Monday, June 8, 2015

Blackholes, Beauty, Adjectives & Discovery

This TED talk was thoroughly beautiful, amazing, spectacular, unbelievable, puzzling, and more!  When I viewed this my mind immediately thought of educational uses. Fact:The person doing the thinking, is doing the learning. Fact:The brain is lazy, and needs to be inspired to work. Fact:Students need a reason to read or research. Fact:There are soooooo many opportunities to inspire curiousity, that teachers have no excuse for putting kids to sleep. Let's wake up the class and get them: THINKING, READING, AND RESEARCHING. Who knows? Perhaps someday they'll be studying "Blazars."
 Quick CCSS-aligned lesson to encourage "short term research assignments:"

  • Show this TED talk and amass a list of questions. 
  • Essential Question: How does space science (astrophysics) puzzle us?
  • Ask students to describe what they saw.  Tell them you "value vocabulary" and ask for expensive adjectives. (model this)
  • Brainstorm a list of questions students might have, after watching the video. 
  • Have each student pick a question or two. 
  • Research the answers - a "mini-Inquiry" 
  • Hold a "meeting of the minds" and share new knowledge.



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