Journal entry #1
·
From
your history and personal experiences, what does it mean to think
mathematically/scientifically?
I have personally been
told that I am a “numbers” guy by multiple people, which I can raise my right
hand and solemnly swear that I am up to agreement. My mother tells me stories
of how I would play “square roots” at the age of four, and loved punching in
the buttons on the times tables just to memorize the numbers. I also remember
walking through the airport bathroom on one fateful family vacation when I
noticed there were 11 holes in the bathroom sink and 9 sinks in the men’s
bathroom. I figured there were 99 total holes in the sinks in the men’s
bathroom and 99 in the women’s as well. Therefore there were 198 in every pair
of bathrooms in the airport. Then I wanted to know how many bathrooms were in
the airport so I could calculate how many holes were in all the sinks in all
the bathrooms altogether. Sadly I was not given this information and had to
estimate that there were 20 pairs of bathrooms, creating a total of 4960 holes
in all the sinks in all the bathrooms in the airport. How do you remember all
of these numbers you ask? Well it’s simple, I think mathematically.
Fish and frog video:
·
What lessons might
we draw from the Fish is Fish story in relation to human learning?
The story of the fish and
the frog brings about some interesting points about teaching. Even though the
Frog talked endlessly about the world outside of the water, the fish still had
a skewed vision of what the world above looked like. In particular, he pictured
every animal as some sort of fish-oid. The “cow” had fins and swam about and
the “humans” were merely walking fish! One of the major points that I observed
from this is that as humans learn sometimes we are limited in our thinking
according to what we already know. If we do not broaden our minds and think
outside of our comfort zone it can become impossible to get a full understand
of the truth. Something else that I thought was interesting is how the frog described
the utters of a cow as “pink bags that hold milk.” This was such an abstract
way of describing the utters, but it apparently it worked perfectly for the
fish because he pictured utters exactly how they are. This can be seen as how
sometimes using an out of the box example can help someone understand a concept
much easier.
How would you answer the following questions:
·
What causes the
seasons?
I believe that the tilt of the earth
upon it’s axis and its relative position in relation to the sun create the
various seasons. Because of the different exposures to the sun for different
amounts of time, the earth becomes cooler and hotter at different points in
time. Because this warming and cooling of the earth is cyclical—following a
specific pattern—they are called seasons and occur during a given time period
every year.
·
What causes the
phases of the moon?
The phases of the moon are caused by
it’s location in reference to the positions of the sun and it’s orbit around
the earth. The reason for this is because when the location of the sun, moon,
and earth are different during their respective orbits the moon reflects a
certain portion of the sun’s light in a different manner. This changing of the
amount of light reflected affects the phases of the moon and is how we get a
full moon, new moon, half moon, and so forth. Additionally, the moon’s
gravitational pull affects another asset of weather: the tides. Without the
moon our oceans would be relatively dormant and the ocean would turn into a
giant lake!
Harvard Grad responses to why the seasons are what they are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0wk4qG2mIg
·
In the responses of
these students, I thought the following was interesting:
I thought it was interesting how all
three of the graduates had the exact same answer. Also all of them seemed to
think the question was incredibly easy and below their knowledge level. The
students extremely confident of themselves and almost seemed offended that they
were being asked such a “simple” question.
· The responses made some sense, but were not fully correct:
Even though the students were
partially correct in how the position of the earth in relation to the sun
affects the weather, they were incorrect in stating that it is due to how far
the earth is from the sun. The position of the earth combined with the tilt of
the earth creates the change in the seasons. I also thought it was interesting
that none of the graduates talked about or even took into consideration the
tilt of the earth upon its “axis.”
·
Why did some of the students say that the seasons were caused by the closeness of the earth to the sun?
This was apparently a misconception
that all of the students have held since grade school. My educated guess is
that none of the students were STEM majors and focused the majority of their
collegiate studies in a humanities degree. The reason I say this is that if the
students were STEM majors then they would have had more recent in-depth
studying of the science and would be more likely to have correct viewpoints on
the reasons for the seasons.
Some
Questions to Ponder:
·
What does it mean
to know and/or learn?
Knowing and learning are really two
different topics. The Webster online dictionary defines knowing as: showing
that you have special knowledge or having knowledge, information, or intelligence. To me this is
a fairly accurate description of knowing something. However, I believe that
there are several different types of knowledge and/or knowing. For instance I
could know that the sun “rises” in the east and “sets” in the west, but it is
another whole topic to understand why the sun “rises” in the east and “sets” in
the west.
Additionally, Webster online dictionary
defines learning as: the activity or process of gaining knowledge or skill by
studying, practicing, being taught, or experiencing something. Again, I agree
with Webster. Learning does not necessarily have to take place in a classroom,
but can be experienced through a practical lifestyle. For instance: How did
early generation American farmers pass on the family business to their children
without a schoolroom in their backyard? Well, they simple learned through
experience, which I believe is one of the best ways to learn any topic.
·
What does it mean
to be a competent mathematics or science student?
Honestly I believe that in order to be a competent
mathematics student, one should be able to perform almost any calculation
(within the knowledge the student accumulated) without a calculator. This is
not necessarily the most practical way to approach a lot of problems—as using a
calculator can solve a problem much easier and much faster—but in order to
fully comprehend what one is computing, solving without a calculator is the
true test. This is not to say that every problem should be a “calculator off”
problem, but it is a great way to test some serious math skills.
As for a competent science student, I am a little less
fluent in this area and don’t have quite a solid of a personal definition.
However, to be proficient in any subject one should be able to carry on a
conversation about certain subject matter and be knowledgeable about the
subject’s vocabulary. Because science is an extremely large field, it is hard
to say exactly what this is. For instance, in chemistry it is important to know
what a “Mole” of a substance is. In physics the units for a “Newton” would be
something quite useful, and in astronomy, being able to recognize certain
constellations by their star formations would be very pertinent information.
·
What does learning
mean? How is learning different from or similar to understanding?
This question is a simple understanding of the order of
operations. At first a student is introduced to a subject, then they are taught
or experience the subject, which is known as learning. Then, the
student—hopefully—understands the subject after spending some time learning the
subject. Simply put, first a student
learns about the subject, and then after they determine the clockwork behind
the subject they have been taught, they understand the topic.
·
How can you get at
what students are thinking? How can you assess knowing and learning?
There are several different methods to understand how
students learn information and how well they have retained the information they
have learned. Our readings during the first week on teaching for successful
intelligence showed us that there is more to teaching then simple memorization.
In order to make successful students the teacher must first pick a method that
will be successful with that student. Sometimes the student excels better
through the theoretical explanation of a subject, while others will benefit
from the practical or realistic version of a subject. It all depends on the
student’s own learning style. By using different methods and different forms of
questions, teachers can better help their students grasp an appreciation and
understanding of the material, which is the end goal after all!
EXTEND:
Look at the following videos:
http://vimeo.com/28368014
http://vimeo.com/28368092
·
What
does it mean to be an expert?
Through watching the videos and doing some self
reflection I have come the conclusion that being an expert in a field means
that you have a profound knowledge base and passion for what you do. For example, in the interview about the dinosaurs
the boy sometimes had the exact same answer as the “expert” but he wasn’t completely
sure on his answers. You could truly see
how the “expert” enjoyed what he did. There was even a blurb about how he had
been excited about dinosaurs since before Jurassic Park came out, and loved
them ever since he was a child! Not only did he love what he did, but he
devoted his entire education to learning about the great reptiles of old.
This isn’t to say that you have to get a doctorate
in a subject to be an expert. I believe in the law of 10,000 hours. This basically
states that after doing, working, experiencing, or trying something for 10,000
hours, you will become an expert at it. This works for athletes, doctors,
lawyers, hair-dressers, educators, and almost anything else you can think of.
If you are truly passionate about something you will spend a whole lot of your
time—10,000 hours for instance—on that subject, which will give you a profound
knowledge about that subject. The passion will breed the knowledge, and the knowledge
will feed the passion.
TEACHING
FOR SUCCESSFUL INTELLIGENCE:
Read the full article here:
Read the full article here:
· Observations
and reflection
Overall I really enjoyed reading
this article. Although I have a very good memory as it is slightly photographic
(I can remember exactly where something is on a page and what was around it,
but not necessarily what was said—I connect with this article as I love
learning through experience and out of the box type of questions rather than
strictly plug and chug questions. The article states that teaching for
successful intelligence requires a way that “balances learning for memory,
analytical, creative, and practical thinking.” By implementing all three of
these teaching methods in various nation-wide experiments the students were
able to outperform other students who were taught using traditional methods. The
authors summarized this process of thinking with my favorite sentence in the
article, “When students think to learn, they also learn
to think.”
I additionally liked how the article stated that
there was no one definition of intelligence. Instead, they proclaimed that
people “are
successfully intelligent by virtue of recognizing their strengths and making
the most of them at the same time they recognize their weaknesses and find ways
to correct them.” This stood out to me because I hate the way most schools
evaluate a student. To me it is comparable to asking a monkey, a turtle, and a
whale to climb a tree. Obviously, some will succeed while others will fail,
with no chance of being able to compete with the others!
I really enjoyed reading about how to teach for successful intelligence
instead of teaching for block memory. The methods described in this article and
the experiments performed fully support the fact that triarchic learning has shaped students into excellent learners. Teachers
(including my future self) should seriously consider using these methods in
their lesson plans and implement them on a day-to-day basis.
