Module 1: Setting the Scene
- Engaging the Digital Learner
- Authentic Learning for the 21st Century
- Exploratory Learning
- The Promise of Virtual Learning Environments
- Technology: A Catalyst for Teaching and Learning in the Classroom
- Assignment (Group): Idea Web of Key Characteristics of Constructivist Learning
Module 2: Understanding National and State Math and Science Standards
- Identify National Standards for specific grade level in math or science or both
- Identify State Standards for specific grade level in math or science or both
- AZ Workplace Standards
- STANDARD 1: Use principles of effective oral, written and listening communication skills to make decisions and solve workplace problems.
- STANDARD 2: Apply computation skills and data analysis techniques to make decisions and solve workplace problems.
- STANDARD 3: Apply critical and creative thinking skills to make decisions and solve workplace problems.
- STANDARD 4: Work individually and collaboratively within team settings to accomplish objectives.
- Assignment (Individual): Create a curriculum map aligned to appropriate standards
Module 3: Building Thinking Skills Through Solving Puzzles (On-Going)
- Identify puzzle types (sudoku, pattern recognition, rubik's cube, mazes, construction puzzles, stick puzzles, disentanglement puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, lock puzzles, folding puzzles, spot the difference puzzles, tangram puzzles, lateral thinking puzzles, logic puzzles, or others)
- Choose a puzzle type that will engage you and your students
- Spend 10 minutes per day on this puzzle type
- Assignment (Individual): Journal this experience each day, thus recording your personal development as a mathematical and scientific thinker.
Module 4: Solving Problems and Reflecting on Problem-Solving Processes (On-Going)
- Discuss the assigned problem
- Analyze the problem
- Generate possible solutions
- Evaluate possible solutions and select an approach for solving the problem
- Implement your solution
- Record your problem solving process
- Cooperation and Problem Solving
- Components of Critical Thinking:
- Reasoning
- Evaluating
- Problem Solving
- Decision Making
- Analyzing
- Assignment (Group): Solving Problems and Reflecting on Problem-Solving Processes
Participate in five problem-solving activities, record your process, and report your solution and how your process helped your development as more mathematical and scientific thinkers. Use the Standards for Critical Thinking and Criteria for Evaluating a Creative Solution to help your reflection process.
Module 5: Incorporating Science and Math Daily News in the K-12 Classroom
(On-Going)
- Being aware of news that is important to today's learners is one of the professional responsibilities of all teachers.
- Class participants will create and maintain a blog on recent and newsworthy ideas to make science and math relevant every day to K-12 students.
- Assignment (Individual): Post one news story, your summary, and a strategy for incorporating this story in your classroom to our blog.
Module 6: Collecting, Sorting, Categorizing, and Sharing Real-World Data
- Mathematical thinking involves:
- Counting objects
- Sorting objects by different traits
- Using graphical representations to synthesize data
- Using graphical representations to share data
- Adaptive Curriculum Activity Object: Sorting Animal Fossils
- Assignment (Group): Counting and Sort by Category/Classification
Participants examine and discuss the contents of virtual containers, then determine two or more ways to categorize the items found. After counting a categorizing, they will use Excel™ to create spreadsheets and graphs that represent the categorized data.
- Assignment (Individual): Applying This Technique in the K-12 Classroom
Create a similar assignment for K-12 students and share the process and products with peers.
Module 7: Using Data Sets and Spreadsheets in K-12 Classrooms
- This module focuses on the importance of using spreadsheets in the K-12 curriculum and the educational value of spreadsheet activities to improve student achievement. It investigates how spreadsheets can be used in across the curriculum and how spreadsheet can help organize large data sets of information.
- Adaptive Curriculum Activity Object: Finding the Appropriate Graph
- Assignment (Group): Evaluating and Sharing Key Findings of a Large Data Set
Create an Excel™ spreadsheet and graph to evaluate and synthesize an extensive data set. Then create Excel™ graphs to showcase what your group feels are the most salient characteristics of the data set.
Module 8: STEM Career Opportunities
- Researchers and practitioners agree that simply teaching more science and mathematics isn’t the answer to increasing student achievement. Engaging learners and demonstrating the practical applications of these subjects are keys to motivating both teachers and students. When students use inquiry, they develop an enthusiasm for STEM disciples and sense their own potential as problem-solvers and future scientists, mathematicians, and engineers.
- During the next decade, the demand for scientists and engineers in the United States is expected to increase at four times the rate of all other occupations. Currently, most high school students are not pursuing high-demand jobs in math and science, and even fewer are pursuing degrees in technical fields. As new participants enter the world economy, it is vital to educate students and prepare them to compete in the global job market.
- Jobs of Tomorrow: Classifieds Our Students Should Get Prepared to Read
A glimpse at the opportunities and expectations for future workers by Amy Zuckerman
- Assignment (Group): Making K-12 Students Aware of STEM Careers
Contribute to a class Wiki that provides information on STEM careers and teachers can share with their K-12 students. Contributions can be made in the following categories:
- training and education needed
- nature of the work
- earnings
- expected job prospects
- job descriptions
- working conditions
- advancement opportunities
Module 9: Creating a Project-Based Learning Curricular Unit (Culminating Project)
- Assignment (Individual): Create a 3- to 4-week curricular unit that:
- provides an Essential/Guiding Question for the unit
- provides a timeline for the unit
- aligns unit objectives with state or national standards
- integrates 2-3 Adaptive Curriculum Activity Objects
- integrates any four or more of the following: real-world data, spreadsheets and graphs, case studies, hands-on problem solving activities, thinking webs, Wordle webs, Mad Minutes, blogs, wikis, and puzzles.
- incorporate links to online resources
- involve K-12 students in hands-on activities, problem solving, and higher-order thinking
Module 10: Reflection
- Assignment (Individual): Reflection on Your Learning
Reflection is an important part of learning that is beneficial for K-12 and adult learners. You will write a 4-5 page Reflection Paper that speaks of your growth in each area of the course, and specifically answers the questions of (1) how Adaptive Curriculum materials facilitated your instruction in math, science, or both; (2) how this course helped develop your personal thinking skills; and (3) how you will incorporate the thinking skills strategies modeled in this course in your classroom.
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National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Process Standards
Problem Solving
- Build new mathematical knowledge through problem solving
- Solve problems that arise in mathematics and in other contexts
- Apply and adapt a variety of appropriate strategies to solve problems
- Monitor and reflect on the process of mathematical problem solving
Reasoning and Proof
- Recognize reasoning and proof as fundamental aspects of mathematics
- Make and investigate mathematical conjectures
- Develop and evaluate mathematical arguments and proofs
- Select and use various types of reasoning and methods of proof
Communication
- Organize and consolidate their mathematical thinking through communication
- Communicate their mathematical thinking coherently and clearly to peers, teachers, and others
- Analyze and evaluate the mathematical thinking and strategies of others
- Use the language of mathematics to express mathematical ideas precisely
Connections
- Recognize and use connections among mathematical ideas
- Understand how mathematical ideas interconnect and build on one another to produce a coherent whole
- Recognize and apply mathematics in contexts outside of mathematics
Representation
- Create and use representations to organize, record, and communicate mathematical ideas
- Select, apply, and translate among mathematical representations to solve problems
- Use representations to model and interpret physical, social, and mathematical phenomena
Problem Solving Cycle
- Identify or define the problem
- Which problem should I address?
- If there are several, how do I choose the most important one?
- Describe the problem
- How do I accurately and completely describe the problem?
- Analyze the problem
- What are the different causes of the problem?
- Which causes are most important to solve right away?
- Generate alternative solutions
- What are the different alternative solutions for solving the problem?
- Evaluate and select an alternative
- Implement and follow up on the solution
- How do I make sure the solutions are implemented correctly and effectively?
- Monitor and evaluate the solutions
- How did the solutions work?
- What needs to be changed?
Creative Thinking Techniques - Virtual Salt
Brainstorming - Basic Guidelines for Brainstorming
- Suspend judgment
- Think freely
- Improve, modify, build on the ideas of others
- Generating a large stock of ideas to sift through later
Practical Methodology
- Choose a recorder
- Organize the chaos by having a moderator
- Keep the session relaxed and playful
- Limit the session to fifteen or twenty minutes
- After the session, neaten up the list and make copies for each member of the session
- Add and evaluate at a later date
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