IN THIS ISSUE:

• Session Status Overview
• Photos: Worth a Thousand Words
• Teacher Tip: Research Information
• Mentor Tip: Pinch-hitter Help & Resources
  
• Finding Discussion Forums
• Updating Your Email Address

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Fall 2010 Session Newsletter | No. 3

This newsletter provides fall participants updates on session activities, and tips for teachers and mentors as they guide student investigations.

Session Status Overview

In week 4 of the mentored inquiry session, a few of the early starting schools (Wichita North HS, C.H. Yoe HS) are posting conclusions and wrapping up. Others are just coming online -- greetings to Landmark and Trinity classes starting this week. Next Monday, we will welcome Combs HS and Cheyenne photosynthesis and C-Fern teams and more.

Worth a Thousand Words: Students Photo Document Project

It is exciting to see the many new fall participants take to this like ducks to water. Sharing research ideas and project activities in a distance learning environment is greatly enhanced by images.

Oscar Bersoza's three Temple High School teams are posting extensive photos of their research set ups and procedures. "The short giraffes" Temple High School team No. 2 pictured at left also shared helpful brainstorming ideas with their mentor. The impressive experimental set up that "easy lemon squeeze" Temple High School team No. 3 have would be difficult to convey in words. "We're doing this because we have to" Temple High School team No. 1 also capture in images some details that would otherwise be lost. Thanks to all the student teams and their teachers who have been able to take advantage of the power of pictures.

Teacher Tip: Encourage Research Fields for Team Profile on Home Page

Please encourage your student teams to post content in the Research Information block at the top of the Team Research Webpages. Information in the Research Question, Research Prediction, and Experimental Design fields are needed to feature a team on the home page. We enjoy highlighting great projects for our community and web site visitors. Content included in the Research Information also helps others find projects and program evaluation of the kinds of projects students undertake. Many teams leave this area blank, despite having rich dialog with mentors and posting great data. Please encourage students to post their Research Information at the top of their Team Research Webpages, either as they proceed or as summary postings before they compete their project.

Mentor Tip: Pinch-Hitter Help and Resources

Your gentle guidance helps students see the biology underlying their plant experiments and how science works. Typically, shorter and more frequent comments engage student more readily than lengthy infrequent comments. If you realize that you'll be unavailable for a period of time, don't hesitate to ask the project to arrange for a pinch-hitter mentor to talk with your team while you're away.

Video, images, links to student-friendly web sites: there are some fantastic resources being shared with student teams!

Your teams might also benefit from resources available on the Student Page of the web site. If you see students struggling with one of the areas below, a prompt from you might help the students take the time to read one of the links (these resources are usually included in the initial project welcome).
Investigating Plants Safely
Thinking Like a Scientist / Working Like a Scientist
Keeping a Research Journal
Designing Experiments
Collecting Data
Guide to Using a Spreadsheet
Making Meaningful Graphs

Finding Discussion Forums

Teachers and Mentors are invited to use the Teacher-Mentor Discussion Forum to discuss each classroom individually. Teachers, please post information here to familiarize the mentors working with your teams with your student expectations and class plans. Mentors, this is a great place to ask questions about your team in particular or the class in general.

To find your designated class topic and join the discussion: Links to the Discussion Forum are on your customized Teacher or Scientist page only when you login. In the Teacher and Mentor Discussion Forum, look for the topic titled Fall 2010 - School Name, Teacher's Name for teams to which you are matched.

Tip: topics sort by most recent posting, not alphabetically. Click on the small #2 to view the second page of topics. [Goto page: 1 - 2 ] You might be interested in subscribing to your specific 'Topic". (We recommend you do not subscribe to the entire Forum.)

Regular Friday Mentor Musings can be found in the Mentor-to-Mentor Forum.

Updating Your Email Address

Last newsletter we highlighted uploading an image --- students get a real kick out of putting a face/or avatar with a mentor's name.

This time we describe how easy it is to update your email address. When logged in, click the Tab on the top menu bar to to access your customized Teacher or Scientist page. Under the header "Your Info," click on the Update Email link and enter the preferred email to which automatic updates about your team and other project communication will go. You'll find a variety of links to help you manage your PlantingScience experience.

Getting Help or More Information

As usual, we like to close by keeping an open door to communication.
Please email psteam@plantingscience.org for assistance anytime!

High Schools investigating Brassica
Appleton West HS (WI) - K. Vanderloop - Online!
Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts (LA) - Dr. A. Landry - Online!
Pershing County HS (NV) - V. McLean - Online!

Middle/Jr. High field-testing pollen/pollination
St. Sebastian (IL) - B. Indriolo - Online!