2018 Utah Rural Schools Conference

Creating hyperdocs and how to use them in your classroom. Hyperdoc is a Google doc or Google slide that connects all lesson plans in one location, videos, worksheets, shared documents. A hyperdoc can be used by the teacher as a lesson plan or by the student as a blended classroom assignment. http://bit.ly/2yZSDU8

Share what's happening in Assessment and Accountability at USBE

Just because all kinds of interesting technology is being discovered and released, that doesn't change what good instruction looks like. Through a discussion of ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) standards and several technology implementation frameworks (SAMR, TPACK, and Triple E), we will consider how pedagogy and technology need to work together to achieve meaningful and effective results in learning.

Experience several activities developed by Clark Planetarium for the 5th grade Electricity and Magnetism Science Curriculum (Standards 3 and 4). These hands-on activities allow students to experience static electric, current electric, and magnetic phenomena and are aligned with the three dimensions of science understanding. A limited number of resource kits (12 kits valued at $200 each) are available to distribute to teachers that attend this session. (If more than 12 teachers attend, priority will be given to individual schools, districts, or a random drawing.)

In this hands-on workshop we will be using shrink film, thin flexible plastic sheets that can be colored with felt-tip pens and cut into shapes, to create arts integrated lesson plan ideas. When heated with a toaster oven, a conventional oven, or a heat gun, the plastic shrinks by about five-eighths and becomes thicker and more rigid, while retaining the colored design. Kids of all ages love this activity and it can be adapted to a variety of content areas. You’ll leave with your own tiny art project, as well as a handful of ideas of how to implement it in your own school.

Natural History Museum of Utah educators will introduce participants to Research Quest - a free suite of online investigations - to demonstrate how middle school teachers can engage their students in some of the most intriguing mysteries of our time, robust debate about current research, and developing explanations and arguments to explain their ideas - all while using 3D technology to access many of the museum's rich fossil resources. Participants will learn how to use Research Quest to support collaborative student work to gather empirical data by making quantitative and qualitative observations of real fossils with modeling and guidance from one of the museum's award winning scientists. We'll also discuss strategies for making student thinking visible as students move from using intuitive to increasingly complex critical thinking skills. These strategies provide important supports to guide students as they weigh the quality and strength of their evidence and use that evidence to develop their explanations and construct arguments. Participants will receive supporting materials designed for the classroom teacher and their students - including learning assessment tools for both.

HawkWatch, as part of the iSEE partnership, can present in science classrooms and enhance curriculum with our outreach programs that use actual data from the field, and a live education bird. (Grades 9-12 for free, other grade levels have a fee) We will demonstrate to educators a hands-on activity using data collected on Sharp-shinned hawks at HawkWatch International raptor migration research sites. This specific activity allows middle school science and statistics teachers to help students learn how to evaluate categorical data. Teachers will leave with instructions and supplies to perform the activity with their students in the classroom.

Screencastify will allow you to make short learning videos that can be posted on websites. This program will allow you to share you screen and video important information you wish to share with your students.

iNaturalist is an app developed by the California Academy of Sciences to connect people with exploring nature in their local environment while documenting ecological data and creating awareness of biodiversity worldwide. If you are interested in learning about this great tool to supplement science programming and connect youth with their local environment join us as we explore iNaturalist's potential for school programming. This session will include a thorough introduction to iNaturalist and a hands-on demo of its functionality as it applies to getting youth involved in making observations, analyzing data, and contributing to the broader Citizen Science movement.