Creek Connections Symposium

I haven't been able to blog for a good long while.

A few weeks back, I went with the Science teacher to the Creek Connections Symposium. This was the culmination of the Creek Project the students have been working on.

The best projects--the ones that did the best job of asking and answering a question relating to fresh water in Western Pennsylvania--were invited to attend. The Science teacher made an observation that was a little disheartening. She mostly invited students that had done computer based projects. Of those who were invited that did not use a computer, none chose to attend. That was a little bit upsetting.

It could have simply been a matter of coincidence. Many students who were invited could not attend because of conflicting schedule (specifically a track meet that day). And, many of the students who did not use computers were more unwilling to make the suggested corrections that they needed to actually attend.

The symposium itself was a great experience. Our students, as freshmen, were amongst the oldest there. There were quite a few "billboard" projects on display. Not many of our students had turned in projects that did nothing more than list facts because of repeated warnings not to, and because of the frequent check up the teacher did to keep them on track.

There were a few excellent and interactive projects, too.

We were the only school that had any technology at all. That did not make us a better school, nor did it make our projects better. I think we were an impressive school. We were also a resource heavy school and had barely enough outlets to run all of the laptops.

I think we were also a brave school. Because of having the computers, I opted out of one of the afternoon activities to pack up and generally keep an eye on things. This was the first time we had been allowed to take the laptops out of school, and I was very invested in making sure things went well.

I did have a chance to do one of the afternoon hands on sessions. These were a series of workshops held by environmental and other science majors of the sponsoring college. It was a great way to make learning more fun. The sessions were hands on, interactive, and, best of all, outside.

Things overall went very well. Our students were well behaved, and may have taken something away from the symposium. Hopefully, they took away that a) hard work has its rewards and b) creating a more interesting project will make it more likely to generate that authentic audience that makes it all worth while.