Science in the streets

Last week, we had a guest speaker presenting all about Flipping Physics, an example of a creative, well thought out flipped classroom.  Generally speaking, a flipped classroom has video lectures that students watch at home in place of their standard homework.  In class, students work directly with the teacher and in small groups working through the content and what would typically be considered "homework".  A major benefit of this is that the teacher can get one-on-one interaction with all of the students essentially every day.  Compare this to a "normal" routine where a good chunk of the day is spent in presentation of material vs. interaction.

A few ideas came from the presentation.  First, as a side note, he had a copy of a Dr. Seuss book which he read to his classes on the very last day of school every year.  Each year signed a page.  Flipping through the book, the first thirteen pages are filled with notes from students and signatures.  Just looking at this inspired me to think of a similar approach.  I think this sort of keepsake would be a powerful memento.

Now...back to the point.  Do I think a biology classroom could serve as a "flipped" class?  The answer...maybe.  A feature of this format is that students are watching a lecture at home while I would hope to veer away from a heavy dependency on lectures.  Additionally, having a very specific plan would almost restrict you from the flexibility of being able to change your schedule on a daily basis...for good or for bad.  However, to remove the "talking head" element from the classroom would free me up to lead experiments and demonstrations as well as work through tricky material.

What the presentation really inspired was helping me think more about my idea for a science busking character.  For those not familiar with busking, picture those street magicians and musicians who haunt big city squares and take donations for a living.  Imagine that, but with science!  I'd like to develop a side character to my classroom time where I go out into the city square with a simple science experiment to share with the public.  Donations would theoretically go towards classroom materials and such. A further element of this could be to have students volunteer to come out and assist with the show.  Perhaps it could be a "science festival club".

How does this relate to the flipped classroom?  Film them all.  Take a 5-10 minute segment from each of these busking days and I could start to compile a large database of really cool experiments for students to watch at home, share with family and perhaps learn something.  If I were creative enough, I could have classroom demos filmed in public so students could revisit them later.  The ideas are scattered and vague right now, but they're out there.