Geeksunite2

Building and test cardboard houses for the electricity unit and test all the key points to establish ohms law. DIY sources of parts to keep life simple. Fun and easy to master in this proven project based activity.

Through hands-on examples, participants will learn how to select worthwhile mathematics tasks to
engage their students in different levels of thinking in doing mathematics.

Regardless of our teaching approach, including a variety of worthwhile mathematics tasks is important to support students’ learning of mathematics. This means that it is important for teachers to know the potential of a task so that it can be appropriately integrated into the goals for students’ learning. The goal of this session is to raise teachers’ awareness of how mathematical tasks differ with respect to their levels of cognitive demand and to highlight the importance of analyzing tasks in order to determine the level of thinking required to solve them. The intent is not to promote that one type of task is better than another, but to provide teachers with a meaningful and useful basis to identify and select tasks with an understanding of their potential in supporting students to learn and do mathematics.

We will present two sets of criteria; one for determining the level of cognitive demand of a mathematics task at the secondary level and one for determining the extent to which an assessment mathematics task is authentic. We will engage participants attending the session in hands-on examples of different mathematics tasks, including examples from current high school textbooks, to learn how to use the first set of criteria to select tasks to engage their students in different levels of thinking. We will also discuss the second set of criteria to develop awareness of the characteristics of authentic assessment mathematics tasks which are a unique subset of formative assessment tasks. Both sets of criteria are relevant to all grade levels, but our examples will be from grades 9 to 12.

Are you cutting and pasting your scientific diagrams by literally cutting and pasting? Is the copy of your photocopy’s copy so faded that students need a hand-lens just to read it? Do you have the perfect illustration that just needs a bit of tweaking, but you don’t know how to digitally edit it? Then this session is for you! In the session, Brad takes you through various ways to digitally manipulate, customize and improve your scientific diagrams and illustrations. Whether you’re using Word, Paint or a Google Doc, or thinking of moving into a more powerful program like Photoshop, Brad will have tips and tricks to save you time and improve your diagrams. Instructions for using Word, Photoshop Elements, Photoshop CC and Pixlr software will be included in the presentation.

*Note: you do not need to bring a device to this presentation.

We have built an education program that engages students around climate change, helping them explore concepts like interdependence and managing our global commons, and explores what they can do to combat climate change. In this hands-on workshop, you'll 'learn by doing' as many activities as possible, receive a digital copy of the draft resource, and discuss with your colleagues how to weave this topic into your classroom practice.

Dissection is common practice in Alberta high school science classes but is it really necessary?
In this session we will discuss the pedagogical merit of animal and non-animal teaching methods along with the ethical considerations for common species used in dissection. We will also explore human ethics, research into student perceptions of dissection, and how dissection is practiced outside of North America. We will look at current animal use trends in post-secondary institutes across Canada including uses in teaching, testing and research. Finally, we will discuss student opt-in policies used by some Canadian school districts.

In this session we will explore:
-the pedagogical merit of animal (dissection) versus non-animal (alternatives) teaching methods
-human and animal ethical considerations
-the use of animals in universities including veterinary schools
-meaningful non-animal alternatives that fulfill curricular objectives
-student opt-in policies