Edmodo at a local middle school

My son uses Edmodo at a local middle school.  His teachers and classmates are using Edmodo, but not to the full extent which is available, and which has been documented in the posts thus far.

(I won't repeat that documentation here, and I necessairly should not identify the school or teacher names below.)

In any case, there is an attempt at making a community, especially by a few of the teachers.

One teacher uses it quite extensively, posting assignments with worksheet pages so that students have less of an excuse for not having completed their homework.  If they have a computer at home, they can access the worksheet if it was not taken home.  Of course, not all students actually have a computer at home.

If I were using Edmodo in this fashion (which I would), I would want, for reasons of equity and fairness, to find ways to deterine (without embarassing the kids) who did and who did not have access to a computer and printer at home.  A teacher might well need to make extra effort to accommodate such students, so that they were not disadvantaged compared to others----particularly if the teacher were actively integrating many of the other Edmodo features into the curriculum.

One teacher does not use Edmodo at all, as far as I can determine.  Three teachers use Edmodo to provide additional information on assignments on an occasional to regular basis.  One teacher has apparently told her students that she will check Edmodo every night before a school day up until  a certain time (8:00), and she regularly answers student questions.  She also has after school help sessions once a week, and has occasional extra after-school academic activites.

Judging by the number of questions asked by students, overall there is an under-use of Edmodo by students for direct academic use, other that to find out what the homework was. (Exception: the one teacher who clearly has incorporated the use of Edmodo as an active tool.  There is more discussion of academic content on that part of the Edmodo site.)

There is a fair bit of use of Edmodo to chat between students about peripherally school-related stuff.   There is some posting of computer-created games by students who have learned how to make games.

The site is password protected, but I do have concerns about the lack of consistent use of a policy on identification of names.  My son was actually using his real first and last name.  I talked to him about this issue.  Some students are using first name and last initial, which is probably the minimum anonymity I would like to see.

Grading appears on another school system site called the Portal, so that feature in Edmodo does not appear to be of use.  There is no way that teachers are going to put grades in both places.  I note that the grades section does seem to have a graphing capability so that grades can be graphed over time.  That might be a useful feature, one which is not found in the Portal system.

Pinterest again with code to prevent pinning

For those interested in continuing the discussion/debate on Pinterest:

1. There has been some use of Pinterest in scamming, to make money off Pinterest:

http://www.hlntv.com/article/2012/03/20/how-spot-pinterest-scam


2. There are issues with copyright:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/symbiartic/2012/03/16/the-promise-and-perils-of-pinterest/

The post at the Scientific American website links to other website (and Washington Post and Wall Street Journal articles and discussions).

The discussion in the comments section is of some interest, and brings up various aspects of copyright law and the Orphan Works legislation.




3.  Finally, if you have a website and do not want images of your creation to be pinned, then you should read the following, which alerts you to code (pasted farther below) to add at the head of any page on your website:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/symbiartic/2012/03/19/pinterests-terms-of-service-word-by-terrifying-word/

code:

<meta name="pinterest" content="nopin" />

I have not tested this, so I can't vouch for its utility.

Edmodo is a time saver and organizer

I'll admit I had my doubts. I'm not a huge fan of social networks to begin with, and when I saw a layout nearly identical to facebook, I assumed it to be another rehash of the same old thing. After about 20 minutes of playing around though my opinion had been almost completely changed. I really hope Edmodo catches on, because I think it's a tool that get stronger as more teacher in a school use it. I think it does the job of a blackboard or scholar type site, except it is free, ad-free, includes additional features, and much more intuitive and interconnected and user friendly.

Assignments can be created from one main page and sent to groups (classes) rather than having to sift through several different page sites. The same can be done with the grade-book, calender, notes, and quizzes. In a scenario where an entire school body is using the site, a student would have the ability to log on, see all test and assignment due dates, simultaneously on one calendar, check his or her grades, download notes, and interact with other students and teachers. Scholar for example, does these things in some capacity, but its lacks the same intuitive site design and freedom. Scholar also feels like a one-way street from teacher to student, but Emodo seems to offer an easy means for students to communicate back to teachers. There is even an option to sort posts by students.

There are also things that can be done on Edmodo that can't be done on a Scholar like site. School wide polls could be created by administrators or student goverments to give students a voice. School administration, athletic teams, and extracurricular clubs could also benefit from the calendar and announcement features. Additionally students in group projects can easily could create a group to make schedules and stay organized, privately and separately from the main class groups.

But it is not just the ideal scenario of a school-wide setting that I see Edmodo being useful though. It can be used  on the level of a department, for a single class, or as Dirac pointed out, by an individual teacher as an organizational tool or means of communicating with other teachers. I personally see myself using Edmodo, infact, I've already claimed a profile name, "/merrillphysics," something I have yet to do on facebook. Edmodo has the potential to be big if other educators are willing to give it a chance.

Edmodo reflections

I feel like Edmodo is similar to the VT Scholar site for students in elementary and high school students with enhanced features.

Teachers can post assignments on edmodo everyday, which is a good way to facilitate Universal Design for Learners: students with special needs or English language issues can efficiently access homework assignments.

Students can openly post discussions with the rest of the class and with the teacher, which helps to build a community of learners. When students encounter difficulties in homework, they don’t need to leave the question unanswered or spend hours fretting over it since they can get assistance outside of school.

During class teachers are always pressed by the tight curriculum schedules and have little time to share personal emotions with students. Through edmodo, teachers can connect with their students, share interesting events and ideas.

The Polls feature promotes student-oriented learning. Teachers can take students’ opinions into accounts when planning events or arranging events, since polls readily collect votes from every student.

I agree with the motto of edmodo “Make your classroom a community”. I think by efficiently using of edmodo, students will feel the sense of being connected, being helped, being respected, and being well-informed. I am really glad to see the widely integration of software such as edmodo into regular schooling.

The Potentials of Edmodo...

I really like this site and I completely understand why " the young teachers attending would not stop talking about it." I think that we could use this several ways:

• The Poll Feature. We could have students take polls to see what they are most interested in studying. We could also use polls as an evaluation tool by having students rate whether or not they liked an activity or lesson that we tried out in class.
• The Quiz Feature. Like Blackboard and Scholar, we can administer quizzes. I think that the interface for creating the quizzes is nicer and more user-friendly than Blackboard or Scholar.
• RS Feeds Feature. We could add news feeds that are relevant for our classes so that students can follow them. We can also use this feature to connect to a class blog.
• Assignments Feature. We can use this to post assignments and their due dates...sort of like a bulletin board or planner.
• Badges. I like how we can award students badges for their contributions on Edmodo. I think though that this may be geared more towards the younger students. (good citizen, good question, hard worker, homework helper, participant, perfect attendance, star performer, student of the month). We can also create our own badges for students.
• Profile url. I just claimed my own profile url...http://edmodo.com/tiffanyannbumbarger I will play with this more later.
• Calendar Feature. We can use this as a timetable for topics indicated on the syllabus as well as due dates.
  

Thoughts on Edmodo

My first impression of this website is that it is very similar, in its basic idea and setup/appearance, to facebook.  Considering how popular we all know facebook has become, I think it is safe to say that it would be a very good tool to use.

Throughout the first few minutes I spent poking around Edmodo, I was able to see a lot of cool features.  This seems like a very good way to organize all of the classes you have from grades, to documents, to quizzes and tests.  Mr. Chris Martin and I became "connected" on Edmodo.  This also has the potential to be very useful.  You can "connect" with any other teachers you'd like, assuming they accept your "connection request," and from there, you can share different ideas, documents, or strategies for the classroom.  There is even a link to use google docs.

The best part about this is that you don't need to have your students sign up.  This website can be solely for your personal benefit.  It can keep your classes organized and neat (never having to worry about a physical book for grades!).  I would seriously consider using this website as a teacher after I graduate from this program.  I personally think this is the most useful website/activity we have come across all semester.

Idea for next semsester

Dirac32 and I were talking outside of class yesterday about last week's virtual labs. We agreed that actually programming a virtual lab, especially one that was "outstanding" would likely be far outside the scope of the class. Dirac suggested that laying out an idea for the design of one without actually programming it could be just as informative. Dr. P mentioned an "unfortunate disconnects between scientists, educators and the technology specialists when it comes to building (virtual labs) when she responded to Karst's post. Maybe somewhere down the line this class could work with a programming class at tech to take our designs as educators and have them built by students with a better knowledge of programming. Just thought I'd share.

Edmodo Impression

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-KBwriCO-Q&feature=fvst

^^A video on edmodo.

Edmodo looks very promising and pretty simple to use.  As a teacher, I like the feature of using polls and posting assignment due dates. As a student, I like the feature of having all my assignment listed on a calendar already there for me. Also, getting parents to sign up for edmodo could be very beneficial.  Parents can see exactly what is going on in the classroom and help their kid stay on track.  However, I think for edmodo to truly reach its potential, it needs to be used school wide in all classes and even after school activities.  As a student, I wouldn't want to have to sign up for some website, spend time learning how it works, and only ever use it for one course.  If a student uses it for multiple classes and is truly able to use the calendar feature with assignments from all classes (and even sporting events for athletes) then it could be a really handy tool.  As a teacher, Edmodo could be helpful for seeing what our students have due in other classes.  Also, seeing what other classes are doing, we could create assignments that incorporate in different disciplines and assure that they don't conflict with other class assignments or even major sporting events.  By helping create a more balanced schedule for our students, we assure we're going to get the highest quality work from them with the least amount of excuses.  Though, in the end, is it realistic to think that a whole school would jump on the edmodo bandwagon?

Engaged exploration in simulations, games and virtual labs

One of our tasks this week was to identify an outstanding virtual lab.  Did we really do that?  What counts as an outstanding virtual lab?  Can simulations count as virtual labs? Can games count as virtual labs?

I spent hours looking at supposed virtual labs and came to the conclusion that there are many groups building simulations, games, and virtual labs, but there is very little consistency in the use of the terms.

I looked at many different fields including biology, physics, chemistry, geology, meteorology, Earth science, and from engineering hydrology and materials science, hunting for something that might fit the idea of “virtual” and “outstanding.”  What struck me is that the vast majority were not really labs that would be usefully described as inquiry, and that would allow the students to vary parameters and truly discover relationships. Many seem to teach a narrow set of concepts in a relatively didactic way.

I was especially disappointed with most of the labs I found for Earth Science (my field).  To give just one example, virtual earthquake at:

http://www.sciencecourseware.org/virtualearthquake/VQuakeExecute.html

taught the bare basics of seismological use of seismograms, but seemed little more than a standard lab manual type of exercise.  It used S-P times to determine epicentral distances and locate quake epicenters, with an additional part using a nomograph to determine Richter magnitude.   The student selects an area in the world to simulate an earthquake; the program simulates a quake without precisely locating it, and the student is given three seismograms which can then be used to determine epicentral distances using travel time curves of P and S waves.  From epicentral distances and the plotted locations of seismographs, the program draws three circles whose radii are the epicentral distances, and where they all intersect gives the location of the epicenter.

All of this was done in a dry, matter of fact fashion which could not possibly create any real motivation or interest.  It lacks what the developers of PhET describe as a potential for “engaged exploration” (p. 28 of our readings, also p. 28 of the original Adams et al., 2008 paper available on the PhET research website).

Adams et al. (2008a) identify students as being in “engaged exploration” when students pose questions and seek “answers by observing the results of their own interactions with the simulation and making sense of what they see.’  Students are described as being “more easily engaged in the exploration of topics that include relatively unfamiliar science.”

What happens when students are not engaged in the simulations?  What reasons are there for students to not become engaged?  Some reasons related directly to the design and content of the simulations include:  Insufficient time for interacting with the simulation; inability to figure out how to use the simulation; being overwhelmedby the simulation; not knowing where to start; and familiarity with the concepts, such that students then try to use the simulation as a demonstration tool instead of using it as a learning tool.

Adams et al. (2008a and b; see reference list p. 129 of our reading, and various parts of our readings) used extensive interviews and interactions with students actively using simulations to attempt to determine how to best design simulations to promote engagement and to promote actual learning.

Obviously, the results of these, and other researcher’s work on simulations and games are essential to consider when selecting such materials for use in secondary classrooms.  We really want to avoid using such putative “virtual labs” as the virtual earthquake lab I referenced above (to their credit, they apparently have a newer version that purports to be designed in a more inquiry type of way, but so far I have been unable to get it to work properly).

Besides “engaged exploration” (active exploration of information in the simulation, to make sense of it; and exploration of relatively unfamiliar science content), Adams et al. (2008a) invoke the coherence principle and a consistency principle as concerns for the details of the design process.  Clark and Mayer’s (2003) coherence principle  can be paraphrased as:  Don’t add unnecessary material to simulations, even if interesting, because it can inhibit the learning process.  Inhibition can be by distraction (guiding attention away), disruption (preventing linkage of concepts because of irrelevant information intruding), or seduction (activating pre-exixting knowledge that may mislead).

In their second paper, Adams et al. (2008b) investigate the design elements of successful simulations.  Some of that is relatively technical but straightforward aspects of how learners most easily use computer simulations---aspects of clicking, dragging, grabbing objects, sliders, buttons, and checkboxes.  Those are all important, because inefficient use of those design elements can greatly affect learners’ ability to use and remain engaged in the simulation.

Three different levels of usability are distinguished: (1) Non-intuitive, requiring much instruction to use; (2) Semi-intuitive, usable after instruction and demonstration; and (3) intuitive, which is characterized as most desirable, being “easy to use with no instruction”.

The goal is to create fully intuitive simulations.

Given the high degree of diversity in ability, attention, and interest in science in secondary science students, it seems most important to strive for use of virtual labs, simulations, and games that are as intuitive as possible.  Of course thay also need to be engaging and have a readily recognizable science learning content and realizable goals.

There is one more aspect that I want to highlight here, from general learning theory, which is applied in these simulation discussions by Adams et al. (2008b):

Learners who have little or no knowledge of new content tend to be unable to quickly determine which information is important (when multiple pieces of info are provided) or the relationships between those pieces of information.

Applied to representations in simulations, they put this as:

“Visual representations must be created with care because we observe that when students are learning about the phenomena they will apply equal importance to every feature….care must be taken not to overwhelm the students with too much new informatin at once.” (p. 14).

Also:

“ “Students look at all visual clues equally, if they do not understand a concept.  It is important to emphasize items that are pedagogicallly important and eliminate all potential distractions.” (p. 20).

Learning science through computer games and simulations

Simulations and games are useful implementations in teaching because they promote students’ conceptual understanding, science process skills and motivations based on the researches described in the book. Using simulations and games is an interest boost during regular teaching.

Simulations and games are also good implementations of Universal Design for Learning.

Students can explore the games or simulations based on their own learning pace and try multiple times. Students with learning disabilities or language issues can gain cognitive understanding straight from animations rather than profound words. Research found out those students with lesser prior knowledge made more progress than students with more prior knowledge. There are differences of students’ progress from simulations and games based on different gender, race, and English language ability.

Simulations and games are time-consuming to make. Therefore, only important concepts and ideas are selected and developed among a lot of other topics, which engages students to think deeply about certain important concepts.

Virtual labs and games reading

A couple of things really stood out to me throughout the reading. The first is strand 4 in the learning goals section: “Reflect on science as a way of knowing.” I definitely agree with this sentiment. Through studying physics, I’ve come across a different way of thinking, and essentially a different way of “knowing” information.

While I agree with the findings of the Adams group in 2008 (page 28), I’m curious as to how they reached their conclusion that “the study participants’ level of conceptual understanding (was) much greater than the level typically reached by students taught about these concepts in a physics course.” Sure, it seems reasonable to me that a hands-on approach can enhance the understanding of a concept, but without a control group, I don’t see how the study can make that claim.

I was interested when, on page 63, the report states, “when the teacher evaluated students’ learning in the curriculum as part of the course grade, some students became less engaged and interested, while others took the game more seriously.” This helps to solidify my belief that there’s no “magic wand” of learning. Certain methods work well for some students, while others require a different approach. The best classroom environment is definitely a multifaceted one.

I could definitely see myself using virtual labs or games in my classroom as a means of motivating and interesting students in the course material. I’d probably use it as a supplement of information already learned, or as an introductory unit that I’ll follow up with further discussion. This way, I’ll be able to hook some students immediately while not leaving others behind. 

Narrated PowerPoint....Help!

I thought I uploaded my PowerPoint several days ago....and now I can't find. Can anyone see it? It is labeled EDCI ppt? I am really struggling figuring out how the Wiki works. I appreciate any help!

My Adobe Presenter Nightmare

I had some terrible luck when it came to making my lesson in Adobe Presenter. Everything was going fine initially. The actual slide construction was exactly the same as ppt and after just a little work I was able to embed the videos I wanted. I came to the point where I was ready to do the audio tracks for my presentation when I realized that I had done all the previous steps on my desktop computer, which unlike most laptops, does not have a microphone built in. I borrowed a friends laptop and assumed it would be easier to make the recordings with his computer and transfer them over to mine, rather than install adobe presenter and transfer all the slides and videos to the laptop. I was probably wrong.

I made the recordings and transferred them to the desktop, but I couldn't find the files when I tried to import them into the presentation. After some poking I realized it was because the audio files were saved as .wma. Adobe presenter can only use .mp3 or .wav. The recordings took a fairly long time so I really didn't want to have to do them all again. I found an online converter to change them to .mp3. Still no luck. So I found an even more suspicious converter to change them to .wav files. Finally I was able to add the files to the presenter and everything seemed to be working correctly.

But... When I tried to publish the presentation and create a SWF file the progress bar reached nearly half way before "Adobe Presenter cannot publish this presentation. Unknown error." Awesome. I figured it might be an compatibility issue with one of the image or video file types. In an attempt to find the culprit I tried publish after deleting all videos clips. Same error. I then deleted all the images. Same error. I then deleted everything but the slide backgrounds.... same error. I checked Adobe's website to make sure I was clicking the right things. I was. At this point I knew it was probably the adobe presenter. I re-installed the presenter, imported all the old slides, audio, and video, then tried to publish. Same error.

After smashing my face against the keyboard, I accepted defeat and moved on to trying to make a video of the presentation instead. I found a simple to use cloud based video editor partnered with Youtube called "WeVideo." It took around 45 minutes to match all the audio files to the slides, but I was eventually able to preview my presentation. It was ready to put on Youtube so I hit publish: "Error: Publishing time remaining for this month 15:00. Video length 17:39"

(╯°_°）╯︵ ┻━┻ <== me flipping over my computer desk

I didn't want to have to stitch together the audio files again, and I couldn't think of any easy way of cutting 2 minutes of material to get below the limit. Even if I broke it into two separate videos I would still have the overall 15 minutes per month cap if I used "WeVideo" for both parts.

I deleted a video clip within the middle of the presentation trimming the length to 13 minutes and saved the video. Next I downloaded Windows Live Movie Maker so I would be free to upload more than 15 minutes of video in two parts. I took my 13 minute chunk, spliced in the video clip restoring it to it's original length, then re-cut the full length presentation into two parts. I was then finally able to upload them to YouTube. Then I had a beer.


If you're interested here are the fruits of my labor
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA6v8eur3_o
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfabXsFD2lY


If you read all of that I hope you understand why I felt the need to vent with this post haha. I think as a teach I will probably forgo Adobe presenter, too much hassle. Instead I'll add what I plan on saying with each slide in the "notes" section so students can use that as a means of reviewing the lesson outside of class, or possibly record the audio of my lecture during each class. Anyway, if anyone can tell me what I may have been doing wrong with adobe presenter, please let me know.

Two potential uses of narrated PowerPoints

1. It strikes me that Narrated PowerPoints would be very useful for lessons on days when a substitute teacher was in the classroom.  One could build up a library over time of short lessons that could be used by the substitute, in addition to other materials accompanying the Narrated PowerPoints.

2. I am also a firm believer in sharing learning objectives with parents and students---or at least making them available.

One way might be to created Narrated PowerPoints for each unit, and post them on the class website.

One could list learning objectives and show their alignment with state standards (and even national science standards or benchmarks), and with the assessments that are used to determine grades.  One could list activities, readings, labs, experiments, worksheets, and available Narrated PowerPoints for each unit.

By doing this, one is better able to communicate precisely what is being taught and what is supposed to be learned.  I know from monitoring my own kids' science classes, that there have been times when I certainly have wished that teachers were doing these kinds of things, so that I could better monitor what was going on in their science classes.

Having such materials available would go a long way toward establishing effective teacher/parent communication, and allow better support by parents.

Being open, up front, and very transparent about science and what happens in science has the potential to increase support of science in the wider society.  Even more important, developing better communication with parents and the public generally is necessary given the current climate of high-stakes testing, where teachers are being fired if their value-added assessment scores are not good enough. (I'll ignore, for the moment, the fact that value added assessment has been improperly used in places such as D.C. and New York.)

In any case, there is widespread teacher bashing in our society.  If we are to counteract teacher bashing and combat inappropriate assessment of teachers, then we need to do everything we can as teachers to show and document what students knew before instruction, what they are being taught, and what they have succeeded in learning through instruction.

Difficulties with Narrated PowerPoints

A bunch of us seem to have difficulties getting Adobe Presenter to work correctly on the wiki, or getting the correct files to be downloaded to the wiki, so that we can view the Narrated PowerPoints.

I played round with folders and files and found that my PowerPoint does work as a pptx file, but only if a bunch of accompanying files were in the same folder.   The version as a pdf file works, but only if a bunch of accompanying files were in the same folder.

I put it on the wiki as a pptx file, and it does not work, apparently because all the accompanying files are not there. I found that it works on my computer in some files if I click on index, so I put index on the wiki.  That also alone does not work.

I tried to upload the entire folder with the pptx file and accompanying file, but it refuses to take the files in a single folder.  I thought about uploading each file individually---but did not, because that obviously is no solution (it would create dozens of files and make a total mess).

I don't want to upload anything else here until we figure out the solution.

Any ideas?

PowerPoints

I really enjoyed working on PowerPoint! While I was looking for Videos to imbed, I found this one Science Teacher, Mr. Parr, puts together lyrics describing a scientific concept and puts it to popular music. Everyone should check this out...there is one for almost every science topic!

Narrated Powerpoints

I really liked using powerpoint, for teaching science especially, because it allows you to present and discuss diagrams from the text that student may have struggled with. Narrating it felt funny though, I feel like I read off the slides way more than I do when speaking to an audience. Normally I glance at the slides to remind myself of my points, but with nothing to do but stare at the slides it was hard not to read them!

Foster a Pinterest Spirit

Inspired by Dr. Parlo, I realized that Pinterest can be an excellent website for students’ leisure time. With its eyes-appealing pictures, Pinterest can make students more enthusiastic about science and nature, which can motivate them to explore them. Pinterest also encourages the Do It Yourself (DIY) spirit through its artistic uniquely pictures, which often times include instructions. Pinterest advocate the positive lifestyle with healthy diet pictures.

 Pinterest becomes a potent competitor for students’ leisure time, along with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and etc. When students are dazzled with so many website choices, it is teachers’ time to guide students’ interests towards a more beneficial one, such as Pinterest. To foster students’ habits in Pinterest, teachers can set up and manage pinboards on which students can pin or repin on a group basis; Teachers can assign students to find their favorite Pinterest pictures to share with classmates in class; Teachers can arrange some crafts-making homework, where students need to follow instructions on Pinterest in order to accomplish the desired crafts.

Pinterest Alternatives

I have to say the layout and novelty of Pinterest could generate a lot excitement for students, but I think it does pose a lot of problems. Dirac and others have brought up the problem of integrating a social network, making the students share personal information over the web is problematic. A simple permission form may resolve the issue, but the idea still sits uncomfortably with me. I can see it implemented as a presentation tool more so than a collaboration tool.

 Langrange had a nice example with this page. There's a lot of cool resources on the internet that you come across, I feel like as a teacher I can use Pinterest as a hub for resources. Students could explore and browse the page without requiring them to create an account or log in.

As an alternative to Pinterest, there is a website Imgur.com (Pronounced Image-er). It doesn't have quite as nice of a layout as Pinterest does, but it does have offer some options. It allows you to create an account while still keeping anonymity. In this way you could implement some of the ideas of collages, portfolios, and others could all be implemented and actively discussed in the comments. I still have some reservations about having students participate in an open forum (there's no restrictions from non-students from commenting), but I can envision myself using both resources to some degree.

What's the Point?

I have really enjoyed reading all the posts about Pinterest this week. As you continue your thoughts about possible applications for this sort of technology, I encourage you to think about what your goals might be in using it. Namely, I read a lot about students getting distracted or addicted to Pinterest type applications - but if it were science based, would it be a bad thing? (not true addiction per se) If your students are spending their leisure time poking around on science based topics, do you really care how focused it is? Is it more important that they learn specific content or that they are getting excited about science? What are your thoughts on this?