March Fun: Chocolate, Snow and Easter Break.

Ice Restaurant.  The tables were made of ice too!

This month I visited Fazer chocolate factory, SnowCastle, hunted for the Northern lights and dug amethysts in an old gold mine.

Fazer Chocolate Factory

We had a formal tour that explained the history of the chocolate production.  We were allowed to eat as much candy and chocolate as we wanted but we were not allowed to take any out of the building. 

Rabbit 12 feet high built with chocolate filled eggs.

Luma Center Oulu

University of Oulu

Visiting the University of Oulu in northern Finland for three days. Beautiful city, covered with fresh snow.  I attended a professional development activity on integrating different disciplines of science.

At the beginning we had coffee, salad, sandwich and some sweet bread for dessert. I did not talk to anyone while eating. The event was for biology, environmental science, physics  and math teachers. The theme was: how natural sciences and mathematics are connected to studies of environmental teachniques.

Paradoxs and Hunches-Gender differences in Learning Outcomes -PISA testing

Francesca,  Borgonovi giving a presentation

Francesca Borgonovi from OECD presented he findings on Pisa results. Her talk was titled Paradoxs and Hunches-Gender differences in Learning Outcomes.

Panel discussions were performed afterwards.  The panel included Jarkko Hautamäki from the University of Helsinki, Rautapure from University of Jyväskylä and Houtulainen form University of Helsinki. 

I got more confused than ever.

Helsingin Normaalilyseo Teacher Training in Chemistry

Future chemistry teacher in action

High school Chemistry.  There were 11 students, 6 boys and 5 girls in this class. 
Halla Antti was the pre service teacher.

He started by asking names and they had to identify one element from periodic table.  Monomers  and Condensation reactions,  

Two girls talked at the beginning and continued to talk most of the time.

Teacher reviewed what students learned in a previous lecture. 

Helsingin Normaalilyseo Teacher Training in Physics

Helsingin Normaalilyseo is the school where all the future subject teachers practice teaching. This school is located at the center of Helsinki where the students are usually the top students from ElementarySchool.  Students need to apply to junior high and high school and the competition is tough.

Helsingin Normaalilyseo (Helsinki Normal High School)

Student Teaching

Pre-service teachers come here to practice their teachings.  I observed two different physics classes with two different teachers, one male and one female.

 9th grade Physics.

The pre-service teacher took a roll at the beginning and tried to remember the names. He had taught 2 lessons a week before that so he was familiar with the students.  There were  5 boys and 10 girls in this class. He reviewed first because some students were absent for couple of days.  Review on Thursday’s lecture: atomic structure, protons, neutrons, mass number, atomic number.  He drew a model.   

Next Review of Friday’s lecture.  Radioactivity, gamma, alpha, beta, neuterium radiation. 

Turku University visit

Veli-Matti Vesterinen, Jarkko Lemminpaa and I at

the Turku university chemistry lab.

Turku University.  Luma Center activity for High School Cemistry students. Thank you for Jarkko Lemminpää who had time to meet with me and talk about the Luma Center activities.  The center had recently received a funding of €150,000 to develop curriculum for materials science, how youth express science and how to make it interesting. The center developed comic books, on seasons and discussed the themes with students to see the reactions and effects on learning science. 

Fulbright Forum

Two day Fulbright Forum: Education, Innovation, Science and Art at the University of Helsinki and at Aalto University

Fulbright Grantees 2017-2018

I am Giving a Presentation on Teacher Education

This was a unique opportunity to hear about the research and projects that the current American Fulbright scholars, teachers, and graduate students did in Finland. The first day focused on Education. All the Helsinki teachers as well as Jyväskylä teachers presented their findings at this forum.

I gave a presentation on STEM Education for the 21st Century: Finnish Policy and Classroom Innovation with my “STEM Fulbright Science Geek Peeps”- Linda and Maya. This was a group effort. I talked first and gave insight in teacher education, especially how teachers are trained, followed by a presentation by Maya on what to do if the education is not enough and then Linda talked about classroom activities.  Linda came up with an idea on the activity that focused on team work.  We provided 6 plastic cups, one rubber band and four strings to a group of 4 participants. People needed to pile up the cups without using hands. After they figured out how to do it, they all had to bring their cups into the middle of the classroom and pile then all up.  It was wonderful to see how eagerly the University professors took part of the science activity we organized. There was so much laughter in the room.  Everyone enjoyed the activity. 

We had the morning session along with Sam, who went first and after lunch, which was provided by Fulbright Finland in the cafeteria, other educational Fulbright grantees gave their talks.  Enjoyable day. 

Seminar on Making Democracies Resilient to Modern Threats

This seminar was organized by the Fulbright Finland Foundation in cooperation with the Finnish Prime Minister’s Office, the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the United States Department of State, and hosted by the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.

Seminars were given by distinguished speakers from United States, England, and Finland.  All this year’s Fulbright Grantees were invited as well as government officials from every Scandinavian country, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia.  The event was also open to public so the room was full of people. The purpose of the event was to hear and discuss the modern threats that countries face currently. 

Visit to Physicum

Front entrance to Physicum

I found my physics host professor Ismo Koponen, room 227 second floor in the physics department at the University of Helsinki.  I was interested in knowing what I have to do if I want to become a physics subject teacher.

To become a teacher, you need to take 120 units of courses in physics. In some of them the emphasis is put one education; how to apply physics concepts to everyday life.  First you learn facts, then understanding on how to assess what you have learned and third, the critical thinking, analysis of the topic.  

In addition, you have to take 60 units of education on your second major. Most of the students choose mathematics. 

Innokas Verkosto - Creativity Through Technology

Presenters at the Innokas Verkosto's workshop on Micro:bit  programming

I had an informational meeting with Kati Sormunen, Innokas-coordinator. She explained me the purpose of this network and  also gave me a the outline on the workshops that was about to take place on the afternoon. 

 “The Innokas Network guides schools towards creativity and innovation through technology."

FIRST Robotics Presentation

My Presentation on FIRST Robotics

I gave a presentation at the Design Museum of Helsinki on our Robotics program at Ramona. 

This was a public event aimed to increase public interest in Technology. The title was “Augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), 3D printing and robotics in education”. The program was in English. The event was posted in the Museum web page. 
There were about 40 people in the audience, most of them educators interested in Technology.