Thursday Class

Fail Early...Fail Often...

Good montra today as many groups revised original focus because it became clear they were down a wrong path... Good opportunity to learn!

Today we entered the brainstorm phase of the project as students were challenged to begin the process of idea generation.

Wednesday Class

Students did three things today in science:

1. Students posted/displayed their "stakeholder" profiles on our inspiration wall.

2. Students formed teams to complete the "Bee the Hope" project.

3. Students found focus for their project moving forward.

• Students decided on a stakeholder to focus on.
• Students decided on 3-5 insights to connect their stakeholder to. 
• Students developed "how might we..." or "what if..." statements that will be the root of their idea brainstorm session tomorrow.

Next Up:

Thursday: Brainstorm

Friday: Make Apple Cider

Monday: First Prototypes

Monday Class

Today in science:

Insights From Research and Reading

• Due: End of Class Monday (Today)
• Each partner must submit their edited insight developed last week.
• When possible, try to include some science terms such as: mutualism, symbiosis, interdependence, ecosystem, population, community, species, relationships.
• Remember the rules posted on our blog last week!

Profile of A Stakeholder in the current Bee Problem

• Due: Beginning of Class Wednesday (October 30, 2013)
• Each group must construct TWO profiles of potential stakeholders they want to target a solution for. Ultimately, you will select one in the end and in fact may choose another stakeholder that you didn’t plan for.
• Use the following procedure to guide this work:

1. Use the list developed in Social Studies class to guide your decision. Pick the two you want to focus on.
2. Research how these “stakeholders” interact and hold a relationship with the honey bee. Focus on the following:
1. How might they depend on honey bees and how do honey bees depend on them?
2. How might this stakeholder help preserve the honey bee’s existence?
3. How does this stakeholder feel about the current honey bee problem?
4. How sustainable is their “business” if the honey bee population continues to go down?
3. Using a regular size paper, create a “profile” visual combining visual sketches and words to communicate the background of this “stakeholder”.
4. Post this “profile” on the front wall.

We are entering a period in the project where students will need to access a variety of resources... We have started a resource page with links to various websites.

Wednesday Class

Today in science we:
1. Discussed symbiosis, mutualism, and parasitism. We did this by using a mixture of video clips and photos. Below you will find embedded resources.

2. Created insights based on the themes we collected yesterday in our saturate and group activity. These insights will provide the foundation for our brainstorms and product creation.

Tuesday Class

Today in science students finished their story share and capture of the articles they read on the honey bee issue. This process follows a protocol in which students take the article they were assigned and share information in the form of a story to their group members who did not read that article. Those members listen and take down information on sticky notes. These sticky notes are organized into themes which help identify insights into the problem.

Students handed in their "Reading Synthesis Quads" for this activity.


 We have 6 articles that each team needs to read. Each person is responsible for reading 2 articles...therefore each team needs to make sure all 6 articles are covered. We are expecting a text marking strategy to be used in reading and all articles will end with a synthesis quad. These articles are used to gather our "need to knows". Please click here to access our need to know list!

Here are the electronic versions of the articles: 

1. National Geographic Article (The Plight of the Honeybee)
2. Time Magazine Article 
3. NBC Article ("Declining honeybees a threat to food supply)
4. Ethiopia: Bees make honey money
5. Honeybee Mystery (Kids National Geographic)
6. The Honey Hunters of Nepal

Monday Class 10/21

Today we are collecting surveys!  Thank you to all who participated.  We appreciate the feedback.  We are constantly looking for ways to improve what we do here.

In science today we took student individual feedback as well as continued looking at how bees live, function, and survive.