Dragonfly Inquiry, Community, Voice. Retrieved November 12, 2010, from Global Field Program: http://www.projectdragonfly.org/gfp/index.php

Miller, J. (2005). Biodiversity conservation and the extinction of experience. TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution , 20 (8), 430-434.

Wyner,Y., Desalle, R. (2010). Taking the Conservation Biology Perspective to Secondary School Classrooms.  Conservation Biology 24 (3), 649-654

drop box

Time and time again I am frequently asked about saving, backing up and synching between devices……  I have been using drop box now for about a year and half.  It is one the top apps/programs etc that I have ever used.  In a nut shell it synchs my phone, to my work computer, to my personal computer, to my laptop, to my iPad regardless of apple/pc phone carrier etc.  It synchs all my files, pdfs, word, notebook, it doesn’t matter what the file type is.  It has eliminated my need for a flash drive, h drive, external storage and using valuable computer memory….   WHY?  Because all the my stuff is in the CLOUD!  Where ever I go,  there it is!  Even on public or shared computers.

It resides on all my devices simultaneously and is synched so if I change one it automatically gets changed on each device.  No more emailing myself attachments, carrying or losing flash drive, no more worrying about crashing computers, or email outages….

I have stumbled across a great guide to this tool that I want to share with you.  If you are not using something like drop box you should be! It will change the way you manage and handle your files!

http://web.appstorm.net/roundups/data-management-roundups/the-ultimate-dropbox-toolkit-guide/

SMART Technologies announced that Jefferson Middle School in Champaign, IL has been added to the elite list of SMART Showcase Schools across North America. Showcase Schools are leaders in the adoption and use of technology that improves student outcomes and teacher effectiveness. There are fewer than 170 SMART Showcase Schools and Districts across the United States and Canada.

Jefferson is already a National Demonstration Site for AVID, and a National Blue Ribbon Award Winner. Teachers at Jefferson are using technologies such as Smartboards, Flip Cameras, Assessment Clickers, Podcasts, blogs, and web 2.0 tools within District curriculum to differentiate instruction and engage students. Over the course of the coming months and years Jefferson Middle School will be hosting tours as well as regional SMART Board interactive whiteboard seminars in which teachers and administrators from around the state will learn how SMART products can be used to enhance teaching and learning.

“Jefferson began to incorporate Smartboards to engage today’s student and differentiate instruction for the many needs of our students. Smartboards bring a new level of teacher and student interactions with the curriculum “says Geoff Freymuth, Instructional Technology specialist for Jefferson Middle School. “We plan on continuing the integration of Smartboards into every classroom and increasing our use of student response systems. We have already seen improvements in student interest, engagement and classroom performance. Students love to use and interact with technology and we hope to capture that with our teaching.”

“SMART Showcase Schools were established to recognize leading schools for their creativity and commitment to the effective implementation of technology in the classroom,” says Nancy Knowlton, SMART’s CEO. “These schools are leaders in this regard, and they are making a significant contribution to other educators’ understanding of technology use in classrooms across North America.”

SMART Technologies, the global leader in interactive whiteboards, develops easy-to-use integrated products and services that improve the way the world works and learns. For more than 20 years, innovation and commitment to excellence have been at the core of their business. Their success is driven by a deep commitment to and engagement with both the education and business communities. Congratulations to the Jefferson Jaguars on achieving this coveted title.

It is not often that teachers have an opportunity to enter into a true partnership with a major university.  Two years ago I quite literally stumbled into this wonderful opportunity.  Lynn Burdick a University of Illinois Technology Integration Coordinator working with the College of Education was assisting one of our language arts teachers using Inspiration to dissect vocabulary using a Frayer model.  Through working with Lynn I learned of a partnership the Universtiy of Illinois College of Education and a technology outreach program called; I-LLINI Partnerships: Lifelong Learning IN Illinois for 21st Century Teachers. The premise of the partnership is to  help fill the needs of our students and staff by creating enhanced learning environments through the effective and creative use of new media and digital technologies.  This was characterized by increasing student learning outcomes and developing 21st Century skills such as higher-order thinking, communication, inquiry, and innovation.  The grant was funded through the Illinois State Board of Higher Education.

The model that Lynn and her colleages at the University of Illinois College of Education were striving for would be one that invovled constant feedback loops providing the University with tools and experience to impact pre-service teachers and technology integration as well as continued support and professional developement for the teachers involved in the I-LLINI Partnerships. It started with 4 teachers, 4 laptops and 3 Smartboards.  Lynn and the U of I started with providing the teachers with a week of summer training and connections with U of I faculty in the fields of math and science.  While the equipment pieces were important the connections and professional development proved to be more important.  As the teachers become more confident with the thier new “toys” and instructional strategies the implementation in the classrooms began to take shape.

As part of the process the Illini Partnership teachers were provided professional development days to collaborate and share with other teachers from different schools involved with the partnership.  The shared experience and conversations continued to lead to new ideas, support and interactions.  JMS is also giving the opportunity for the U of I to increase pre-service teachers to use and teach with technology.  This has also proven to be a key component for the partnership as the student teachers have helped our cooperating teacher and visa versa.  Teachers used Discovery Education Assessment provided by the partnership to gauge student progress and help direct student learning in the math and science classes.

The integration of the smartboard board interactive lessons and the use of student response systems had an imediate and lasting impact on the students at Jefferson Middle School.  It wasn’t long before the Illini Partnership teachers began to share out with the rest of Jefferson’s staff and become technology leaders and facilitators for the school.  The enthusiasm and results the teachers were seeing in their classes was something that other teachers were able to see and want to be able to have the same impact on student learning in their classes.  As a result we developed a PLC (professional learning community) for Illini partnership teachers to work with and help other teachers in the building build their comfort level with 21st century skills and building in lessons utilizing technology that the students embraced.  The initial ripple began to grow into a wave.

The ripple caused by the initial help from Illini partnership and the College of Education has now become a tidal wave at JMS.  We now have 15 teachers using SMART technologies in their classroom.  The school’s two computer labs are now constantly booked and being used.  Students and teachers are now using MOODLE, blogs, wiki’s and many web based applications to enhance instruction, offer opportunities for increased learning in what the students see as a normal environment as they spend a significant amount of time in interactive online and connected environments.  JMS is not a place where the students have to “unplug” to learn.

All to often we see grants where teachers or schools are able to acquire new technology, computers etc and if falls by the wayside because of lack of support and training.  The Illini Partnership grant provided the tools but more importantly provide Jefferson teachers with a way to learn and think with a support system.  Continued professional development, and responding to the needs of the teachers tailoring the regular professional development based on their needs can not be understated.  The Illini Partnership should be looked at as a model program for technology integration in schools.  It has indeed turned a ripple into a tidal wave that will be felt and have far reaching impact on teaching and learning for a long time to come.    Please leave your thoughts and comments on the Illini Partnership program and please feel free email me if you want more information.    The following is from Ian Jukes blog the Committed Sardine and speaks to what Lynn, Vanna and Mike have known and also characterizes the growth and changes at Jefferson Middle School.

“A little known fact is that a blue whale is so large that when it decides to turn around, it can take 2 to 3 minutes to turn 180 degrees so that it can swim in the opposite direction. As a result, some people have drawn a strong parallel between blue whales and our school systems. It just seems to take forever for schools to turn things around. Our ability to adapt to changing times helps explain at least in part the rise in demand for vouchers, charter schools, home schooling and virtual schools. There are some people who just don’t believe, or don’t want the public school system to turn things around in time.

But compare the cumbersome way a blue whale turns around to how a school of fish turns around – specifically a school of sardines – which has the same or even a greater mass than our whale. A school of sardines can turn almost instantly. So the question that comes up is – how do they do this? How do they know when to turn? Is it ESP? Do they use cell phones? Are they using the Internet?

The answer is both a little simpler and quite a bit more complex. If you take a careful look at a school of sardines you’ll notice that, at first, the fish all appear to be swimming in the same direction. In reality, at any time there will be a small group of sardines swimming in a different direction, one that tends to move against the flow or against conventional wisdom. As they swim in another direction they cause conflict. This creates some friction and general discomfort for the rest of the school.

But finally, when a critical mass of truly committed sardines is reached – not a huge number like 50 percent or 80 percent of the school, but 15 to 20 percent who are truly committed to a new direction – the rest of the school suddenly turns and goes with them – almost instantaneously!”

Is Jefferson moving in the right direction?  I think so…  we are becoming committed sardines! with the help of Lynn, Mike, and Vanna who are truly committed sardines.