Inquiry Project

Are Marks Accurate? ( Exit slip)

I believe that the accuracy of the marks depends upon the type of tests or the assignments teachers hand into their students. If the tests are good enough to evaluate the curricular and core competencies of the student then the marks can be accurate. But I feel that assessing the students' knowledge in the set time constraint is not fair. In those cases, the marks are not accurate. The student might be under pressure, going through anxiety and may not be able to perform well in the awe of constrained time.

Marks can be made accurate if the students are assessed on the willingness they show to learn new things, their passion for their interests, giving respect to others. Therefore, the students should not be graded solely on the basis of their performance in academic subjects but grading should be in such a way that reflects their consistent understanding of the subject(maybe through inquiry projects), their efforts to be a good human being who respect others viewpoint and strives for the growth of the class as a whole. Hence, in such cases, the marks can be accurate.

Entrance slip : A shift from grading to learning

 Before coming to this program and reading this article I never thought about alternatives of gradings and percentages, and I always thought it to be a norm that every child has to go through. I remember how happily I used to do the subjects that were not graded. For instance,  physical education, dance was not graded in my school in India. This article really resonates with me and to every student in the educational system. I remember my learning was steered by what is going to be on the test. Learning was mere instrumental than relational. Therefore, the student who was able to memorize lots of facts and then jot it down on the exam was considered to be more intellectual. This does not depict their creativity and deep understanding of the subject. Another thing that I think is important to mention and relates to me is peer pressure. I remember how the parents, teachers and peer pressure stresses the student to study day and night to attain high grades. This adds to anxiety and other mental and behavioral issues in the children.

On the contrary, there are some positive effects of grading as well. This acts as self-motivator and the child at least urges to study something. While studying students might find what interests them the most and then pursue their careers in that field. I believe that if we entirely remove the grading culture then the students would be too relaxed and they might take advantage of this culture and chose not to study. Hence, they might follow such paths which are detrimental to them.

 I believe that there should some kind of assessment that the students are accountable to. Some of those can be based on the number of times the child shows up to ask a problem, formative assessments during the class, assessing their engagement in the activities, assigning them group projects and then assessing how well they coordinated and performed as a group, this helps them to build relationships, providing  them feedback by comments rather than percentages. I think such practices if followed would not only make them accountable for themselves but also gives them the freedom to have a deep understanding of the subjects they like.

Exit Slip: Orchard Garden( Part 2) Embodied ways of learning math

I am so blissful to have a chance to be more close to nature during this program. I feel like I was missing the beautiful insights of beauty around me in the fast-paced life. Today, our class was in the orchard garden amongst the lap of nature. We started our class by spending some alone time with ourselves and nature. In addition to this, we also drew the manmade and the natural things around us. While drawing various things, I realized very closely that drawing is not everyone's job. Although it is a very good way of expressing feelings and imagination. I was comfortable drawing the linear and 2-dimensional shapes, but it was hard for me to visualize 3-D shapes on paper. This whole process made my heart and mind to cease and feel the present moment. Learning the embodied ways of showing the path of the sun during the summer and winter solstice was very interesting and we enjoyed the nice body stretches through learning as well. I will also incorporate these strategies of embodied learning in my classrooms since it makes the class environment very engaging and active. In addition to this, we also predicted the present time and also time in future months with the help of sundial. I never did that before and seek to have more knowledge about that.

Entrance Slip( for Oct 10) : Experiencing meanings in geometry

The article "Experiencing Meaning in Geometry" by David W. Henderson and Daina  Taimina inspired me to think that how beautifully and aesthetically the abstract concepts of maths and physics can be explained. Ever since I came to Canada, I have been closer to nature than before and become more thoughtful about making connections between math and science education to the nature. In my past school visits, I have seen the inclination of the teachers to more inquiry-based student’s learning. For instance, yesterday, in biology 11 class the students were dissecting the crab fish and grasshopper and trying to recognize whether they have a male or a female sample. And In another science for citizens class, students were calculating how high did their hot air balloons go and making use of angles and trigonometry to calculate the height. But from my past experience in India, math for most of the students was nothing but following certain rules and set algorithms and getting the right answer. I would not say it was their fault. It is just because of the culture of competition and assessments and labeling the students with the marks have encouraged them not to think more than just what is given in the books. And the teachers and the parents backed up this culture owing to their unawareness about the embodied ways of learning and its excellent outcomes.

I believe that good understanding of the concepts plays an important role in education. Therefore, it is essential for teachers to impart meaningful understanding to their students. The teachers and guardians should be aware enough to make the right choices, demonstrate, exemplify the abstract concepts of math and science with the use of gestures, expressions, body movement, spatial words. The use of head, heart, and hands can do wonders to experience the true meanings of the difficult concepts. Such as mentioned in the reading that the aesthetic of the hyperbolic plane can be realized by making crochets. It was interesting to see that the polyhedron hyperbolic surface is nothing but the “hyperbolic soccer ball”. Therefore, such models can help us understand the inherent nature of the shapes that are difficult to visualize. For instance, for the high school students the concept of the surface area and volume of rectangular prisms, triangular prism, pyramids, etc. can be well explained with the use of models and manipulatives. In addition to this, I believe that the use of body movements, gestures in the context of education adds the spark, liveliness and the fun element in the classrooms and makes the teaching and learning more enthusiastic.

Exit slip: Rope and braid making

Today’s class was really fun. We made ropes from the dried leaves and with the fabric. I realized that such handmade art activities involve the efficient use of hands in coordination with the head (the use of the motor and the sensory skills) and the outcome of this is the expression of the inner feelings and the emotions during the process of making. It was quite fascinating to see that the ropes made were very strong.  In addition to this, the strength of the ropes is the metaphor for the dedication and the patience required to make it so strong. I really enjoyed working collaboratively, learning new art, giving suggestions to each other to make a better piece of art.

Making 7 stranded braid was very satisfactory for me. It gave me immense relaxation and I felt like to keep going on and on. Now, I can imagine, how my grandma could knit all day long. Therefore, the head, heart, and hands can be efficiently used for the more embodied and transformative learning of the students. I will inculcate such activities in my classroom to make connections between the subject content and the surroundings such that students can experience the true meaning of learning.

Entrance Slip : Orchard garden( Sept 3)

The name of the article” Common threads “by Sharon Kallis itself is so engaging that it urged me to read to know about the possible ways to build a strong community by doing the things together and how can I play an active role in it.

I was impressed by the thought of thinking critically where did the things come from? and then reflecting on the idea of making or growing the things which, we can, instead of going in the market to buy. This practice will support our production and consumption. I come from a family that has an agricultural background and the main source of earning of my grandparents was farming. I remember, how happy and healthy I use to feel after eating freshly picked fruits and vegetables. Therefore, I support the argument of consuming locally grown or handmade products which will encourage our people to make the best use of their talents to tailor their own needs and also the needs of the community.

I am also encouraged by the idea of relearning, inventing our lost ancestral techniques. In my childhood I was very fascinated by the art of knitting and cross-stitch, I learned it from my grandmother and also made a short stall which is kept safely with my mother. I still feel the sense of contentment and happiness which I use to feel after gazing at my hand made things. I feel that one should not wait for something big that will make them happy but try to find happiness in doing little things I realize that by making and growing one's own things and sharing the techniques with the other people will not only strengthen our community and encourage open-mindedness but also it will be an effective step towards mitigating consumerism.

In video of making rope and yarn, it was surprising for me to know that the geometrical property of the ropes does not depend on the material. Therefore, the identical-looking ropes have the same structure despite the material used. In addition to this, it is important is to know the underlying math behind the rope twisting to create the zero twisted structure such that it does not untwists. In my childhood, I used to make yarns along with my grandma with the help of “Charkha” (the type of spinner, but comparatively bigger than shown in video). The videos and the article took me back to my village and made me realized to practice such little joyful things to break the monotonicity of the fast-paced life.

Exit Slip: Orchard garden

With every passing day in this university, I feel so blessed to be part of this program and to have a lifelong learning experience. Today our inquiry class was in UBC orchard garden.  It was very relaxing and gave us an academic break to enjoy the beauty around, which we usually do not realize since we are all busy with our own lives. I found that there are tremendous ways in which gardens can teach us and we as teachers can inculcate gardens in our pedagogies and work around the curriculum to make the students feel more connected to nature. The research scholar Diana guided us in the orchard garden and I fascinated to see the sunflowers all wrapped up, maybe for some research purposes and the wild sunflowers were being pollinated manually to interbreed the two species.  There was wide range of organic fruits and vegetables grown in the garden (Asian pears, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, different herbs like basil, mint) which can not only be used for eating purposes but also making inquiries and learning. We all enjoyed eating fresh organic fruits and vegetables together. I feel that the taste of anything increases many folds if we share and eat together.

One thing I noticed in all of us was that everybody inquired about the thing they were unaware of and made predictions. This is an important exercise for us to follow and then pass on to our students. There were few trees that I was unsure of what they were but still tried to inquire them by sensing and tasting.

The sound activity introduced by the Ph.D. Scholar who is researching how does sound of the nature impacts the children’s learning. She asked us to close our eyes and experience different sounds in nature. The activity of drawing images of sound was very new. I was wondering how can we shape a certain sound but this activity opened the path to my imagination and limitless sky. We also played the orchestra of all kinds of sound heard by the group mates. It was really fun and we all were so engaged in it. This further strengthens the power of working together, sharing views with each other makes us more emotionally happy and gives us a sense of happiness and brotherhood. I will definitely incorporate such activities in my classroom to build better relationships amongst the students.

 I look forward to our next Thursdays class in orchard garden to learn more from nature and from each other.