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Multi-literacies and Digital Media Creation
This post will be a bit theoretical, as it is lifted from a draft of my dissertation proposal but is written in journalistic style. I hope it helps you understand the multi-literacy theories behind the Cosmic Creator Challenge. Achieving competence in any language (literacy) requires four components: fluency of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It…
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A History of This Research – Part 1: The Accidental Project
I started teaching in 1990 at a start-up school in the Sierra Nevada Mountains called Tioga High School. It was located near the town of Groveland on the Highway 120 entrance to Yosemite National Park. The school site was not yet ready when we began that fall, so we first taught out of a portable…
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Education as Engineering
As we approach our second iteration of the Cosmic Creator Challenge, I think it is important to explain one of the fundamental principles of our contest and of my proposed dissertation research. This is the idea of student learning as a form of engineering design with continual revision. For the Cosmic Creator Challenge, this will…
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Exploring the Solar System: A Graphic Novel Sample Project
Over many years of teaching students how to plan and build excellent projects, I have found that most have difficulty in the crucial planning phase. They often go with the first project approach that comes to mind and jump into creating it without spending enough time and effort to carefully plan out the scope and…
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Results of the Pilot Contest
As we approached the fall of 2023, I had hoped to have my dissertation proposal ready to go and to gain approval before our first Science Communication competition began, but that was not to be. I was a bit over-optimistic on how long it would take me to wrestle through the theoretical and practical implementation…
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Twelve Theories of Creativity
Many theories have been proposed to explain creativity or to at least attempt to define it. This post will provide short summaries of twelve of the most common definitions proposed over the millennia and end with some barriers to creativity, how to overcome them, and implications of these theories for educational practice. Anciently, the Greeks…
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A Poster Session at the UCET Conference
On March 14 -15 I presented several sessions at the Utah Coalition for Educational Technology (UCET) conference held at the Utah Valley Convention Center. I also presented a similar theme at the Blended Learning Educators Conference (BLEC) at Juan Diego High School on March 9. As I am approaching the time when I will start…
Enhancing Student Creativity, Engagement, and Content Mastery through Project-Based Learning
The Creative Science Classroom 