The Incredible Journey of a Drop of Water

Our class had the privilege of working with Chris Towe of the Pierce County Conservation District on a number of lessons about water and water conservation at the beginning of the year. In one lesson, we played a game that tracked the incredible journey of a water droplet.

After Chris departed, we wrote stories based on this idea.

Here are a few of the creative ideas the students came up with:

The Water Story (an excerpt)

February

I woke up in the river, ice had formed overnight. (This year’s February seemed to be especially cold.) Then I heard murmuring voices. “Look Annie, we have so much snow and ice this year!” “I know, Sally” this seemed to be Annie’s voice though I’m not sure. Then the children left. Soon I could feel the sun warming the river turning solid into liquid, ice into water. Over the next few weeks I could feel the days getting warmer until one fortunate day when I could feel myself turning into vapor once more. I turned into a cloud. Suddenly, I realized it was March.

March

            The cloud I was in traveled for many days until we hit something. Other water molecules whispered to me that we had hit a mountain. Suddenly, I could feel myself falling off my cloud. I knew it was not raining, I knew what raining felt like, it was like the cloud was shedding me off. Before I knew it I felt myself merging with the river and falling for what it seemed an endless time until I felt myself floating calmly into a pool. For some time I stayed there until I felt myself being sucked up by what it seemed an animal! Then I thought, "It's April."

THE STORY OF A WATER DROPLET (an excerpt)

I will explain my story as best as I can. As far as I can remember, I started out in a lake when earth formed. One day, I felt a nice tingling sensation all over as I was gently broken apart and lifted up into the sky. I couldn’t tell you how awesome I felt at that time. I felt that I was the king of Earth. Suddenly, I started feeling a jerking sensation so strong that my broken form came together into a cloud.

 I felt cold, and I was wondering what would happen once the cloud expanded and got too big. I soon found my answer, and I didn’t like it. I was falling, tens of thousands of feet. I dreaded what would happen once I hit the ground. As I fell, faster than a freight-train, I got a glimpse of where I would land. I was relieved that I would land in the ocean for the first time in my life. I plunked into the water freely with my friends. At this point, I was about half a million years old. I stayed in the ocean for several years before I felt a familiar sensation.

After the process of evaporation happened to me again, I was placed in a large, fluffy cloud that looked a lot like a clump of cotton candy. I knew that the process of precipitation would happen again and I didn’t look forward to it. To pass time, I talked to my friend Nicholas. I was in mid-sentence, when the familiar uncomfortable sensation washed over me, if anything can wash over me as I am water. Nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.

Project Based Learning: Why It's Important Today

 
A recent letter to parents:

         At Seabury, we often use problem-based, or inquiry-based, learning to hone “20^th century skills." Things like teamwork, out-of-the box thinking and creative problem solving allow students to grapple with “real-world” challenges – like those students might face in an actual work environment someday. Our class has just begun a unit of study called Mystery River, designed to challenge students on several levels. This unit will offer your student the opportunity to learn about stream water quality, endangered species, governmental problem solving, social science and systems, public speaking, and much, MUCH more.

Your student will need to learn much of what they need to know on their own or in conjunction with their team members. Many students will want to share their successes or frustrations with you, and some may try to get help from you. Please be willing to listen to your student and to offer help in the form of allowing them internet access, or taking them to the library or providing any other support that THEY SUGGEST. However, please do not offer your own insights, information, or suggestions, even when asked. If your student asks a question about the content/topic of this unit, you may want to consider responding with “What do you think?” If they want your opinion regarding a theory or possible course of action, you may try to draw out their thinking by saying something like “That’s an interesting idea. Why do you say that?”

One of the fundamental concepts of problem-based learning is that students learn to be independent learners – that is, they can learn on their own, without the overriding guidance or decision making of a teacher or parent. Please encourage your student to have fun with this project and not to become overwhelmed with anxiety because of the “fuzzy” nature of the problem. Many students struggle when they do not have clear guidelines of how to proceed. In this unit, the students will have to first determine the parameters of the problem (if indeed, there IS a problem!) to make sure they are headed in the right direction, then ask themselves what knowledge or skills are necessary to solve the problem. They will need to determine what questions are relevant, and some questions they ask may not have the clear, decisive answers they are used to. They will need to avid “fatal” lines of reasoning that oversimplify the issue. In your discussions at home, please ask your student what he or she doesn’t know but needs to know to complete the assignment. This is where the critical learning takes place. Please assist me in helping your student not to become overwhelmed at this critical point! When the students have learned how to identify their own areas of inadequate knowledge, how to acquire that knowledge on their own, and then how to apply that knowledge to the problem at hand, they will have gained an invaluable life skill. Many of them are well on their way in this area, and many are just preparing to launch.

I am looking forward to watching these students rise to meet this challenge! 

Right after sending out this e-mail, I came across a post from one of my favorite teaching resources, The Cult of Pedagogy by Jennifer Gonzalez:

BEYOND RESEARCH: WHY COOPERATIVE LEARNING MATTERS IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Apart from the academic and social gains cooperative learning has offered for generations, we now find ourselves in an era where it may be more essential than ever before. 

For one thing, it gives students practice in the kind of skills that are becoming more desirable in the workplace. P21’s Framework for 21st Century Learning includes collaboration as one of its essential skills. As manufacturing is automated and information can be obtained with a few clicks, higher-level skills like communication, creativity, and collaboration are more valued—these are skills computers can’t really replicate. The work of human beings is going to involve more and more of those kinds of skills in professional spaces, higher education, and community life.

On a deeper level,  we need cooperative learning because technology is really starting to limit our face-to-face communication. Even when we’re in school together, we are on devices so much of the time. This can be wonderful and efficient, and it offers so many more opportunities to expose ourselves to new ideas, but it is stunting our ability to have regular conversations and robbing us of all the gifts that come with those interactions. Giving students regular opportunities to share physical space and actually talk through complex problems is a gift they may not get anywhere else, so yes, it’s worth it.

The Science of Art at the Museum of Glass

While some schools go on field trips once or twice a year, classes at Seabury go on field trips more like once a month -- and in the Bridges program, it's once a WEEK. We prefer to call them field studies, because these trips are not the traditional end-of-unit celebrations we usually think of when we hear the word "field trip" -- they are opportunities to listen, ask questions, make connections, and open new doors to many new ideas, issues and areas of interest. In Bridges, we often START a unit with a field study, and in this case, the Bridges students got an introduction to some of the ideas we will be covering in a study of electricity later this year through Tacoma'a unique Museum of Glass.

Led by a museum educator, students conducted several experiments in class, learning about how different metals conduct energy and the different ways energy moves. They looked at some different chemical reactions and thought about how artists and scientists use chemically-created colors. Then, in a museum visit, students noted color, texture and patina in artworks on display in the gallery. They created art using copper and steel wire in a wrapped glass piece to represent how energy flows. Finally, they watched energy being transformed and moved as they watched glass artists at work in the museum's hot shop, noting the items the artists use to insulate themselves and block the transfer of heat while making glass artworks.