Emo vampire bats and sexual reproduction (you are so predictable)

I want my students to make a comic, graphic novel or series of posters for sexual reproduction as part of genetics. I want them to hit four concepts: meiosis (cell division producing sex cells), fertilisation, DNA structure and replication, and genetic expression. So, since I have found that giving an instruction as wide open as that invariably leads to trouble, I made two posters as examples.

Here, the first two posters in my series: Emo Vampire Bats and Sexual Reproduction





I don't know about you, but I am pretty excited to see what my students come up with.

A thing for mash-ups

Okay, yeah, I do have a thing for them. I love the first moment, where you boggle and wonder how the two things will ever, ever fit together. Then I love the actual product, which can be hilarious, powerful, or just entertaining. Then I love the way I can appreciate someone else's creativity and lateral thinking, because I never would have thought of juxtaposing those two things.

Today's case in point:



It's brilliant. I showed it to some of my colleagues (only the ones under 35) and we all loved it. It's like... Rick Astley is the Jonas Brothers of 1987! And Nirvana is the epitome of our teenage angst and hormone fog! And we squoosh them together to make something that is nostalgic and wince-worthy, and also bizarrely addictive.

I know that a lot of my colleagues have issues with mash-ups and other remixing endeavours. It's the same reason why they object to fanfiction and other pursuits of this nature. They get all het up about intellectual property and creativity and all sorts of guff that I really don't get.

Look, I would love to write the early 21st century's definitive novel, but I don't buy in to the myth of high genius being a rare and precious thing that is somehow only available to a select few. What I love about mash-ups, mixes, and other remix and remodel endeavours is the way that it makes creativity and artistry something that we all do. It's something that comes from all around us, from using the things that we find in creative and innovative ways. It's the embodiment of constructivism in everyday life, making sense of the world around us.

And I think that's something we should be encouraging in our kids.

I am going to come back to this later, with some ideas for mash-ups and remixes in the classroom, and ways that teachers can encourage creativity. Because I think it's important.

Playing around with Glogster

I think my Y12s with enjoy using this *nods firmly*

In absentia, relief

I'm not a big subscriber to the theory that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Instead, I find relief in being able to escape for a while. None of that explains what I am doing at school on a beautiful Monday in the holidays.

One of the things that I am doing is working on the units for next term: biology (genetics and then microbes) for the Y11s, Waves for the Y12s and Electricity for the Y13s. Now, sometime in week two, I will be going to Australia for a few days, but I don't know exactly when. So I'm factoring that into my relief - no practicals (you can't give practical work for a reliever to supervise) but still interesting and engaging learning. So far, I'm leaning towards either a video - pretty straightforward to do and I get to talk and draw on the board as I go - or some sort of powerpoint with audio followed by a class chat (time in Australia permitting).

Right. I will let that tick over in the back of my mind while I wait for the coffee to hit and take another look at the learning outcomes for these units.

Sometimes, I want to teach social sciences

I'm really excited about should-a.com, a site where you can make referendum questions that mimic the one that we're currently facing in Aotearoa. I think there are awesome opportunities for learning in the gallery and in composing your own question - and looking at what makes a good question.

Also of interest is Sue Bradford's private member's bill to change the parameters around questions that can be asked in referenda. Fascinating!

I sometimes wish I taught one of the social sciences *makes sad face*

Of particular interest to me, though, beyond the shiny of the teaching implications, is the way it's an awesome example of web2.0. Something has happened in politics. People are interested. Someone makes this site where people can participate in the politics. The site is easy to use. The site has built-in options for sharing. The site is designed to be viral. When spreading the links/artefacts/whatever, people can add their own take on it.

Awesome. I love it.

Science fair

I have been at school since just after 7am this morning - I think I am still residually under-caffeinated. I was here early to take delivery of science fair projects.

It is now just after 5pm and I am sitting in the drafty auditorium, presiding over 50 or 60 or so cardboard presentation boards, each one a monument to hours of work. I hate cardboard.

Next year, if we have to do a long-term project, I am so encouraging electronic submission. Aside from the fact that I won't have to hustle all the boards around the place and fret about losing things, I will also have the joy of allowing parents and community members to view online - so that I can go home.

Okay, okay, so there were some good points

One of the good things that did come out of the Curriculum Development day up here was the chance to meet the occasional interesting - and interested - colleague. I met one.

We were talking about assessing key competencies. You know, it's all well and good for everyone to howl and say "but you're not supposed to assess key competencies", but I think it's really likely that you will, at the very least, have to assign a grade on a report card, even if it doesn't carry credits. So anyway, we were talking about how the key competencies are connected, so you can't have one without the other. And then we got to talking about how you could have a day for this, dressing it up as a challenge and using a science context - for example, projectile motion for Y12 physics - to assess them all together.

I mentioned this to one of my minions, and they thought it was pretty cool too. But I am wondering how to make it more authentic and how to make it integrate more collaboration and more web2.0 thinking. But the idea has promise, if not for the informal assessment of key competencies, then at least for providing an engaging science experience in the senior school.