Adventures in After School Learning Blog

-By Mike DeBritz on Monday, April 30, 2012

Kids can't live without their cell phones and especially love smartphones with all their enhanced capabilities. These devices make text messaging seem old school compared to how easy it is to be on the web or chat over video with friends. 

The video below demonstrates an app that harnesses the incredible power of smartphones to help people eat better.  This could be interesting idea for young people to really analyze what they eat everyday.   

How would you feel about sharing this kind of information with your friends?

-By Mike DeBritz on Monday, April 23, 2012

If you need to reach out and involve more High School (or mature Middle School) students this summer, we have a great opportunity! 

Our Screenwriting for Short Video: An Introduction for Teens kit has everything you need to run an engaging mini course on this high interest topic!

This 10-unit program is designed to engage older students in a highly participatory and intriguing study of movie-making. Kids know when they like a film...after taking this class they'll understand why!

Our approach to the weekly activities is to first introduce students to concepts of screenwriting like the three-act structure, creating characters and writing dialogue.

Then students will look at award-winning teen-produced movies as examples. This drives each concept home but also helps students visualize themselves sitting in the director's chair.

Next students participate in a critique, and move to working on applying these concepts to their own short video scripts.

In ten fun-filled weeks, students will walk away with a working knowledge of video storytelling and complete a script with a meaningful theme, characters and scenes ready to shoot!

We've worked hard to make this kit affordable and easy to maintain for future use. The complete package, which includes materials for a class of 20 students, is only $695!

To learn more about this program and review the detailed program outline, click here.  Or if you're inspired, click here to order!

-By Mike DeBritz on Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Have you heard this term being flung about lately?

At first it may sound risky, maybe exciting or just downright dangerous …someone could get hurt with this kind of venture, whatever it means!

In all seriousness, the term describes a new educational model that’s taking shape due to the advances in internet video and the improved capacity of educational networks.

In general, the flipped classroom means that students use traditional homework time to watch video lessons and teachers reserve class time for interacting and guiding students where they encounter difficulties. With less time spent on preparing and delivering lectures, teachers are freed up for one-on-one tutoring that helps everyone in the class succeed. 

This is particularly of interest in math classrooms where students often become frustrated and disillusioned early in their academic careers. The practice could lead to sweeping changes in our current instructional model and fulfillment on the promises of leaving no child behind. 

By the way, this model looks particularly attractive to after school centers offering tutoring.

-By Mike DeBritz on Wednesday, March 28, 2012

These things really never get old!

-By Mike DeBritz on Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Now that all the evidence has been analyzed, your junior CSI’s will determine which suspect they believe is guilty of smashing Mrs. Johnson’s cookie jar and stealing her cookies.  In this final module, students analyze all the evidence and prepare their case for a mock trial.

            Mrs. Johnson consulted her lesson plan and counted to herself on her fingers, trying to estimate how long it would take to help her students finally bring the case of the Cookie Jar Mystery to a close. It had been a few weeks since she and her students had discovered her broken cookie jar lying on the floor of her classroom.

            She looked out across her class and smiled silently and proudly. Every student’s head was down and every pencil was moving, dutifully completing her “Quick Forensic Review Quiz.” The students had done some amazing work over the past several class periods, and the quiz was designed to help them remember how they had come to think about evidence, crime, investigations, and their classroom experiments.

            After a few moments, the students began to complete their quizzes, and quietly came up to her desk to leave their sheets to be graded. Each student then returned to his or her desk, and waited for their classmates to finish.

            After 15 minutes had passed, everyone had completed the test.

            “Very good, class,” began Mrs. Johnson. “I’ll grade your quizzes tonight.”

            Mark raised his hand and Mrs. Johnson called on him. “Mrs. J, now that we’ve identified the guilty party, how is the criminal going to be punished?”

            Mrs. Johnson knew that moving her students to the next level of understanding was not going to be easy. “Well, Mark, what do you think we should do with the perpetrator?”

            “How about bake cookies once a week for the rest of the year!” suggested Mark.

            “AND buy you a new cookie jar!” Ashley chimed in.

            “So you think we’ve proven that our suspect is guilty, is that it?” asked Mrs. Johnson.

            “Well, wasn’t that the point?” asked Marta, a thoughtful girl from the Chess Club. “We gathered the evidence that—at least from my point of view—makes it almost completely unlikely that anyone else could have committed the crime.”

            “I’m with Marta,” said George. “We found so much evidence, especially with the hair and fiber experiments.”

            “Yeah,” added Jennifer. “We even found the suspect’s blood type at the scene of the crime.”

            “You’re all correct,” continued Mrs. Johnson. “That is the evidence. But in our roles as crime scene technicians, our jobs are to collect, identify, catalog, and process evidence. That is what we have done. . .”

            Mrs. Johnson paused. “In fact, let’s imagine that that’s exactly what we have done. Imagine that we were working for a police department. After we’ve dealt with all of the evidence, we write up our results (just as we would do with any science experiment). In order to make sure that we’ve followed proper procedure, we need to test our conclusion. It sure looks like we have figured out who broke the cookie jar, but we are just technicians. What would happen in a real crime?”

            Ashley’s hand was in the air. “The police would come and arrest the suspect.”

            “Correct.”

            “And the police would put the suspect in jail!” exclaimed Jack. “For a long, long time!”

“Hold on, Jack. You’re right about the suspect going to jail. But the police cannot keep the person in jail forever.”                  

            “But we proved our suspect is guilty!”

            Mrs. Johnson chose her next words carefully. “I think it’s very tempting to think we have solved the crime and proven the suspect guilty. But to be fair, that’s not really our jobs as forensic scientists. Like I said, we had to collect and process the evidence, and we did. But now it’s up to someone else to punish the criminal. And the only people with the power to do that are a judge and jury.”

            “I know where you’re going with this, Mrs. Johnson. The suspect has rights, too,” said Marta suddenly. “The suspect can’t be sent to jail just because we say so. We’re not a judge and jury. The suspect has a right to a trial.”

            “And a lawyer,” added George.

            “But we’re not lawyers!” whined Ashley.

            “Well, a few weeks ago we weren’t forensic scientists, either,” said Jack. “But look at us now.”

            “I believe you can be anything you want to be,” said Mrs. Johnson.

            “I could be a judge!” volunteered Marta.

            “A lawyer for me!” exclaimed Mark.

            “Me, too!” said Jennifer. “Or maybe I could just be on the witness stand, you know, like an expert!”

            “What do you say, Mrs. Johnson?” asked George. “Do you think we could have a trial?”

            Mrs. Johnson turned on her heel and reached down to floor behind her desk. Suddenly she stood up with a thick pile of envelopes in her hand. She handed one to each student.

            “A trial,” she began mischievously, “...is exactly what I had in mind.”

-By Mike DeBritz on Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The investigation is really getting interesting...

            Mark Mulvaney had been late to school again. Mr. Moriarty, the Principal of Crooked Creek Middle School knew Mark as a good student, but he also knew he couldn’t tolerate Mark’s persistent tardiness. As discipline, Mr. Moriarty assigned Mark to clean the windows in Mrs. Johnson’s science lab.

            Mark squirted and wiped with the cleaning solution, and was nearly finished when the students filed in for Mrs. Johnson’s next class.

            “Late again, Mark?” teased Ashley, his lab partner.

            Mark drew his finger down a pane of glass until it squeaked. Good enough. He tossed his roll of paper towels into his bucket, and headed for his seat. He was eager for the next installment of the class’s ongoing investigation into The Cookie Jar Mystery.

            Mrs. Johnson waited patiently for her students to take their seats and open their notebooks. “Good morning, everyone,” she began. “Is everyone ready to continue their detective work?”

            Many students had already made progress understanding how their science experiments could help to identify the “criminal” who had sneaked into Mrs. Johnson’s classroom and, in the process of snatching some her delicious cookies, had knocked the jar off her desk and broken it. Mrs. Johnson had discovered the mess and immediately set her students on the task of identifying the perpetrator.

            “Mrs. Johnson!” Ashley had her hand in the air. “I have a question about evidence.”

            “Go ahead, Ashley.”

            “Well, here’s what I’ve been thinking: the last time we met in class, we tried to match a fiber found at the crime scene to some fiber that belong to our suspects. But all of our suspects have been to your cookie jar many times. We have no way of knowing when the fiber was left.”

            Mrs. Johnson nodded. “That is one of the weaknesses of ‘class’ evidence. Even though we can match a sweater fiber at the crime scene to your sweater, Ashley, for example, that’s not ‘conclusive’ evidence. Lots of young women wear that sweater. In fact, I can think of three or four other girls who have a sweater like yours.”

            Mark rolled his eyes a little. He thought for a moment about how he might leave fibers from his blue jeans on his chair. But then again, lots of boys sat in his chair throughout the course of a day. Wouldn’t they all leave fibers behind? What they really needed was some kind of evidence that was unique to each person.

            Mrs. Johnson continued. She talked about class evidence, trace evidence, and evidence collection. And she acknowledged that finding evidence that pointed to just one person was sometimes very difficult.

            Mark sighed to himself; How were he and his classmates going to solve the mystery? He turned to the sparkling windows and looked outside. They had been dirty, marked up with streaks and fingerprints. Then it suddenly occurred to him: Fingerprints! Hadn’t he read somewhere that no two people had the same fingerprints? Maybe that would be the evidence they needed.

            He raised his hand. “Mrs. Johnson? I think I might have a new direction for our investigation…”

 Continue the story in the next module, One of a Kind, here!

-By Mike DeBritz on Wednesday, February 15, 2012

In the module two of this version of the "Cookie Jar Mystery" students will begin to examine the evidence discovered at the crime scene discovered in module one.  The focus of this activity is analyzing the note left behind which is really two clues in one: the handwriting and the ink used to write the note.  As in the first module, the students are introduced to the module through a story:

In Mrs. Johnson’s science classroom, an awful crime has taken place: someone has broken her cookie jar! In an effort to solve the mystery of “whodunit,” Mrs. Johnson has decided to involve her students.

            “We’re not detectives,” began Ashley, shaking her ponytail doubtfully. “How can we solve the mystery?”

            “Well, this IS a science class,” said Mrs. Johnson. “We know how to do experiments. Investigating a crime is usually done by a team of technicians who’ve been trained in forensic science. Forensic science uses scientific tools and skills and experiments to solve crime-related puzzles.”

            “You know, just like they do on TV,” interjected Jack. “It’s just like CSI!”

            “You’re right, Jack. Forensic science is very popular right now, in television, books, and in movies. But it’s not entirely new! Some people think forensic science is new, but scientists have been using special techniques to solve crimes for hundreds of years.”

            “In our last class we examined the scene of the crime and took some statements from some of our suspects, but we weren’t able to determine who broke the cookie jar,” said Mark to his classmates. “What else can we do?”

            “Well, there was a note!” exclaimed Ashley. “That must be a clue!”

            Mrs. Johnson motioned for her students to take their seats. She crossed her arms in front of her and thought for a moment. “Ashley suggested that the note might be a clue, a kind of evidence. But evidence of what?”

            George, a normally quiet boy, spoke up. “Well, the note is evidence if it helps us figure out the truth.”

            “What do you think the note can tell us, George?” asked Mrs. Johnson.

            “Yeah,” said Mark. “It’s not like the criminal signed it!”      

             “If the paper was a special paper, too, like a certain color paper or graph paper, we might be able to connect it to a particular person.”

            “But this paper’s not special,” offered Jack glumly. “The note’s just on regular school paper, the same kind we all use.”

            “Well, maybe there’s something in the handwriting,” said George. “We don’t all write alike, so maybe we can figure out who the author is.”

            “Good, good thinking,” nodded Mrs. Johnson. “You’re on the right track. I’ve got two experiments for us today. First—as George suggested--we’ll tackle handwriting analysis. Then, we’ll use a special process called ink chromatography to see if we can match the ink on the paper to a particular pen.”

            Jack rubbed his hands together. “We’re hot on the criminal’s trail, Mrs. J!”

            Ms. Johnson laughed. “Let’s get started.”

Continue the story in the next module, Without a Trace, here!

-By Mike DeBritz on Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Community Learning and Educational Resource Consultants Join Forces for After School

(Scotia, NY and Fresno, CA) Community Learning, interactive curriculum developer of the popular hands-on CSI-themed series Cookie Jar Mystery, and Educational Resource Consultants, evaluation specialists and software developer of the After School Manager are joining forces to bring after school leaders a powerful package designed to fortify program sustainability and enhance student participation.

The After School Manager software goes far beyond maintaining accurate after school attendance for schools and community centers by also managing multiple funding streams that are an absolute necessity for after school programs today. The Cookie Jar Mystery course has proven to excite kids about science by creating an authentic crime scenario students solve together. The intriguing nature and relevance of forensic science has proven to captivate over 7500 students who have completed the curriculum.

“We’re finding in this economic environment that clients must keep an eye on future funding streams,” said Dr. Steve Price, Founder of Educational Resource Consultants. “The key factor in pursuing future funding today is demonstrating your track record of success,” Price added. The After School Manager system serves more than 34,000 students in over 25 districts currently.

“We’re excited to bring this essential solution to our customers,” said Michael DeBritz, President of Community Learning LLC. Community Learning has customers in over 40 states using their curriculum kits. “Over the years I’ve seen many after school programs that are absolutely great for kids, but are unable to maintain funding.” This becomes problematic for parents and communities that have relied on after school safe havens and unique support environments for tutoring and academic enrichment.

“After funding, the next greatest challenge for program directors is staff,” said DeBritz. “Our curriculum is designed to engage kids and be easy to teach,” he added. Community Learning’s approach has been to make the learning relevant, fun and interactive because nothing beats hands-on learning in after-school.

Similar to the school day, after school programs are funded by their average daily attendance. After school sites can lose attendance and money if leaders are not continually looking at new programming that engages and interests kids.

A great feature of the web-based After School Manager software system is the ability to track individual program offerings by participation. This gives administrators of multiple sites a bird’s eye view of not only overall attendance, but attendance at the activity level.

“Sharing information about what works is critical after school,” stated Kathy Stanton, VP of Operations. “If program leaders see one site coordinator with outstanding participation for their music program, for instance, they want to encourage sharing what’s working with other staff.” This type of analysis is easily available in the “data dashboard” and simple report generating features standard in the After School Manager.

For after school sites that have solid attendance solutions in place, Educational Resource Consultants also offers a service called the After School Report Card which compares after school attendance data to the school performance data on standardized tests. This correlation can be viewed at the student, school or district level.

“This report has been invaluable to our clients both for their state reporting and future grants,” said Dr Price. He went on to say, “When writing a new grant application, painting a picture of what you’ll do is important, but having the data proving what you’ve accomplished is far more compelling!”

Community Learning and Educational Resource Consultants  will be co-marketing their respective products, with a combined webinar series and joint attendance at leading after school conferences. They are also collaborating on online staff development training modules and new curriculum programs focusing on career development and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).

About Community Learning LLC
Community Learning is the developer of interactive curriculum kits, created around high interest, thematic topics that engage students in learning through hands-on activities and projects. Their learning topics are designed to immerse children in fun learning that’s experiential, relevant and fun. To find out more about Community Learning go to www.CommLearning.com.

About Educational Resources Consultants
ERC is an educational consulting firm specializing in program evaluation, software systems and data analysis that enable school districts, colleges, universities, and community-based organizations to enhance sustainability for educational programs. To find out more about ERC and the After School Manager go to www.ercdata.com.
 

-By Mike DeBritz on Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Have your students take a shot at a $30,000 scholarship in Google's Doodle contest, where students compete to create a logo based on "If I could travel in time, I'd visit…" theme. 

This could be great fun as an after school project that everyone could try. Here's the kicker the school would also benefit by receiving $50,000 technology grant!! 

 Take a look at the video below or click here to get all the details.  Good luck!

-By Mike DeBritz on Thursday, December 29, 2011

Along the same lines as the new versions of the  “Cookie Jar Mystery” and “Missing Money Mystery” we’re developing a smaller version of “Playing with Percussion” to be released in March.

We’ve heard from a number of sites interested in introducing students to world music but in a shorter format.  Our new version will focus on eight core lessons that can be delivered sequentially or standalone. They include step-by-step instructions on instrument construction and playing techniques. But now sites will be able to purchase just the Instructor’s Guide and DVD with student activity sheets provided on CD (similar to photo).

This new kit will allow sites to involve more students by building the activities and supplies (we’ll provide the shopping list) around the targeted population of kids. Also, site leaders can utilize the kit to productively fill any gaps in their instructors' schedules.

In addition, bonus material will be included on the Resource CD with plans on how to make other interesting “found object” instruments from recycled materials. Once students understand the core rhythms they can apply these techniques to any of the newly built instruments. 

With all the emphasis on STEM this year these hands-on projects will help sites knock off another requirement that can categorized nicely under the “Science of Sound” heading. 

Have a Happy New Year!