Biology OER- Days 3-5

The last few days have been very productive.  The team has been working hard on curating the right materials and have even created a FlexBook using the very handy tool from CK-12.  They even printed out an early version to work from and go back and evaluate each resource.  A majority of Day 5 have been looking closely at each reading and deciding if it's appropriate for the grade level, standards-based, and scientifically accurate.

Lots of great discussions and debates on the materials being used in their new curriculum.  

 Teachers working hard to find the right resources. 

Early textbook version 2.0 for Biology. 

Biology OER- Day 2

On Day 2 we dove right into the pacing guide and layed out our scope and sequence.  The teachers began going into the OER materials to see what was out there for the first semester topics. The essential readings were all put together for the first three units.  Great progress in one day.  The next steps will be to look at other supplemental materials, labs, hands-on activities, videos, etc. to go along with them.  We're feeling good about our selves.  Still a lot of work to be done...

Biology OER- Day 1

On our first day of OER work this summer teachers from Camarillo and Channel Islands got together along with district admin and coaches to begin the work ftowards textbook replacement.  We had three teachers from Channel Islands, two from Camarillo, our new learning design coach (LDC) for Science, our new Director of Instructional Support Services, and myself, the Ed Tech Coordinator.

We spent some time covering exactly what OER is and the vocabulary of free vs. open.  We dove into Google Docs and Google Classroom where our materials will be stored and distributed to students.  We also spent some time looking at the NGSS standards.  We then spent most of our time clicking around and exploring what materials are already out there.  We are relying heavily on the work completed by Grossmont Union High School District in the San Diego area.  Some of our team made a visit down there in April to see what they have done with OER.  They also have been working with the Biology curriculum.

Day 1 we set the groundwork for our upcoming project.  It was great to get all of the ideas and opinion of the various participants.  I look forward to our upcoming work together. 

OER in Biology

Biology teachers from Camarillo and Channel Islands High Schools got together along with district coaches and admin to begin the work of curating a Biology curriculum to replace the current textbook.  These two schools have been chosen because they are moving to a three course model where freshman will now take Biology.  For the one year, they will have both 9th and 10th graders taking the course.  Instead of purchasing a bunch of textbooks for the one year, they will experiment with using Open Educational Resources (OER) materials that they have curated.

#GoOpen (an OER campaign) is a nation-wide movement that has been endorsed by 20 states.   Schools are moving towards free and openly licensed digital resources to take the place of expensive textbooks.  Districts assemble teams of teachers and other stakeholders to look over and gather resources from various open source websites.  The materials are put into some digital form for students and teachers to access.  They can also be printed out if necessary.

OER also allows for districts to customize the materials that they use so that they better fit what teachers want to be taught.  It also can be updated at any time, ensuring that you have the most current information in your text.  As is often asked, "Who is the current president in your Social Studies textbook?" or "Is Pluto still a planet in your Science text?".

The OER materials will be printed out into a reader that can be taken home by the students.  Teachers will also be recieving a cart of Chromebooks so that students can access the materials digitally while in class.  All of the materials will be housed in Google Drive and distributed to students using Google Classroom

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