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Allison Godshall
is a science teacher and science coach in New York City. Allison has taught secondary sciences for 13 years in heterogeneous (inclusion) classes and has been her department chair for nearly that long. She’s been awarded research grants with NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Institute for Climate and Planets and an EARTHWATCH Teacher Fellowship. Her engaging instruction methods have earned her many accolades: Model Teacher Award in her district multiple times, the State University of New York’s Sol Feinstone Environmental Award, ING’s Unsung Hero Award, and Radioshack’s National Teacher Award.
An experienced and successful grant writer, she, with her students, raised over $60,000 for a roof garden project started ten years ago. Most notably, she earned the LOWES Outdoor Classroom Award and the Seaworld-BuschGardens-Fugifilm Environmental Excellence Award. Some of her novel ideas for teaching science were published in the Coalition of Essential Schools journal, HORACE (Fall 2006, Vol. 22 No. 2). She has been a Mentor Teacher for many student teachers from local universities (SUNY, NYU, Columbia, PACE, Fordham) as well.
Allison has run numerous workshops at her school, Coalition Conferences, New York Consortium School meetings, Principles Conferences in her District, and New York University (NYU). She has been a Curriculum Design Consultant for multiple new schools and for NYU’s Math, Science and Technology Program. She enjoys working with teachers and hopes that they leave her workshops rejuvenated and enthusiastic about teaching.
Description:
Higher Order Thinking Via the Black Box:
In this 2-3 hour workshop, teachers engage with the black box and are
challenged to solve the mystery of what lies within. A black box is simply
a structure that has inputs and outputs and the internal mechanisms are
hidden. In this case, clear water goes into different funnels and comes out
different colors from different tubes.
With careful observation, teachers become students as they work together to
solve the mystery by implementing higher order thinking (and the scientific
method!) We debrief the activity, as teachers, using Bloom's Revised
Taxonomy and we discuss modifications for each grade level. We look at a
store bought version of a black box as well.
In the 5-6 hour version of this workshop, the work continues in the
afternoon with the challenge to build a black box for the school that meets
everyone's needs. We break up into teams to 1.) create the box, 2.) create
lesson plans and 3.) create student handouts and visuals to accompany the
lesson plans. Each team presents their results at the end of the workshop
and the school has a black box to keep.
Workshop Topics
- Inquiry Based Instruction
- Designing/Using Rubrics for Assessment
- Community Building (Outward Bound Style)
- Project Planning
- Backwards Planning
- Integrating Trips and Guest Speakers into Curriculum
- Planning with High Stakes Tests in Mind
- Field Studies in the Science Classroom (Outdoor Education)
- School Rooftop Gardening (including green roofs)
- Pinhole Camera Photography in the Science Classroom – Integrating Arts into Science
- Differentiation of Assessment/Instruction
- Grant Writing (Science/School Gardening/Environmental Science)
- Curriculum Design (content specialties)
Content Specialties:
- Earth Science
- Integrated Science
- Environmental Science
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