Let's Take a Trip to Mars PBL Project Completion!

This was a fun PBL Project!  After gathering feedback from Farmer Brent and our local farmer, Mrs. Carey Poole from P-6 Farms (local farm), the students began to work on their 1-3 minute video to NASA.  Our plan was to post these videos on Twitter and ro tag NASA in the post.  We also wanted to include our new friend from the Cosmosphere Museum on Kansas.

In a previous blog post, I spoke of getting connected with this space museum, Cosmosphere, in Kansas.  We were able to organize a Skype call with one of the employees, Tracey Tomme, the Vice President of Education for the company! She visited with my kids about Mars, martian soil, and the future of gardening on Mars.  We learned so much!  After her visit, the students got to work on their videos.  They were expected to include details about how they would construct a self-sustaining garden on Mars that would allow them to survive for 5 years.  It was through this entire process that they learned all about soil!  Love what PBL does for my kids!  It allows the teacher to step back and give the students room to have voice and choice in their learning.  All of this without the use of a worksheet or test!!  It is such a beautiful thing!

Our Interview with Farmer Brent

Let's Take a Trip to Mars-Soil Investigation PBL Project Continued...

My kids have been hard at work researching how to build a self-sustaining garden on Mars!  For their "Flipped HW" this week, they were tasked to interview a farmer or someone who was knowledgeable about soil and farming, and then report their findings to Edmodo.  To help them out, I reached out to my cousin, Brent, to see if he could come visit with my students this week.  He is a trained chef, a farmer, and a member of the Houston Rockets' Launch Crew! A jack of all trades!  He helps to run Donna's Farm in Fannett, Texas with my aunt and uncle, Donna and Steve.  He knows a thing or two about soil and farming!  

The students, as well as myself, learned so much about farming and soil!  The conversation about hydroponics and aquaponics was super interesting as well as the conversations about building and using greenhouses.  My kids were like little sponges, and took wonderful notes on all that he had to share!  I know that this experience will add so much to their PBL project, "Let's Take a Trip to Mars-Soil Investigation"!  We have also set up a back channel on Today's Meet with a local farmer in our area at P-6 Farms here in Montgomery, Texas.  We are looking forward to her answers!!

Let's Take a Trip to Mars (Soil Investigation)

We started this project this past week, and the kids are loving it!  The Friday before we started it, I introduced the "hook".  A "hook" (in PBL) is something that gets the students really excited about what they are going to learn about. It could be a field trip, a Skype or GH (Google Hangout) session, or even guest speakers.  I decided to go with an edible experiment about the layers of soil. Who doesn't like yummy experiments!?  

This activity is included in Kristen Vibas' "Soil" file that can be found on TpT. The students loved learning about the different layers of soil with some of their favorite snacks!  

The following week, the students were placed in cooperative learning groups, and they were introduced to their task.  They were also assigned a job within their groups.  The jobs are project manager, communications manager, time and materials manager, workshop manager, and technology manager.  

Months ago, I reached out to Kevin Honeycutt and Ginger Lewman via Twitter to get some ideas about our upcoming unit in science, soil.  Kevin Honeycutt came up with the picture seen above, and I knew that I had to give this experience to my students!  We spent the first day working on "What Do We Know...What Do We Need To Know".  I expressed to them that their "needs to know" would help to drive any future workshops that we have with this project.  This is the first time that I have used workshops during a PBL project, and I am regretting that I have never used them before.  One of the "needs to know" that I knew I wanted to address was their interest in martian soil.  

At a recent conference, TCEA, I attended a session led by Jaime Donally, and she introduced me to Nearpod VR experiences.  I reached out to my Instructional Technology Director, and she got me a district account with Nearpod. I could not wait to develop a lesson!  The first workshop that I conducted with my workshop managers was a Nearpod lesson with VR experiences.  The students were going to get to experience Mars!!

And what an experience it was!!! The conversations that evolved from this experience were incredible.  You could see the excitement and authentic interest in the topic of Mars and soil.  With some of these conversations came questions that I did not have the answers for.  So what did we do?  We found the experts by using Twitter!  We reached out to Scott Kelly and Kevin Honeycutt!  Scott Kelly is currently on the International Space Station, and we are still hoping for a Twitter connection.  Mr. Honeycutt got us in touch with Cosmosphere, a Smithsonian-inspired museum dedicated to inspiring innovation through science education and honoring the history of space exploration.  This wonderful museum responded to our questions all day, and we are now working on getting a Skype or GH session with them!  We love the power of Twitter!!

The students are working hard on learning more about what they need to create a self-sustaining garden for their 5-year stay on Mars.  This will do more for them than any worksheet about soil will ever do!  Stay tuned in!!

TCEA-Totally Awesome Technology Conference!

I recently attended TCEA, in Austin, Texas.  Each time that I attend this conference, I leave rejuvenated and inspired.  This year did not disappoint!  I wanted to share some of the highlights of this trip, and to also shine a light on educators and innovators who inspire me daily!

We arrived in Austin on a Tuesday, and started our day at Le Cafe Crepe.  It was the perfect place to start our day!

I attended a few sessions on that day, but one session stood out for me!  The session was titled "The New, The Old, the NOT-so-Obselete", and it was led by Lauren Kallail and Brandon Hunter.  In this session, they introduced a tool called Touchcast.  With Touchcast, teachers are able to use broadcasting tools to present information.  It also fosters creativity and collaboration amongst the students.  Check out this video about Touchcast!  Can't wait to use it with my kids!

Wednesday brought an abundance of information and inspiration!  The first session that I attended was about project-based learning.  It was led by Wendy Dickerson.  I am in my second year as PBL facilitator, and this session gave me so many great ideas on organizing and supporting these lessons!  Here is the presentation link.  My biggest take-aways from this session, were the additions of workshops into the PBL topics/units and the "hook"!  We are starting a new PBL project tomorrow, and it is all about soil.  I will post the hook soon!  Kevin Honeycutt was a huge help in developing an idea for this topic!

@kevinhoneycutt

Another session I attended, was lead by Janet Corder and Joan Gore, J2!  I never miss a session led by these two wonderfully hilarious educators!  This session was titled "BYOD Activities That Work".  One tool that was shared was Quizizz.  As soon as they introduced it, I emailed my staff, and shared it!  It is that good!  Quizizz is pretty similar to Kahoot, with a couple of exceptions. Students can work at their own pace, and the questions appear on their devices. It is awesome! Another cool one was Bingo Baker!  Check it out here!

Tammy Worcester Tang is another leader that I never miss!  She always shares the coolest tips and tricks!  She shared how you can use your lightening cable and Quicktime to share your iPad or iPhone screen!  Crazy how I never knew that you could do that!  Here is a quick tutorial on it!

Thursday was a day at TCEA that I was totally looking forward to!  I was finally going to get to meet and listen to George Couros.  I have been following him on Twitter since I met and connected with Kayla Delzer.  He truly is an inspiring and innovative educator with a heart for students and authentic learning experiences!

Every word...every single word inspired me!  Here are some of the quotes from that session that have stuck with me since.

"If students leave school less curious than when they started, we have failed them." @gcouros

"What would you want to spend the whole day learning in your own classroom?" @gcouros

"Are kids doing this because of school or in spite of school?" @gcouros

"Innovation often begins and ends with empathy." @gcouros

"We need to make the positives so loud that the negatives are almost impossible to hear." WOW, right!? @gcouros

And my absolute favorite-"Kids often defy expectations when you give them the opportunity." @gcouros

Doesn't all of that just make you want to change the world!?  Check out his book, The Innovator's Mindset.  I can't wait to read it!!

Another person that I could not wait to meet on this day was Jaime Donally.  I recently participated in #digcitathon and Edcamp Global, and she was a huge part in both!

Her session was about virtual reality!  VR is something that I have been excited about since Google Cardboard came out!  I have a class set, and the students love to take virtual field trips!

I had no idea that Nearpod had virtual experiences that you can add into the lessons!  So exciting!  She also talked about Augthat and Google Spotlight Stories.  I have plans to GH (Google Hangout) with the creator of Augthat this upcoming week!  So many great things shared in this session, and I was so excited to finally meet her!  Can't wait to reconnect soon!

TCEA is a conference that I look forward to each and every school year!  I hope to one day be able to present at it!!!  You should make plans to be there on February 6-10 next year!!

Mystery Skype Monday!

After being away from my kids for 4 days last week due to a 3-day PBL training and a trip to Dallas to support my sister for being named Tapherd's Middle School PE Coach of the Year, I was so happy to be reunited with them today!  I had something special planned for them today-our first Mystery Skype of the Year!  To get prepared for this experience, I did some research.  I found a very helpful blog to help get us started!  This blog is titled, "What's Going On In Mr. Solarz' Class".  I strongly suggest that you check it out if you are new to Mystery Skype!  It was so helpful!  The classroom that we were visiting with was located near Tampa, Florida, and her students were referencing individual maps after their questions were asked.  What a great idea!!  It was such a fun experience, and we can't to do it again!!

  

DIY Energy Robots Green Screen Commercials!

The DIY Energy Robots' Project is complete!  The students worked so hard, and are very excited about sharing their final product locally and globally!  They spent a few days conducting research on the different forms of energy.  They were then tasked to create a robot that uses at least 3 of those forms of energy.  As an extension they also had to develop a commercial to promote their product.  For the commercials, the students and I used Do Ink.  Do Ink is a green screen app that is super kid (and teacher) friendly!!  The results were awesome, and I could not be more proud of my friends!!  This project ran a bit longer than I anticipated.  Time management is something that I know I need to work on when it comes to PBL.  It gets easier each year!!  We hope that you enjoy our commercials.  Anyone interested in a robot??

PBL Day 1-DIY Energy Robot

How can you create a robot that uses at least 3 forms of energy?  That is the question that is driving this project!  This is the first project of the year, and the kids are ready to get started!  I found this activity on Teachers Pay Teachers, and I am adapting it for my kids (Click the image below to be taken to this FREE product).  In the end, the students will be expected to create a commercial to get the viewers to purchase their robot!  We are planning on using DoInk (green screen app) for this!

We will spend the first 2 days researching the five different forms of energy.  Today, the students were placed in their groups, and they worked together on a group Padlet.  Padlet is a virtual wall that allows students to digitally collaborate.  They are able to add text, photos, and links!  

I created the Padlets for each group, and then added it to our class website so the students could access it easily.  I also added some quick links for the students to use (if they chose too) during their research.  Their goal today was to find information and images on all five forms of energy.  They will continue their research tomorrow.  One of the things that I said today was that "You are in charge of your own learning.  How cool is that!"  I can't wait to see how far they go!!  Stay tuned!

New Year...New Blog!

I am so excited about blogging again this year.  Last year, I decided to start a blog titled "Surfing into PBL" using a blogging platform called Weebly.  This blog highlighted my first year as a PBL (Project-Based Learning) teacher.  It was a wonderful experience being able to reflect on those projects, as well as to share them with my parents and the community.  This year, I decided that I wanted to blog about all of the wonderful things that are happening in my classroom.  I reached out to Kayla Delzer, and she put in me in touch with Christi!  I am so in love with my blog design.  If you are looking for someone to create a wonderful blog design, check out her website.  You will not be disappointed!  Why "Converse in the Classroom"?  I am a teacher who loves her converse sneakers! If I could wear them every day, I would!!  My goal for this blog is to inspire and motivate my fellow lead learners by sharing my kids and my classroom.