Spring Timeline
One of the challenges from first semester for my ImagineIT project was the sense of confusion about my own place as a teacher in the learning process. When I started experimenting with having students use their creativity to demonstrate their understanding about the class, I started to question the role of traditional forms of assessment and instruction. This disillusionment made it hard for me to lecture as I normally would or test in a traditional way. I also found it hard to determine how to grade students on their creative projects because I felt like the trajectory of the class and their individual progress was so much more important than one grade on a particular project. It also felt unfair to the students for me to be so experimental most of the time and yet give them multiple choice exams as my summative assessment. From this I have learned that I need to give students a rubric ahead of time when I assign them a creative project so that they know (and I know!) how they will be graded when it comes time to turn the project in. I have also decided that students need some direct instruction and traditional tests to make sure they are understanding the material as they read about it on their own. I am trying to find the right balance between the two right now.
SEMESTER 2 PROJECT TIMELINE
Week 1: Pinhole cameras, optics, parts of the eye and eyeball dissections
Week 2: Planning of optical illusions
Week 3: Retinal anatomy, receptive fields, achromatopia and phototransduction. Readings by Oliver Sacks "The Mind's Eye" and "To See and Not See"
Week 4: Preparing group projects- optical illusions (designing and construction)
Week 5: Visual fields, visual cortex, visual processing, prosopagnosia and other forms of visual agnosia + Oliver Sacks excerpts
Week 6: Present optical illusions + Student Videos
Students will begin the unit learning about how the eye anatomy functions to capture and process visual information about the world. They will learn the basics of optics using pinhole cameras to discover that the visual world actually presents itself on the eyeball upside down and reflected left to right. The brain must do a tremendous amount of work in order to give us such a seamless view of the world! We follow that up with an eyeball dissection to see what the eye anatomy looks like in detail.
Next, groups will be tasked with finding an optical illusion that they are interested in building and learning about for the next month. The goal of this entire unit is to be able to explain the given illusion from the basic visual transduction to the higher order thinking and top-down processes that occur in order for our brains to make sense of the visual world. We will frame the next month of class around learning about how to explain the illusions each group has chosen. Students will also have to find a scientific journal article to supplement and deepen their understanding of their illusion.
Then, groups will learn about the retina and how it processes visual information and changes an electrical signal to a biochemical and then electrical output. The unit is brought to life using case studies by Oliver Sacks: The Island of the Colorblind, To See and Not See and The Mind's Eye.
The next few weeks will be spent learning to use the computer software required to construct the optical illusions and creating each illusion in the maker lab or in class from everyday materials. Each group is responsible for building and explaining their illusions to the class (and possibly the entire school if we are able to reserve space in the art gallery at school). The final piece of the project will be exploring the top-down processing in the brain which explains how each illusion "tricks" the brain in some way. Final presentations will be given using a video explanation of each illusion.
SEMESTER 2 PROJECT TIMELINE
Week 1: Pinhole cameras, optics, parts of the eye and eyeball dissections
Week 2: Planning of optical illusions
Week 3: Retinal anatomy, receptive fields, achromatopia and phototransduction. Readings by Oliver Sacks "The Mind's Eye" and "To See and Not See"
Week 4: Preparing group projects- optical illusions (designing and construction)
Week 5: Visual fields, visual cortex, visual processing, prosopagnosia and other forms of visual agnosia + Oliver Sacks excerpts
Week 6: Present optical illusions + Student Videos
Students will begin the unit learning about how the eye anatomy functions to capture and process visual information about the world. They will learn the basics of optics using pinhole cameras to discover that the visual world actually presents itself on the eyeball upside down and reflected left to right. The brain must do a tremendous amount of work in order to give us such a seamless view of the world! We follow that up with an eyeball dissection to see what the eye anatomy looks like in detail.
Next, groups will be tasked with finding an optical illusion that they are interested in building and learning about for the next month. The goal of this entire unit is to be able to explain the given illusion from the basic visual transduction to the higher order thinking and top-down processes that occur in order for our brains to make sense of the visual world. We will frame the next month of class around learning about how to explain the illusions each group has chosen. Students will also have to find a scientific journal article to supplement and deepen their understanding of their illusion.
Then, groups will learn about the retina and how it processes visual information and changes an electrical signal to a biochemical and then electrical output. The unit is brought to life using case studies by Oliver Sacks: The Island of the Colorblind, To See and Not See and The Mind's Eye.
The next few weeks will be spent learning to use the computer software required to construct the optical illusions and creating each illusion in the maker lab or in class from everyday materials. Each group is responsible for building and explaining their illusions to the class (and possibly the entire school if we are able to reserve space in the art gallery at school). The final piece of the project will be exploring the top-down processing in the brain which explains how each illusion "tricks" the brain in some way. Final presentations will be given using a video explanation of each illusion.
3/13 Update
My students will start creating their projects on Tuesday 3/15! Woo-hoo! I met with Jeff Solin in the Maker Lab and he gave me some guidance for each individual group and he got a student support team together for the meeting so that they will know how to assist my students as they need it. I am extremely excited to see how this comes together!
My students created 3D models of the retinofugal pathway (from the retina to the cortex) as a way to understand how lesions in the pathway affect vision in each eye. We also read an excerpt from An Anthropologist on Mars about a painter who goes colorblind. We also read an excerpt from The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons to learn about higher-order brain processing.
Finally, I had an incredible conversation after school with a student, Abu Qadar. Abu started an app last summer that helps doctors diagnose brain cancer. The app analyzes breast scans to detect tumors. He was telling me about how his program uses the same kinds of "filters" and processing as the brain does when it is making sense of visual information. Essentially he is teaching the computer "how to see." I was so intrigued by the things he taught me that I asked him to present to the class at the end of the unit so other students could hear more about this unique perspective. Additionally, I invited one of my 8th grade students who is obsessed with computer programming to come in on that day and hear from Abu. I think it will be transformative for him to see the vision of someone who is already working in the field.
Finally, just today (3/13) I found out that Professor David Hilbert has agreed to talk to my students about his research. He is a Professor of Philosophy at UIC. His areas of interest include philosophy of the mind, perception and color. I have also contacted Dr. Gallant at UC Berkeley to ask him to speak with my class via Skype. While his schedule does not allow him to speak with us he has put me in contact with his former Post-Doc, Thomas Naselaris, who invented a brain-decoding approach that allows a computer to visualize what a person is looking at just by analyzing brain activity. I have included a link to the video from 2011 below. I cannot wait to tell my students this great news!
My students created 3D models of the retinofugal pathway (from the retina to the cortex) as a way to understand how lesions in the pathway affect vision in each eye. We also read an excerpt from An Anthropologist on Mars about a painter who goes colorblind. We also read an excerpt from The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons to learn about higher-order brain processing.
Finally, I had an incredible conversation after school with a student, Abu Qadar. Abu started an app last summer that helps doctors diagnose brain cancer. The app analyzes breast scans to detect tumors. He was telling me about how his program uses the same kinds of "filters" and processing as the brain does when it is making sense of visual information. Essentially he is teaching the computer "how to see." I was so intrigued by the things he taught me that I asked him to present to the class at the end of the unit so other students could hear more about this unique perspective. Additionally, I invited one of my 8th grade students who is obsessed with computer programming to come in on that day and hear from Abu. I think it will be transformative for him to see the vision of someone who is already working in the field.
Finally, just today (3/13) I found out that Professor David Hilbert has agreed to talk to my students about his research. He is a Professor of Philosophy at UIC. His areas of interest include philosophy of the mind, perception and color. I have also contacted Dr. Gallant at UC Berkeley to ask him to speak with my class via Skype. While his schedule does not allow him to speak with us he has put me in contact with his former Post-Doc, Thomas Naselaris, who invented a brain-decoding approach that allows a computer to visualize what a person is looking at just by analyzing brain activity. I have included a link to the video from 2011 below. I cannot wait to tell my students this great news!
Final Report! April 24, 2017
This process has taught me so much about the importance of having a vision, both in the classroom and in the school at large. In order to see a particular discipline as embedded and interwoven in other fields of study, the teacher must become akin to a curator at an art gallery. The teacher should visit other galleries and be inspired by the great ideas that were on display there. Teachers should also consider the user experience for students the same way a curator must consider the perspective of the visitors to the gallery. The teacher must tell a story, make it engaging, make the visitor wonder and think about it after they leave the museum. Visiting the gallery should induce more creativity from all who visit.
Because of this project, I have seen my students engaging and experiencing my class in a way that outshines every other year I've taught. We had authentic and interesting discussions, used our brains to create many works of art that explained various neuroscience topics, learned to collaborate with all sorts of people, deepened our understanding with guest lecturers who have previously taught at UC Berkeley and Stanford, and learned to experience and SEE the world around us with fresh eyes. The assumptions my students made about themselves, others, and the world at their feet changed after this project reached completion. I recently read an article that talked about the way that learning to "do school" does not teach kids about themselves as an individual. I can honestly say that everyone in this class learned something about themselves as a result of this experience. I could not be more proud of our accomplishments together!
References:
Why Academic Teaching Doesn't Help Kids Excel in Life by Shelley Wright. Mindshift. Nov 14, 2013.
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/11/14/why-academic-teaching-doesnt-help-kids-excel-in-life/
Because of this project, I have seen my students engaging and experiencing my class in a way that outshines every other year I've taught. We had authentic and interesting discussions, used our brains to create many works of art that explained various neuroscience topics, learned to collaborate with all sorts of people, deepened our understanding with guest lecturers who have previously taught at UC Berkeley and Stanford, and learned to experience and SEE the world around us with fresh eyes. The assumptions my students made about themselves, others, and the world at their feet changed after this project reached completion. I recently read an article that talked about the way that learning to "do school" does not teach kids about themselves as an individual. I can honestly say that everyone in this class learned something about themselves as a result of this experience. I could not be more proud of our accomplishments together!
References:
Why Academic Teaching Doesn't Help Kids Excel in Life by Shelley Wright. Mindshift. Nov 14, 2013.
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/11/14/why-academic-teaching-doesnt-help-kids-excel-in-life/