ILLINOIS

LAURIE S. JOHNSTON - "Keeping a year-round portfolio"
BARBARA DYCHE - "Dandelion Fun"

LAURIE S. JOHNSTON
Signal Hill School
Belleville, IL

This is the second year I've used The Private Eye Program as the foundation for the Gifted and Talented program curriculum. This year I'm focusing heavily on grades 3-6. I see "Talents" students once per week. Everything the students do is kept in a drawing notebook: drawings, analogies, poetry, short stories, research, and all handouts. Students are using the same notebooks they started with last year, and many have been impressed with the progress they've made in such a short time, whether it be their drawing abilities, their analogies, etc. The notebook serves as a portfolio where students can observe their own progress as often as they like. It is also an assessment tool for me - and I like to show it to parents during conferences. I go through the notebooks regularly, xerox drawings, and copy them onto assignment reminder sheets for students in all the grade levels in the program to admire. My next step is to include these drawings in the Talents Newsletter I send home to parents several times a year.

 

INDIANA

ANNE TINKEL - "Beyond Elementary Explorations"
ANNE TINKEL - "Parents and Seashells and Loupes, Oh My!"
JULIE CONLON - "Optics with The Private Eye"

ANNE TINKEL
Study Elementary
Fort Wayne, IN

Dear Kerry and David,

I loved your inservice this summer! I began using the loupes with my students the very first day of school. They loved them! I showed them how to hold them up next to their eye, and then bring the object they were studying up into focus, or to bend down to focus.

As I mentioned this summer, my first unit of study (for 9 weeks) is observation and classification. We sorted wooden beads, shaped pasta, colored buttons, packets of play money, etc. The first 2 days, we just divided things according to shape or color. Then, I introduced texture. I had them sort shapes I had cut out of wallpaper, some of it textured. I let them examine their favorite pieces with their loupe. They loved it! I had them write in their Reflections notebook about "what else it reminds me of." Some of the wallpaper pieces evoked memories of grandma's house and some other unusual things. It was all very exciting, both for them and for me, as their teacher. The neatest thing was when we examined fancy carved beads with our loupes. I gave them each a plastic cup for a pedestal and a frame to draw in. I demonstrated how to draw to fill the frame. Some of the students did such a great job. There were at least 6 that made their drawings so precise that if I had sent you a photo of 10 of the beads, you would be able to instantly identify which bead they drew.

One of my ESL students is especially talented in his drawing, which is good, because it is very affirming for his self concept -- he has lots of difficulty with spelling when he writes, and it is very hard for me to know what he wants to communicate, and it is very frustrating for him. Just last week, we made carbon rubbings of our fingerprints. The second day, when I passed their fingerprint papers back to them, I told them we were going to examine them and classify them according to type. I said they should look closely at them and tell me what they saw. One of the kids asked, "Can we use our loupes?" Then, I had 3 students draw what they had seen. They did a pretty good job! Then, I showed them the "official" samples of the 3 types, and they were able to identify the student who had sketched that particular type! It is difficult for me to hold back -- I want to do lots more with the loupe, but I need to follow my agenda. This Thursday, we are going to the Crime Lab to see how the pros do fingerprinting. In 2 weeks, we are going to IPFW, one of the local universities, to observe and classify trees and leaves.

 

IOWA

CAROLE GILE, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Education
William Penn University, IA

"Undergraduate Responses to the Private Eye Loupes"
On March 28, 2005, students enrolled in the Language Arts course at William Penn University, Oskaloosa, Iowa, participated in a Loupe (The Private Eye) learning experience. Thanks to The Private Eye, each student had their own loupe and information to keep—both for the day’s class and as a future reminder of the many inquiry learning possibilities offered by “Looking and Thinking by Analogy”--experiencing the world through the lens of The Private Eye loupe. Students were given a variety of nature items to study through the loupe. First they were asked to hold the loupe close to an arm and focus on the skin. Then they were asked to bring the loupe to an eye, and bring an arm or hand close until the focus was clear. An effusion of comments began: “It looks like lizard skin!” “Wow!” and “Neat!” The questions, “What else does it remind me of? look like? feel like? brought new comments: “My skin looks like leather.” “It looks really different magnified!”Students chose an item to examine. Available were an assortment of seashells, sea glass, geode pieces, rocks, pinecones, and pussy willow branches. Again questions, “What do you see?” “What does it remind you of?” “Why does it look like that?” “What comes to mind to describe it?” and other similar “thinking by analogy” questions were asked. The questions stimulated questions and discussion among the students. Next students completed a loupe drawing, first looking through the loupe, then drawing what they saw. The students were invited to write their analogies down--as many descriptive words as they could. Students then wrote to put their ideas into context—it could be prose or a poem. Students were hesitant at first to share their writings, but once one student shared, they all seemed to be eager to share. Below is one I wrote while looking at a seashell:

Found you on the ground
See you in the sky
Looks like the milkyway
Looks like an eye
Stormy weather, comet’s tail
Cyclonic, swirling, staring
Spy!

— Carole Gile

The following comments are representative of the class’ reactions and responses to this learning experience:

Samantha: “I felt like a little kid seeing the world through a whole different perspective. I was excited to look at everything and see how it looked under the loupe. I found the process a great way to have the children write poetry. Also this is a good way to teach children about descriptive words and have them write a paragraph describing what they saw.”

Lindsay: “The Private Eye process would help students show their creative side and stimulate inquiry about how things look from a different perspective.”

Susan: “I loved it! It’s such a neat way to discover things around you and, knowing kids, they would carry [the loupe] around everywhere and look at things. I really liked using the process for ideas for poems. I’m sure it would spark many questions in science, reading, and otherwise.”

Jeanine: “It can be used for anything. It gets students interested and lets them see things are not always how they appear—there is always much more.”

Chris: “I think it could be used in a positive way for poetry along with a majority of the topics covered in the classroom. It’s a great way to get students involved.”

These aspiring teachers were asked if they would consider advocating for a class set of loupes for their school. All responses are positive—here is a sampling:

Barb: “Yes, the loupes would be good to use in all subjects.”

Deanna: “Yes, I think it would be fun for the students to go outside and observe nature with it.”

Samantha: “Yes, just because I had so much fun looking through the loupe, I want my kids to experience that as well. It is also easier to teach and manage than a microscope is.”

Susan: “Yes, I think these would be a wonderful asset to a classroom.”

Finally, students were asked for other comments, (including thanking The Private Eye Project for the loupes). Responses include the following:

Chris: “Thanks for the fun and interesting experience with the loupe. It gives me ideas for my future teaching activities.”

Deanna: “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to see how neat these are. I want my students to have the same experience I did.”

Samantha: “Thank you so much! This gave me great ideas for my classroom. I appreciate the opportunity you gave our classroom!”

Later in the semester the students who experienced the loupes in the Language Arts class used them with the children they tutored as a part of their Remedial Reading course. I was pleased to see them incorporate their use in the learning experiences they planned for their tutees. This indicates to me that the students see how the loupes can encourage inquiry, and that they truly want to use the loupes in their own teaching.

I sincerely hope that making this experience available to the Language Arts students at William Penn University demonstrates to The Private Eye Project that their investment is highly valued and well worth the time and effort expended. Thank you so much for the wonderful gift of exploration and inquiry. Your interest in the students’ preparation as educators is sincerely appreciated.

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KANSAS

KAREN HORN
Post Rock Home Educators
LaCrosse, KS

LANDSCAPE

 dot is like a crater
stem is like the smoke of a volcano
white like the snowcaps
like a mountain with trees
up and down like hills and valleys
cluster of mountains
pointy like a sand castle
the ground with mushrooms
like a burned forest
looks like waves
looks like grassblades
Looks like rivers running down the mountain
ash prints of volcano
looks like stone
geometric like a pyramid
like broken icebergs
chrysanthemum.

(written by Krystal Holland,
Katie Edwards, Seth Urban,
Melanie Rogers, Mark Horn,
and Nick Mitchell)

 

KENTUCKY

LIZ INMAN

Biology, Honors Biology, and IB HL Biology
Tates Creek High School
An International Baccalaureate SchooL
Lexington, KY 40517
(859) 381-3620
Website: www.inmanbiology.weebly.com

"I found these cool succulent flowers (from a species of Echeveria) that are around 2cm in length (small!). I typically use larger flowers, but I thought it would be cool to use the loupes to peer into this little "flower world." The kids quickly realized they could use their phones, put the loupe up the camera, and take a pretty awesome photo. The student whose photo I'm attaching figured out how to label hers (in addition to the drawing I made them do)."



See Liz's "Seven Private Tips for Biology Teachers" here.

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LOUISIANA

AMY OUCHLEY
College of Applied Sciences, Department of Biology
Northeast Louisiana University, LA

Last fall I used The Private Eye in a Math and Science Workshop for Girl Scouts at Northeast Louisiana University. I wanted to expose 4th, 5th, and 6th graders to the fascinating world of biology in a short period of time (45 minutes) using loupes to look at a wide variety of items: blue jay feathers, mussel shells, foliose lichens, shelf fungi, invertebrate fossils, dried daisies, sweet gum balls, cockleburs and cricket legs to name only a few. To assist me I trained 8 biology graduate students in The Private Eye method in a 2-hr. hands-on workshop. They enjoyed looking and creating with loupes. I modeled The Private Eye teaching strategy that I wanted them to use with the younger students.

The objective of both workshops was to look at many items and choose one that was especially interesting. The next step was to create a list of analogies [using The Private Eye approach: "What else does it remind me of? What else does it look like?]. Then students were instructed to scatter their analogies [in the form of metaphors and similes] and words on a piece of paper and web or connect them in a random fashion. Webbing can reveal new and unique connections. Next they made a rough draft of a short poem, picture, cartoon, short essay, or advertisement inspired by the webs. They created a final product on a bookmark-sized piece of cardstock (these are free leftovers from print shops). We laminated the bookmark, punched a hole, and hung it on a ribbon. Each girl wore their creation to the next session of the workshop and had a unique, visible reminder of what they experienced that day. Approximately 90% ranked this session as their favorite. The graduate students want to help facilitate other workshops. This is just one of the ways I've shared The Private Eye.

 

MAINE

ELIZABETH BAIRD
St. Joseph's College of Maine
Standish, ME

How exciting to call the Private Eye number and have you answer. I am still on Cloud 9. My students loved the whole story. We discussed your program, I handed everyone a copy of page 3 to 9 and told them to read it many times. I explained our phone call and handed them a page of notes I took during our conversation. Most had a loupe. I had extras to lend- nothing was going to stop us. I gave everyone a plastic bag for loupe looking materials to bring back to the classroom. It was a gorgeous day as we walked across White's Bridge Road to the farm that has just been given to the college. Jenn Caron had her digital camera charged and took photos.

Our public relations and outreach program is now housed in the early farm house. Several of the staff expressed interest in what the kids were working on so we went in to meet everyone.

Each student adopted a square foot (or more) of land to watch. March 20 was the first day of spring. There was still ice over parts of the ponds. Everyone took field notes and collected specimens. No one wanted to leave. We went back to class and read the poems my 6,7, and 8th grade students had done using a dead leaf. My students could not believe middle-schoolers had written so well.

We examined acorn hats and came up with a long list. Many of these students will be traveling to University of Maine, Orono, tomorrow for an educational conference. I also will be teaching section B of this same course tomorrow so I will have the chance to try this all again. The weather will be less sunny and it may rain...we may have to stay inside, but we'll see.

The students suggested we do a Class website around The Private Eye. It will be fascinating to see how many students will get hooked and continue the relationship with their land after the semester. Most live close enough to revisit the spot through the summer and they will be returning in the fall, so we will see.

We need to come up with a Field Study Kit. I have thought of tongue blades with each student's name printed in permanent marker to mark their spot. Will everyone really remember just where they were? Plastic bags or a box for samples. Camera. Sketch book and pencils. Something to protect against deer ticks. Something to sit on. Our ground is still wet. I want my students to come up with a form elementary students can fill in for their studies.

Much much more later and thanks again for your support.

MINNESOTA

MARY GLASNAPP
Gran Marais, MN

"I just discovered The Private Eye. I had attended an Audubon workshop and that led me to search the web for more outdoor engaging materials. I happened upon The Private Eye. I ordered the materials, read the manual over the weekend, and OMG. I’ve always been so paranoid about drawing. All I could do was stick figures. I read the TPE directions: Loupe-Look. Loupe-Draw… even then I felt a panic attack. Where to start? And I remembered it said, “Draw a frame” … so I started with a square frame… but then remembered the book said you could also use a circle frame… a circle might be easier.

I picked a tiny, fuzzy weed and started with the stem and I just kept going and all of a sudden I had a drawing! All weekend, I was loupe-exploring. I even got my husband involved. I was so pleased by my drawing I ended up sharing it with my co-workers at a reading workshop on Monday. It was a kind of show-and-tell of what was possible with this [Private Eye] Project. I teach science five times a week to third and fourth graders. The Private Eye blends in beautifully. Now I’m sharing The Private Eye with the K-2 teachers as well. I’m so excited about this!"

MISSISSIPPI

"Connecting Children with Nature: 
Using The Private Eye at Summer Camp"
TERRI JACOBSON,
Wildlife Biologist and Environmental Education Specialist
U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, Jackson, MS

Summer camps are one way to connect children with nature.  Terri Jacobson with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initiated a partnership with Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi to start a Nature Detectives Camp in 2009.  The day camp uses The Private Eye project as a foundation for hands-on, interactive, inquiry-based learning.  The campers use jeweler’s loupes to examine nature up close while taking notes and drawing in their journals. 

At each camp, the campers start their own Private Eye nature museum collections.  One year, the campers drew their own cartoons based on Private Eye analogies.  Another year, we created mini-habitats for pillbugs inside magnifying boxes.  We also played analogy bingo for door prizes.  Swayze McDearman, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service teen volunteer helps with the camp.  Swayze said “the two highlights of camp are worm day and insect day.  The campers get really excited interacting with the wiggling worms or when they catch their first angry bee, buzzing in a net.”

Jennifer Tompkins of Millsaps College is pleased to host Nature Detectives camp and says “the College is excited about the partnership with the Service and is thrilled with the opportunity of connecting children to nature.”  Jennifer’s daughter even attended the Nature Detectives camp where she made exciting discoveries with her Private Eye’s jeweler’s loupe and enjoyed all the nature journaling activities.  For information on the Nature Detectives Camp, send an email to terri_jacobson@fws.gov

photos and report courtesy of Terri Jacobson

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MONTANA

CARRIE ANDERSON - "The Private Eye and Grassland Management"
KATIE ALVIN - "Young Naturalists at the Big Sky Institute"

CARRIE ANDERSON
Tofte Ranger District
Superior National Forest, MT

Thank you for allowing me to make copies of a few pages of your "Private Eye" publication to distribute to about 20 National Grassland Managers at the Grassland Managers Conference in May of 1998. In addition, the loupes were featured during the field trip portion of the conference. Participants (grassland managers and Forest Service administrators from the national office) got down on their bellies to explore the land they manage up close. They then used that experience to make a drawing and to write poetry. It was risky business with the high bureaucrats, but they LOVED it! They kept the loupes (which hopefully will find their way to educators in their respective offices), and listed the activity as one of their favorites of the conference. Which is all a long way of saying "thank you" to you and your efforts to promote these incredible tools!

 

NEW MEXICO

KATHRYN BREWER - "Making Activities Thrilling with The Private Eye"
PRISCILLA LOGAN - "Loupes and Classroom Management"
SUSAN WING - "Art and The Private Eye"
JANET KAHN - "Fine Arts and The Private Eye"

KATHRYN BREWER
Director of Educational Programs
Earth's Birthday Project

I recently visited a first-grade classroom where students were looking at ladybugs.  Their Private Eye loupes made this activity thrilling and magnitudes more educational than it might have been otherwise.   Now that science is returning to elementary schools, more teachers have the opportunity to make close observation one of their everyday activities.   Earth's Birthday Project is committed to helping you make this happen!"

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PRISCILLA LOGAN
New Mexico Outstanding Environmental Educator of the Year Award

I have been using the Private Eye loupes for about the last ten years. Five years in the classroom and now five years in outdoor classroom teacher training in various schools and districts here in New Mexico. I am a scientist as I majored in Bacteriology and Chemistry and I know good tools. They are the greatest!In the classroom I was a Title One Reading Specialist for 25 years improving student comprehension, vocabulary and thinking skills. The loupes were used outdoors as observing tools and then as the impetus for writing and learning vocabulary words to describe what they saw as well as what they saw reminded them of. They were like "study carrels" in their ability to give students their private space to learn.

In the five years since I retired I have used the loupes in training teachers about how to use the outdoors to improve language arts, science and math skills. Classroom management is one of the stumbling blocks for many teachers as they take their classes outside. One of the reasons for that difficulty is that student thinking skills soar up to the highest thinking skills such as synthesis, analogies, etc. Since students are thinking on that higher individual level, that can make group work more challenging. One of the techniques to handle this wonderful dilemma is to use tools that let students stay at those higher thinking levels while following dictates of the group. The Private Eye loupe allows students to do just that.

 

NORTH CAROLINA

DEBBIE GOLDBECK - "Principals Executive Program"
LIZ BAIRD - "UTOTES: Outdoor Classrooms and The Private Eye"
LIZ BAIRD - "More Sharing with Bolivian Educators"

DEBBIE GOLDBECK,
Assistant Director
Principals' Executive Program
University of North Carolina, NC

The Principals' Executive Program, established by the North Carolina General Assembly, is a group of professional-level management courses for public school principals, superintendents, and assistant principals; its ultimate objective is the significant improvement of students' performance.

Participants in recent programs have discovered the joys of The Private Eye, finding it an engaging and invigorating approach to thinking skills, creativity and scientific literacy. After one such session, assistant principal Hazel Yarbrough invited me to do a longer workshop for her teachers at Benson Middle School. After that workshop, Hazel wrote the following letter:

Benson Middle School Looks at the World a Little Bit Differently These Days

Benson Middle School teachers in Benson, North Carolina are eager to begin to help their students learn to look at the world with a different perspective as they start to use their new teaching tool: The Private Eye Kit. Assistant Principal Hazel Yarbrough met Debbie Goldbeck last year at the Principals' Executive Program in Chapel Hill where Debbie demonstrated the use of the Private Eye loupes, and she was eager to have her teachers use this tool in her school. On February 6, Debbie spent the afternoon with the Benson teachers demonstrating the ways the Private Eye loupes and process can be used in a variety of classrooms...not just the science classes. While the workshop expenses and Private Eye Kit were purchased with Eisenhower funds, all the teachers benefited from this training session.

A language arts teacher is ready to use the loupes in her writing classes to help her students prepare for the state writing test. She said, "This is perfect for teaching descriptive writing!" The visual arts teacher responded, "It will add a new dimension to my instruction of the photo-magnification process. I look forward to using the loupes and the questioning strategy." Other teachers added, "Use of the loupes and questions will enhance the observation skills of my students", "I think the materials are excellent for expanding creative thinking skills", and "this instructional program will teach students to look for the good, positive, and interesting aspects in all people, things, pieces, and situations all of the time." Mrs. Yarbrough was thrilled to find a workshop that met the needs of all her teachers and helped them see ways to expand teaching higher level thinking skills in their classes.

I want to share a comment similar to those in Hazel's letter, one made by the social studies teacher. He said ... that if students looked at objects using the loupe [with the questions] and began to see them in a different perspective, this skill would carry over to life in general...looking at people and situations in a different way.

The Private Eye at Summer Field Institute: In June, twenty-four educators from across North Carolina and two educators from Bolivia, South America, gathered for a week long Summer Field Institute at Blue Jay Point County Park in Wake County, North Carolina. Each of the North Carolina educators represented a school which had been a part of the "Using The Outdoors to Teach Experiential Science" (UTOTES) program led by The North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences and funded by the National Science Foundation. UTOTES is a teacher education program designed to improve elementary science instruction by improving school grounds for hands-on-learning. Educators learn to enhance their school grounds for wildlife and use these habitats to teach all subjects. The Summer Field Institute provides a lead teacher from each school the opportunity to develop strong leadership skills and to learn more about school grounds in North Carolina. We have had educators from Bolivia join us as a result of the Kellogg Fellows program.

The initial outdoor activity had each team of six teachers explore the grounds of the lodge, find interesting natural history items, and flag them with surveyor's tape. After marking their interesting finds, the teams shared what they found interesting with the other teachers. Each team then chose one item to investigate more fully. We called these unique natural history items "Natural History Mysteries". Each participant was given a Private Eye loupe to examine the team's "Natural History Mystery". Everyone was asked to observe the mystery item and to loupe sketch it in his or her journal. After sketching, they used The Private Eye questions to create list of ten analogies. From these observations they went into the field guides to see if they could figure out their "Natural History Mystery".

Each team then shared interesting information they learned about their items. All of the participants agreed that spending time observing and sketching their mystery item made it easier to identify later. They enjoyed using the analogies as they tried to explain the way their mystery item fit into the system. For example, the flower of the wild ginger plant was described as a "little vase". The team guessed that the vase shape would help lure small insects into the flower.

We used the loupes throughout the rest of the week in many ways: when we traveled to the Botanical Garden we looked at carnivorous plants and seeds; paddled into a local lake and louped the aquatic environment; sampled in a mini-pond and identified aquatic invertebrates; and explored a butterfly garden and examined caterpillars. The field sketches created using loupes were outstanding. Many participants have purchased class loupe sets and are reporting great success with student use. The principal at Fuquay-Varina Elementary School commented that the analogies written by her students using The Private Eye were "terrific examples of the value of learning which combines school grounds and language arts." We look forward to finding new ways to combine the unique perspective generated by The Private Eye with our commitment to helping the public gain an appreciation and understanding of the natural world.

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OHIO

LINDA ROGNESS
Department of Chemistry, Muskingum College
New Concord, OH

Teaching teachers how to teach science using a hands-on approach reminds me of Field of Dreams. If you build it they will come, or in terms of science teaching, if you give the teachers the experience of doing science in an active way, they will use it in their own classrooms.

As a scientist and a teacher of future science teachers, I want these future teachers and their students to stretch their minds, discover fascinating things, feel the joy, beauty, and discovery of science, and realize that all sorts of talents go into being a scientist. “The Private Eye” provides one of the windows to this type of an experience.

I make sure all my teachers, pre-service and already practicing, experience the world through “The Private Eye” because the process provides a mix of techniques and skills that cross math, science, art, writing, and whatever else one might want to include.

First of all, “The Private Eye” opens the world of wonder - of seeing the unseen, seeing the missed or ignored, seeing the obvious in a new way. If the teachers can experience that then they will want their students to experience it also. The loupes also add a visual dimension to the material, encourage higher order thinking skills when combined with The Private Eye questions, and draw in students that might usually say science was not for them. “The Private Eye” helps students connect with courses and material that these students dislike as a rule. The process offers opportunities to extend material for Talented and Gifted and allow other Special Needs groups to experience science.

The following selection of comments from some future teachers indicate how they envision using The Private Eye in their classrooms:

“I really thought The Private Eye was great to use. It gives a very different perspective on everyday items. I never knew the pistil of a day lily looked like a slipper. I know if given the opportunity I would love to incorporate The Private Eye in my class. I know it would open my students’ eyes and minds to different perspectives of everyday things.”

“The Private Eye activity was very interesting to me. Growing up we have never had activities like this. Using the Private Eye can be done in various ways for all age levels and abilities. It can allow students to look at things that interest them, not just 'certain' things. Many subjects can be incorporated from Language Arts, Math , and of course Science. Finally, if an adult was amused and found it fun and interesting, what do you think a child will do?”

“The Private Eye is a really cool way to explore parts of various objects. When viewing my own hand I was fascinated with the brainstorming ideas I was experiencing. I would like to use the Private Eye activities in my classroom. Having children brainstorm about what they are seeing magnified creates many great exercises and lessons.”

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OREGON

DONNA RAINBOTH - "Jeweler's Loupes as Field Microscopes"
GINERVRA RALPH - "Schools Projects: Specialized Training Program"
PAULA WILKES - "Leveling the Playing Field"
BETTE KASOW - "The Private Eye and Writer's Workshop"

DONNA RAINBOTH
PEERS Program
Eastern Oregon State College, OR

Jeweler's Loupes as Field Microscopes: Four or 5 years ago my good friend and teaching colleague, Sharon Freeman, came home from a science conference exclaiming about the outstanding session she had attended and the great tool participants had been given at the end of the session. The session she attended was the Private Eye and the tool was a simple jeweler's loupe.

I work in Natural Resources education and facilitate several workshops each year. Every since Sharon brought that jeweler's loupe home it has become a standard tool at most of my workshops. Teachers often leave our workshops with a loupe in hand. We use the loupes primarily for viewing spiders, insects and aquatic macroinvertebrates and in using them we have made a few germane discoveries (about the loupes, not the bugs).

The Private Eye's loupes fit perfectly into film canisters. You can place the specimen you want to view (spider, ant, bug) into the canister and use the loupe as a top and as a magnifying viewer. The loupe can be slid up and down in the canister which allows you to change the focal length and consequently the focus. We use the clear or opaque canisters. The canisters are free and the loupes cost $2.30. So for less than $75 you can have a field microscope for every student in your class.

The fact that water does not harm the loupes makes them ideal for aquatic studies also. We capture aquatic macroinvertebrates such as mayfly and stonefly larva, put them into a petri dish with a small amount of water, and put the loupe right on top of the specimen. This way the critter can't move out of sight and students get a magnified view of it.

I love using the jeweler's loupes and I am pleased to be able to share our discoveries with other teachers.

The workshop's second day, entitled "A Closer Look at Louisiana", first featured a presentation by the Festival's artist-in-residence from Lafayette, Elemore Morgan Jr., and then a wonderful, all-too-short, introduction of The Private Eye with 5 middle school students instructing the teacher participants. With background music by the Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band, we took a "closer look" at typical Louisiana flora and fauna, including shrimp, okra, oyster shells, sweet gum balls, sugar cane, rice, chili peppers, honeysuckle, and sliced corn on the cob, (unfortunately the crawfish harvest failed that week or we would have examined them too).

It was a great opportunity to discuss many aspects of Louisiana's agriculture, food, and climate, as well as having adults and youngsters exploring through The Private Eye together.

SEE THE
DRAWINGS

 

TEXAS

MARK WAGGONER - "Texas Science Teacher’s Conference 2006"
JAMIE LONG - "The Private Eye and the Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence in Science Education"
TEXAS EDUCATORS - "What Texas Educators Say About The Private Eye"
LAURIE PICKEEP - "Schoolwide Literay Magazine"



MARK WAGGONER
Washington/Jackson Elementary Magnet
Wichita Falls, TX
Program Chair Texas Science Teacher’s Conference 2006

My presentation this past week of The Private Eye went great.  This is the best response I've had.  I was able to walk them through the whole process.  Usually I have teachers spend more time just visiting.  This time they were thoroughly involved and shared many ideas.  Many noted they would love to have class sets.  Our science resource center was interested in building a kit using the loupes and ideas.  I really tried to promote the book.  The more I read it, the more excited I become.  This has been such a rewarding experience.  The best part was that the Superintendent of schools walked through and commented on the program.  He wants me to present to around 100 language arts teachers on November 28th.  It went over so well with the science teachers.  I know the language arts teachers will enjoy it as well.

JAMIE LONG
Language Arts/Dyslexia Specialist
Region VII Education Service Center
Kilgore, TX

I would like to share my experience with The Private Eye Project with you as I feel this program opened not only my eyes, but my mind, heart and soul to a deeper understanding of the learning process students must go through to connect with what we teach

.As a middle school reading and science teacher at Slocum ISD in Elkhart, Texas, I searched for ways to get my students to connect literature, writing and science with real world situations. From new reports, to field studies and environmental research I tried to make learning a fun, life-long skill for my students.

I became a member of the Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence in Science Education which is a “state wide network of K-16 teachers across the state.” [from http://www.thetrc.org/edu/]. I eventually became a Science Teacher Mentor (STM) within the Collaborative which meant that I had to mentor at least five teachers and help them find ways to improve their students’ success in science. I learned so much from working with so many teachers. We truly mentored each other and found many successful tools to motivate our students. As a member of the Science Teachers Association of Texas, I attended The Private Eye workshop at the Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching (CAST) in November, 2004. I was literally moved to tears as Kerry shared the success stories of students who would not/could not write well enough for success in the classroom until they used the loupes to study something a little closer. I knew I had to get my hands – my students’ hands – on these loupes!

I personally bought a set for my classroom. I introduced my students to the process and the results were amazing. The kids wanted to keep their work and unfortunately I did not make copies before returning the products to the students. However, I left the loupes on my desk and students would ask to use them to look at things they brought from home or found on the campus grounds at various times throughout the year.

As a part of my membership in the Texas Regional Collaborative, I was required to present two workshops over activities or lessons that had been successful in my classroom at a Mini-CAST in February, 2005. I immediately thought of The Private Eye! The teachers were as excited as I was about the program and could not wait to use it with their students! I knew I would want to present this again! There are two things I love about being an educator – 1) seeing the students’ faces light up when they make that real-world connection, and 2) seeing that same reaction in the faces of teachers when they know they have something that will reach those kids who need something special to hook them on learning!In May of 2005, I was offered a dream job as a Middle School Language Arts Specialist for the Region VII Education Service Center. It was very difficult to leave the classroom as I felt that I was abandoning my students whom I loved so dearly! But I knew that this new job would allow me to reach thousands of students as I worked to find programs that integrate language arts with the other core subjects: science, social studies and math. I knew right away that The Private Eye was one tool I could use to show how well integration works to open the minds of all students in every grade level – especially middle school students.

In July, 2005, I presented The Private Eye Project to about 60 teachers at the Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence in Science Education Annual Meeting which was held in Austin. I tried to keep my emotions in check as I presented, but I get so excited about the program and no matter how many times I read the poems on the student examples, I get a little choked up. I wish I had a picture of every face in the room as I shared the artwork and the poetry produced by the students at all grade levels. The “oohs and aahs” and gasps for air filled the room with each piece of work shared.

As the teachers shared their own writing about the palms of their hands, the room fell silent in awe. One teacher said, “I didn’t know I could write like that.” Some teachers could not pick their chin off the floor fast enough as they sat in amazement of how the process reached deep inside their souls! Three teachers approached me in tears as they were just amazed that there was hope for so many students who may have otherwise been overlooked. These teachers knew that they had a tool they could take back to the classroom and help students make that connection between writing, art and science.

I stood with tears in my eyes as a veteran teacher thanked me for saying publicly that all students are “gifted” students and it is our job to give them the right tools to discover their own gifts! Another veteran teacher who was just moved to the 5th grade and was told she had to teach Language Arts and Science was overwhelmed by the idea that she had to find a way to teach all those objectives. She knew that the things she learned in that workshop would help her integrate so many of the objectives and she was excited about starting the new year.

I am very excited to see the success of these teachers and their students. I can’t wait to share The Private Eye again and again. It is a marvelous process that helps students reach higher levels of critical thinking as they analyze the world they live in!Thank you David and Kerry for allowing me to share this tool and process with so many GIFTED people!

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WHAT TEXAS EDUCATORS SAY ABOUT THE PRIVATE EYE

“AWESOME! The best presentation at CAST this year [2004]. Every teacher in the room thoroughly enjoyed the science lesson. I felt so inspired by your program….”
— Michelle Henry, Teacher, Mesquite ISD, TX

“The thinking behind the Private Eye is marvelous. It's a powerful tool for teachers of most disciplines. The processes and strategies employed are as powerful for the English Language Learner (ELL) and the special needs student as they are for the gifted and talented student.”
— JoAnn Montes McDonald, Project Director, South Texas Rural Systemic Initiative Assistant Professor of Teacher Education, Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi, TX

“Principals at the various schools said The Private Eye made more impact on their students and teachers than anything else.”
— Dee Goldberg, Science Resource Coordinator, Spring Branch ISD, Houston, TX

“I know you hear it, but it bears repeating...the program works wonders! I presented the “quickie” version to our district teachers of the gifted and talented K-5, bringing some samples from my past experiences. They were so excited to go back and try the program.. …. Even today, as I did a designer bug lesson, the excitement from the students was overwhelming. Thanks, thanks, thanks!”
— Karen Hardy, Teacher, Humble ISD, Humble, TX

“I attended your workshop at the CAST conference in Corpus Christi last week and I was truly amazed by the experience I had with the jeweler’s loupes. I bought your book in the exhibit hall and I have shared the loupes with my students. THEY LOVE THEM!!”
— Jamie Long, Language Arts/Dyslexia Specialist, ESC Region 7, Kilgore, TX

“I just got home from CAST in Houston - I couldn't stop talking about the workshop. I want my kids to experience this - open their eyes. Thanks for the great presentation!!!”
— Sabra Paul, 7th Grade Science Teacher, Sugarland, TX

“The Private Eye is a great researched-based resource for inquiry-based instruction, writing integration with science, and creative sparkler! It's such a profound concept made simple.”
— Becky Wivagg, Science Resource Specialist, ESC Region 12, Waco, TX

“Nobody’s as good as David and Kerry. If I could have a million of their workshops it wouldn't be enough. The teachers just ate it up. They just loved it."
— Patsy McGee, Science Resource Coordinator, Beaumont ISD, TX

“My teachers were so excited about the workshop and kits. I've never seen something so powerful as The Private Eye!”
— Sara Flusche, Lab Facilitator, North Central Texas College, Gainesville, TX

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VIRGINIA

NANCY LIBSON
Director, SPARK
Cultural Arts Exemplary Project
Claremont Immersion School
Arlington, VA

[SPARK grant summary    … “We chose The Private Eye as an inaugural program to introduce our new exemplary project in the cultural arts.”
… The Private Eye is important because it provides a methodology for all teachers and students to embrace within individual classrooms while also providing the opportunity for interdisciplinary study throughout the school.” ]

In August, 2007 we had the wonderful opportunity to have David Melody and Kerry Ruef present an all day workshop about The Private Eye to teachers and staff at Claremont Immersion School in Arlington, VA.  Teachers naturally have a curriculum in place and The Private Eye allows for the teacher to work with students to look closely, (in this instance with a jewelers loupe) to slow down and examine the subject area, to question and as a result to become better thinkers, questioners, and problem solvers. This model embraces important learning practices and it was chosen because all teachers can benefit from the skills set.

While lessons that integrate areas of study and [The Private Eye] program have spanned the grades and disciplines —we are also enthused that teachers throughout the grades have been inspired to utilize The Private Eye for select lessons. Already fifth grade and Art are working together to examine science, poetry and art. They are incorporating the various aspects of The Private Eye methodology. Grade two has been inspired to work with a team that includes technology, science, art, poetry and Private Eye processes.

In December the staff at Claremont had an in service presented by our Exemplary Project in the Arts (SPARK) director, Nancy Libson. The objective of the afternoon was to review The Private Eye process, renew enthusiasm, and address additional aspects of The Private Eye. We chose The Private Eye as an inaugural program to introduce our new exemplary project in the cultural arts. We are developing partnerships with area cultural institutions and our goal is to partner each grade with a cultural institution. The Private Eye is important because it provides a methodology for all teachers and students to embrace within individual classrooms while also providing the opportunity for interdisciplinary study throughout the school.

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WASHINGTON

GRETCHEN COE - "From My Garden to Ancient Greece"
LIBBY SINCLAIR - "Molly Can't Draw?"
KIM HUGET - "Cancer Prevention Study"
MERIDA SCULLEY-DIXON - "Clear Communication"
LIBBY SINCLAIR - "Money, and Dusty Miller and the Inuit"
JOAN FISET - "Accessing the Imagination"
MONA HEIN - "7th graders and Kindergartners Team Up"
KINDRA ANKNEY - "The Habit of Looking Closely"
KINDRA ANKNEY - UPDATE (15 years later!)
MEGHAN JOHNSON - "Excerpt from a Grant Proposal for a Private Eye Class Kit"
CAROL FLETCHER - "Theorizing with The Private Eye"
SANDRA VANDERVEN - “Substitute Teaching With The Private Eye”
DIANE GARMIRE - "Art Infusion and Gifted Education "

GRETCHEN COE
Asa Mercer Middle School,
Seattle Public Schools
Seattle, WA

[Note: Unlike the other field reports in this section, this letter first appeared in The Writing Notebook, January/February 1994, but we wanted to share it in Field Reports. In a moment you'll see for yourself why.]

Revelations come at all times and places, it is said. Yet, I hardly expected such insight while on hands and knees weeding my flower garden. Not long before, I'd attended a Private Eye workshop for our middle school staff. Now a week or so later, I was scrambling around on all fours, jeweler's loupe in place, discovering the flora and fauna of my backyard. The Private Eye questions, "What else does it remind you of?" and "What else does it look like?" played a litany in my consciousness.

My awareness had been altered. Analogies leapt out at me like fleas off a dog. Poets, sports writers, politicians were flooding me with analogies, and I'd only just realized it. Analogies had begun to invade my own writing, stealthily at first, purposefully later.

When I returned to the classroom my students predictably devoured the lessons using loupes. Their drawings and poems shimmered proudly on the bulletin board. But the true breakthrough came on a day when the loupes were snugly resting in their plastic cases. In a discussion of Sounder, my class was thorough in the who, what, where, and when. But I felt they were missing the heart of the book. Unexpectedly, I heard myself say, "What else does it remind you of - you know, in real life?" Slowly hands poked up. What followed was a tapestry of stories about loss - grandparents, parents, siblings, pets, respect. When each story had been told, we sat quietly cloaked in the depth of our own experiences. At last we found the heart of Sounder and it was our own.

That one experience became the springboard for my writing instruction. Every year, as part of the study of ancient Greece, we study and write fables. This year we initially examined fables using the Private Eye questions, "What does this remind you of (in real life)? What student is like the hare and who is like the tortoise? And why do you think they're like that?" Not surprisingly, the quality of the fables exceeded any of previous years. Even more noticeable was the purpose with which they wrote. No more "I don't get it. What are we supposed to write?" The Private Eye provided the catalyst for making the essential, personal connection.

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LIBBY SINCLAIR,
3/4th Grade Multi-age Classroom
Decatur Elementary School
Seattle, WA

Here's my Molly story.

Last year my students did a picture-book project - using The Private Eye. They wrote stories and illustrated their writing. Third grader Molly was very frustrated. Although she had written a piece she was very fond of, she put her head down on her table and said she "just hated the drawing part" because she was "no good at drawing". The whole notion plagued her until she solved it by enlisting a fellow classmate as illustrator to help her finish her book.

A year later fourth grader Molly was working on a research project which involved illustrating a series of postcards. To my surprise I overheard her offering to be her group's illustrator because "I'm pretty good at drawing." My theory about this change in her opinion of herself is that repeated experiences with The Private Eye gave Molly some new ways to think about drawing and gave her increasing confidence in her work over time.What a treat to be a teacher and watch a student make such a change!

I want to thank you for the loan of the Private Eye materials and for your invaluable advice and suggestions about using the materials. The Private Eye was a success at our retreat. We all enjoyed looking, with amazement and wonder, coming up with analogies, and theorizing, as well as thinking up ways to test our ideas. The next thing you know the CARET study center staff will all be writing grant proposals for research projects!We didn't use dusty miller plants at the retreat. The day I went to the Seattle Garden Center in the market the dusty millers were looking a little pathetic, so I got another furry-leafed plant, Plectranthus argentea. P. argentea worked well. It was surprising how many analogies we all came up with. This plant was particularly fascinating in that the tiny, brownish spots you could see spread al over the top and bottom of the leaves when viewing them with loupes turned out to be, when viewed through the dissecting microscope, translucent, red globules. They reminded me of ornaments on a Christmas tree. We wanted to dissect some of them from the leaf we were examining, but were unable, for lack of dissecting tools. At any rate, our observations led to a discussion of what their function might be and how we could test our hypotheses.We unfortunately ran out of time before we could do any drawing--a real disappointment. Despite that, doing The Private Eye was fun and pretty amazing. Highly recommended--and it ain't just kidstuff!  Again, thank you for all your help.

Fingerprints

My print looks like the theater seats,
the growth lines of a tree.
Its grooves and lines remind me of
the ripples on the sea.
As dry, as cracked, as desert sands,
an alligator's skin,
as parched, as old, as Canyonlands,
this is where my prints fit in.

A Flower
A flower is a star,
it stays like the starbright moon.
Soon
the moon
will hide
softly,
under my bedsheets.

— Liam Dixon, age 8

Living on Coral
I sit
on a white marble cliff,
imbedded with gold.
Eating a cold crumpet,
looking out
on the Alaskan landscape

— Ryan Dixon, age 9

Dusty Miller
Like a great tree,
coral branches sag
from the weight of a fine snow
that surrounds them.
Yet the strange tree stands alone,
snow gently melting
on its leaves.

— Alex Fenner, grade 4

Undertow

Rolling hills call your name
above the endless tunnel.

Flashing lights warning
of danger, footprints

melt as you look, swirling
down a storm drain

out to sea. Footsteps
underwater, cells multiplying in

overgrown seaweed waving
through water like limp swords

protecting the ocean floor.
Wandering through darkness

you can still hear
echoes of your wishes.

— Joel Barham, grade 12

WEST VIRGINIA

GENEVIEVE BARDWELL - "Energy Systems, Insects, and the Private Eye"
BRENDA YOUNG - "Kindergarten Descriptions"

GENEVIEVE BARDWELL
Curriculum Coordinator
Health Sciences & Technology Academy
West Virginia University, WV

I spied The Private Eye loupes at the national NSTA meeting in New Orleans. Intrigued, I bought three of them, along with the book. After initial examination of the book, I was hooked with using the loupes and "thinking by analogy".As part of the Interactions with Energy project, another teacher and myself were designing an "Energy of Living Systems" module to share with teachers during a Eisenhower Professional Development workshop. The "thinking by analogy" activity using the loupes was a perfect introduction for our module and fits in precisely with the methods prescribed by the new National Science Education Standards and Benchmarks for Science Literacy. We bought sets of 25 for each of the elementary and middle school teachers in our workshop. By initially making observations of insect life with the loupes, participants became familiar with scientific processes. Pictures were drawn (recording observations) and analogies were made. From the analogies, the teachers came up with various hypotheses that addressed their questions, such as "How do insects obtain energy?" and "What are the functions of specific insect body parts?". Once a hypothesis was formulated, this led to designing a set of procedural steps, which addressed the original question. This strategy is outlined in The Private Eye, and enables teachers to involve their students in experimental design. From presentations I have given to teachers, I have heard many comments that praise the ingenuity of the loupes and "thinking by analogy". Any tool, whether hand held or a "thinking" tool, that makes the National Science Education Standards easier to follow, will be welcomed by many teachers as they begin to re-align their curriculum.

 

CANADA

BRITISH COLUMBIA

IAN HARGREAVES - "Can You Guess? "
IAN HARGREAVES - "Report From the North"
ELAINE HUMPHREY - "Scientist in Residence at the Vancouver School Board"

Amethyst

It looks like a scarred
Dinosaurs head,
And the rough crags
Of a mountain range.
It reminds me of a
Purple gravel bed,
And of a cow with a
Nose so strange.
It looks like the crashing waves,
At Torrey Pines, CA.
And it reminds me of a canyon.
It looks like the soft sunrays,
On the wrinkled hide of an
Elephants head.
It reminds me of
Little suckling piglets.
And their mamma pig
Overhead.

— Hannah A. de Putter

Agate

It looks like I’m in a galaxy,
Or maybe I’m not .
It looks like I’m in a crystal cave,
Or maybe I’m not.
I think I’m on Mars,
Or maybe I’m not.
Oh no it’s exploding,
All space is exploding,
Now it is raining
All purple raindrops.
The soundwave it’s killing me
My ears are exploding.

— Tessa Lee Goodwin

What am I?

My eyes are like a kaleidoscope,
My wings are like four screen doors,
I have a long tail,
When I fly I look like a B-52 bomber,
Some of us are green while others are blue,
Some of us have a wing span of four inches,
like to eat mosquitoes.
What am I?

— Samantha Krystel O’Leary-Luzney

Fingerprint

It looks like a whirlpool
Turning roughly in waves.
Up above, a rainbow with tons
Of colours, like a mess of paint
Spilled like wrinkles on a face.
It reminds me of the rings
On the trunk of trees
Scattered like shoelaces.
Its like the blood-red veins,
In your eye. The eye looking
upon the designs of a dress.
It reminds me of the busy traffic
On a Saturday afternoon.

— Janine Galandy

Sea Urchin

Volcanoes resting on purple skin
Garter snakes intertwined
Hills and mountains and pentagons sure are a big surprise!
Tentacles waving to and fro,
Many eyes a-watching.
Flesh like apricots,
To have a loupe look,
Is to see the world,
From a bugs eye view!

— Shea Wyatt

 

MEXICO

LUPITA BENITEZ
Leon, Gto  Mexico

I attend a workshop at the AMS [American Montessori Society] Meeting in Boston last April. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to buy 20 eye loupes for my class. I started with the hand exercise. Then I gave each child a flower from a bugambilia plant. They looked closely with the loupe and wrote ten observations. Then they picked their two favorites to share in the circle. We did it like the sandwich poem idea. After all of them shared everyone was quiet in wonder and astonishment: They had actually created a poem! I couldn't believe it either, children are indeed full of poetry! I'm planning to make a little book with the children's poems to give their parents. Thanks a lot!

See the poems...

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MARSHALL ISLANDS

CATHERINE C. ZUSKY
Darthmouth College

I worked for two years at an elementary school in the Marshall Islands, and I used the Private Eye loosely in my 6th grade classroom. I was working with students who had very basic English ability, and I was supposed to be teaching them science. Science can be hard to explain when there is a major language barrier, and I found the Private Eye to be a good way to explore and investigate without having to use difficult language. The Marshallese teaching culture also does not traditionally incorporate hands-on learning, so the Private Eye was a totally new kind of learning experience for my students. I used the Private Eye book and the little microscopes in both a coral unit and a plants unit. In both, each child investigated different types of coral/plant and each of its parts through the microscope, worked on drawing it, and making models based on the shapes they saw through the lens. We did a bit of making analogies, looking at each child's drawing and thinking of what else it resembled, or what shapes and patterns we saw. The kids absolutely loved the mini-microscopes, and were very excited to experiment with the different magnitudes when putting them one on top of another. The Private Eye worked very well as a multi-disciplinary tool, involving science, art, and language learning. Although I did not use the Private Eye all year, or in every unit, when I did use it, the kids loved it and it seemed to work well for them in understanding the inquiry and hands-on part of science.

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BRAZIL

JOOP STOLTENBORG
São Paulo, Brazil
Fall 2007

My wife Tini and I, born in Holland, live 26 years on a small farm in the state São Paulo 250 east of the city São Paulo. Before, we lived 14 years on a Dutch colony, called Holambra, 150 km from São Paulo. On the farm we grow and sell organic vegetables and fruits that are sold through a home delivery system. Seventy percent in the city São Paulo and 30% in neighbor towns. Together with the vegetable box goes a newsletter that has an article, 4 recipes and health information. This same information is also in our web site www.aboaterra.com.br.

The articles from the last 25 weeks are translated to the English language as you can see at the homepage on the left hand side below.

Four years ago we started an ecology program for visitors and school kids with 3 options:

1. sensabilisation to the nature (4 hours)

2. Learn about organic vegetables and fruit growing (4 hours)

3. Learn more about food and alimentation based on the book “Eat to live” from Joel Furhman

In 2005 and 2006 we received 9.000 visitors, 70% kids from 5- 12 years. Most of the schools don’t have money the pay for the cost so we found a sponsor who helps us for the cost of food and monitors.

From a lecture of Fritjof Capra in Brazil (3.500 participants), some years ago, we heard about the Center of Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, CEL and the workshops “Rethinking school lunch” were we participated 20-22 June 2007 and got the book ”Ecoliteracy” with Kerry Ruef’s article  “The Loupes Secret………………..”

With the knowledge we received in Berkeley we have adapted our program and started with one school from the neighbor town Itobi, to use our vegetable garden and the nature we have on our farm for the children (8 to10 years)
For that program we want to use The Private Eye.

From what we read about it, it seems fantastic. We are very curious to receive The Private Eye book, the jeweler’s loupes, and start practicing the process.

Sincerely,

Joop Stoltenborg
Sìtio A Boa Terra (The good Earth)

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