This site, elementsunearthed.com, has been down for a few months. I apologize for this; it came about due to unfortunate timing and a bad site certificate.
My wife’s credit card, which was being used for the auto payment on this site, was hacked and she needed to get a new card. Unfortunately, this happened just as the auto payment on the old card tried to go through with WordPress. Since the card had been cancelled, the autopayment failed and I didn’t realize this for over a month. In the meantime, the domain lapsed and Go Daddy hijacked the site. If you tried to visit between about last November, 2023 and the end of March, 2024, you would have seen the Go Daddy logo instead of my banner.
When I realized the problem, I corrected the credit card link and re-upped my payments. But the site did not autocorrect as the certificate was incorrect. Originally it was set up with my email from a school where I no longer work, so the certificate would not validate. It took several tries to finally correct that error and update my email. I think everything is working again.
There is just one more problem, which is that my entire media library has become unlinked. So now all of my posts are back, but with a little help from the people at WordPress, I hope to get everything working again soon. Please be patient!
I have been pulled away from much activity on this site due to my continuing efforts to get my doctoral dissertation completed. The first three chapters, which are essentially my proposal, are almost done. Chapter 2, the literature review, only needs a few more sections pasted in with a bit more editing, maybe 2-3 days worth, and I will send it off to my committee chairperson, Dr. Farber. Chapters 1 and 3 have already been sent, although they need editing. My goal is to have all three in shape by the end of May (2024) and in the hands of my full committee by the start of June. I would like to set up the proposal defense by the end of June, get the proposal to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and gain approval by the end of August, then start my actual dissertation research by September. The data gathering will conclude by the end of November, with analysis and write up of the final chapters next spring. I hope (knock on wood, cross my fingers, throw salt over my shoulder, and anything else I can think of) to defend the final dissertation by this time next year.
It has been a long and winding road (cue the Beatles) and more than one complete change of plans. But there is finally coherence in my proposal and plan. I have simplified and cut and slashed until only the essential core remains, which is to study how teachers implement student-created digital media projects in STEM classrooms. This will be done through a Cosmic Creator Challenge at Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City, where I now work as an Education Program Specialist. 6th grade students will demonstrate their mastery of space science standards through creating their own digital media projects using three dimensional choice (choice of topic, choice of medium, and choice of approach). They will present their projects to peers for critique, then make revisions and submit them to the education department at the planetarium for final judging.
We held a pilot program this fall (2023) and the results were excellent, giving me confidence that my plan will work. We saw definite indications of enhanced student creativity and engagement, as well as the effectiveness of three-dimensional choice. We did a pre-and-post test design and scores improved 7.9%, which is about par for project-based learning. Now I just have to convince my committee to let me do this for my dissertation research. I have created a whole new blog site to provide resources and information on the Challenge, and it is at: https://science-creativity.com. Check it out and let me know how you like it and if you can use any of what is there. It has links to flipped software training videos I made last year and ideas for student projects. I will post updates soon on how this first year’s contest went and give information on next fall’s challenge. My site on space science lessons and activities is continuing (https://spacedoutclassroom.com) and has been updated more often since I am now at the planetarium.
Again, I apologize for this site’s unavailability and my lack of attention to it. I have quite a few updates on the elements and places I’ve visited (such as California’s gold country and Bodie, CA) in the past few years, which I will start to add as soon as my dissertation proposal is approved and I have some breathing room again. In the meantime, we are finally back in business.
The Elements Unearthed 