Computers, Teachers, Peers -- The Book (Ask Mr. K)

Each chapter features Ask Mr. K, an interview with the classroom teacher who was a founding member of our partnership and who continues to be our greatest resource and inspiration. In these interviews, Mr. K. adds insights from his own classroom experience.

Here are some selections from the Ask Mr. K sections

I made sure students understood links between different activities and could link one activity to the next. As teachers, we see the connections between different activities in the curriculum because we are so familiar with them. Students donšt often make these connections so as teachers we need to make them more visible.

Learning by reflection is another one. Kids will ask me, "Mr. K, is this the right answer." And I say, "Let's think about this some more. How does this connect to something you see in everyday life?" I try to get students to reflect on the data they collect and link this to what they did before.

Why does "depth of coverage" make more sense than covering many more topics in science class?

When students look at things in depth, then they can begin to reflect, make connections and understand. When a curriculum just provides snippets of information, and when kids end up learning facts, they resort to memorizing. For me, depth of coverage also means making science important to kidsš lives.

I majored in geology back in college. Just recently, a graduate student here had developed an activity for kids looking at earthquakes, teaching about P-waves and S-waves. I admit I had to go back and review those definitions myself! The original activity asks, "Which kind of wave is more damaging in an earthquakes?" Kids here live in an earthquake center. We often hear about "epicenter" and "Richter scales." Kids also have parents that work in those high rise buildings in Oakland and San Francisco. It might make more sense instead to ask the question, "are my parents safe? How did their building fare during the earthquake?" When kids start to ask these questions, they then ask, " How do I find the epicenter of the earthquake when the station detects a wave?" Kids learn how to read and interpret a graph, look at the amplitude, and apply what is relevant to themselves.

The answer to the original question about S and P waves is "S does more damage", but when you stop and think about this, students are not that concerned which kind of wave did the damage, nor likely to remember the answer. I didnšt!

In the new question, "are my parents safe in an earthquake?" students read the newspaper, find out about the Richter scale, use graphs of P and S waves versus time, and put together the graphs that scientists use to find the epicenter of the earthquake or where their parents building lies on the map. This they may well remember the next time we have an earthquake!