LEARNING

To become more knowledgeable, more understanding, more enlightened is what it means to be a learned person.  That is an accepted premise, for me, as I begin the school year delivering an educational process designed to meet these expectations.

George Washington Carver, the famous American born-into-slavery botanist and inventor, who Time magazine in 1941 called the “Black Leonardo da Vinci.” He said: “Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.” The learning process that we call education is really a transitory means by which people fulfill their own expectations of themselves, while providing a pathway to become loving and loveable people within our society.

The diversity of students’ abilities to learn, comprehend and articulate is as widely dispersed as grains of sands on a beach.  To hold students accountable in the classroom to learn is like piling up buckets of sand with each new disbursement as impactful as the previous one and at the same time disruptive to final outcomes.  Each new idea, new concept and new resolution to problems leads to further questions, more changes in mindsets of people and increased intrinsic motivations to want to know more. Learning is a physiological and psychological disruptive process.

But it is learning. It is what we work toward for our children and for our own well-being.  To become learned opens doors of opportunities and it leaves us with a greater awareness of our measure in life with respect to all that has been given to us and with respect to the people that fill our lives.

The ability to think critically and solve problems is not innate.  It takes a certain level of both understanding and experience, together, to be able to perform when called upon to do so.  Education and the learning that takes place in the classroom lays a foundation for students to develop self-efficacy and move forward with confidence and with a sense of resoluteness.

Next generation science standards provide a framework for science teachers to operate and design curriculum with, but it is not a substitute for measuring real learning in the classroom. Real learning is a human endeavor as diverse as the population it serves.  Learning reflects the broad composition of human experiences with its complexities and its uniqueness.

Twenty-first century education models in science are doubling-down on standards-based curriculum as a method of documenting student performance, but it is the diversity of our student population, driven by social economic factors in our society, that ultimately determine true outcomes in student performance.

Learning is a human endeavor that demands continual vigilance and fortitude on the part of the teacher.  The goal is to deliver a curriculum to students that provide them the means and opportunity to develop and express understanding and knowledge, to solve problems and to increase their awareness of the universe that surrounds us all.

 Fate vs. Destiny

A quote by S.L. Scott, New York Times BestSELLING AUTHOR:

“Fate is the life you lead if you never put yourself in the path of greatness. That’s the direction your life moves in without any effort on your part. That’s your fate.”

“Destiny is your potential waiting to happen. It’s the top tier in the grand scheme of possibilities and where your dreams come true. You have to be willing to take that first step to reach your potential, even if it’s a risk.”

Fall always visually presents these two dynamics (fate vs. destiny) with me in my life.  The transformation witnessed every day, in the peak of the fall color season, is the fate of all vegetation progressing into the winter months.

Yet there is always a sense of renewal in the springtime and a feeling of hope.  That is the destiny I seek.  The possibility for change that nourishes the soul and stimulates the mind.

The fall colors, brilliant and stunning, leave me with a feeling of inevitability.  This course of events leads us into winter, and I witness these changes taking place in the environment as a bystander present outside of it without applying any effort.  That is fate.

The flood of colors in the peak fall season washes over us and it makes me rejoice over the beauty of life and the exquisite gift to be alive on this planet! 

Destiny provides the opportunity for all of us to live the fullest life possible in the shortest amount of time we have in this world. To truly appreciate the gift of life is to embrace destiny as a way of living every day.

EARTH STEWARDSHIP PROJECT

2019

The initial stages of the project is associated with students taking account of the soil in their community and its vitality as a means to grow crops.

Soil is a mixture of clay, silt, sand and organic material.  The composition of these substances determines soil composition and overall density.
It is important that students begin to scientifically evaluate the quality of the soil within the community.
Soil quality is critical not only for the production of food and also for dealing effectively with climate change.

Analysis of soil quality begins with both percent composition and resulting density.  Students will designate three locations outside the building and then begin to collect samples at each location.  

A. Enough mass of soil at each location is collected so each student can accumulate and test three 90 ml samples of soil.

B. Also students need to collect enough soil to fill at least three glass jars half-full so they can add another half-full of water and mix up the entire suspended mixture.  As the substances in the glass jars settle out they will move into specific layers (clay, silt, sand and organic matter).

The mass of soil in each cup (90ml) is measured to the nearest tenth of a gram of mass.
Knowing the volume and mass of each cup, students will be able to calculate the density of soil in each cup.  An average density is determined from analyzing these three cups.

• Students working in groups of 3 to 4 persons will collaborate, share their findings and determine an overall classroom density of soil.
• Good soil densities can range from 0.9  to 1.3 grams/ml.
• Students will be able to compare their findings of density of local soils to the range of known good soil densities.
• Once students become knowledgeable of soil densities they can create their own superior soil density samples.  These designed samples can be tested by planting basil and vegetables and allowing them to grow and prosper within their soils

Therefore there are many opportunities for students to investigate, test, analyze and create.  With knowledge and information comes power and increased self-efficacy of all students.  Students begin to think out of the box and pursue solutions to regenerate the soil in their community. Since students know the composition of good soils and they can look at environmental and societal impacts upon the soil in our community.

Students will begin to promote square foot gardening as the means to increase the urban agriculture to help support the community's food resilience into a climate change threatening future.  Square foot gardening at the local level is an essential final stage of this project to implement what has been learned and discovered and creating a viable productive facility to grow food.  Students can help manage the garden and they can continue to perform scientific studies and work to maximize the growth of these plants.

Reflecting upon a moral imperative

It can be said that to be Christian is to have an innate desire and motivation to bring forth social justice in the world.  Equity stems from a belief in sharing natural resources like food, water, energy and providing equal opportunities to learn.  For the past 200 years, public and private education have been the hallmark of our democracy continually carrying our society forward as we take on challenges of an evolving future.

Rick Wormeli, on Friday at Boylan High School, presented to educators gathered from across the Archdiocese of Rockford, a moral imperative of change in the educational system.  It is nothing less than the genesis of a more equitable, more thoughtful and more fair means to facilitate learning in the 21^st century classroom. 

The change that Wormeli advocated is a process.  It takes time and it takes sustained effort.  Leadership to bring about this change will rise from committed school administrators, teachers and students. This imperative for change stems from a belief that to be educated is to be viable in our society.  To be viable is to be knowledgeable and to have self-efficacy to take on challenges that arise through the course of events in our lives.  This comes down to preparing our children for a dynamic changing future.  Human ingenuity is the outcome that results from thoughtful and reasoned thinking. This is what educators strive to achieve in the classroom.  The ability of our kids to solve problems through logic, evidence-based reasoning and with a degree of creativity that can, at times, be outside accepted norms.

Albert Einstein once said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.”  To make the changes needed in education is to move progressively toward a model of education where learning is primary and away from strict interpretations of grades given as compensation for student effort.

One key component of Wormeli’s presentation was the fact that as educators we can not achieve these needed outcomes unless we are willing to readdress the learning process in the classroom and be progressive in how we communicate, to parents, the ability of their child to carry forward what they have learned into their lives. The experience of the child in the classroom is about chasing learning not chasing grades.  Grades are not a form of compensation for our students, they are a means to communicate to parents a measure as to what their child has learned.  The education goal is 90 percent competency in what has been taught.  This also means that what has been taught is now carried forward by students in their thinking process. The focus by teachers needs to be directed upon teaching to accepted standards in education and then commit to documenting and advocating for evidence-based models of learning as part of the curriculum design in the classroom.

In science class we always talk about discovery being a process not an outcome.  Science is the continuation of learning that is unending. So too is education in general.  As educators we build upon "best practices" and we strive to solidly prepare our students for a future that continues to change along with the demands for knowledge and understanding to deal with it.  Wormeli thoughts open an avenue for change that I believe is a guide to bring forth progressive educational models in the classroom by keeping the focus upon doing right by the children that we teach.  This becomes the goal of educators to adapt learning to the needs of our students to be successful in a changing world. It is the moral thing to do!

LAUREN UNDERWOOD Representative from the 14th congressional district of Illinois

Dear Greg, Thank you for your message in support of H.R. 9, the Climate Action Now Act. Like you, I believe that our country has an urgent responsibility to act to address the challenges of climate change head-on. That is why I proudly cosponsored and voted for this bill. As you know, H.R. 9 prohibits any federal funds from being used towards the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Climate Accord. It also requires the Administration to develop a plan for how the United States will meet our commitment to reduce pollution and grow the green energy and technology sectors, which create good-paying jobs for American workers. I am happy to inform you that H.R. 9 was passed by the House of Representatives on May 2, 2019. We are already feeling the impacts of climate change in northern Illinois, as extreme weather and flooding devastate homeowners and farmers in our community. You can count on me to continue to fight for policies that take strong action against climate change on behalf of Illinois’ 14th District. Thank you again for your message. I value hearing from you on these important issues that impact our community. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any further thoughts or concerns. Sincerely, Lauren Underwood Climate Change as an Issue To Lauren Underwood: Thank you for your response to my concern with respect to climate change with the explanation of actions you have taken in the House of Representatives to address this problem. This year I will be teaching Earth Science, Life Science and Physical Science to middle school students and climate change will be circulated throughout these formative curriculum to inspire and motivate young minds.  The physics and the chemistry fueling global warming and its effect upon climate change does not abdicate to political winds and political agendas.  As I work to enlighten the minds of these students I will not dismiss their understanding of the true onslaught of changes, driven by climate change, to upend and degrade the ecosystem and the biodiversity of the world that we live in. As a society, we need to move progressively and champion bold and serious measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to a point where we live in a carbon-neutral world.  This is a world where any carbon dioxide emissions would be linked to equivalent carbon dioxide sequestration efforts. Carbon-neutral environments will put the world on a trajectory toward a viable solution to stop the rise of global temperatures to not more than 1.5 degree Celsius this century.  Levels of carbon dioxide gas concentrated in the Earth’s atmosphere must be reduced to 350 parts per million.  This concentration would be down from the current level of over 410 parts per million.  The historic level of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere over the past 10,000 years were about 285 parts per million up and until the beginning of the industrial revolution in the early 1800’s. Since that time there has been a steady and relentless climb in the quantity of carbon dioxide gas in the Earth’s atmosphere as a result of humankind burning coal, oil and natural gas to fuel the energy needs of modern society. If our nation moves robustly, as a world leader, to cap carbon dioxide emissions then other nations will follow suite and a truly united global effort will evolve to save the planet as we know today. The current “business as usual” situation allows for over 30 billion tons of additional carbon dioxide gas to be emitted each year resulting in high levels of carbon dioxide gas concentrations in our atmosphere for centuries to come.  Over 3 trillion tons of carbon dioxide has already been spewed into the atmosphere since the dawn of the industrial revolution and the acceleration of this polluting effort continues to today. Over time, the hockey stick curve of exponential growth of carbon dioxide gas concentrations in the Earth’s atmosphere will rain havoc upon the ecosystems of the world and to the extreme determent of human life on this planet.  This is what I will convey to my students this year in science.  Unless the immediacy of the problem is clearly recognized now, then we can expect a degradation of human life on this planet into the future. There is no more time to get ready for this change. It is upon us.  So, what can we do?  Well, I think the reverse question is why have we done so little?  As an educator I can help learned minds to embrace the reality of this situation, but I can only hope that this realization permeates into society from family to family and from community to community. It is a moral imperative begging for action as we witness the destruction of the world we live in and desperately look for alternatives to the way we can change how we conduct our lives and the degree that we appreciate the nurturing biodiversity of our planet.  My final comment is that as an educator I have two choices.  First, I can continue to teach children about the efforts and the science behind reducing carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere and possible new designs of alternative energy producing sources like solar panels, wind turbines and new electricity storage technologies.  The second option, considering the reality descending upon us, is that I could teach resiliency and the art of preparing ourselves to survive the coming waves of catastrophic changes to our environment that will put immense pressure on the sustainability of human existence on this planet into the 22nd century.  The close proximity of an environmental tipping point (less than a decade away), that we as a society are careening toward, with just a smattering degree of urgency, is actually now making this decision for me. ***

Science for All

In the April publication of Science Teacher Magazine, Steve Metz, field editor, made the following comments and observations about opportunities to learn in the science classroom.

“Improving schools and providing equitable education for all students.”

“Promoting excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.”

“Overcoming persistent academic achievement gaps with ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender,     physical disabilities, limited English-language proficiency, and learning differences.”

 “Crowded, racially segregated and underfunded inner-city schools.”

This has been my mission as a teacher, my motivation to make the most out of every opportunity delivering the best learning experience for students in the classroom.

I remember once when I was in class at Roosevelt University pursuing my teaching certification and I had constructed an atmospheric barometer out of a coffee can and balloons.  The teacher looked at it and said that I would do fine as a teacher in the science classroom. I was struck by the feeling that while I was trying to construct the make-shift science instrument, I was so involved with the process that I forgot that students would benefit from this.   That was when I realized that my enthusiasm for science would serve me well in this new career.  Enthusiasm for science is the catalyst for great teaching, excellence, innovation and learning for all.

Focusing upon the learning taking place in the classroom is an emphasis that brings great science education to children.  This constant effort to create a better learning environment helps provide more opportunities for students to become inquisitive, innovative and problem-solving individuals.

Science can provide the means to connect with student interests, thereby motivating and challenging them to learn new skills and develop new abilities to perform.

When teachers implement progressive curriculum initiatives, an important ideal to embrace is to make this process work by helping students achieve goals having real-world implications to their lives.

Project-based science initiatives, within the science curriculum, is the means by which to get students engaged in learning, while they are immersed in three-dimensional learning environments that Next Generation Science Standards advocate (practices, cross-cutting concepts and disciplinary core ideas).

The case for “Science for All” must include coordinated and consistent efforts to meet the needs of students by being creative, innovative and experimenting with new learning strategies employed in the classroom.  Leadership on these venues has to emerge from the grassroots as American science educators explore the means to create meaningful and engaging curriculum for students in the 21^st century. 

Across America we witness a broad inequitable range of resources being provided to schools and students and in many cases these resources are based upon the social economics of local populations, the level of wealth within the community and political influence upon how school district boundaries are defined.

 

It is necessary for every concerned citizen, every stakeholder in education, every parent of school-aged children to demand that this process of doing science in the classroom be consistent with respect to best practices, be fairly funded when providing adequate resources for a modern classroom and embracing new progressive ideas on how to, most effectively, meet the needs of students to learn.

There is no plan B planet!

Climate change and the inevitable physics and chemistry that drives this occurrence is a consequence of a fossil-fuel dependent society.

The exponential increases in carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, the four-fold increase in the rate of melting of the polar ice caps and the forecasted rise in planetary temperatures to levels threatening the existence of the human species, is the genesis of a modern-day world war that is now raging, with its outcome  determining the future of all humanity on this planet.

To mobilize steady, linear, incremental changes in sustainability and resilience of our society, and how we live, is a sad testament to our realization and understanding of the true consequences of  exponential changes occurring in our world.

We live on a planet suspended within the void of an endless and chaotic outer space. This world in which we prosper upon can not be replicated. It is our only home and our only refuge within a hostile to life universe. 

There is no plan B planet. We live on all the plan B planets you can possibly imagine.  We are not going to trash this one and move off to the Moon, Mars or go through some galactic vortex to a new beginning.  We are destined to live and die here. On Earth. Whether we make the choices now or later to change how we live is of no consequence to the outcomes of the physics and chemistry that is now degrading our life-giving ecosystem.

We live and die here.

Acceptance of science as a truth begins here on the Earth, whether you believe in saving our society from the ravages of climate change or if you simply embrace Armageddon.  We will prosper or perish together as one species on this gift of a planet.

This planet is ours to embrace and secure for the future and it is ours to trash and destroy.  The one common denominator is that it is our only refuge in the mist of cosmic violence and chaos.  It will remain, always, our only refuge until the end of our lives on this world.