From: Marcella Dawson <dawsonm@tenet.edu>
Subject: Tool Kit
Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 20:28:22 -0600 (CST)
Thank you Jan for clarifying some questions. Some of my eighth grade guys were arguing with me today that the tool box is for Mars not Earth--now I have it in writing from our Fearless Leader! I have been amazed at the suggestions. There is actually recall of labs we did way back in sixth grade, I am seeing an unbelievable amount of application of previously learned techniques---which I have not experienced with other projects. We also have a sense of humor: the archeao-list contains Pace Pikante Sauce and Mrs. Dawson's portfolio guidelines. We are getting very intense as we head for the classroom debate. I still have to come up with guidelines for that. Does anyone have some good rubrics? I have posted our martian newsletter, "Los Marcianos", online and my classes are hoping that other classes will post also. The newsletter is an extension of my daily log assignment so it segued nicely. The instructions and the submittal form are at http://www.cs.rice.edu/~dawsonm/Lessons/mars4.html Finally, I am having a time problem with the challenge question. It takes my students a long time to think these problem through. They were very proud of their answers which came in after the first challenge question answers were answered. It is very nice to have parents work with their children; half of my students have non-English speaking, non-technically educated parents. The posted answers were excellent, but even I was surprised. My reaction was similar to taking students to a science fair so that they can compete with projects done by parents, rather than students. It is wonderful to have the complete answers as teaching tools, but could we have three (four--the fourth for parents!) level of answers? Marcella Dawson Marcella Dawson, Science Department St. Anne School 2120 Westheimer Houston, TX 77098 (713)526-3279