Thursday, December 1, 2011

DAY 60 (Dec 1) TEN Ideas that Changed the World

After Show and Tell of all of your contributions to the Christmas baskets for our adopted family (which, by the way, you are all doing very very well at and the baskets look awesome, last day to contribute is a week tomorrow, that's Friday, Dec 12), we broke into groups to look at the effects that 10 different Ideas have had on the human race and on our relationship with the planet and each other.  Here's the handout for it, Ideas that Changed the World.  These are by no means the best ideas, nor are they the only ideas, they're just a cross-section that covers a lot of ground.

I asked each group of three to create a list of the effects that your "idea" has had on us all.  Here we go . . . I'll list a few of the best ideas here.

OZONE LAYER HOLE
- started awareness of conservation groups
- started the move to environmental packaging
- widespread awareness on UV rays and the problems they cause
- sun smart thinking
- awareness of ice caps melting and rising sea levels
- altered food chains (CO2 more)
- green bins, blue recycling

EVOLUTION
- shook the origin concepts of many religions
- explained the fossil record
- humans have a common ancestor
- explains why some creatures adapt and change and others do not
- helps us understand changing environments
- speech and grooming explained
- relationships of the webs of species
- human diversity explained
- explained how we are animals too
- DNA tests confirm how closely related we are to the great apes
- vestigial features (e.g. whales have "fingers" in their flippers)
- dinosaurs died out because they couldn't adapt fast enough

LARGE HADRON COLLIDER
- greatest technological advancement in science recently
- can confirm or disprove things we already know
- can inspire other theories
- will help us innovate and improve our physics thinking in the future

FARMING
- makes food widely available
- in historic times settlements became possible
- different and healthy foods more widely available
- more "leisure" time available in ancient towns thus people had time to invent
- craftspeople became more skilled leading to today's high tech

DIGITAL SOUND
- talking pictures were an early form
- radio is all about sound
- telephones
- pop culture surged, especially through music
- CD
- lead to widely popular and cheaply available cell phones, Internet, etc.
- iPod, the original, was the first digital sound player

VACCINATIONS
- longer life expectancy
- better overall health and immune systems
- good technologies to deal with new bugs
- protects without being invasive
- infant mortality rates way down
- helped us advance our technologies that deal with dangerous microbial life
- cost-effective

MICROSCOPES
- discovered the tiniest of life-forms
- the true nature of disease
- the true nature of the tiniest elements of nature was discovered
- it's a necessary technology for medicine today
- in vitro fertilization
- great technology for teaching
- modern research in medicine is based on micro stuff
- DNA and genetic research needs to see small things

ELECTRIC MOTOR
- we are now dependent upon electricity
- it defines our quality of life
- led to the idea of internal combustion engines?

THE INTERNET
- fast, instantaneous communication of ideas and knowledge and information
- convenience and efficiency
- e-books
- helps move us from paper to electronics
- makes us "lighter" thinkers
- makes global marketing and globalization possible

HUMAN RIGHTS
- Canadian Charter of Rights is world-renowned
- issues and crises arise because this is the new ideology - thus this is an example of a new ideology coming into conflict with the status quo (old ideas) and having to be resolved, often through physical conflict, e.g. Arab Spring.
- social justice is prevalent in the modern world
- a peaceful coexistence is possible

Tomorrow we'll be in the Library to complete your boards for Monday's Food and Culture Day in the Bearpit! ! !

Monday, October 17, 2011

DAY 28 (Oct 17) The Gods Must Be Crazy ! !

We began the day by reviewing our short discussion on Culture from last week.  Then we started watching the film, The Gods Must Be Crazy.  It's one of my favourite films and it's the perfect way to depict complex culture in an entertaining way.  Check out the synopsis and other information about The Gods Must Be Crazy!  or check this one The Gods Must Be Crazy!

We stopped the film several times to discuss the meaning of the film work.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is your first test on our Psych Unit - see DAY 11 for the review.

DAY 27 (Oct 14) University Fair Field Trip

About three quarters of you were on the all day field trip to the university fair in Toronto, thus those of you who were here had an opportunity to study and work on outstanding work in the Library with me.

DAY 26 (Oct 13) Anthropology Introduction

We spent the day discussion the meaning of "culture".  I gave you some ideas to ponder including the fact that throughout our history as homo erectus, homo habilis, etc. etc. up to our current form of homo sapiens, we have been a relatively week member of the natural world, meaning that there are many extremely powerful, fast, cunning and otherwise deadly creatures in our environment that could kill us easily.  Also, we have always had to search for food sources and compete with other species.

Our big advantage out there in the dangerous world has been our brain, but our brain does not work in isolation. Collectively, the knowledge and strategies that we have used for countless millennia have, in fact, given us a distinct advantage over all of the other dangers that we have faced.  This collective knowledge and those collective strategies  have enabled us to out compete all other species and to flourish.  This is what we now call "culture".

In a simple sense culture can be thought of as a mechanism to adapt in order to find food and remain safe in hostile environments.

Of course today when we think of culture we think of the complete set of learned human behaviour patterns which we know are different from place to place and country to country.  This is what our second unit will study, Anthropology - the study of human cultures.

DAY 25 (Oct 12) No class, field trip

In my absence today you had a sign-in (I was at Crawford Lake on a field trip).  Hopefully you all used this time to study and/or get caught up on your work.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

DAY 22, 23 (Oct 5, 6) Darts Lab Writing

These are three days we spent in the lab working through your written labs.  Most of your asked great questions and some of you even finished and submitted the lab on Friday!!  It's great to see you all working so diligently on what is quite challenging work.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

DAY 21 (Oct 4) Darts Lab in the Lab - Last Day in the Lab

Last day in the lab, you all worked beautifully on this today.

I've emailed everyone a picture of the Darts Target and a picture of the resulting Graph from all of the data.  They're here - please copy paste them into your report, it's important to have images like these.



 

DAY 20 (Oct 3) Lab Day for Darts Lab Writeup

We spent the day in the lab and everyone worked very very well on their reports.  Same tomorrow . . . .

Friday, September 30, 2011

DAY 19 (Sept 30) Darts Lab in the Lab

Today you are inputting your Darts data onto the spreadsheet that will generate a graph which you will use in your lab writeup.

Here's the link for the Darts Lab Google Spreadsheet.  Find your name and input a number "1" into each square corresponding with your dart shots - 40 inputs each.

DO NOTHING with the first sheet, the Class Average Sheet.

After this task is complete it's time to start writing your report.  Go through each section and make bullet-point notes to get you started (see yesterday's blog entry for notes on lab writing).

Thursday, September 29, 2011

DAY 18 (Sept 29) Writing A Psych. Lab.

These are notes for your to use to help you to write your Darts Lab Report.  It is based on the Handout, Report Writing in the Social Sciences.

Here is the published report on Buffering Effects of Religiosity on Substance Use.

Title: we are measuring ACCURACY of dart throws before, during and after a CHANGING field of vision.  The example that I used was the title of a prior study, "Buffering Effects of Religiosity on Substance Use."

Abstract: write this after the rest of the report is complete!  About 100 words.  Summary of:
Topic
Method
Results
Conclusions

Introduction: like any written work, introduce the topic to your audience to give it context.
Must include references (two in this case) to PREVIOUS studies on the same topic.  What did these previous studies conclude?  Google " proprioception studies "  to lots of results.

End the introduction with a statement of some predictions for the outcome of your study (hypothesis).

For example: you might predict that introducing prism glasses will result in a corresponding shift in accuracy in the same direction as the prism glasses, in this case approx. 11.5 degrees to the right.

Also, with practice, accuracy will improve.

Removing prism glasses will result in a corresponding shift in accuracy to the left of the target, i.e. in the opposite direction compared to when prism glasses were introduced, i.e. to the left.

Write a hypothesis using "if / then" statements.  e.g. "If prism glasses are introduced, then a corresponding loss in accuracy will result . . . . " etc.

Method:  in the first handout, "Prism Adaptation Experiment," I have listed the steps to perform for this lab.  Use it as a rough guide.  Use detail but not too much detail.

In the Method you will have several subheadings as follows:
Design: explain the tasks of each participant.  Explain the independent and dependent variables.
Independent variable: the non-changing process that you use, i.e. prism glasses @ 11.5 deg. right.
Dependent variable: the change as a result of indep. var., i.e. accuracy scores.

Participants: be specific, reference the class (HSB4M1), 9 males, 26 females, (ages 16 - 18), two male teachers.  Are there any characteristics that are important?  Could we generalize the results to other groups?  e.g. grade 3 class, the elderly, etc.

Apparatus & Materials: the simple list of what we used - it's good to use a graphic or two here.  Also, combine these as this is a very simple lab.  I've added a picture of the target boards in the Classes folder.

Procedure: refer to the handout with the bird on it and be specific about what everyone involved did.  A List works well here.

Results: start with a concise summary of results.

Explain how data was transformed into usable figures (in this case the graph).

In this case you need to explain each of the eight data points and the slopes of the parts of the graph.


Discussion: this is arguably the most important part of any lab report.

Start with a brief summary of results again, to refocus the audience's attention on the main points.

Explain each conclusion you make and support it with direct reference to the data.

Suggest further experimentation to do to cover the topic and any questions raised more fully.

Explain limitations and sources of potential error in your experiment, eg:
- we only studied one group of 30 adolescents.
- some people have better hand/eye coordination that others: significant because with such a small group our participants might be skewed, i.e. higher proportion of elite athletes than the general population.
- age, younger people tend to have better hand/eye coordination, thus limiting the scope of our findings to younger people.
- people stepping over the throw line
- a noisy environment
- distractions

Final paragraph stating conclusions and how further research could be conducted.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Day 10 (Sept 19) Skinner complete . . .

We finished our discussion with a review of Skinner's ideas.  I had intended on presenting to you your first project for the course but that will have to wait till Wednesday - Mr. Mark is doing the entire lesson tomorrow for his evaluator from teacher's college and I'll pick it up on Wednesday with this project.

DAY 8 (Sept 15) Skinner and Company

Then we got into the idea of Skinner's Theory of Operant Conditioning (Presentation) .  During this presentation we covered many aspects of his theory including:

Rewards and Punishments to alter behaviours.

There are Positive and Negative Rewards.

And there are Positive and Negative Punishments.

In this context, "Positive" means that something is added to the situation, e.g. a candy reward, a "thank you", an electric shock into the Skinner box (probably seen as a positive punishment), etc.

In this context, "Negative" means that something is removed from the situation, e.g. getting grounded (your right to go out has been removed), the annoying electric jolts in the Skinner box are shut off, etc.

DAY 7 (Sept 14) Human Brain Continued . . .

We are having a look at the article, "Fertile Minds: How Our Brains Grow," with each of you tackling a paragraph for the class.  This article explains how neurons connect with each other in a developing brain and then what effect that might have.

DAY 6 (Sept 13) The Human Brain

Today Mr. Mark looked at various functions of the human brain starting with a look at the old "science" of Phrenology - reading bumps on one's head.  Mine's nice and round like a cue-ball so there's not much inside to worry about.

Here's the completed "map" of the brain with a bit of information about various parts as discussed during class and in the PowerPoint Presentation on the Brain that we looked at today.

The reason that I asked you to take notes during my presentation and then afterward (actually finished this on Wednesday) I gave you a completed set of notes is so that your brain had to perform several more functions than if I had simply given you the completed set of notes.  By performing more tasks involving processing that information about the brain and its functions via my presentation you are much more likely to understand and retain more of the information.

Keep working on your own time on the Bulletin Board presentation that is due next Monday, Feb. 14.  This coming Friday we will be back in the lab for a final work period on it.  You should, at that time, be putting your board together.

Monday, September 12, 2011

DAY 5 (Sept 12) MI and more thinking on Intelligence

Today we began with your presentations of the eight intelligences that you studied in depth on Friday.

Then we followed up with a Quiz on Multiple Intelligence - I will not be recording your mark on this but it's a good "headsup" for everyone.  With any course of study, now and in the future, you should be reviewing your notes several times a week - this should mean that you are skimming through your notes and taking mental notes of the big ideas, e.g. Multiple Intelligence and the eight that we studied.  That way when it comes time to use the information in a test or in any other assignments you might have, it's readily available in your brain.

We then went to the CAD lab and you each did your own MI test.  Here's the link to the test - Online Multiple Intelligence Test.

DAY 4 (Sept 9) Multiple Intelligence Theory

We discussed the nature of Intelligence further today and then we distributed a handout on the current thinking about Intelligence.

Here's the Multiple Intelligence Handout for the day (and here's the 2nd one for the day on MI.)

We went through the definitions of Intelligence and then you got into groups and created lovely chart pages, life-size! - with all the information on intelligence that we'll need. Monday you'll present these to the class in groups.

DAY 3 (Sept 8) Mensa and Intelligence

After yesterday's assembly we're all back on track and I'm loving it!  Hope you are too. 

Today everyone did the Mensa Mental Workout test - then we discussed various aspects of test taking, what the test actually tests, what does "Intelligence" actually mean.

Then I asked everyone to begin working on an opinion piece to help with your thinking Mensa Follow Up.

So far so good, everyone - I'm thinking that you are all doing a great job so far!!  Yay!


Remember - I never ask, "How Intelligent Are You?".

Rather, I ask, "How Are You Intelligent?".

We followed this up with a lecture on the nature of intelligence and our school systems' inability to embrace all intelligences.  Here's the link to Sir Ken Robinson.

DAY 2 (Sept 7) Introduction to Psych., Soc., and Anthro.

Today we had a short class to accommodate the Grade 12 assembly.

We spent the rest of the time looking through my introductory slide presentation about the nature of Anthropology, Psychology and Sociology.  I won't post the slides here as they are a rather large file - it's a presentation of images from around the world and we discussed them throughout the class.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Day 1 (Sept. 6) "Oh, The Places You'll Go"

     We began the course with a reading from Dr. Seuss' "Oh, The Places You'll Go".  A great little story about navigating our way through life and all it's ups and downs.  Great to meet you all!