# data[].attributes.body
Abbeville School District
Diamond Hill Elementary
a) I chose to implement SEP 1 and SEP 3
We were working with changing the height of a ramp and seeing the effects on the motion of the small car released from the top of the ramp.  Students were timing the car while traveling down the ramp and they measured the distance that the car traveled. They then asked questions to develop a new experiment.  They wanted to know if the surface of the ramp were different, would the results be different.
b) Watching the videos helped me to understand how these SEPs would look at different levels of instruction. I could only get my first page of notes to add to this. I can email Jeffrey the copies of my notes if needed. I have six pages.

# data[].attributes.body
School District of Pickens County
Easley High School
a) I chose to implement SEP 1 & SEP 5
From the student lens some questions the students developed through questioning and close reading were:
"Why do elements on the periodic table combine in the first place?" "Why do molecules exist?" "Why is most of the matter on the planet compounds and not pure elements?"
With these type of questions I had engaged my students in defining problems and asking scientifically literate questions. Now as we progress through our activities and direct instruction the students are eager to receive and learn the information because they have questions of their own that need answers.
From the student lens here are some ways the student used mathematical thinking during our formative practice using whiteboards:
"How do chlorine and potassium combine? What is their chemical formula?" "Is it always H2O or could it be H3O7?" "How do we name compounds? Do the number of atoms change their names?" "Should I use the criss-cross method or the Lewis Dot Diagrams?" "What is the octet rule and how does it affect bonding?"
Students asked these type of questions throughout our lesson and especially during our practice of writing chemical formulas and writing the names of chemical compounds. This revealed to me that they were engaged in discovering the ratio in which elements combine (and perhaps more importantly how they DON'T combine). Students were engaged in mathematical thinking when writing the correct oxidation numbers and when writing the proper chemical formula for given compounds. They also developed a strong understanding of the octet rule which essentially governs all ionic bonding.
b) I wouldn't say I learned anything novel but it was useful to see the same information in a more organized and formal way. I think any good scientist (and therefor any good science teacher!) thinks and behaves in scientifically literate ways. I think our job as science teachers to make our students more scientifically literate (to think and behave more like scientists) and these SEP's in my opinion compartmentalize all the various aspects of what it means to be a scientist (how to think and behave in a scientifically literate way).

# data[].attributes.body
Deborah Ezell
Spartanburg School District 2
Chesnee High School

# data[].attributes.headline
Laurie Seawright, Laurens Elementary/EB Morse Elementary Instructional Coach, Laurens 55

# data[].attributes.subject
Laurie Seawright, Laurens Elementary/EB Morse Elementary Instructional Coach, Laurens 55

# data[].attributes.body
a. What do the SEPs I’ve chosen for implementation "look like" in a classroom from the student lens? I am an instructional coach, so I do not have a class of my own that I am teaching science to. However, at this time, all of my 3rd-5th grade classes are working on a Michelin STEM project. They are building wooden cars and testing them for speed and distance. Each grade level has a different vairable they are working with. The students are using many of the SEPs as they go through the engineering process of designing, building, testing, refining, and rebuilding the cars. On December 14-15 they will participate in a county-wide competition to see which cars win for each grade level. It is a time of tremendous learning for our students each year.

b. What new learning did you gain from reviewing the SEP videos and describe its application in your classroom. I have watched these videos in the past in district professional development. It was a good refresher to view them again and I will be certain to share them with teachers since we have not revisited the SEPs in our school level PD sessions yet this year.

Notes: I can only get one page of notes to load. I have 4 pages I can show you on Friday.

# data[].attributes.body
2nd page of notes

# data[].attributes.headline
Alexis Nystrom: Whitmire HS, Newberry County

# data[].attributes.subject
Alexis Nystrom: Whitmire HS, Newberry County

# data[].attributes.body
SEP’s

2. Develop & Use Models

CCC’s:

5. Energy & Matter

2. Cause & Effect

A.) Current unit is Cellular Energy and I developed the model, but the students used it to explain Photosynthesis. I made it interactive where each student became a piece of the Photosynthesis puzzle and physically walked through the process and at where energy will move. Initially they thought it was silly and didn’t want to get up and go outside but it helped them SO MUCH. When I ask them questions now they are using the terms and they know what happens next. Ideally it would look like each student calling out their job of the process but ended up being a select few describing the process.

B.) One new thing I learned from looking at the Models video was that the start of it all should be with drawings. Then, from those drawings they can represent the idea being looked at and simulate it to see how it would actually work. I think this is crucial for the Energy unit because there aren’t any good physical models (that I know of) to represent this complex process, so I made our model use physical beings and items to represent the different pieces. The next step would be to get students to draw out the steps.

# data[].attributes.body
SEP:

3: Plan and Conduct Investigations

4: Analyze and Interpret Data

5: Use Mathematical and Computational Thinking

CCC:

2: Cause and Effect

3: Scale, Proportion, and Quantity

4: Systems and System Models

7: Stability and Change

Small Group Activity: Friction Ramps

Each group will time how long it takes for a car to travel the distance of each friction ramp. Friction Ramps: 1) indoor/outdoor grass, 2) sandpaper, 3) nothing (plain wood), 4) plastic beads,  5) cabinet liner. The distance was already set at 122 cm. Before they start their timing, they will make predictions of which ramp(s) will have the most or least amount of friction. After the students record three times, at each ramp, we will use mathematics (dividing decimals) to find the average speed (cm/sec) that each car traveled.

Student Lens: CARS and RAMPS! Fun! Surprised by results!

(Use of a stopwatch and multitasking)
(At the end, the confusion of cm/sec they are “used” to m/hr)

(Big PICTURE of extending the distance over a period of time)

# data[].attributes.headline
Faythe Prince Laurens District 55 - Sanders Middle

# data[].attributes.subject
Faythe Prince Laurens District 55 - Sanders Middle

# data[].attributes.body
Second page of notes from videos

# data[].attributes.headline
Faythe Prince Laurens District 55 - Sanders Middle

# data[].attributes.subject
Faythe Prince Laurens District 55 - Sanders Middle

# data[].attributes.body
The SEP's I chose for my activity were:
SEP 1 - Ask questions
SEP 3 - Plan and Carry Out Investigations
SEP 4 - Analyze and Interpret Data
First, I led my 7th grade students through lessons on writing and balancing chemical equations, identifying types of reactions (synthesis, decomposition, replacement), and the Law of Conservation of Mass using Lego building bricks.  Students, working in teams of two or three, had to represent elements, compounds, and chemical equations with different colored and shaped bricks.  They also worked with the bricks to balanced chemical equations.  After completing these lessons, students, in pairs, had to design and carry out an investigation to prove the Law of Conservation of Mass using baking soda, vinegar, and a plastic bag.  Many of the students struggled to order the steps they needed to take to measure all of the reactants correctly and to measure the product.  Several groups did not take measurements when needed and had to redo the experiment.  Lastly, the teams of students had to analyze their data to prove the law.  If their results did not support the law, students had to describe "plausible explanations" for their errors.

From the videos:
Most of the information in the videos I share with students through activities in the classroom. I liked how each video compared science and engineering and I plan to do this more often in the classroom. My "take-aways" came from #8. Remembering that I am a reading teaching and that I am teaching science text strategies is a daily importance. So many of my students are stuck by the science jargon. Also, I would like to find resources of adapted primary literature to use in the middle school classroom.

# data[].attributes.headline
Ashlee Campbell Westwood Elementary Abbeville County School District 

# data[].attributes.subject
Ashlee Campbell Westwood Elementary Abbeville County School District 

# data[].attributes.body
The SEP's I chose for my activity were:
SEP 2 Develop and Use Models
SEP 4 Analyze and Interpret Data
SEP 5 Use Mathematical and Computational Thinking
SEP 7 Engage in Scientific Argument Using Evidence
My students were broken up into groups to create models of weather instruments. As the teacher, I provided them with the materials and directions for making the weather instruments. They were given the opportunity to choose the weather instrument that they wanted to make (a barometer, an anemometer, or a wind vane). The students had to work together with their group to construct the instrument.  After completion, the students took their instruments outside to use the models and see how they work.  These instruments help students learn how to predict the weather.
The CCC's that this lesson included were:
*Structure and Function- they made and used the models
*Patterns- students charted the daily weather and compared it to the weekly forecast
*Cause and Effect- Students made predictions baed on weather dated collected from the instruments and provided explanations as to why it was happening.
*Analyze and Interpret Data-They looked at the weather forecasts and compared it to the data they collected from the instruments
*engaging in scientific arguments
- they discussed measurements with each other, made predictions, and explained what and why things were happening.

# data[].attributes.headline
Brian Snyder Belton Middle School Anderson School District 2

# data[].attributes.subject
Brian Snyder Belton Middle School Anderson School District 2

# data[].attributes.body
A.  The SEP's I chose for my lesson/activity were:
SEP 2 - Develop and Use Models
SEP 3 - Plan and Conduct Investigations
SEP 8 - Obtain, Evaluate, and Communicate Information
The student groups were given a simple machine and had to develop a working model where they could prove to the rest of the class how the simple machine made work easier.  From the student view they had to research their simple machine, determine how it made work easier, and then come up with a way to make a working model in class that they could demonstrate and show the other groups how their simple machine worked.
B.  What I learned:
The main takeaway for me was that the language and terminology is one of the biggest drawbacks to student understanding.  One of our focuses as a school this year is the communication and interpretation of the standards with the students.  We have started using learning targets to simplify the language.  For example, the SEP says Develop and Use Models, where from a student perspective it says to "build something that works."  Therefore student literacy is one of the areas where I am trying to improve.

# data[].attributes.headline
Amanda Lloyd    Laurens District 55 High School    

# data[].attributes.subject
Amanda Lloyd    Laurens District 55 High School    

# data[].attributes.body
1.) In my activity I chose to use SEP 2: Developing and Using Models and SEP 5: Using Math and Computational Thinking. From the student lens, they were building models both physically and mathematically using two activities: "Cracker Inquiry and S'more Stoichiometry". With these models students are physically building the product and visually able to determine the limiting and excess reactants. Using the ingredients they are building the products and able to manipulate, count and use this information to calculate the number of products possible using these models and the process of dimensional analysis. This leads to the lab activity where they produced copper solid and calculated the theoretical yield and the experimental yield and then their percent yield.
2.) As far as the videos are concerned, I didn't learn much for my high school level. I do all of the items on the videos with my students on a weekly bases, even down to reading science articles and writing their own reports based on their data. The presentation of their data is sporadic based on the time I have to get through the material. The one thing that I picked up that was a different take, is to start calling a Hypothesis a "plausible explanation".

# data[].attributes.headline
Cayce Prescott, Cherokee Trail Elementary, Abbeville County

# data[].attributes.subject
Cayce Prescott, Cherokee Trail Elementary, Abbeville County

# data[].attributes.body
I couldn't get the SEP notes to upload with my previous post so I'm creating a second post using a different device in order to be able to upload.

# data[].attributes.headline
Cayce Prescott, Cherokee Trail Elementary, Abbeville County

# data[].attributes.subject
Cayce Prescott, Cherokee Trail Elementary, Abbeville County

# data[].attributes.body
The SEPs that I have chosen to implement are Engage in Argument from Evidence and Obtain, Evaluate, and Communicate Information.
A.  From the student's lens I think both of these SEPs look somewhat similar.  Both involve students  sharing ideas with others and considering ideas other than just their own.  In the process, students will critique and revise their own work and then test their ideas.  Students must then revise their ideas farther as they compare their data to their original ideas and to the data of other students in the room.  I think both of these SEPs portray science as an active pursuit to improve ideas and advance science which is what scientists do in real life.
B. From the videos on these 2 SEPs, one of the most significant things I learned was that it is important to have students spend a lot of time with text! Hands-on learning is incredibly important but so is the ability to evaluate and create scientific text. The video stated that scientists spend over half of their time reading, interpreting, and producing text. The video also said that science teachers should not assume that students will learn how to read and comprehend scientific text in another class. A couple of suggestions for how to adapt scientific text to the readers level were mentioned in the video. I plan to seek out some of these resources and implement them in my classroom.

# data[].attributes.headline
Jeff Burden SCDE Science K-5                                            For the "Write something..." portion, answer the following questions in alignment to only the SEPs you are planning on implementing in your learning path for students prior to our next face to face.                                                         a. What do the SEPs I've chosen for implementation "look like" in a classroom from the student lens?             b. What new learning did you gain from reviewing those specific SEP videos and describe its application in your classroom.                                                                       Below, click on the attachment button and upload your notes from watching all SEP videos. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Jeff Burden SCDE Science K-5                                            For the "Write something..." portion, answer the following questions in alignment to only the SEPs you are planning on implementing in your learning path for students prior to our next face to face.                                                         a. What do the SEPs I've chosen for implementation "look like" in a classroom from the student lens?             b. What new learning did you gain from reviewing those specific SEP videos and describe its application in your classroom.                                                                       Below, click on the attachment button and upload your notes from watching all SEP videos. 