ChangED
ChangED is an educator based podcast for Pennsylvania teachers to learn more about the PA STEELS Standards and science in general. It is hosted by Andrew Kuhn and Patrice Semicek.
ChangED
Visual Learning: Making Science Memorable
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Unlock the secrets to revolutionizing your classroom with science notebooks! In this episode of ChangED, we sit down with Joy Shaffer, Rebecca Schauffele, and Christina Sanders from the Northwest Tri-County Intermediate Unit to explore their groundbreaking session, "Beg, Borrow, and Steal this Notebook." Learn how they’re transforming the way students document and process scientific concepts by integrating environmental literacy and sustainability. Discover the journey from traditional note-taking to engaging visual methods that not only enhance memory but also make learning fun across all grade levels.
Want to send us a show idea or just say hi? Email us at: thechangedpodcast@gmail.com!
Welcome back to Change Edge, your favorite podcast for educators, by educators. We are the official podcast of Beat and See. We are here at the STEM Summit with an amazing crew of guests. We're excited for our show today. I am Andrew Kuhn, educational Consultant for Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, and here with me.
Speaker 2It's Patrice Semecek, also at the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit and an Educational Consultant.
Speaker 3And Tony Maravito Carbon, Lehigh Intermediate Unit Staff Development Facilitator.
Speaker 1Together. We are the three students and we are excited to be your co-hosts for this podcast. We actually also have, first time in Chain Jet history, three guests all at one time. All of our guests are from the Northwest Tri-County Intermediate Unit, hashtag five. You got it. You got it Okay. So here with us, we have Joy Schaefer Hello, we also have Rebecca Shuffle.
Speaker 4Yes indeed.
Speaker 1Welcome and Christina Sanders.
Speaker 5Yes, hello.
Speaker 1Hello, welcome all. You were one of our presenters for the breakout sessions and your session was called Beg, borrow and Steal this Notebook. But the way steel was written, it looks like it was a part of the words and that we're going to be talking about steels. Is that the case?
Speaker 4Absolutely Beg, borrow and steals. This notebook didn't quite sound right.
Speaker 1So we dropped the S, but it's still there. It's a silent S or is it an invisible S?
Speaker 4It's the E-L-N-S from environmental literacy and sustainability, so we couldn't. It's there.
Speaker 1It's implied. It's almost like a dash right Like dash. Sustainability is still there. So what inspired you to come up with this idea? I'm seeing the three dimensions of learning in here steel standards, hands-on. There's a lot of good stuff that you were talking about, but what was the motivation behind offering this session and talking about this here and now?
Speaker 4So there's been a big shift with the new steel standards. And not only is the instructional model change and how we're teaching changing in the classroom, but we were thinking about the tool that we use. And not only is the instructional model change and how we're teaching changing in the classroom, but we're thinking about the tool that we use or maybe have used, maybe it hasn't been used. I guess it varies, but that needs to change as well. So think back to when you were in school. What did you do in your science notebook in your science classroom? What did you put in there, Like way back when you were a student? I'm sure it was way, way, way back.
Speaker 3I remember copy coloring, cutting it out and putting together like a diagram of a flower perhaps, or biomes. Yeah, something like that. What else? Wow, I put in notes and just to try to remember back 40 years.
Speaker 1Yeah, we didn't have paper or pencil then. But I was working off a lot and I put in notes.
Speaker 4Remember those vocabulary exercises. Maybe we're flipping to the back of the book.
Speaker 2Yeah, there's a lot of like whatever my teacher told me to write down it was not a whole lot of thoughts that went into it.
Speaker 1It was just copy this into your notebook and we'll reference it later yeah, it's almost like the information we we were the transcribers of the information train. It transitioned through us right like we didn't actually retain it. I kind of flowed through us exactly so.
Speaker 4We're trying to bring that to light and we are changing our instructional practices, but we also need to change the tools that we're using with our students and using notebooking intentionally in the science classroom is really going to help those students. The research is there showing that when you're using visual note taking, what student doesn't love to doodle? I was a doodler doodling all over the page but it really can help with improving their memory of the content and their conceptual understanding of what's going on with the phenomena.
Speaker 3So do you think this would work across all grade levels? Is this something that you can see at the kindergarten level all the way up to 12th grade?
Speaker 4Yes, but keep in mind it's going to look different in every single class Way. More structure with the littles, probably more training up front, training up front for everybody. But once you get it established, it's going to be a tool. They're going to use it all the time their notebooks. It's going to look all beat up and tattered. It's probably going to look different from kiddo to kiddo, but I think it can be used across the board and should be.
Speaker 1You know, one thing that's sticking out to me is sensemaking, and I see here now are you using the notebook as a way of sense making or is it supporting the sense making that's already happened in the classroom?
Speaker 5I would say it's a little bit of both. So we want students to be able to make sense of their learning from that phenomena. So they're using their notebooks to write down their observations or what they notice and wonder about something. They can also use it as like a journal or things that they're observing from out in nature, like if they're going on a nature walk. They can write down observations that they see, even do like little doodlings or like leaf prints or something to kind of keep track of what they're looking at.
Speaker 1So it's, they can be used in many different ways yeah, the thing that came to mind when you were talking about it was almost like a diary. Right like I'm writing out my thoughts, I'm processing through that sense maker, right like I'm using this as a tool to help me make sense. It helps me to understand it when I write it out, like I really have to think through it in a different way. Even then talking through it when I put it to words, it makes it real in a different way. Even then talking through it when I put it to words, it makes it real in a different way. Or helps me to say, no, that's actually not it, that doesn't make sense. So you're committing to it when you write.
Speaker 5Yes, exactly yeah. And we've noticed too, through the research that we've done with some of this work with notebooking, that when students are writing things down, they're getting that movement, that kinesthetic movement, with their learning so they're able to process it and remember it more than rather than, just memorizing or looking at something different or even like a digital notebook, sometimes that transition might not be as beneficial to the students if they're not actually writing something down or coloring or doodling or things like that.
Speaker 1One of the things that I'm hearing through this conversation is that there is a way for us to bridge the gap between what were older tools that we used to use and this new mindset. And we're not saying don't use notebooks. We're saying there's a different way to use notebooks that would be more engaging, that would be pulling in the learner to process learning at the same time, versus a. I'll give you all the knowledge, you write it down and then you study that and get ready for the exam instead. This is a process or a journey that you can go on I think just kind of go back off that, andrew.
Speaker 6a large piece of our shift in our science classroom is about helping our students make their thinking visible and being able to see what our students are thinking, have them see what they're thinking their peers as well. And having that sketchnoting going on in those notebooks allows that to happen in a safe space and it can be just for the student and the teacher, but it can be shared within the classroom and it could be used to start that consensus model that's happening in our new science classroom. It really is that springboard to so many other pieces that is happening in this shift classroom, so I like that you mentioned the thinking becomes visible.
Speaker 3It's such an easy way for teachers to course correct now that they see what the student has like down on paper. I'm super excited to use this. I want to do this at our summer camps and start with the little ones, even if it's just drawings. And I know, like you mentioned a lot of coaching. But I'd love to see, after a week of camp, what they took away.
Speaker 2If I was a teacher and I wanted to get started with this, how would I go about getting started? Because it seems like it could be potentially overwhelming to give up some of that freedom. So how would I go ahead and get started with starting this kind of notebooking?
Speaker 4My favorite entry point for notebooking in a science classroom specifically would be a notice and wonder chart or, what I like to get a little step further a see, think, wonder chart. So you're setting it up, just a basic T chart. What do you see? We're going to experience a phenomena. So they're getting this ready, you have it ready. We're going to look at this phenomena. Maybe it's a demonstration, maybe we're watching a video and we're going to see some type of phenomena. They're jotting down either words, maybe it's pictures. What do they see happening? What do they think is going on with that phenomena? And then what questions are popping into their head? What are they wondering about it? So that way, not only are you getting an idea of what they're thinking, it's also a great time to catch any misconceptions or even some really rich background that they might be bringing to the classroom. So it's wonderful not only for the students, but it's great for the teachers as well.
Speaker 3Have you seen? Notebooking help with collaboration. Are students able to verbalize what they're writing down to when they're writing down their findings or writing down whatever they might be wondering or seeing or thinking?
Speaker 4Yeah, I think one of the neatest experiences that we like to talk about is when the students are sharing with a partner, maybe an elbow partner. They're sharing their model of what they think is going on with the phenomena. They're explaining it to each other, but then, rather than them going and explaining their own, christina's explaining mine and I have to explain hers. So it adds that concept of being a good listener, making sure that I'm ready to explain what she was thinking, and maybe we have some commonalities and we're recognizing that. Or maybe she had something that was awesome and maybe maybe I beg, borrowed or stole and you hear good listener.
Speaker 3Did you hear that?
Speaker 1I'm sorry I wasn't listening that's exactly what I thought well, I think.
Speaker 6Also to go off your question, though, on having teachers putting this into their classrooms, it is overwhelming, and that was kind of a resounding message at the end of our session. One of the biggest takeaways from our session was when we had them participating in some sketch noting. We started with a phenomenon.
Speaker 3Yeah, tell me about that.
Speaker 4Our watershed is the Lake Erie watershed, so a phenomenon that happens on Lake Erie is something called a seiche. We didn't explain that at first. We showed a video and it's a video from last winter I believe of all a huge sheet of ice just busting over a break wall. It's called an ice tsunami, and we live on Lake Erie, so one end you've got Ohio, cleveland area, and on the other end is Buffalo, so that's where this video was from. All this ice is just coming through. What do you notice? What do you wonder? What do you think is happening? And then we took them into an exploration activity where we gave them an opportunity to read through a one pager about a seiche from the NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Speaker 6That was impressive.
Speaker 4They experienced the phenomena, they got to read more and then they did sketchnoting in their notebook using all the different techniques. So when you're sketchnoting you have some different elements in there. Color is one of them. Got to have color, it makes it more fun, makes it pop. Then you've got some text and we're not just talking, like you know, and I brought my sketchnote so you'll see like a little example of it here.
Exploring Sketchnoting in Education
Speaker 4Certain words might be bolded out in a way that's meaningful to you. I like to make mine fancy and swirly in certain areas. But then you've also got elements like arrows and diagramming. So you have that cognitive piece there where I'm linking these together. I'm making sense of it for me. So they were writing down what's going on with a seiche and I asked has anybody in this room, does anybody know what a seiche is? And I was like oh cool, so it's essentially because I know we don't have access to it. Here. You've got a giant lake and then you've got a huge windstorm happening and it's blowing all the water from one end of the lake to the other.
Speaker 1So think about like being in a bathtub when you were a kid and sloshing back and forth and making the waves.
Speaker 4That's very. That's a safe by wind.
Speaker 3It's a sensational phenomenon particular piece that you brought up was you showed something that these kids can actually relate to. That's a real life situation that they see on a daily basis. That would have meant nothing to me just because down here we don't get to see that. So I love the explanation. I love that you chose something that your students actually can buy into.
Speaker 2So, yeah, I actually really appreciated that you showed me your sketchnote because in my head I was thinking and I've seen sketchnotes before where it's a lot of pictures like I'm an artist and I would be focused more on what I'm drawing and how my face or whatever looks than what I'm actually writing. So I appreciated that you said and showed us that it was different fonts in the way that you wrote and different arrows and things like that, because I think that's important for people to kind of understand that it's more than just drawing pictures and making connections through the pictures. So thank you.
Speaker 4And I think Joy really hit the nail on the head. She said it can be. So if you are a visual person and you do need all those doodles and maybe you're a student that really, really struggles with getting those words down on the paper, something with a bunch of pictures might be more meaningful for them and it leads back to the sense making. You want them to get there and you want them to be able to make their thinking visible, and there might be a lot of words associated and that's, that's okay.
Speaker 6We're going to meet them where they're at it was phenomenal phenomena that we went through with them, so thank you for bringing that up. It can be time consuming. However, we presented the phenomenon quick little video clip. We had an article and gave them five minutes or less, yeah, and they were then sharing their sketchnoting into a Padlet with us and they were able to do that and now we're all adult learners. We've been in the learning game for a while, so maybe it was a little bit faster than it would be for students. However, it wasn't a time consuming process. They picked it up really quickly. So I really do believe that if we are introducing this early on in the school year with our kiddos, giving them the boundaries, allowing additional time within the day if they need more time to express their thoughts or expand on their thinking there, I'm sure there's those 10 minutes in the day where they could be provided that at the end of the day before they leave or something like that.
Speaker 1It doesn't have to be this extra big to do, it's just woven into our science classroom you know, I find really interesting and fascinating about this is that we would not have been having, or we even not would. We did not have these types of conversations with our previous standards. So it's it's always important to remember that standards are standards. That's something that we're looking towards and it's a point of focus for us. But really, with these standards also came instructional practices, so I love that you were also modeling phenomenon in that right. You're not saying this is not exclusive, this is not just something you do and here's how we do it and what it looks like. But I want to offer you a first time on Change Ad Nation that you know we always have a final thought and my team voted that I should always be the one to give the final thought.
Speaker 2There was no vote, no one was there, it was a consensus.
Speaker 1Yeah, I voted, no one disagreed. But I want to offer you all an opportunity to kind of have a final thought. Since we have this many guests, because the popularity is show, we have to have more and more guests and keep increasing it. I want to give you that opportunity for that thought and then I'll again, because of the vote, I'll close it out, but we're going to start with Rebecca.
Speaker 4My final thought is just give it a try. You don't have to be an artist, the student doesn't have to be an artist. Heck, if you're a teacher that's not comfortable drawing, pull a student on up who loves to draw. They would love it if you were coming up with a class consensus model of what you think, what you know is going on with a phenomena. Start there. Work with the skills of your students. Give it a shot. It's pretty fun.
Speaker 1Thank you, Rebecca Popcorn, Christina.
Speaker 5Hello. So I think my final thought is you don't necessarily have to do this just for science. You can do this with other things as well. We had talked to somebody from our session that thought that they were really going to be able to implement this in their engineering classroom. The engineering design process is a big part of the steals now not that it wasn't before, but this is really. There's a big emphasis on that technology and engineering side. So I think being able to incorporate this with other subjects as well and tying this all together, I think is also a really big thing too.
Speaker 1I can tell that you're a fan of the show from the way that you just said. You can do this anywhere, and that's the point of the show. Right, it's not just for steals, it's all over Joy. I have solved as long as I can, so it's now your turn.
Speaker 6My final thought I think that our teachers are overwhelmed right now and, sketchnoting though we are bringing it to pete and see right now, it's not a new practice, so this is just bringing it back to the surface and reminding our teachers that this can be that safe space for some students. We need to be providing them an opportunity to have that safe space. And it might be in conversation for one student, but that other student might need safe space. And it might be in conversation for one student, but that other student might need that notebook. And I think the more times we offer that, the more students are going to be willing to share. But I do have one final question for you guys. I think we're out of time.
Speaker 6You guys have been taking notes throughout our session, so my question for you is are you sketchnoting? Caught me.
Speaker 3Yep, I want to try these things out with the kids that I get in front of, so I appreciate all your insight into it.
Speaker 1I wasn't sure how to spell Seish, so I just drew one because I didn't know yeah.
Enhancing Student Engagement Through SEALS
Speaker 2I was writing the way I normally do, but I guess you could call it sketchnoting. I didn't realize that's what I was writing the way I normally do, but I guess you could call it sketch noting. I didn't realize that's what I was doing, but I do have different size fonts and darkened things and lines Awesome, that's. The other thing, too, I think is really interesting is that people might be doing it not even realizing they're doing it Right, like we've all created systems to track what we're supposed to remember and things like that. So that's super easy way to get teachers kind of involved.
Speaker 1You're probably already doing it, so the word that came to mind while you were talking about this was engagement. Right, it's all about the engagement which is the intention and the focus of SEALS is to move to a different level of engagement for our students, and the SEALS allows for more time to engage our students by changing our standards. Right, we've said this a lot on the podcast Instead of going a mile wide with the standards and an inch deep, we're going to then go an inch wide and go a mile deep so that we can really drill down and have time to really imprint this learning on our students, so it can be meaningful learning instead of learning for retention, and that can actually go somewhere and have something important. So, on behalf of the entire ChangeEd team, changed, thank you for being here with us today. We really enjoyed our time with Northwest Tri-County Intermediate Unit number five, so thank you for joining us, thank you for having us, thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 5Thank you so much.
Speaker 1We appreciate all of our devoted listeners and we want to encourage you to go find your seish and get sketchy with it.