Science & Math
Unit Plans
This Grade 9 Science unit plan was created for my second teaching internship. It is detailed, addresses all the curriculum outcomes, and provides a list of resources for each lesson. Also included is a worksheet to be used to assess prior knowledge at the beginning of the unit and to be revisited as the unit progresses.
This Grade 11 Math unit plan was produced while completing the Secondary Math Curriculum course at St. Thomas University. The plan includes a suggested rubric for the unit project and a year plan from which the included unit was derived.
Both plans benefit from a focus on both teaching strategies and instructional differentiation.
Lesson Plans
Included here are a Grade 9 science lesson from my second teaching internship and a Grade 7 science "Jeopardy" test review from my first teaching internship.
The former illustrates the use of an activity which visually represents the structure of an atom and which formed the basis of a week-long project on atomic structure and the periodic table which also involved internet research.
The test review is based around the perennial class favourite of "Jeopardy". However, this review utilized PowerPoint as the game medium in order to permit visuals which chalkboard versions of the game precluded or made difficult. Students thoroughly enjoyed the digital version (I continued to use the templates for both Grade 9 and Grade 11 with much success) and later incarnations involved theme and incidental music.
During my post-doctoral degree I co-taught a final-year undergraduate course on Aquatic Ecology. My lectures were delivered simultaneously to both the Fredericton and Saint John campuses of the University of New Brunswick by video/audio link. Here are my lectures on aquatic food webs (1 and 2) and my tutorial on how to give effective group presentations using PowerPoint.
Projects
This water filter activity illustrates a science unit project that was undertaken by Grade 7 students during my first internship. The project was a culminating activity which helped engage the students while encouraging them to apply their knowledge in designing and evaluating their solution to a real-world problem. It was a popular project with many designs performing admirably; in fact, many students soon became determined to construct the most efficient filter across the entire grade!
Tests
The following two unit tests originate from my teaching internships: the first from Grade 7 science ("Mixtures and Solutions"), the second from Grade 9 science ("Reproduction"). The tests are quite different from one another, reflecting the different demands of the material, the ability levels of the students, and my increasing desire for variety within an evaluation metric—e.g., the latter test also requires math skills, visual representation, and rewriting incorrect statements as part of the assessment.
An example of a final exam which I co-authored for a final-year undergraduate course on Aquatic Ecology is included here.
Handouts
Of the following handouts, one reflects the qualities of respect, cooperation, and responsibility ("Assessing Group Performance") and is required reading for all the classes I teach and another is a prerequisite for all my science classes ("Lab Safety Checklist"). This worksheet was created for a Grade 7 science class and formed the basis for a class discussion on water use and its implications for our supplies of drinking water both in Canada and worldwide. Finally, these three concept maps were created together as a class following instruction on a variety of study skills and prior to an end-of-unit test (Grade 7: see "Tests" section above or here).
Creative Arts
Music Projects
I have always had a great enthusiasm for the communicative power of music. My interests range from the writing and arranging of songs for solo performance or by creative collectives to music education and its use in second language environments.
Below is a selection of original songs in MP3 format from my three recorded albums: "Signs of Life" (1990), "Liquid" (1995), and "Mook" (1999). On occasion, friends contributed their poetry or provided spoken word performances. [To respect bandwidth limits, these files are provided in lo-fi, mono format.]
Ascent [2:14]
Circus Girl [1:29]
Little Drum [1:49]
Plateau [1:50]
Still Dark Water [6:41]
Expanding my use of digital technology, I have recently started to include purely digital instrumentation in my works. Of the four tracks below, the first is comprised entirely of MIDI instruments, while the others make use of both 'real' and 'synthetic' voices.
Green Starfish [1:31]
Starsky Goes Clubbing [1:36]
Canaan [4:15]
Washademoak [4:15]
The latter two pieces were composed for a soundtrack to a documentary on environmental stewardship which I produced for the Canaan-Washademoak Watershed Association. A blog entry detailing the production of the complete work is available here.
Language Arts / Cross-Curricular
The activities in this section illustrate a variety of alternative pathways to learning. They have language arts as their primary focus while facilitating cross-curricular connections ("The Adventures of Trevor": geography, social studies, science; "Word Nerd": science).
Comic Book Project
The comic book activity ("The Adventures of Trevor") was inspired by the recent work of Dr. Michael Bitz who suggested that such arts-based literacy initiatives help children actively and creatively build academic and life skills. By writing and drawing about their personal experiences and interests, students become engaged in the learning process and are increasingly motivated to succeed in reading and writing.
Boardgame
Science possesses a language peculiar to itself. These terms and expressions must be learned in order to communicate with one’s peers in such a specific environment. "Word Nerd" was created to assist students in learning scientific terms and how they are constructed. The activity links vocabulary from the New Brunswick Grade 8 science curriculum ("Water Systems on Earth" unit) with the study of affixes from Grade 8 language arts and was produced for the Methods in Science Education (Middle/Secondary) course at St. Thomas University. Included is a self-evaluation rubric that I constructed to help focus the design and implementation of the game during its creation process.
Community Work
My education experiences are not limited to the classroom. An indirect benefit of my years of science research has been the opportunity to travel to many different countries and environments and to work and communicate with a wide variety of people.
I am currently employed as the Education Director at the Environment and Sustainable Development Research Centre (ESDRC) at the University of New Brunswick, where I am responsible for the development and delivery of materials for and approaches to environmental education and community capacity building. As a result, I work closely with two community-based watershed groups—the Fredericton Area Watersheds Association (FAWA) and the Canaan-Washademoak Watershed Association (CWWA). Both these organizations help promote awareness and stewardship of local ecological habitats. Due to the small, but enthusiastic, number of staff at ESDRC, my roles have been many: science consultant, graphic designer, author, film-maker, educator, team-member, and mediator.
Examples of my early projects are provided here (FAWA) and here (CWWA). A blog entry detailing the creation of audio-visual resources for CWWA is also available.