KiHS Supplementary Grade-8-Science

Unit Unit Name

1 Introduction to Computers
2 Life Systems
3 Matter and Material
4 Mid-Term Review & Test
5 Energy and Control
6 Structures and Mechanisms
7 Earth and Space Systems
** Culminating Activity

APRIL A MAY JUNE E

S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
*
1 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 4 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

2 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 5 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

3 27 28 29 30 6 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

*Local schedules may vary

Participating Communities (2002/2003):

Cat Lake
Fort Severn
Fort Hope
Keewaywin
Sachigo Lake
Deer Lake
Kejick Bay, Lac Seul
North Caribou Lake

Author: Fernando Oliveira

Duration: 9 weeks
Last Revised: June 2003
 SUPPLEMENTARY GRADE-8-SCIENCE: Lesson Index
UNIT 5: REVIEW AND TEST
UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTERS Lesson Code Lesson Name Mark
Lesson Code Lesson Name Mark - (Catch up on missed assignments) -
Lesson 1A About the Course: An Introduction /5 Lesson 5A Review: Week 2 /12
Lesson 1B Submitting Assignments /4 Lesson 5B Review: Week 3 /12
Lesson 1C MS Paint: Just Draw It! /5 Lesson 5C Review: Week 4 /12
Lesson 1D WordPerfect: Creating Tables /8 Lesson 5D Test /40

UNIT 5: ENERGY AND CONTROL

UNIT 2: LIFE SYSTEMS Lesson Code Lesson Name Mark
Lesson Code Lesson Name Mark Lesson 6A Energy and Control: Waves /10
Lesson 2A Cells: Unicellular vs. Multicellular /12 Lesson 6B A Closer Look at Waves /14
Lesson 2B Cells: Plants and Animals /16 Lesson 6C Electromagnetic Spectrum / 10
Lesson 2C Cells: Organization and Reproduction /8 Lesson 6D Refraction / 12

UNIT 6: STRUCTURES AND MECHANISMS

UNIT 2: LIFE SYSTEMS Lesson Code Lesson Name Mark
Lesson Code Lesson Name Mark Lesson 7A Machines: Hydraulic vs. Pneumatic /10
Lesson 3A Organ Systems in Animals /10 Lesson 7B Force and Friction /10
Lesson 3B Organ Systems in Plants /8 Lesson 7C Designing a Hydraulic Crane /10
Lesson 3C Cells: Lungs and Liver /8 Lesson 7D Building a Hydraulic Crane (Part I) -
Lesson 3D Biology - Lesson 7E Building a Hydraulic Crane (Part II) /20

UNIT 7: EARTH AND SPACE SYSTEMS

UNIT 3: MATTER AND MATERIALS Lesson Code Lesson Name Mark
Lesson Code Lesson Name Mark Lesson 8A Water Systems: Humidity /10
Lesson 4A States of Matter /12 Lesson 8B The Droplet Story /10
Lesson 4B Mass and Volume /15 Lesson 8C The Hudson Bay Lowlands /10
Lesson 4C Density and Buoyancy /10 Lesson 8D Dare to Dream -
Lesson 4D Dynamics and Viscosity Lesson 8E Feedback -

Culminating Activity
Lesson 9A Creating a Science Manual /80
 Supplementary Grade-8-Science Program
- Overview -

Background Summary

The Supplemental Grade Eight Science Program is a pilot program created by KiHS in
partnership with The Smart Demonstration Project and a number of KiHS Partner
Communities. The impetus for this program evolved out of the following rational:

• Students entering high school in many northern communities are not adequately prepared in
the core subjects, especially in Science
• Students become better equipped to handle the rigors of high school when they are exposed
to the type of activities currently being taught within the KiHS e-learning environment.
• Students who are exposed to the expectations of the high school system are better capable
of making informed decisions about where to complete their grade 9 program.
• As computers and the Internet play an increasingly important role in academic participation,
students who are computer literate are better prepared to meet the academic challenges of
high school, and that of the work force in general.
• Literacy and numeracy among students can be strengthened through participation in an
online program that supplements the core subject areas

Course Content

Unit Unit Name

1 Introduction to Computers
2 Life Systems
3 Matter and Material
4 Mid-Term Review & Test
5 Energy and Control
6 Structures and Mechanisms
7 Earth and Space Systems
** Culminating Activity
E
APRIL A MAY JUNE
S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
*
1 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 4 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

2 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 5 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

3 27 28 29 30 6 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

*Local schedules may vary

 Comments

The supplementary nature of this course provided both the developer and the teachers with a
certain amount of freedom. While there was a particular schedule associated with this course (see
above), local teachers were encouraged to structure their participation by shortening, lengthening or
omitting certain study units to meet local scheduling needs (i.e. Hunting week, field trips, etc.) as
well as the best learning ability of their students. Since northern communities experience significant
gaps in classroom time near the end of the school year, and there is a wide divergence of literacy
among individual students and communities, having a course that is malleable allowed local schools
to participate in a program that might otherwise have left them behind.

This course was developed around the expectation that students would spend about one hour per
day completing assignments. Students were given between 3 and 5 relatively short assignments per
week (about one per day). All lessons were accessed through ZED (the KiHS online learning
interface) and assignments were submitted by students to local teachers, as well as the course
instructor, via email. Assignments in week 1 introduced students to the process of accessing,
completing and submitting assignments (graphic and text documents).

While local teachers were encouraged to modify the evaluation of this course to fit their regular
science course, a ratio that favours daily assignments (illustrated below) was suggested. This ratio
was selected to accentuate the importance of regular participation over tests and culminating
activities so that students would be encouraged to maintain a steady effort throughout the entire
course.

70% Assignments
20% Culminating Activity
10% Mid-term Test

In developing this course, effort was made to render the marking of submitted assignments as
simple and straightforward as possible. While students submitted a few assignments, such as
posters and other “non-computer” projects, directly to the classroom teacher, the bulk of student
work was submitted as email attachments.

Teachers were informed that the course instructor would mark approximately one assignment per
week for all participating communities and that they would be responsible for the remainder.
Teachers were instructed to either mark and return assignments directly from their email account or
print submitted assignments for traditional “paper and pencil” marking and return them by hand. In
either case, teachers were asked to keep track of marks using a marking template that was
provided by the course instructor.
As students submitted assignments, the course instructor sent teachers periodic updates (for those
assignments that the instructor was scheduled to mark). Local teachers were asked to copy new
marks into their own master marking sheet. The marking template that was sent to teachers
indicated which assignments were reserved for instructor marking.

Sample:

Suggestions:

There was a general agreement among participating teachers that this pilot program was very
successful (see Teacher Feedback form). As with all pilot programs, however, the feedback
that was provided, as well as the lessons learned in delivering the course, must be used to
improve the effectiveness of this course for future application. A few suggestions are provided
below. Future course administrators are encouraged to use the attached documents to come
up with other suggestions.

1. Start the course in the Fall or Winter (rather than the Spring) so that it does not end with
the regular school year
2. Conduct a week-long prep-course aimed at familiarizing teachers with the course as
well as the computer skills that they and their students will require
3. Increase the number of experiments
4. Funnel the experiment material through the course instructor so that he/she may
personalize the experiments and sort material according to their associated lesson.
5. Reduce the number of assignments that teachers are required to mark by grouping
more lessons.

Attached documents:

• Student Feedback
• Teacher Feedback
• Course Assignments
• A sample of student assignments
• A sample of student marks
 Supplementary Grade-8-Science: Student Feedback

1) How did you find the lessons?

2) What do you think about the experiments that you were asked to do for this course?

3) Overall, how did you find the course:

4) How much do you feel that you have learned from this course?
5) What was your favourite part of the course? (Try to write more than one sentence)

• The part I like best was when we built a crane. It was a very fun to do.
• Checking out the sites on the Internet.
• My favourite part was using the computer and also the experiments.
• The parts where we learned about cells
• My favourite part was learning about atoms.
• I liked the light and waves the best.
• My favourite part of the course is when we made the cranes.
• My favourite part of the experiment was the crane.
• I like when we learned about cells. I like when we did the liquid part
• My favourite part of the course was when we get to work. I like working on the
computer its much easier because all the information is right there on the same
page where my questions are on.
• My favourite part of the course is lesson 1. I like it because it was the easiest one.
• My favourite part of the course the Life Systems part.
• The favourite part of the lessons was the experiments and also some of the
lessons.
• Cells.
• My favourite parts were wavelengths, cells, organisms, aerodynamics and atoms.
• They where cells.
• All the lessons were my favourite part of the course.
• Having accesses to the computer
• My favourite part of the course was that I could learn stuff and sit in front of the
computer
• Doing all the typing.
• Doing the tying in Microsoft Word and drawing.
• My favourite part of the course was reading.
• My favourite part of the course was being at the computer.

6) What part of the course did you like the least? (try to write more than one sentence)

• The part I didn't like was the test. I kinda found it hard.
• Looking for the answers
• Nothing really
• My least favourite parts was aerodynamics and hydrodynamics.
• The math was kinda hard
• The ketchup experiment was not that good.
• The course Ii really didn't like was "MATTER"
• I didn't like writing the test.
• The part of the courses that I didn’t like was whenever we'd have to draw pictures
like in lesson 8C. I’m not very good artist on land drawing. But I am very creative.
• The one I like the least is the experiments. I don't like it because it was kind of
boring.
• I didn't really like the part about matter.
• The part I like the least it the part when I got to write a long paragraph.
• I liked the Google search it was awesome looking at posters
• The sound waves.
• I like the experiments
• To much work and little time
• The least part was that I had to answer too many questions.
7) Did this course help you become a better computer user?

8) Do you think it is a good idea to offer students other online courses like this one?

9) In your opinion, what could be done to make this a better course? (try to write more than one
sentence)

• More explanations
• Have more internet stuff
• Make the course longer and use a video camera
• To make this a better course do more experiments.
• What you guys can do to make this a better course is NOTHING because the way it
is now is fine with me. I like the way it is now. All the information is on the courses,
it ain’t too hard or to easy, and its really interesting.
• Some days it was hard because different people worked on different things. It
could have been better if everyone was able to do the same thing.
• To make this a better course is to put a little more experiments for the course.
• U have to put less questions to make it even better.
• It would probably be better if it was a little bit harder.

10) Use the space below to make any other comments about the course.

• It was cool ;)
• This course was good. I enjoyed it.
• I think this is course is interesting because it is different from other work
• ( no comment)
• Yes, this does help me on internet
• This course helps me learn more about computer stuff.
• I like the course very much
• I was surprised that I learned a lot of things that I didn’t know about.
• Well it was not that bad. Kinda easy and a little hard, but I understood most of it.
• The course was good, I will tell you that.

- END OF FEEDBACK -

* Number of students who provided feedback: 29 (from 5 communities)

 Supplementary Grade-8-Science Course - Teacher Feedback

1) Overall, how difficult was this course for the students in your community?

2) Were students able to complete most of the assignments with little help?

3) Do you feel that this course has improved the general computer literacy of your students?

4) Do you feel that this course has improved the general literacy of your students?

5) What parts of the course, if any, do you feel were received particularly well by your students?

• The different medium of instruction.

• The students liked everything the course offered.
• The Crane-building project went very well.
• It was a varied course with many interesting sections. The part that I felt worked
well was having the fifth week broken up into a review of weeks two three and four.
The students are not fond of tests and this format really helped.
• Experiments and hands-on activities.
• Having access to the computers and using the different types of programs that had
to be used in doing their assignments.
6) What part(s) of the course do you feel need(s) improvement?

• The course was good. More time was needed to explore the concepts. This is the
first time many of these students have ever heard of some of the concepts
introduced in the course. There was a complete restructuring of the students
views and understanding of the world. More time is needed to allow the confusion
to be cleared up.
• The course was very well laid out. Perhaps there could have been a little less
marking involved.
• I didn't find any parts that were weak.
• The students might do better with more sources. It was difficult for them to “use
their own words”, but hopefully they learned to search the internet for help.
• I don't think it needs improvement. It was pretty well laid out and understandable.

7) Were there any extenuating circumstances in your community that prevented your students from
participating fully in this program?

• We had the Goose Break week off, a “running week” in June, etc.
• Our community has a Goose Break which put us a week behind in the course. We
also finished the year earlier than other communities, so the course wasn't
completed. An earlier start date would make the course more user-friendly for
each communities calendar.
• We had some trips and holidays that made it difficult to keep up with the
schedule.
• We were two weeks late due to overlapping spring breaks. We didn't have a set
time to access the computers. We had to come in one or two at a time. One
dedicated class per day would have helped especially because we have grade
sevens and eights together. On the whole though it worked out smoothly.
• School trip, house fire.
• The program was based daily, we did not have access to the computers
everyday. We were limited time to finish off an assignment.

8) On a scale of 1 to 10 (where 1 is the lowest and 10 is the highest), how would you rate the overall
value of this course?
9) In your opinion, what could be done to improve the overall quality of this course?

• The course should have been started earlier in the year. Another suggestion is
that the teachers are given more time to become familiar with the layout and
expectations of the course. Without well-prepared teachers, the course will not
be as effective as it could be.
• Arrange the course so that it ends well before the end of the school year.
• I thought the course was great. For teachers whose specialty is not science it
was a chance to really pick up some good ideas. From the students point of
view; they are isolated so it was good to reach out and learn with people outside.
• Prepare the teacher ahead of time about what they will be teaching and important
things for the students to be getting out of it.
• There could be more science experiments to help students visualize and take
part in the content.

10) Do you see a value in expanding this program to include English and Math? (please comment)

• I think this program, if used to guide new teachers, could be valuable in all
subject areas. I think this program would also help to standardize education in
the north.
• Very much so. Students seem to take greater ownership of their participation in
these types of courses. It's also a great exemplar for teachers who need to beef
up their own curriculum.
• Yes. I think that would be good. Teachers within given areas of expertise could
be helped out by doing such a course in another area.
• Yes, definitely. The little math they did was difficult and they need more practise.
• Yes, to some extent, but also to supplement programs in place.
• Yes, I think expanding this program to include to English and Math would be
valuable, but it would be beneficial mostly for those who have access to
computers everyday, all day.

11) Use the space below to make any additional comments.

• This course was well received in our school. Well done.

• Thanks for the boost to our school year.
• The course was good and interesting. They seemed to enjoy the pictures.

- END OF FEEDBACK -

*Number of teachers who provided feedback: 6 (from 5 communities)