Summative Eval...now What?

Today we digested the PERG summative evaluation to see what we could learn from student and teacher feedback, and to look for places where we could incorporate appropriate suggestions into what we do everyday with LabVenture!

What we noted was that a lot of the suggestions about the presentation have already been addressed prior to the publication of the evaluation - hmmm...psychics in the house??

Many of PERGs thoughts were about addressing the scientific method - and that is now a big piece of the intro (through a brainstorm) and how we kick of the conclusion. Another PERG suggestion was giving kids more of chance to talk about their different findings and allowing them a chance to change their mind. We do this when identifiying the X-Fish, but could put an added focus on this for other decisions as well (ID of stomach contents).

Suggestions from the evaluation about the introduction we think will be addressed with the INTRO 3.0 which will take place solely on Google Earth - more exciting, more personal, more current.

But where we DID have places to change what we do is how to better engage the teachers during the program. Having the kiosk is a great addition, but we really need to better utilize this tool.
Ideas: consistantly updating and adding content, encouraging teachers to browse through and add content, sign up for RSS feed, adding pages featuring work done by other teachers (Doug Caldwell & Ruth Wilson), place to post NOAA resources, news from GMRI education group - what we're up to besides LV programs...SUGGESTIONS WELCOME!!! One new thing that we started last week (due to Justine cleaning her desk off), was putting resources (NSTA magazines, articles, print out resources...) at the kiosk for teachers to read and/or take home.

Further suggestions from the PERG eval were about how to better prepare students for success at the LV stations without over-preparing them. We're going to test out new instructions during th week of Jan.20th - instead of giving students NO info about the stations, we're going to tell them about videos/photos and their websites that they will be creating. We'll also be adding an "Elements of successful Teamwork" brainstorm to the instructions during the intro.

Stay Tuned to see how our "investigations" pan out!

Presenters Club for Jan. 13th will be rolled into our "Clicker Questions" brainstorm meeting at 2:30.