Deek, Fadi P., and Kimmel, Howard. (1999).Ý Status of Computer Science Education in Secondary Schools: One Stateís Perspective.Ý Computer Science Education Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 89ñ113.

http://www.szp.swets.nl/szp/journals/cs092089.htm

Summary:Ý This paper reviewed the current status of secondary schools computer science education in the state of New Jersey and discussed curriculum guidelines formulated by classroom teachers.Ý The outcome of the review was a clear indication that a seamless articulation between high-school programs and those at university level is of critical importance for secondary school educators and could serve as the foundation for implementing a computer science curriculum in the schools.Ý In particular, three key recommendations are made:

• Content standards for computer science education need to be developed and adopted.
• The requirements for teacher certification in the discipline need to be established.
• Teacher preparation programs must be in place.

Connection to Literacy:Ý This article includes a review of the meaning of the term ìcomputer literacyî.Ý The authors state that, ìliteracy has been used to denote a minimum level of knowledge and skills that is important to a personís education... Thus, computer literacy should be defined in its broadest sense and in how it relates to the needs of all students as they pursue their chosen career paths.îÝ The authorís survey of computer science courses in New Jersey found that computer science courses ranged from keyboarding and word processing to programming and basic software applications, such as spreadsheets and databases, to computer-aided design, computer-assisted manufacturing, simulation and modeling, and robotics.

Significance:Ý For purposes of this Curriculum Guide, I wanted to focus my journal survey to topics related to computer programming instruction, which is the content area I intend to specialize in.Ý However, I included this article because it provides a context that I will need to know about as I enter the profession.Ý I believe that the challenges faced by computer science instructors in New Jersey are basically the same as those faced by their colleagues in California.Ý It is still true that one cannot get a single subject credential in computer science in California.Ý When I spoke to an advisor at SFSU about this, she felt that computer science would fall into the credential category of ìIndustrial & Technology Educationî.Ý But I also learned that computer science instructors at the high school level are mostly part of the mathematics department, a conclusion that is also supported in this paper.Ý I think that thereís a perception that ìIndustrial & Technology Educationî equates to vocational training that stops at high school, and a perception that computer science is a profession that requires a college education.Ý I think that both perceptions may be wrong, but at the same time I do strongly believe in the recommendations of this paper.

Hundhausen, Christopher D. (2002).Ý Integrating algorithm visualization technology into an undergraduate algorithms course: ethnographic studies of a social constructivist approach.Ý Computers & Education, 39, 237-260.

Summary:Ý Traditionally, computer science instructors have used algorithm visualization (AV) software to graphically illustrate to their students how algorithms work.Ý This paper presents an alternative approach, inspired by Social Constructivist learning theory that included AV construction and presentation assignments.Ý Two ethnographic field studies on undergraduate algorithms courses were conducted, one involving the use of ìhigh techî presentation software programming, and the other that used ìlow techî storyboarding techniques.Ý The authorís most significant finding is that while conventional AV software can actually distract students from focusing on the concepts relevant to the course, the ìlow techî activity resulted in better knowledge transfer, and also enabled them to participate more extensively in the course, thus contributing to their learning.

Connection to Literacy:Ý I found and interesting parallel between how the students in this study gained their ìcomputer literacyî and the more conventional literacy gained by the students discussed in Reading for Understanding.Ý In the algorithms course, the expectation was that the best way to teach a programming concept would be by doing an assignment that involves programming.Ý But this study found that this actually shifted the focus of the students away from the high-level concept to the details of coding the presentation.Ý Similarly, the authors of Reading for Understanding concluded that teaching reading skills should not dwell on the details of decoding words, but instead focus on higher order metacognitive skills such as summarizing, etc.Ý Thus we see that the pedagogy of Reading for Understanding falls firmly on the constructivist end of the spectrum.

Significance:Ý Needless to say, teaching programming without programming assignments is a pretty radical concept, and I donít think that itís the authorís intention to make this point.Ý However, I think that it is important for computer programming instructors to realize that a programming assignment is only one method a teacher has at his/her disposal to reinforce learning.

Kirkwood, Margaret. (2000).Ý Infusing higher-order thinking and learning to learn into content instruction: a case study of secondary computing studies in Scotland.Ý Journal of Curriculum Studies, 32, 509-535.

Summary:Ý This paper presents the results of a project that examined ideas about a thinking curriculum and learning skills acquisition.ÝÝ The subject of the project was a computing studies course at a Scottish secondary school.Ý The infusion approach used in this project combined direct teaching of problem solving strategies, modeling of solution processes, ongoing formative assessment, and developing metacognition through processes of reflection, articulation and exploration.Ý The results of the project showed that an appropriate balance can be struck between content objectives and broader educational goals.Ý Students were able to generalize problem solving strategies, and transfer them to other content areas.

Connection to Literacy:Ý Recall from Mojeís (1996) definition of literacy as more than reading, writing, speaking and listening, but also the practices in which these processes are embedded.Ý One of the most common of these practices is the ability to solve problems.Ý (And as I said in my presentation on Successful Intelligence, problem-solving ability is regarded at the distinguishing characteristic of intelligence.)Ý Thus, the direct teaching of problem solving strategies is in effect a literacy building activity.

Significance:Ý While performing my survey of articles on my chosen topic of computer programming, I noticed that there is (or was) a considerable amount of controversy about whether the problem solving skills used in programming can be transferred to other content areas (cf. ìDOES INSTRUCTION IN COMPUTER PROGRAMMING IMPROVE PROBLEM SOLVING ABILITY?î, http://gise.org/JISE/Vol1-5/DOESINST.htm).Ý I would have included an article such as this which weighs in on the ìnoî side, but I could not find any recent articles.Ý This article obviously goes on the ìyesî side, but as with the Hundhausen article, the emphasis in instruction is not on the coding details, but on the higher order thinking that must take place first.

MIT Enrollment Statistics by Course, Gender, and Minority Group ñ Fall 2001

http://web.mit.edu/communications/pres01/01.01.html

Summary: This is actually not a journal article.Ý I wanted to find a paper that deals with the demographics of computer science majors, and I found this site after a long search.Ý I wound up crunching the numbers myself, which appear in my PowerPoint presentation.

Connection to Literacy:Ý There has been some discussion in our society of what has been called the ìdigital divideî, which generally refers to inequities between those with access to computers and the Internet, and those who donít.Ý As with reading literacy, computer/internet literacy is seen as a learning enabler, without which oneís chances of academic and professional success is limited.Ý For this Guide, I want to focus on the divide on the ìproducerî side of the technology, in particular, who is creating computer software.Ý While this aspect of the ìdigital divideî tends to be overlooked, I think that it is significant, and that it carries into how computer science is taught.

Significance:Ý I was looking for a way to either confirm or disprove my personal observations about the gender and ethnic mix of computer science majors as compared with the general college student population.Ý I felt that having some facts about who Iíll be teaching could help me to be a more effective teacher.

Towell, Elizabeth and Towell, John (2002). Skin vs. Guts: Introducing Design Patterns in the MIS Curriculum.Ý Journal of Information Technology Education Volume 1 No. 4, pp 269 ñ 278.

http://jite.org/documents/Vol1/v1n4p269-278.pdf

Summary: This paper argues for an increased emphasis on object-oriented techniques in the introductory Systems Analysis and Design course. Specifically, it provides guidance for faculty who are considering adding object-orientation to a systems analysis and design course where existing content leaves little time for new topics.Ý In particular, the authors recommend the introduction of two successful, generalized design patterns in the context of adaptation of a software development framework.Ý Tentative conclusion are drawn by authors based on anecdotal evidence indicating that students believe that this coverage gives them a better understanding of OO concepts in general and design patterns specifically.

Connection to Literacy:Ý Design patterns are a concept that was borrowed from the field of architecture.Ý I see this as an example of how literacy enables the transfer of concepts from one content domain to another.

Significance:Ý While the concept of design patterns was introduced in the 1970s, and is prevalent among the academic community, adoption has been slow in the software engineering industry.Ý Introducing design patterns in an introductory Systems Analysis and Design course may help IT workers to be more comfortable/facile with design patterns, and incorporate them on their future projects at work.

AND OR NOT Critique

URL

http://edu-ss10.educ.queensu.ca/~compsci/lessons/andornot_w_woloshyn.html

Summary of Lesson Plan

At the end of the lesson the students will be able to:

a) give examples of logic that they use every day,

b) understand the rules for AND, OR and NOT,

c) evaluate boolean expressions using <, >, <=, >=, <>, = in conjunction with the binary boolean operators AND and OR and the unary boolean operator NOT, and

d) recognize other applications of binary logic in different forms.

Positive Aspects

Opening relates lesson to studentsí everyday experience.Ý Good comment in Reflection section that these problems should be worked on paper first.Ý Good question in Reflection section on how to handle discussion.Ý Good web resources section.

Development Areas

This lesson is rather thin on details, especially the programming part.Ý The middle section narrows the context to mathematics, an abrupt (and possibly unwelcome) change.Ý Students might find the exercise to do in the handout to be boring.

How would you adapt this lesson for your classroom?

The programming part needs to be updated.Ý I would try to find a more relevant/interesting problem to do.Ý Perhaps draw connections with legal reasoning.

Hyperstudio Lesson Plan Critique

URL

http://volweb.utk.edu/school/tdalton/lesson3.html

Summary of Lesson Plan

Teach HyperStudio basics to the class.

Positive Aspects

As I mentioned in my Resources section, HyperStudio is a great program!Ý Just using it will give studentís a feel for how good software should work.Ý Students will develop computer literacy as a result!

Development Areas

This lesson itself is very, very brief, but it does link to some more material.

How would you adapt this lesson for your classroom?

Iíll use some of the suggestions for student activities and assessment.

Lessons in Loops! Critique

URL

Ýhttp://edu-ss10.educ.queensu.ca/~compsci/lessons/repitition_j_burford.html

Summary of Lesson Plan

This lesson falls in the middle of a unit on Programming Structures. Both counted loops and conditional loops are covered by presenting the basic ideas and structure of each. The students work together as a class on example problems and then are given time to work on a problem sheet. Planning before coding the problem is stressed and evaluated.

Positive Aspects

Context and Rationale sections are clear.Ý Good comment about flowcharting in Teaching Notes section.

Development Areas

This lesson is extremely thin on details, especially in the Plan, or Steps part.Ý Example used (about dog years) doesnít require using loops to solve, and probably wonít be interesting to students.

How would you adapt this lesson for your classroom?

The programming part needs to be updated.Ý I would try to find a more relevant/interesting problem to do.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Programming Critique

URL

Ýhttp://www.askeric.org/Virtual/Lessons/Computer_Science/EDT0203.html

Summary of Lesson Plan

Students will learn the importance of written communication skills and sequential thinking while trying to write a "computer" program on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Teachers can use this activity as an introduction to writing computer programs.

Positive Aspects

Lesson is simple to do and entertaining.Ý Demystifies programming.Ý Good fit for target grades: 6, 7, 8.Ý

Development Areas

It would have been good to see how to follow up on this introductory lesson.Ý Also would have liked to see sample ìprogramsî from students and how the teacher ìexecutedî them.

How would you adapt this lesson for your classroom?

For a more sophisticated high school class, I would probably use a different example, and shorten the lesson.

SimCity and PowerPoint Critique

URL

Ýhttp://www.askeric.org/Virtual/Lessons/Computer_Science/EDT0203.html

Summary of Lesson Plan

Students use the program SimCity to create a city. Afterwards, students use PowerPoint to create an election campaign to get themselves elected as mayor of their SimCity!

Positive Aspects

The Sim* series are pretty popular games, and they teach a variety of interdisciplinary subjects (in particular math and social science) as well as metacognitive skills such as planning more effectively than can be done in an ordinary classroom.Ý The student presentations are likely to be entertaining!

Development Areas

To be honest, students might be more interested in playing the game than working up their presentation.

How would you adapt this lesson for your classroom?

I have tried to focus on computer science lessons that focus on programming topics, but this lesson has a lot of potential, especially for a Thematic Unit where computer science is one of the content areas to be covered.Ý As a programming project, the class might want to develop a SimClassroom or a SimHighSchool game!Ý (It could be done with text only to make it easier.)

Name: Drinking water

Grade Level: 6 - 12

Content Subject Area: Environmental Science, Health, Consumer Education

Number of Students: 10 - 30

Time Length of Class: 50 minutes

Objective: Students should understand where our drinking water comes from, and make informed decisions on drinking water choices.

Materials and Resources:

Links:
1.	East Bay Mud water quality report
2.	Consumer Reports article on bottled water
3.	Sources of San Francisco Water

Detailed Procedures and Steps:

1. Before class, prepare ìunlabeledî samples of tap water and drinking water to give to each group of students.Ý Make sure you can tell which is which!

2. Discuss:

a. Heat and chemicals from industry (pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides, etc.) can cause environmental problems, which disrupt aquatic ecosystems and threaten the ecological balance of water ecosystems. Invasive organisms that have no natural population controls can become overabundant.

b. Water may be treated to remove minerals, salt, chemicals, and microorganisms to make it useable.

c. In more developed countries water containing organic wastes from humans and industry (sewage) is treated before being returned to the environment; in less developed countries people generally do not have access to treated water. Water pollution and diseases such as cholera, typhoid are closely related.

3. Hand outÝ water quality reports from (1) A local municipal water district, and (2) A popular bottled water vendor. Students will analyze the reports, and write write a compare/contrast paper in their journal.

4. Students will then receive the unlabeled samples of each and try to determine which is which.Ý Using the Consumerís Reports article as a guide, student groups should come up with their own assessment criteria.

Reflections and Comments:Ý Students need to understand that there are both scientific and non-scientific reasons for the choices they make as consumers.Ý The class should be respectful of othersí preferences with regard to drinking water.

Follow-up activity and Homework: Have students scan newspaper or magazine articles for drinking water theme.

Assessment: Evaluate compare/contrast paper, discussion and journal entries.

Literacy Aspect: This lesson helps students to develop skills in reading technical reports and develops their consumer literacy.Ý Verbal and writing literacy is also exercised.

Name: eXtensible Markup Language (XML)

Grade Level: College/professional

Content Subject Area: Computer science

Number of Students: 10 - 30

Time Length of Class: 45 minutes

Objective: Introduce class to fundamental concepts of XML, and present some sample applications.

Materials and Resources: PowerPoint presentation.

Detailed Procedures and Steps: Hand out lecture notes

1. What is XML, and What is it Good For?
2. XML Basics
4. Document Structure - Document Type Definition (DTD)
5. Using XML to Communicate Information
6. Formatting for Display - eXtensible Style Language
7. Developing XML Applications
8. Example XML Application
9. Resources

Reflections and Comments: This lesson plan is adapted from a presentation I gave three years ago when I worked as a software engineer.Ý It was based on a XML course I had completed a few months before.Ý With the evolution of the Web, the presentation will need to be updated a little.

Follow-up activity and Homework: Generally, these kinds of presentations donít have either activities or homework (though they probably should).Ý Since this class is an introduction to XML, there are numerous exercises in the basic texts that could be assigned.

Assessment: Program correctness and readablility.

Literacy Aspect: The computer languages that are taught in the schools (C++, Java, and BASIC) are considered to be general-purpose, that is, applicable to solving almost any kind of language.Ý This means that typically when a software program is developed, a nomenclature needs to be developed that gives precise definitions for the objects, methods and variables used.Ý Bjarne Stroustrup, creator of C++, once described C++ as a ìlanguage that is used to define other languages.îÝ Similarly, XML is a language that enables Web programmers to define data in such a manner that itís embedded within the data itself.Ý ThusÝ both C++ and XML are kinds of meta-languages.Ý This shows that as with the usual kind of literacy, the computer programmer needs to be literate in both the sense of knowing a computer language, but also the knowledge domain of the problem he/she is trying to solve.

Name: Becoming a Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform

Grade Level: College

Content Subject Area: Computer Science

Number of Students: 10 ñ 30

Time Length of Class: 1 hour

Objective: Students should understand:

1. The basic facts of taking the Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform exam
2. Understand the reasons why (and why not) to take the test
3. Know what resources are available to prepare
4. Know what the testing objectives for the exam are

Materials and Resources:

• Lecture handout
• Study books for class to look at

Detailed Procedures and Steps:

1. Hand out lecture notes.Ý Cover sections 1 ñ 3: give background of professional certification exams.Ý Field questions from class.

2. Cover sections 4 ñ 6: resources.Ý Solicit ideas for resources from class.

3. Cover section 7: testing objectives.Ý For each of the 14 examples, give the class time (2 minutes) to work on it.Ý Ask class to volunteer answer, provide answer.

Reflections and Comments: This lesson plan is adapted from a lecture I gave earlier this year to students at the College of San Mateo.Ý I assumed that students attending this lecture had at least some experience programming in Java.ÝÝ This lecture could also be extended to a test preparation workshop.

Follow-up activity and Homework: None.Ý If this were a workshop, the there would be regular practice exams followed by debriefings.

Assessment: The ultimate assessment is whether the students are able to pass the test.Ý If this were a workshop, the there would be regular practice exams followed by debriefings.

Literacy Aspect: For better or worse, assessment is something most of us need to face in order to accomplish our personal goals.Ý A timed test in computer programming has always struck me as particularly unnatural.Ý But literacy in a computer language, as with the usual kind of literacy, requires a basic amount of memorization.Ý And of course, memorization is the easiest part of learning to assessÖ

Name: Exploring the Basic Elements of Screenwriting

Grades: 6-8, 9-12

Subjects: Fine Arts, Language Arts, Media Studies

Number of Students: 10 ñ 30

Time Allowance: 1 hour

Objectives:
Students will:
1. Consider what would be included in a short screenplay for a movie that describes a scene in their daily life; identify differences that exist between the ways that short stories or novels and screenplays are written.
2. Explore how a New York Times film critic evaluated the success of the film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" by reading and discussing "A Heroic Quest Through Middle-Earth."
3. Examine a sample screenplay to learn about the basic format and style used in screenplay writing.
4. Act as scriptwriters to adapt a scene from a short story or novel into a screenplay.
5. Read and critique group scripts in class; evaluate the challenges they faced as scriptwriters charged with adapting a scene from literature into a script for the movie screen.

Resources / Materials:
-student journals -pens/pencils -paper -classroom blackboard -copies of a basic screenplay, described in Activity 3 below (one per student, photocopied prior to class) -copies of the review "A Heroic Quest Through Middle-Earth" (one per student) http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20011220thursday.html

Detailed Procedures and Steps

1. WARM-UP/DO NOW: In their journals, students respond to the following prompt (written on the board prior to class): "Imagine you are writing the script for a movie about a day in your life, and the opening scene shows a character walking into a classroom, taking a seat and beginning this assignment. How would you depict the scene? What would you want the camera to see? What instructions are necessary to convey the important details that make this movie uniquely 'yours'?" After a few minutes, allow a few students to share their writing, and discuss the following: How did you approach this exercise? What steered your decisions about what to include and what to exclude? Did you include "auditory" as well as "visual" details? Did anyone use a "voice over" or a "sound track" to convey important details or a particular emotion? Did you consider different camera angles? Would these details be part of a screenplay? Why or why not? What differences exist between the ways that a screenplay and a short story or novel are written?

2. As a class, read and discuss the movie review "A Heroic Quest Through Middle-Earth," focusing on the following questions:
a. Who directed the film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings:

The Fellowship of the Ring"? Who were the scriptwriters?
b. According to the reviewer, what did Mr. Jackson understand that "propels the story forward"?
c. What is the premise of the movie?
d. According to the reviewer, what theme captures the "essence of 'Fellowship'"?
e. Why does the reviewer suggest this movie might be familiar to viewers, even if they haven't read Tolkien's books?
f. How does the director distinguish between fighting groups, according to the reviewer?
g. What does the reviewer mean when he says that "the actors serve a plot need rather than filling out characterization"?
h. Based on this review, what are at least three responsibilities of a movie director? How do these differ from the responsibilities of the actors? How do they differ from the scriptwriters?
i. How is a script that is adapted from a book different from the book itself?

3. Explain to students that they be learning about the basic elements of

screenwriting and then will apply their understanding in a later writing activity. Distribute to the class the following scene from an imaginary movie script as a handout, and have a narrator read the directions and two actors portray the two characters with speaking parts:

FADE IN

INT. -> CLASSROOM - DAY

JOHN is writing away at his desk.

AMY (O.C.)
Didn't you miss me?

JOHN
(not looking up)
'Course I did. Why?

No answer. He looks up:

AMY
is holding a PRESENT wrapped and tied with a bow.

She smiles. John smiles.

CUT TO:

EXT. -> SCHOOL YARD - DAY

JOHN opens the present while a dozen FRIENDS watch.

FADE OUT

[end]

As a class, examine the following style and format elements of the script, with

students taking notes on the handout during the discussion and commenting on where these elements appear in the script on the handout. [The following information is adapted from About.com's Proper Screenwriting Format (http://screenwriting.about.com/library/weekly/aa081501a.htm)]:

-FADE IN/FADE OUT: These terms are not always used at the beginning or end of a scene. Any reader would recognize that the beginning of the script involves fading in on a scene, so FADE IN is sometimes considered redundant. FADE OUT, however, can be useful to signify the end of a complex scene that has many different locations.

-SLUGLINES (also called "scene headings," "headings," and "scene captions"): These lines answer three important questions: Are we inside or outside? Where exactly are we? What time is it? In most cases, screenwriters simply use DAY or NIGHT, but there are times when you might want to use DUSK, EVENING, or MORNING. Sluglines are always capitalized. What are the sluglines in the script above? What do INT. and EXT. mean?

-ACTION LINES: These lines immediately follow the sluglines, setting the scene for what is about to happen. Action lines explain in visual terms what happens in the scene. Use short, declarative sentences. What are the action lines in the script above?

-CUT TO: In between every scene (not every shot), include a "CUT TO:" in the right margin, with a space before and a space after.

-CHARACTERS: Characters are first introduced in the action line. The character's name is always capitalized, and throughout the script, refer to the character with the same name. Who are the characters in the above script?

-DIALOGUE: Immediately after the character name comes the dialogue -- what the characters say. Try not to write too much dialogue. The story should be driven by visual elements, not spoken dialogue. Typically, the dialogue is centered on the page.

-WRYLIES (also known as "parentheticals"): Wrylies are short instructions to the actor that come between the character name and their dialogue. These

should be as short and unobtrusive as possible. The goal is not to direct the actor but only provide crucial instructions. What wrylies are included in the script above?

-CAMERA DIRECTIONS: Try not to use camera directions such as CLOSE-UP or CAMERA ZOOMS IN. These directions intrude on the director's work. In a screenplay, the use of camera directions are considered a poor replacement for good writing.

Then, discuss the following:
-What is the difference between a scriptwriter and a director?
-Why should scriptwriters limit the description in a screenplay to include only what can be heard and what can be seen?
-Why might the visual format of a screenplay be important?

4. Divide the class into small groups, and explain that each group will be working as a team of scriptwriters to adapt a scene from a novel or short

story into a film script. Each group begins by choosing a scene from a short story or novel (preferably one they have read as a class during the school year, and one that has not been recently adapted into a movie.) Encourage students to quickly select a scene, preferably one that they feel is important to the story, though any scene will do (the opening and closing of a chapter often works well). Next, ask students to begin identifying the elements crucial to the script (characters, dialogue, action lines and sluglines), constructing the scene in the same style and format as the script example.

Reflections and Comments: Lessons that are connected to a topic in popular culture typically elicit a wide range of reactions from students, from wild enthusiasm to practiced indifference.Ý But while this lesson begins with a reading and discussion on ìThe Lord of the Ringsî , the activity is about adapting any written work to the screen.Ý So teachers should be able to adapt this lesson to the subject matter interests of the class.

Follow-up activity and Homework: ÝAllow students to finish writing their script. In a future class, allow each group to distribute and read their script. (One student in each group should assume the role as narrator to read sluglines and action lines, while the other students in the group to read different character's dialogue.) Encourage the rest of the class to offer constructive criticism. Have the scriptwriters provided too much detail? Does the writing convey only what is to be seen and heard? Does the script include any unnecessary detail or camera directions that would impinge on a film director's domain? Ask each group of scriptwriters to discuss the challenges that they faced in adapting a scene from literature into a script for a movie scene.

Assessment: Students will be evaluated based on initial journal entries, participation in class discussions, and thoughtful development and presentation of a screenplay adaptation of a piece of literature that reflects understanding of basic elements of scriptwriting.

Literacy Aspect: John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) was a major scholar of the English language, specializing in Old and Middle English.Ý His prose is usually quite lofty, with an archaic feel to it yet not unintelligible.Ý Students who enjoyed the movie may be introduced to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, or The Hobbit, or the web sites devoted to Tolkien and his writings and illustrations.

Name: Water Quality For Freshwater Organisms

Grade Level: 9

Content Subject Area: Environmental science

Number of Students: 10 ñ30

Time Length of Class: 2 hours

Objective: The purpose of this lesson is to demonstrate to students the effect increased water temperature has on the amount of dissolved oxygen found in water and in turn upon the gill beat rate of fish.Ý Students will be able to:

1. Describe the proper procedure for observing and recording data.
2. Describe how to use the Winkler method for O2 determination in water.
3. Demonstrate how to graph and interpret data.

Discuss what effect increased temperature has on the amount of dissolved oxygen in water and in turn upon the gill beat rate of fish.

Materials and Resources: : Equipment needed (for each lab group): cold aerated pond water, 800 ml beaker, minnow, hot plate, Celsius thermometer, ring stand, cork, stirring rod, Hach Dissolved Oxygen test kit, data table, graph paper.

Detailed Procedures and Steps:

Day 1:

Step #1 - Place 600 ml. of cold (5 degrees Celsius), well aerated pond water into a 600 ml beaker.

Step #2 - Place minnow into beaker and set on hot plate.

Step #3 - Suspend Celsius thermometer by means of a ring stand and cork in center of beaker.

Step #4 - Allow minnow to quiet down and take the gill beat rate by counting the movement (beat) of the operculum which covers the gills. Take the count for 30 sec. and multiply by 2 to obtain rate per minute and then record count in table of results on work sheet. (By taking the average of 2 or 3 counts you may be more accurate.)

Step #5 - Turn on hot plate and heat water slowly while gently stirring. Take a count of the next gill beat rate when the temperature is at 10 degrees Celsius and record data. (You will need to stop the stirring when the beat rate is taken. A double beaker with surrounding water may be used if water heats too quickly.)

Step #6 - Repeat steps 4 and 5 at 15, 20, 25, and 30 degrees Celsius, recording your data each time. If the minnow begins to float at the surface or wildly thrash about immediately return to cold water as we do not intend for it to die.

Step #7 - Take the recorded data and plot on graph: Gill Beat Rate vs. Water Temperature.

Day 2:

Step #1 - Same as step #1 above.

Step #2 - Without placing minnow into beaker use the cold water sample and your Hach water test kit to determine the amount of dissolved oxygen in parts per million (ppm). Instructions are contained within each kit. All data will need to be recorded on your worksheet.

Step #3 - Return the amount of water lost from testing to beaker. Place beaker on hot plate, stir gently, and remove sample for testing when it reaches 10 degrees Celsius.

Step #4 - Repeat Step #3 and test the amount of dissolved oxygen at 15, 20, 25, and 30 degrees Celsius. (If test kits are in short supply or you do not have enough time to make a test at each 5 degree interval, each lab group may be assigned only a few and the data taken and averaged for the entire class.)

Step #5 - Make a graph of Dissolved Oxygen (ppm) vs. Water Temperature.

Step #6 - Study each of the graphs which you have made and from your analysis write your conclusion.

Reflections and Comments:

The balance of nature, as we often hear, is a very delicate one. Each organism has its own specific tolerance levels to many different environmental and human imposed factors. The oxygen level of water is but one of many factors that will determine what species will be present of survive in a freshwater ecosystem. In today's society we need to be more aware of how we effect that balance of nature and weigh carefully the results of our actions and decisions.

Students may have extreme reactions to an experiment that brings discomfort to a living animal.Ý Some may refuse to do the experiment, and others may attempt to kill the minnow.Ý See literary aspect below.

Follow-up activity and Homework: Steps #5 and #6 could be done at home if class runs out of time.

Assessment: Compare graphs with expected values.Ý Evaluate lab notebooks for completeness and clarity.

Literacy Aspect:Ý For students who donít want to participate in this activity, have them explain their reasons for not doing so.Ý In particular, have them respond to the argument that, by just a normal life in a first world country, they cause more damage to the environment than the life of one minnow.

Backflip.com Resource

Summary of Resource

Backflip.com is a site that stores bookmarks and you can also search them, index them automatically and more.Ý

Positive Aspects

The primary upside to having your bookmarks online is that you can access them from wherever youíre connected to the ëNet.Ý Your favorites are organized into a Yahoo-style directory, but what's even better, Backflip's intelligent technology will auto-file a page for you, saving you clicks. You can strengthen your categorizations later on if you want.

Another thing Backflip will do is to perform a keyword search of the entire contents of your collection, not just the titles of the pages. So if you've worked hard to save a lot of relevant materials, you can "deeply search" your own collection. It's almost like having a personalized web spider, and is a clear advance on the functionality available with your old browser bookmarks.

Development Areas

One downside to having your bookmarks online is that if the site crashes, youíre hosed.Ý Thatís what happened when Backflip crashed for over a week and only came up a week ago.Ý They do have a tool that allows you to export your backflip folders to your bookmarks file on your PC, but youíve got to do itÖ

How would you adapt this resource for your classroom?

I would introduce this to my classes as an organization tool that they could try.

HyperStudio Resource

Summary of Resource

HyperStudio is a multimedia authoring tool that is geared towards the education market.

Positive Aspects

HyperStudio's most appealing features is its ease of use. Anybody who can use a Macintosh or PC with some degree of proficiency can get a stack up and running in fifteen minutes. It's really that simple. There is absolutely no scripting required to do almost anything in HyperStudio. Buttons have a tremendous number of pre-programmed actions.Ý HyperStudio can use as many colors as your monitor setting. Defining a button to play a QuickTime movie takes about ten seconds. Buttons can even be set to jump to specific frames in the movie, or to perform standard functions such as play, pause, rewind, fast forward, advance or rewind one frame, or adjust the sound level.

Dealing with graphics in HyperStudio is simple.Ý Buttons can do just about anything imaginable in HyperStudio.Ý All objects in HyperStudio have a large feature set. All objects can be hidden, revealed, or can affect other objects that pass over it. For example, when the cursor is dragged over an object, the action can change either the cursor or the object itself. Additionally, dragging certain objects over others can trigger a response. This is exactly what a "drag-and-drop" objects is. With HyperStudio, they are easily created and incorporated into your presentations.

Because HyperStudio is aimed at the educational market, itís really a steal at $199. Consider Microsoft PowerPoint, which costs $300. PowerPoint doesn't save to an executable application, it's slower than HyperStudio, it does far less, it's clumsier, less intuitive, and certainly less "fun" for kids. Frankly it doesn't compare.

Development Areas

Two minor nits: (1) using the text mode on the controls makes the text a part of the background of the card so it canít be manipulated easily.Ý You should use a Text Object instead.Ý (2) The size of the card is fixed.Ý Another potential problem is that students will enjoy tweaking their project stacks, adding more bells and whistles, that they will forget about the content theyíre supposed to be presenting.

How would you adapt this resource for your classroom?

Iím convinced that any non-computer-phobic student will love HyperStudio.Ý After working with it, I can see why itís described as an ìobject-orientedî program.Ý Programming students who use this application will get a good idea of how object-oriented software should work.

Inspiration Resource

Summary of Resource

Inspiration software supports improved achievement for students grade 6 to adult. Inspiration strengthens critical thinking, comprehension, and writing across the curriculum, in language arts, science, social studies and anytime your students need to structure research or other thought processes.

Inspiration's integrated diagramming and outlining environments work together to help students comprehend concepts and information. Educators use Inspiration to customize instruction, achieve standards, assess student progress, and energize learning.

Positive Aspects

The primary appeal of Inspiration resides in the fact that it can facilitate a task that is often considered onerous. It helps students wade through those initial moments of total lack of idea organization. Rather than sit before a blank page or screen wondering where to begin students can immediately churn out ideas, inserting and deleting as the process progresses.

Development Areas

One criticism: Though Inspiration is in many ways kid-friendly and similar to most Windows programs, we found that the page layout was unnecessarily confusing to kids. For example, in a word processing program, it is clear where the margins and edges of a page are, so students know where to place graphics. In Inspiration, the page is almost endless, which perhaps allows for more flexibility. However, many of my students would drag bubbles down as far as they could, then were unable to locate them again. Only by minimizing the screen several times could we see where the bubbles went.

How would you adapt this resource for your classroom?

Use Inspiration^Æ in your science classrooms to help students deepen their understanding of concepts like Radioactive Decay and better recognize the relationships between the components.

Students use Inspiration to visually explore complex processes, like the Path of Red Blood Cells or the Carbon Cycle, while detailed concept maps like Ozone help students learn new information by building on their existing body of knowledge.

SIGSE Resource - http://www.acm.org/sigcse/

Summary of Resource

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a major force in advancing the skills of information technology professionals and students worldwide. Today, our 75,000 members and the public turn to ACM for the industry's leading Portal to Computing Literature, authoritative publications and pioneering conferences, providing leadership for the 21st century.

The ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education provides a forum for problems common among educators working to develop, implement and/or evaluate computing programs, curricula, and courses, as well as syllabi, laboratories, and other elements of teaching and pedagogy.

Positive Aspects

On this site are the curriculum guidelines for lower division computer science courses, equivalent to frameworks at the high school level.Ý They are the standard used by U.S. colleges for transferable credit.

Development Areas

Frankly, there doesnít appear to be that much interest in this Special Interest Group.Ý The site also has guidelines for a high school computer science curriculum, but these have been largely unimplemented.

How would you adapt this resource for your classroom?

I will need to follow the ACMís guidelines when I construct a syllabus when I begin to teach computer science at a community college.Ý Hopefully, more stuff will appear on this site as more interest in computer science education develops.

Taskstream.com Resource

Summary of Resource

Taskstream.com is a web-based resource that helps educators build curriculum, collaborate with colleagues, and participate in professional development using one powerful toolset. TaskStream's web-based tools enable educators to design lessons and units, map and track standards, create rubrics, develop electronic portfolios, and compile and distribute shared curriculum resource collections.

Positive Aspects

For those of us who prefer to have a format available to create lesson plans, this is a good site to use.Ý And since itís online, there is the potential to share resources with other teacher.Ý Also valuable is the easy way to map and track standards.

Development Areas

A half yearís subscription costs $20, so itís not free.Ý For the collaborative features to be widely used, a large number of educators would need to subscribe, which isnít likely to happen.

How would you adapt this resource for your classroom?

Since taskstream.com is a web-based resource, the tools themselves canít be adapted.Ý But in the constructivist vein, students could use this to construct lesson plans to teach each other!