Loved seeing Anny use this Peep and Chirp science learning video with her students!

My kindergartners also love Peep and Chirp as well as all of the other resources in "Bringing the Universe to America's Classrooms". They really enhance my teaching and my student's understanding.

i encourage all teachers to check out these powerful resources at PBS Learning Media.

Welcome! Over the course of this week we look forward to discussing how digital media can be designed to engage K-12 students in scientific practices around phenomena. This presentation represents work from the second year of a 5-year project, Bringing the Universe to America's Classrooms. While our NSF Videohall presentation from last year focused on prototyping and formative evaluation findings, this year we will share some design features of our digital resources, along with evaluation findings from classroom testing with educators from across the country. 

This video takes you into Anny's elementary science class, where she implements a lesson plan to engage her students in making observations and arguing from evidence. Our team is using videos like this one to begin to explore instructional impacts and student engagement with various types of media and digital tools.

We look forward to the conversation,

Rachel Connolly, Martin Storksdieck, and Jake Foster

This was great!

Would you mind explaining a little about what it is specifically that the digital component adds to these activities, please?

Thank you!
Mark

Wind's a great topic for the age, looking for evidence of something you can't see. What makes us think the air is moving anyway? It's interesting these kids are working from a static image to argue from evidence! I'm thinking of ways to look for signs (evidence) of wind in the Peep story and record them for the class .

I'll bet they noticed wind outside a little differently after such a lesson. 

I agree with Ammy when she says she can tell when her students are engaged. The Peep characters are, well, characters! and because the graphics are simple, we focus on a quirky mouth or question without distraction. good choice. 

Sally

Sally, thanks for posting. I wanted to share that there are 4 different videos, with each animated PEEP short modeling observations and descriptions for a common weather condition, including rain, snow, wind, and a sunny day. The static image that you see in the video was from the student handout, that facilitated the students in communicating their evidence as clues. 

I think it is safe to say that Anny (the teacher in the video) was rather skilled at using the digital resources to draw out arguments from evidence. Is this typical--or do you see a range of teacher skill in fostering this sort of argumentation? Can the skill be taught?

This is certainly a positive example, and the degree to which teachers will be able todo this will clearly vary. And yes, like all professional skills this one can be taught. That is, we can teach teachers to use argumentation in the classroom, and students can learn it through reflective practice (note the difference in wording). We do not have a good learning progression yet for the 8 science and engineering practices in A Framework for K-12 Science Education, though; at least as far as I know.

I think video is a great way to provide phenomena for students to learn from.  There were a variety of resources that I saw being used beyond just the video..  Are there suggested supports or strategies for teacher that don't have an interactive white board or access to color copying, etc. that would help draw out the students in visualizing their thinking as effectively as Anny?  Also, wondering if the only way to access these resources are through the WGBH site or is there a plan for broader dissemination?

I liked this video and in particularly how the teacher looked to see when the students are engaged (or not) and that she felt that  digital media helped to increase their interest. I also liked the message “to explain how you know....” Getting young students to articulate their reasoning at a young age is really important. But - here is my reservation -  I wondered how this experience would compare with taking the students out on a very windy day and working in groups to come up with evidence that it is windy. They may have spoken about how their hair moved, how they saw goosebumps on their arm, or how their paper got swept away. I ask this, because I worry about kids spending more and more time in front of very engaging screens and not interacting with nature. Are these lessons sometimes combined with real-world experiences? 

Joni, thanks for asking your question, as it is one that we asked ourselves early in our development process. In short, we hope that all teachers will take their students outside to experience their local weather and make authentic observations. This media/experience can scaffold those observations. First, by breaking down the four different factors of weather into discreet videos that focus on each of them through the experiences of these engaging characters, it helps answer the question, "When I observe the weather, what am I actually looking for?" 
Second, there are many locations and contexts that do not have access to some of these phenomena (like snow), and so our collection of media resources, that includes the lesson you see here, provides a range of weather experiences that the teacher can bring into the classroom on-demand. 

To circle back, we do hope that these are not seen as experiences to replace going outside and observing the weather, but that it supplements the curriculum and enables students to engage with the phenomena in varied, and fun, ways that enable scientific practices.