Twenty four delegates presented different member nations from Australia, Brazil, Canada to Switzerland, Uganda and the United States.  The day started with a key note address from Dr. Samantha Nutt, who is a medical doctor and the founder of a NGO called War Child.

Dr. Nutt’s speech was both emotional and inspirational as she shared personal stories from her volunteer work in Somalia and Democratic Republic of Congo.  Dr. Nutt talked about the famine in Somalia, violence in Congo and misspent altruism in the least developed nations. Her story about a girl from the former Republic of Zaire, who was raped on her way into the town to buy medicine for malaria by three young boys and whose soles of her feet were brutally cut off leaving unimaginable scars, was nothing less than disturbing and tragic. But it had to be told, so that kids get the idea that in some countries the situation is so desperate due to the lack of proper education, adequate funding and right governance at all levels.

Dr. Nutt shared some interesting facts with us. For example, there are more than two hundred million Kalashnikov rifles in the word; 70% of sales of war weapons are sold to developing and the least developed nations; 90% of small war weapons come from permanent UN member nations; and Congo has the world’s largest coltan mine, which is fueling the crisis in this country. Each one of us carries the piece of this conflict whenever we purchase a mobile phone, a computer, Sony Playstation or another electronic gadget, which use coltan to manufacture capacitors for these devices.

Dr. Nutt’s concluding words were that ‘it’s okay to a disruptive force in a sound environment because sometimes the environment is not so sound.” This is certainly the case for many nations in Africa that War Child represents and other parts of the word where the global financial crisis is affecting the most vulnerable of our society.

We all can be that disruptive force that works together to bring about change in parts of our world that are plagued with injustice, poverty, hunger, lack of education, violence and inequality.

I have experienced the joy of teaching (and learning) critical STSE issues (a.k.a. socio-scientific issues) and ways of implementing socio-political activism in my classes. It has made me think more deeply about the purposes of science education and what constitutes scientific literacy in 21^st century. An important part of scientific literacy is an understanding of the nature of science and technology, which includes how science interacts with technology, society and the environment. The STEPWISE framework has provided a context for developing the related skills and conceptual knowledge necessary for STSE education and STSE activism. I encourage you to check out www.stepwiser.ca

One of the challenges of teaching students about activism (and getting them to become citizen activists), in the context of critical STSE issues, is defining precisely what activism is and modeling activism in ways that students would understand and appreciate. The other challenge has been to get students to genuinely care about critical STSE issues (as opposed to pretending to care for the sake of impressing the teacher and getting good marks) and more importantly, to develop the capacity to propose and take appropriate actions that are meaningful and effective. I continue to build the instructional expertise needed to facilitate students’ learning about STSE/NOST education and STSE activism, and would certainly encourage other science (and non-science) teachers to incorporate activist education in their courses.

Image Credits: ACLU (http://www.acluutah.org/lightscameraactivism.html)

Here are two useful on-line resources to encourage digital citizenship:

www.kidshelpphone.ca This site is great for both kids and teenagers. It covers a range of issues that are related to health, family, relationships, sexual orientation and the Internet.

http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/  This site will help teachers, technology leaders and parents to understand what students/children/technology users should know about appropriate use of technology. Digital citizenship is a way to prepare students and teachers for a society engrossed by technology.

Recently one group of students in my Grade 11 Chemistry class decided to create a Facebook page to raise awareness about the potential dangers of consuming energy drinks by teenagers. They conducted a study with over 100 students at the school to find out if there is a correlation between gender and consumption of energy drinks. They found out that more boys at the school consume energy drinks for various reasons. After learning about the dangers of consuming energy drinks, the kids wanted to do something about it especially after learning a large number of their peers (boys in particular) consumed energy drinks regularly. Seeing how their peers are hooked to Facebook, it made sense to create a page that would help their peers learn more about their study and potential harmful effects of energy drinks.  This is one small example of digital activism by a group of students in my class.

Since activism often involves controversial issues, there will be groups that will oppose or disagree with what my students are doing (i.e. energy drink companies may not like that kids are digitally spreading the possible dangers that their product(s) can cause for the wellbeing of individuals, esp. teenagers).  In the context of digital citizenship and responsible use of technology, the theme of digital literacy and communication seem most relevant to digital activism.

Image Credits: http://internetsavvy.wikispaces.com/

Last semester my Grade 10 Science students designed surveys in the Climate Change unit to determine if there is a correlation between age or gender and a few everyday actions that have an effect on climate change (i.e. modes of transportation, recycling habits, energy usage, etc). Based on the results of their surveys as well as secondary research students developed mini-activist projects to address various issues. Some of the activist projects included: lobbying school administration to redistribute recycling bins in the cafeteria so they are more accessible to students, writing a letter to the male gym teachers to raise awareness about our boys’ over consumption of meat at our school, creating educational brochures to address the issue of water consumption (see image below), etc.

This semester 9 classes are involved in study-informed activism: three Grade 10s, three Grade 11 Chemistry and three Grade 12 Chemistry classes. It will be interesting to see what other teachers think about the use of studies to inform activism and how their students respond to these kinds of inquiry/STSE activities. I believe that study-informed STSE action projects are superior to any other STSE project that I have done so far for the following reasons:

i) studies allow students to engage in open-ended inquiries that are meaningful to students

ii) studies are contextualized in real socio-scientific issues making them, again, relevant to students’ lives

iii) studies drive secondary research into various socio-scientific issues or vice versa

To learn more about how to conduct studies in your own classes, please visit Prof Larry Bencze’s website:

http://webspace.oise.utoronto.ca/~benczela/StudiesEd.html

This semester

I am reminded of the usefulness of mind maps when it comes to drawing out students’ conceptions and ideas. Their versatility and illustrative power are appealing and effective at promoting the interconnectedness of various concepts. Unlike concept maps, they are not restrictive in terms of any hierarchical structure or specific linking words that show relationships between concepts. Thus, they are more easy and maybe even more fun for students!

I am reminded that I need to incorporate them more in my teaching on an on-going basis to help my students make more solid connections as they progress through individual units of study.

Recently I volunteered to do a presentation to interested staff members at my school on Digital Activism during our upcoming PD day in March. I have been inspired by the latest global events such as the recent reform and revolution in the Middle East and the Occupy movement directed against economic and social inequalities.  I believe that such a form of activism has a place in 21^st century education, specifically to empower youth to advocate for issues such as bullying, community health and safety, social equality, racism, sexism, homophobia and other subject-specific issues that I will mention in the next paragraph.

In both the Middle East revolution and the Occupy movement digital activism (via Face Book and Twitter, respectively) was the medium for social, economic and political changes around the world. This past semester some of my students in Grade 10 Science were involved in activist project in which they decided to use digital media to raise awareness about issues such as oil spills, dangers of smoking, possible harmful effects of household chemicals and the effects of overusing electricity.  Students’ feedback on these kinds of assignments was overwhelmingly positive. Student advocacy using social networking can be an effective way to promote personal development and social responsibility, both of which are attributes beyond academic excellence. This is one of the pillars of an international organization called, Round Square, which is worth checking out for those who believe that schools should have a greater purpose beyond preparing students for college and university.

I look forward to sharing what I have learned about digital activism with my colleagues in the near future.

Please feel free to comment on digital activism. I’d love to hear what you think about this form of advocacy. Does it posses qualities that may embody a form of educational revolution?

After going over the quantum numbers and having the kids assign quantum numbers to electrons in an atom, I asked myself this question: “Is this even worth knowing at this point in kids’ lives?”  To soothe my curiosity, I asked the students to brainstorm in groups a list of 10 things that are worth knowing in life.

One student said: “This is hard!”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“ Do you mean any 10 things?” asked the student again.

“Yes, any 10 things that you would consider worth knowing in life!” I said.

Students took about 5 minutes to brainstorm their list, and then, I asked a member of each group to write their list on the blackboard. Here are the things that a class of Grade 12 students thinks are worth knowing:

• Your name (identity)/ Self (X2)
• People skills
• Reading
• Defend yourself / How to take care of ourselves
• Make food
• Basic knowledge of survival (X3)
• After life? (X3)
• Truth about religion / God’s existence? (X2)
• Knowledge about your future
• How people first developed theories
• The Big Bang Theory / Beginning of existence (X2)
• Why are there geniuses and regular people?
• Extraterrestrial life, does it exist? (X2)
• Unified theory
• Finding out our roles in society
• Communication (X2)
• Language
• Distinguish between myth and reality
• Morality (X2)
• History
• Technology
• News around the world
• Point of life

This is certainly an interesting list. The numbers in the brackets represent the number of times that the common answer or theme appeared. As you might imagine, this list served as a platform for an extremely rich conversation.

One student wrote to me after class stating: “By the way, the discussion during the latter half of the period was refreshing. Glad we had it.”

I had to ask him to be more specific and tell me what stood out for him and what made this a refreshing discussion.

He replied with: “I just found how some students found it more necessary that certain questions that haunt society are more important than the everyday activities we indulge in to sustain ourselves. I remember a couple questions being around the ideas of higher beings and extraterrestrial life forms and through the discussion it sort of amazed me that students take this approach.  I interpreted the question to be based around our necessities and not around these questions and so I found the discussion sort of refreshing to see that there are different perspectives and different answers to every question.”

Insightful reply from a Grade 12 student! Thanks S.F.!

I will end it here. Feel free to comment! What do you think of this list? What does it tell us about students’ perception of the 10 things worth knowing?
Image credits: http://theraffaellas.bandcamp.com/

Excerpt from October 17, 2011 Journal Entry – Inspiring Activism and Allowing Time for Students to Work on Research and Planning their Actions!

“Today I showed the photos and videos of my visit to St. James Park in Toronto during the Occupy Toronto event. Many students did not know about Occupy Toronto or other related movements around the globe. We discussed some of the images that I was showing and I related them as much as I could to student action projects. My ‘take action’ pep-rally lasted 20 minutes and after this I took the students to the computer room, where they had an hour and a half to work on their research.”

[Reflection: When look back I realize that this lesson on October 17^th was motivating and it supported the idea of activism. I modeled this to students by going to Occupy Toronto event. In terms of the streetsmarts, the images and videos that I was showing to kids were real and current! I talked about the sings that the protesters made and the information they included on their posters. I stressed the idea that masses should to be educated for a protest or a movement, like Occupy Toronto, to make sense. We talked about violent protests and what is and  what isn’t accomplished during such public upheavals. All of these conversations fed into the idea of streetsmarts more so that just booksmarts.]

Except from October 21, 2011 Journal Entry – Students’ Presentations of their Actions!

“I learned that students have tremendous potential to be creative and innovative as I watched their STSE action presentations. They like this project since it was customizable allowing them the freedom to do what they wanted as far the issues they decided to study and the kinds of actions they pursued….”

 [Reflection: One of the words that stands out to me is ‘customizable.’ Nowadays teenagers want most things around them to be ‘customizable.’ Classroom experiences are still traditional, for the most part. They are not very customizable by the students. Students should be able to ‘customize’ their learning experiences by tailoring them to their interests. The STSE action projects allowed students to do exactly this – to ‘customize’ their learning  by choosing their own topic, forming same interest groups and deciding on what actions to take. The concept of ‘customizable education’ relates more to street-smarts rather than booksmart since it has more in common with kids' everyday life experiences.]

 These are just two short and recent reflections of many more reflections to come (not necessarily on this blog), but as part of my effort to try to understand the factors or events that have made the students feel that they were learning street smarts over book smarts in my Grade 10 Science class.

Please feel free to share your thoughts about the value of street smarts in education and what kind of teaching would promote street smarts over book smarts.

Image Credits:  http://www.themichelpage.com/Humor_StreetSmarts.htm

As soon as the other kids saw that Randy took a great photo of the cells all of them who had a smart phone positioned their phones over the ocular lens of the microscope and snapped photos of their own.

Why was this such a great and exciting moment for me and the kids?

Two reasons: i)it was another great technology moment where kids discovered how to use their mobile learning devices to document their learning in real time; and ii) since kids had to produce biological drawings of the celery cells they no longer had to keep looking back and forth through the microscope while producing a drawing. It was right there on the screen of their smart phone.

The image is the original photographed by my student Randy.

 Please share some of your experiences if you have any with the use of smart phones in your classroom!