During my 26 years in the teaching profession I’ve always sought after quality professional development.  I’m the educator who at the end of the five year renewal cycle has way more professional development credits than are required.  I simply love to learn and acquire tools to help me grow as an educator.  The Kenan Fellows professional development was different than others I’ve experienced for several reasons.  First, I’m in a room filled with educators who are excited, positive and want to be there.  The enthusiasm to share tricks of the trade and hone our craft as teachers is contagious.

Secondly, the PD has been up to date and easy to implement in my classroom.  I’ve been able to quickly use new tools & strategies learned at Kenan PD as soon as I return to my classroom.  This is key to the educator who ALWAYS has a very long “to do” list.  The fact that I could pick a few new tools to implement right away kept me motivated and wanting to learn more. I admit, I was a bit overwhelmed in the beginning because I was learning so many new things.  I then realized I could just get started with a few.  For example, I chose to use Kahoot It as a review tool with my students the week I returned from the Kenan Institute.  I also began the year setting up my Edmodo classrooms using the information learned this summer at NCCAT.  As the Mentor Coordinator at my school, I’ve also implemented and shared several tools learned at Kenan PD with my new teachers.  They’ve commented on how they enjoy learning these new strategies that can easily be implemented in their own classrooms the very next day.

Lastly, the Kenan Fellows PD is different than other PD I’ve experienced because it has inspired me to be more informed as an educator.  The last institute I attended in October was filled with information about educational issues, how to get involved in making a change and learning more about the politics of our profession.  I admit I’ve never really been involved in this side of education and have left it to others.  I feel like I now have valuable information at my fingertips in order to become more active in helping to make positive changes in the education community.

I want to learn from someone who is enthusiastic about their craft and knowledgeable in their field.   I feel like the Kenans have provided top notch presenters during all three institutes.  I’ve considered myself lucky to be a part of such high quality professional development.  Throughout all three Kenan Fellows Institutes I’ve been inspired, challenged and treated as a valued professional. Thank you Kenan!!

Encouraging use of social media or banning the use in the classroom – why such polar viewpoints?  I believe that banning the use of social media stems directly from liability issues.  Because social media cannot be easily controlled, many school districts ban it’s use both in and out of the classroom.  Bullying is a key issue around this topic.  Students are more apt to say things when shielded behind a screen than face to face with another person.  Therefore many instances of bullying have occurred via social media.  Also some instances of inappropriate conversations or posts from students has also given social media a bad rap in the classroom.

On the other end of the spectrum, some school districts have embraced social media as a way to engage students in learning.  Students today have grown up with social media and they are comfortable with it.  Like it or not , it’s a main vehicle of communication among tweens and teens.  So instead of pushing against the use of social media, many classrooms are finding ways to successfully use this tool for learning.

I personally believe it doesn’t have to be an all or nothing mentality.  I think we can successfully use social media in the classroom with some guidelines and limits.  I for example have begun to use Edmodo in my class this year.  The format is similar to Facebook and the students seems to like it.  I do set expectations for it’s use and address any inappropriate behavior immediately.   My students have used this platform successfully so far and it’s an easy form of communication among my four classes.  I’m not quite as comfortable using other forms of social media in the classroom such as twitter or instagram just yet.  So I’m taking baby steps with Edmodo and may add more social media to my classroom in the future.  As I said above,  it doesn’t have to be all or nothing … take what you like and leave the rest.

My Kenan Fellowship experience has enriched me as an educator in many ways.  I’ve implemented many of the technology tools I learned at the Kenan PD such as Kahoot!, Edmodo, PowToon, Answer Garden and many others.  I’ve shared these in the classroom with my students and also with other educators.  Collaboraton with other teachers has also been a great take away from my fellowship experience.   Working in the lab with two other educators, Arthina Blanchard, 7th grade math teacher, and Amy Lawson, 8th grade science teacher, made a great experience even better.  Being able to share information and ideas was encouraging and rejuvenating to me as an educator.

The biggest change I plan to make this year is to create a bridge to real world science and what my students are doing in the classroom.  Having the hands on experience, working along scientists in the Genomics and Microbiology Lab has added depth to my understanding of science procedures in a laboratory setting.  I now have a much clearer picture of Dr. Julia Stevens Dirt is Alive Research.  I am much more confident to guide my students as they participate in this Citizen Science project.

As I’ve begun to implement my Kenan curriculum I’m realizing the importance of connections I’ve made through my fellowship.  Dr. Stevens kicked off my Diggin’ Dandelions lesson when she visited my classroom and solicited the help of my students in her research.  Having an actual scientist from the museum come into my classroom and ask for my students help was powerful … real world learning at it’s best.  My students felt important and a part of something real.  I plan to continue tapping into the connections I made at the museum throughout the rest of this year.  In January, we will participate in the SMARTS Program the museum offers.  We will skype with Dr. Julie Urban and Dr. Julia Stevens about the progress of our Dirt is Alive research.  My class will also visit the science museum and have a private tour in the Genomics and Microbiology Lab.

Many of my students’ parents work in STEM careers and I plan to invite them into the classroom to share some of their experiences as well.  I’ve come to realize the impact of bringing real world experiences into my classroom.  I want to make our studies more relevant and help students become aware of the many STEM career opportunities that are available to them.

Below are a few pictures of Dr. Stevens visiting my classroom and my students setting up their Diggin Dandelion Experiment.

I am part of Team Dirt (Arthina Blanchard, Amy Lawson, myself and our mentor Dr. Julia Stevens) working on the Citizen Science Soil Microbiology project entitled Dirt is Alive.  Our goal is to analyze the microbiome of the dandelion and specifically look at the microbes, the bacteria and fungi, associated with the dandelion.  Click on the link below to hear Dr. Julia Stevens explain our project in more detail.

Click here:  Dr. Julia Stevens describing Dirt is Alive Citizen Science Project

In order for our Citizen Science project to be a success there are several key components that must be met.  First and foremost getting the students engaged and excited about the project is key.  I plan to have Dr. Julia Stevens help ignite the excitement by visiting our classroom at the very beginning of the year and explaining her research to my students.  She will then solicit their help in collecting data to be used as part of her research.  I imagine my students will buy in hook, line and sinker as they interact with Dr. Stevens and realize that they are going to be part of REAL SCIENCE.

An important tangible key component of this project is the students must be able to actually find the dandelions.  When Team Dirt was searching for dandelions at Prairie Ridge we discovered this was more difficult that we first thought.  But after a bit of searching we hit the jackpot and were able to find plenty of dandelions.  Dr. Stevens chose dandelions for her research because they can be found almost anywhere. In preparation for my students conducting the project in class, I plan to scope out the school grounds for dandelions ahead of time.  I want to make sure students experience success in the first step of our project.  Of course THEY will actually find the dandelions on their own, but we will avoid spending a few hours searching the entire school grounds (big campus) for dandelions – the reality and time constraints of a one hour block of class time have to be considered.

Lastly, I think direct contact and communication with Dr. Julia Stevens and other scientists at the museum is going to be a crucial component for this project’s success. Once the students have collected the dandelion soil samples we will need to utilize the science museum’s lab in order to analyze the data and identify the bacteria and fungi associated with the dandelion’s microbiome.   Part of our continued communication with the museum will be participation in the museum’s SMARTS program (Scientists Making Answers Relevant for Teachers and Students).  This program will allow my students to interact with scientists in the Genomics Lab and get real time feedback about our ongoing Dirt is Alive project. I will need to work with my media specialist to make sure we can access the necessary equipment for the interactive video conferencing.  While we were working in the lab this summer, Dr. Julie Urban, was actually conducting a SMARTS session with a group of educators participating in a conference in Greensboro.  Dr. Urban invited us to join her in the video conference.  It was a great opportunity to see the SMARTS program in action from the scientist side.  This program will be a key component in continuing the connection between the middle school science classroom and the museum.

It is difficult to pick among the multiple AHA moments that occurred during my time at the museum, so I’ve narrowed it down to two.  My first AHA moment occurred day one at the museum.  We spent the morning at Prairie Ridge getting to know one another and meeting all the stakeholders involved in the Students Discover project.  We were able to express our hopes, dreams and fears as we embarked on this unchartered ground … to bring Citizen Science into the public school setting.  We had fun participating in the Dragonfly Swarm Citizen Science project.   Then it was time to go to our home for the next three weeks, The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.  Dr. Rob Dunn, the principal investigator of the Students Discover project, was scheduled to give a talk in the museum’s Daily Planet.   He described the Students Discover project and talked of a “quiet revolution brewing in the museum” among the teachers and scientists.  The idea of bringing together public school educators and museum scientists was a ground breaking endeavor.  As he talked, I began to get chills and realized what a big deal this was and that I was part of something great.   I was so excited to be sitting in the Daily Planet as one of the Students Discover teachers getting the CHARGE from Dr. Rob Dunn.   In that moment I realized that this project could really change the face of middle school science.  I could not wait to ignite the fire of Citizen Science in my 6^th grade classroom!

My next AHA moment came towards the end of my time at the museum.   Team Dirt (Arthina Blanchard, Amy Lawson and myself) and Team Mite (Marybeth Evans, Kayla Norvile and Willis Foster) were asked to present to all the scientists in the Genomics Lab.  We shared our curriculum ideas and explained ways we planned to bring our experience in the lab back to our students in the classroom.  The presentation went well and I felt again like I was part of something great.  The scientists shared how they enjoyed our enthusiasm in the lab.  They talked of being rejuvenated themselves working alongside us in the role of mentor.    After our presentation, the scientists were continuing their meeting to discuss budget and other upcoming projects.  As the teachers were getting up to leave, my mentor Dr. Julia Stevens, leaned over and gave me directions to make the next gel in preparation to run our gel electrophoresis in the lab that day.  I hesitated and asked “You mean you want us to go ahead and make the gel without you?”  She answered, “Yes, you got this, I trust you.”  That is when my second AHA moment occurred.  I realized that after spending several weeks in the lab learning under the tutelage of my mentor, she viewed us as one of the team.  That felt pretty awesome and it was then I recognized my experience at the museum was like a needed shot in the arm.   I felt empowered in that moment and knew that my teaching would be positively influenced by the time spent in the Genomics Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

My Students Discover Team, nicknamed Team Dirt, worked in the Genomics Lab of the NC Museum of Natural Sciences.  We were working on the Citizen Science Project entitled Muddy Microbes.  Our team consisted of myself, 6th grade science teacher, Arthina Blanchard, 7th grade math teacher, and Amy Lawson, 8th grade science teacher.  Team Dirt worked very well together during our three week externship at the science museum.  We learned many new skills and had excellent opportunities to enrich ourselves as teaching professionals both in the lab and also conducting field work.

Our first challenge when writing our curriculum is taking the lab work like DNA extraction, gel electrophoresis, and PCRs and relating those skills to a middle school classroom.  We obviously don’t have the equipment to actually do these activities in the classroom, nor is that the intent.  With the help of our mentors in the lab we identified activities that can be adapted to the middle school classroom.  We will also continue to have access to the museum lab and will send our citizen science work to the lab and receive data back that we can then analyze and use in our classrooms.

Throughout the three weeks while working in the lab, our team would brainstorm ideas about curriculum and identify different ways we could bring this experience back into the classroom.  During the last week when we actually began putting pen to paper and writing our curriculum the biggest challenge was trying to incorporate all three grade level’s standards into our lesson.  We decided to write our curriculum unit entitled DIRT IS ALIVE beginning with a lesson that all three of us could teach at the beginning of the year  -Diggin’ Dandelions.  Implementation of this lesson will introduce Citizen Science to our students and set the tone for the entire year.  We then identified standards in each of our grade levels that can be taught using the Citizen Science project.  We are each working on lessons that can be taught in our grade that align with our specific curriculum as part of the Dirt is Alive unit.  For example I will have two additional lessons (What is Soil and Biomes Around the World) that will be taught later in the  year that connect to the Citizen Science Project.

Writing curriculum can be overwhelming and when we first started I wasn’t sure how we were going to make all three grade levels fit into our Dirt is Alive unit. I now see a clearer picture of how this will work.  I think having all three grade levels incorporated will add depth to the unit.  I love the idea of starting with the Diggin’ Dandelions lesson that we have submitted as our unit draft and then adding the additional lessons for each grade level that will be taught under the Diggin’ Dandelions umbrella.  This will allow the students to continue connecting to the Citizen Science Project throughout the year.

This week Team Dirt discovered quite a few curriculum connections that we can make with our experience at the science museum this summer.  Our team is represented by  all three middle school grades 6th, 7th and 8th grades along with the two disciplines of science and math.  We identified several curriculum objectives that can be met as we conduct Dr. Julia Steven’s Dandelion Project in our classrooms. Some of the related 6th & 8th grade topics from the  NC Science Essential Standards include:   soil makeup, symbiosis, ecosystems, helpful and harmful bacteria and biomes.  We also discussed many math connections including ratios, percents, graphing, scatter plots, and quadratics which tie into the 7th Grade and Math 1 standards.  To help with writing our unit plan, we created a google doc that lists all the standards that can be addressed through this project in all three areas (6th science, 8th science and 7th math).

I envision setting up the dandelion project right at the beginning of the year along with introducing the big idea of Citizen Science.  At this time I will invite our mentor, Dr. Julia Stevens, to come to the classroom and let the students meet the “real scientist” in person.  I think this will be a great way to kick off the year and excite the students with the understanding that they will actually be helping Dr. Stevens with her research.  We will be able to continue this connection with the SMARTS distance learning tool to video conference with the scientists at the museum.

We plan to have our students conduct the dandelion experiments in the classroom.  They will bring in soil from their own neighborhoods and we will explore the bacteria and fungi that are present and address the main question – Can dandelions recruit their own microbiome in these new soils? From this initial activity I’m sure many more student inquires will follow.

Once the soil is brought in, students will find dandelions on the school grounds and after sterilizing the roots, will plant the dandelions in the soils they brought from home.  The students will care for the dandelion plants and when time we will send the root and surrounding soil to the museum for analysis.  We obviously don’t have the equipment to extract DNA or run PCR so this is a great advantage to be connected to the museum.  Once the samples have been analyzed Dr. Stevens will send the results back to us so we can use for further inquiry in the classroom.

I’m excited about the idea of my students doing “real science” in the classroom and having this connection with the museum and scientist working there. During our reflection lunch on Friday I was thrilled to hear, Dr. Rob Dunn, say “The hours in the lab diminish, but the scope shouldn’t.”  He made it very clear that we were welcome to come back to the museum and use the lab facilities as the need arises.  I feel like I am truly a Teacher-Scientist in a partnership with the museum to create more Citizen Scientists in my classroom, school, state and as Rob says “throughout the world.”  I can’t wait to kick off this new school year!

Day 5 – July 7, 2014

We began our week at Prairie Ridge searching for dandelions to use in our dandelion microbiome research project.  It was a challenge,  but we finally found and dug up over 30 dandelions.  Once back at the museum, Julia bleached the roots and Amy, Arthina and I each took turns sifting the soils we brought from home and replanted the dandelions in this soil. It will be interesting to see if the dandelions can reestablish the microbes in the new soil.

Next, our team created a display to put in the window of the Genomics Lab.  The display showed the steps of our project and communicated the main research question:  Will dandelions find symbiosis in our sample soils?  It is cool to have a display in the museum!

Day 6 – July 8, 2014

Today we learned more from Dr. Julie Urban about PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and how the thermal cycler uses a heating and cooling cycle to replicate the DNA.   As two of us met with Dr. Urban we each took turns working with our mentor, Julia to learn the process of DNA extraction.  We used  the soils we collected around the museum block to practice extracting the DNA.  i choose the soil found around the Rachel Carson statue as my practice soil (thinking it would give me good results – ha).  Once we had all extracted the DNA from our soils, Julia showed us the NanoDrop machine that would measure the concentration and quality of our samples.  I was so excited to see that my Rachel Carson sample had a high quality result and so did Amy and Arthina’s sample.  To end the day we set up the PCR mixture and put it in the thermal cycler – anxious to see our first PCR results tomorrow.

Day 7 – July 9, 2014

Today we are going to run our first gel!  We first learned how to create a gel for electrophoresis.   We then put our DNA into the gel and ran the electricity through it which allows us to see if we ran the correct DNA strands for sequencing.  Unfortunately we were not successful running our first gel – Julia thinks we may have left out the Taq – a key ingredient in the solution mixed with the DNA 🙁  We will try again tomorrow.

Julia had an innovative idea to create an agar made from our soils, so we learned how to make Soil Agar today.  We ended our day having fun looking at the agar plates full of bacteria from the soils we collected from around the museum.  We used the dissecting scope to view the plates and talked about how our students would also enjoy exploring this part of the project.

Day 8 – July 10, 2014

Today we created our PCR and ran our gels again … success!!   Below is a photo of our successful gel and we joked about how proud we were – almost like a baby’s sonogram:)

We had good time today to talk about curriculum connections.  We met with Julia in the conference room and she shared  two great Next Generation Sequencing Data programs:  MG-RAST & STAMP.  These will be very useful during the school year when we receive the data back from Juila and begin the process of analyzing the data about different bacteria and fungi found in our soil samples.

Next we enjoyed a Daily Planet talk from Dr. Julie Urban entitled Bugs in Bugs:  Symbiosis.  Her talk was intriguing about planthoppers that have cells in their bodies just for bacteria.   The Bobtail Squid was another symbiotic example showing how they have bioluminescent bacteria in their eyes which helps to cloak them from predators.

We finished our day by making three batches of agar:  soil agar with bacteria, soil agar with fungi,  and nutrient agar

 Day 9 – July 11,2014

Today we had a Skype discussion with Dr. Meg Lowman.  She is a scientist at Cal-Tech but formerly worked at the science museum and helped to write the NSF grant for the Student’s Discover Project.  She was very interested to talk with each Student’s Discover team about our progress and how we see using this experience in our classroom.

The entire Student’s Discover Team met with Liz Baird to reflect on week two.  Some of the topics discussed include:  curriculum connections; working in teams at the museum and how to replicate the rich learning experience that we’ve received for future teachers.  All the Kenan Fellows sitting around the table agreed that we have hit the jackpot of externships – the experience at the museum continues to be top notch!

Later that day we plated more of our soil samples on three different types of agar.  At the end of the day, Julia asked us about extending the dandelion experiment to a month instead of a week to allow the dandelions to strongly establish themselves before we take the soil samples.  I thought it was really cool that Julia was actually interested in our input about this change and we made the decision mentor with mentees.  We checked on our precious dandelions one more time before we ended another fabulous week at the museum.

I was so excited about all the new technology tools that I learned at NCCAT … Arusma, Twiducate, Foursquare, pheed, Poll Everywhere, Socrative, Educreations just to name a few.  I returned home and my enthusiasm to implement some of the new technology this year in my classroom was tempered with the reality of no hardware.  This is the biggest challenge for using technology in my classroom!  My school does have laptop carts, but it’s difficult to consistently have these available in the classroom and I’d love to have technology in my students hands on a daily basis.

One solution to this problem is to have students bring their own devices (BYOD).  I started this as a trial in 4th quarter of last school year with some success.  I also plan to look for grant money to purchase either ipads or chrome books to have available for each lab group in class and hope to eventually build so that we have hardware available for each pair of students.

The above picture is Day 1 in the Genomics and Microbiology Lab at NC Science Museum with my mentor, Dr. Julia Stevens.  Dr. Stevens asked each of us to bring three soil samples from our neighborhood to use in the Dandelion Microbiome Project .