Camp is approaching rapidly here at GRS. We spent this Wednesday preparing for the first day. The first item on the agenda was finding out each group’s campers. We were all excited about our groups and it got us pumped for Monday. We then spent some time going over some logistics. Each group has a group leader for each day, and we also wanted to have a few of us ride the bus with the campers. Eric and I being carless made it a little trickier to figure out transportation, but our final schedule is looking good.

 

We moved on to discussing camp safety. We determined that it would be best if campers created their own safety agreement, but we wanted to make sure the agreement covered a few things. We brainstormed safety procedures for both the beach and in the laboratories on campus.

 

The discussion then moved to the daily schedule that all groups would be a part of. This includes lunch as well as where and when we would debrief after camp.

 

Michael then answered a few questions about creating our lesson plans. The discussion focused here on Wiggins and McTighe’s (2005) concepts of understanding by design (UbD) and backward design. The main idea is to start with an end goal when planning lessons,  instead of working in chrinological order. this way all the planning is focused on fulfilling that goal. Michael also brought up the twin sins of unit design: hands on without being minds on (a focus on style over substance), and coverage (focusing on covering each piece of the curriculum, not bound together by core principles).

After our discussion we moved on to group work, focusing on preparing our lesson plan for the first day.

Team Orange

Team Justice League

Team Purple JAR

 

After our group work, we got back together to wrap up the day. Tiarra had some ideas for our celebration/song on our daily schedule. We also discussed the questions we had run into when working on our lesson plans. Today (Friday) in class we will be sharing our progress so far and determining the tools and materials we need for camp. Stay tuned next week for our first day of camp!

References

Wiggins, G. P., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (Expanded 2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

After receiving our tie dyed shirts, we began class.  I was going to post exciting photos of us posing with our tie dyed shirts, but Jo Ann stole my thunder below.  She has every right to do this, however, because she took the photos then provided them to us as a hard copy, via e-mail and then on her blog.

Also, we stayed at her house well into the night dying our shirts on Friday, and may have dyed her basement floor and her lawn various colors.

Because we had already begun discussing our camp goals and objectives in Seminar, Michael changed our Bell work prompt to ask us to look over our third Critical Commentaries.

Afterwards, every one of us was recognized for our strengths, which was much appreciated.  Of special note was Tiarra’s recognition, which stated that she has superhuman feats of stamina.

We discussed how camp will be an environment where we can take risks without the pressure of the structure of schools, a nice way to start out working with learners.

We were reminded that our Grant Drafts are due tonight at midnight via e-mail to Michael, and our Goals and Objectives are due via Blackboard on Wed.

 

We when discussed Critical Commentary #3.  Some thoughts from that discussion:

- We must become the change we want to see in the world, but how?

- How does understanding yourself help?

- What does it mean to be a teacher leader?

- As GRS grads we will be positioned to be radical thinkers more than many other first year teachers- Michael

- What would you do if you had a student like Miguel?

- Be the voice for change in your school.  Be on a trajectory to be a teacher leader but that doesn’t men signing up for every committee and burning out.  Learn to recognize what caused past burn outs.  – Andrea

 

We split into small groups and discussed our final Critical Commentary, #4:

- It could be a danger if students mis-perceive what science is -Ceb, Jill, and Jessica

- We should ask ourselves “How applicable is this hands on inquiry task to real life?  Would a scientist do this?”  Tiarra

- The separation of learning content and doing inquiry is not necessary.  It is important that the learners learn the topic through the process of inquiry.  Science is non-linear- Eric and Ryan

- There is a difference between a lecture and a whole group discussion, a fundamental shift.  – Michael

 

We then discussed how we can incorporate engineering practices like design into our inquiry based teaching:

- Tiarra told a story about noticing a house next to an eroding stream.  The class had to consider how to prevent the house becoming in danger, and Earth Science content was needed to do this.

- Ryan suggested that students could design their own sextants to look at the moon, rather than have the teacher give them out

 

We discussed must-haves for inquiry based teaching:

- An optimal challenge- Ceb

- Why does what we’re doing matter outside of the classroom?  Make this clear.  – Eric

- Has to be complex- Ryan

- The activity has to address the content of the course- Eric

 

Our vegan leader then told us about a lesson he did with wasps, saying “…..cut their heads off and mash them.”  This was a great inquiry-based lesson, except for that detail.

We discussed how reading scientific articles might be intimidating for some students.  Some ways to handle this:

- Use a news story with more accessible language

- Bring up vocab words as they come up, rather than lecturing, then put them on a word wall

- Ceb participated in a global warming debate when he had Michael in high school.  This teaches kids to have strong evidence to support claims.

 

We then split up into our camp teams to begin planning.

  Team Purple JAR was sent to the cold room, where we almost froze to death! 

When we came back together as a class, we discussed many things about camp:  (sorry about all the lists!)

- Day 1 should be planned to a T before we start

- We have a shelter booked, which is the closest one to the pier

- We shouldn’t let the campers go to the bathroom alone.  There are staff to take them.  Or, we can build in bathroom breaks.

- Snack and lunch will be provided

- We should have a back-up plan if it thunderstorms

Each group then shared what we are thinking of investigating with our campers.  Each group took a slightly different route, which is great!

 

Michael then gave us a tour of some of the spaces on campus we will have to use with our campers on days 3, 4 and 5:

- Rm 285.  We were shown how to use the technology.  If you are unfamiliar with using the touch screen, practice before you do it with campers!

- Rm 285A- the prep room- We have an incubator to do Coliscans in 24 hours, a fridge and a freezer (not for food!), dissecting scopes, hot plates, various types of probes (Vernier, Data Hub), an infrared thermometer, many other tools, and, of course, a slinky and a magic wand!  If you need to learn sterile Coliscan techniques, Michael can help.

Casting a spell

- Rm 162 downstairs- There are colored rolling duffel bags for each group to use.  We also have hip waders, fishing vests, and, of course, Maxi Pads.

We then walked through oddly colored underground caves……….

……and ended up in Hutchinson Hall, where we explored some science labs that we can also use with campers.  These labs have:  lab coats (which will help the kids feel like the real scientists that they are), safety goggles, dissecting scopes (also ask Michael for help learning these), gloves, another incubator and glass wear.

We were reminded to leave the rooms better than we found them, and to make sure to go over basic lab safety with our campers, such as wearing safety goggles, lab coats, not allowing horseplay, and asking before you touch anything.  We also talked about how giving the campers a positive experience on our campus may help them feel that they belong at a college.  It did for many of us!

And………last but not least………I think that Ryan is the only cohortian (not a word) to not have done the class blog yet this semester, so, Ryan, you’re up!

This week, Seminar actually started before we entered!  We read an article from Friday’s Democrat and Chronicle: Children Explore Science in Summer.  As we read we were to jot down “ideas to steal” and “things to avoid during our own Science Camp.  A number of hands-on activities described in the article were worthy of remembering: the number of drops of various liquids that would fit on a penny; writing coded messages in white wax, revealing those messages by applying grape juice; making a tin foil and clay boat that would hold the most number of pennies.  The focus of the week-getting children excited about science, providing opportunities for them to explore and ask questions.  This resonated with us, as we are about to head into our Science Camp.  We want to be sure that we put “science” into the experience.  To do so, we will frame the work around an Essential Question (Ceb’s version:  What’s in there? and how do we know?) that will be shared and revisited daily.  We will model the use of science talk and listen for the use of science talk with our campers.  We will be explicit about the practices of science. We will be sure that as the campers: explore, create models, collect data, analyze data, make claims supported by our data, and present their work to the community, that they realize that they are doing the practices of science, and identify themselves as scientists.  Our challenge will be to:  balance the doing and the understanding during the camp experience.

The Topic of the Day: Assessment… for this chart… we thought back to some of the work we did in 487… here are some of the assessments we wrote (this was a collaborative effort… with Admiral Tiarra… taking command):

We talked briefly about what NSES and NRC says about assessment… gone are the days… wait, that is not quite true… gone should be the days of one end point test to find out if/what learners learned…. the new ideas about assessment posit that assessment should happen before, during and after instructions to diagnose student learning; monitor student progress and guide teacher planning. Assessment should be a guiding force in what and how a teacher teaches and what students learn.  We never got to it, but we were going to make a list of some of the types of assessment will be used in camp.

We worked a bit more on our daily Camp Map…here is a not so neat version of where we got to on this… (previously, we added the practices for each day; Meta Map, Energizers, Ice Breakers and Team Building reminders)…today we added specifics about what will be done, and added a question of the day.

From there we split up into our Camp Groups and worked on Goals and Objectives

Objectives are way harder to author than we believed… but with practice and revision work, we will be pros by the time we are done with this program!

Of course, I would love to report that we had enough time to complete the daily summary and then the closure, but I am unable to do so…. (an arrow for sure).

Right after class we modeled our Camp Tees… done Friday night, then washed, folded and separated by owner by Jill (mega thanks for doing so, Jill).

Ah Friday. Time to learn, and apparently turn the sass-o-meter to 11. Right from the get go it was full of light-hearted whimsy and heaping spoonfuls of the aforementioned sass. It still boggles my mind that two months ago, we were all complete strangers. Below was the agenda for the day, which we  got through and got through really well despite the energy overload of Friday. We didn’t get to work time but we won’t mention that.

First thing we did was a quick debrief on what we thought were some good practices used by the freedom school.

  

(I missed one, sorry about that…)

As a general note, Andrea, Michael and JoAnn, will post times when they are available this week for any help with anything camp-related, so look for that on Blackboard. A friendly reminder: goals are the big final step. Objectives are the little steps that get you to the goal. Activities are the thing you do to build the steps to get to the big goal. It takes me a few tries to get it too.

Next we discussed the Barton and Yang (2000) reading and our Critical Commentaries. This reading hit home for a lot of us. We felt horribly for Miguel, who was a driven scientific mind but he did not fit the system and the system and as Ceb pointed out, said no to the point they discourage and denied him form even taking science classes. Ryan and Jill agreed on the notion that while there should be increased access for all students outside of the culture of power, the culture of power should also be expanded. Next in the discussion was the solutions that we could employ to help the future Miguel’s we would encounter. One idea was to do an artifact day where the students bring in something that represents their passion and with that knowledge tailor the learning to fit rather than resist their passions. Along those lines we should embrace their culture into the academic world. One of Miguel’s dilemmas was that the formal notion of schooling ran counter to what he identified himself with, so helping students associate both as one and the same is a big step. Lastly we can always use the connections we make, both through Warner and beyond, to come and show that scientists are in fact real people and not just some unattainable goal in a lab coat.

After a short break (where the sass level took a dip, oddly enough) we went right into each group’s APK findings. Some common trends among our varied styles and topics were:

-The campers have a fairly solid knowledge base, so there is not as high of a need to scaffold as we thought

-They always went to be right, which is good, but sometimes can hinder open-ended discourse

-Discussion is a must, they love to verbally share ideas

-Skepticism is aplenty, which means they care

Speaking of the campers, camp is really soon… Which means what seemed so far away has now become just around the corner. The photos and names are on Blackboard, so get familiar with the name-to-face connection. And as Michael and Andrea pinter out, if you are unsure about names and/or pronunciations, ask until you get it right. Which also means get it right. We also got our camp group assignments, which was met with 45 seconds or so of silence. But we’re all one big happy family so of course the silence was followed by some joking about captains and such.

A few things we touched on before our reflections:

-We got the NCATE and Warner lesson plans, the Warner one being at a significantly higher level, and one which we will “suck” at. That’s okay because this is our first one and we’ll only get better at these.

-Objectives, goals and activities are going to change as camp goes on. That’s okay too! We’re gonna (sort of) have time to fix things day to day,

-Consider the culture of low expectation the campers may come from during the school year. In the time we have, we do what we can to reverse that. Through our APK’s we know that the campers are energized and thoughtful and eager and ready to go. Therefore, so do we.

I leave you with this little gem. Hopefully we don’t have this mindset but its still british humor at its finest and its moderately relevant to our class.

Alanna, I choose you as the next bloggerina.

Science Seminar 7/7 and 7/14

Since the First Draft of the Safety Essays had been submitted and read, the Topic of the Day-Safety sense in the classroom is vital because….   here are some of our responses- granted they are the tip of the proverbial iceberg, there are so many compelling reasons for classroom safety!

The “as you enter” task was to review the camp lesson plan template received in seminar last week and to jot notes, ideas, questions as each section is reviewed; use the ILS Core Curriculum, A Framework for K-12 Sci Ed practices and Cross-cutting themes, NGSS, and Common Core to find appropriate standards and practices for our use in writing camp plans. Before starting a share-a-thon of camp plan findings, we had a quick discussion about reasons for thinking about Classroom Safety.  In the Safety Essays, most folks included “to protect teachers from law suits”.  It was suggested that in the next versions of the Essays, other reasons would also be included. Recognition work:  Spotlight was on Tiarra’s opening and concluding paragraphs: “Science classrooms are typically full of activities, demonstrations, experiments, and even sometimes, field trips.  All of these types of exercises, add to a students’ experience with science, and helps engage them in learning the ideas and practices of the subject.  However, all of these tasks are potentially dangerous, if safety precautions are not taken into consideration…… The safety of a classroom is a key component in a productive learning environment.  Students, as well as teachers, need to be experts in safety techniques and procedures, and need to be able to react quickly and effectively should an emergency situation arise.  Safety should always be a priority, and is, in a classroom that is prepared.” Next, we spent some time looking at Material Safety Data Sheets and symbols, with a reminder to be sure mention of these make it into the final Safety Essay. During group share, we started by adding to our Camp Map… marking the anticipated K-12 Science practices for each day.  Here is what we thought might work:

• Day 1- (At the Beach- Observe, Explore with tools, question, initial models) Practices 1 and 2-Asking questions defining problems.  Developing and using models.
• Day 2- (At the Beach- data collection, revision of protocol and model as needed)Practice 3-Planning and carrying out investigations
• Day 3- (At U of R- processing data, begin to plan the final presentation) Practices 4 and 5-Analyzing and interpreting data.  Using mathematics and computational thinking.
• Day 4- (At U of R- making claims, supported with evidence from the data gathered, continue to map out presentation)Practices 6 and 7-Constructing explanations and designing solutions. Engaging in argument from evidence.
• Day 5- (At U of R- finish the final presentations and have a dry-run)Practice 8-Obtaining evaluating and communicating information
• Day 6-(At The Freedom School- final presentation)Practice 8-Obtaining evaluating and communicating information

We talked about Essential Questions, but did not settle on any one version.  Stay tune for more on EQ’s. We finished by doing a quick look at each of the lesson plan sections. We had a quick share out… one important consideration from today’s lesson.  I got so involved in the conversation, I forgot to write them down. ps.  the group asked me to stay for their PD’s.  I am glad that I did!  I learned some new “tricks” during each of the presentations. 7/14- Topic of the Day… ideas for making sure that camp is not too “schooly”…

Check out some more Ice Breakers:

http://www.ultimatecampresource.com/site/camp-activities/ice-breakers.page-3.html

During the quiet time as you enter activity, everyone spent time:  pouring over the ILS Core Curriculum, pg 21 from the LE Core Curriculum; looking for Big Ideas that would be appropriate for camp plans; looking over the DKP rubric and the article from Saturday’s paper: Reaching for our beach is easy.

During group share, we added to the Camp Map, at the bottom of the square for each day, reminders to include: energizers, ice breakers, team building activities, and Meta Map work.  We then shared some possible Big Ideas aka Key Ideas- (and talked about the code system)…Standard 4 LE KI 7:  Human decisions and activities have a profound impact on the physical and living environment.  Standard 1-Sci Inquiry-KI 1, 2, 3 were also shared.  The general consensus about the LE checklist… most applied.

The discussion moved to goals and objectives… a crash course, with handouts to paste into our journals for each…a list of possible goals for each of the 8 practices; the ABCD method of writing objectives, a word list for writing objectives.  The fast version:  Goals-an overarching statement that guides the decision making.  Objectives-specific measurable steps that can be taken to reach the goal.

While we were taping things into our journals, we also go a Inquiry Learning Cycle, identifying the parts of the cycle that would be accomplished on each different camp day.

I dropped the big news… next week was the last of Summer Science Seminar as the following two Mondays, we would all be very busy with the campers!  (But to reassure everyone, I mentioned that we would continue to work on crafting plans… and I would be available to help.)

ps.  This week, the group asked me to stay for the dry run of the APK’s… again, I am very glad that I did… it was another very valuable use of my time…. I always get energized listening to the ideas folks think up for the various activities requested of them… it is a mark of a good job, when my mind won’t shut off, and I keep thinking about the work done…. their work, inspires me… and I am so happy that it does!

We started off this past Monday looking back on our discussion from last Friday and on our second Critical Commentary.  The topic; technology and our personal, professional rules for school. Some great thoughts that came up included:

• always having a backup plan
• using technology that is somewhat introductory, so that the students with out experience won’t experience marginalization and a more level playing field for the students is created
• and mastering the technology yourself before implementing it with your students

Tiarra was today’s quotable for a thought she put into her Critical Commentary. “The so-called information revolution itself is actually  and more accurately, a ‘relationship revolution.’ Anyone trying to get a handle on the dazzling technologies of today and the impact they’ll have tomorrow would be well advised to re-orient their worldview around relationships” (personal communication, July, 15, 2014).

 

And now for some due dates!

First, just a reminder (if you haven’t done so already) please request your materials from Michael ASAP for Wednesday.

Second, hopefully by now everyone has figured out their carpools for Wednesday morning.  Remember don’t just GoogleMap “Freedom School” it will take you to the parent organization, not the actual school.

• Critical Commentary #3 is due this Friday 7/18
• All of your APK components are due this Friday night 7/18 (hard deadline of 9:00am Saturday morning).  The APK materials should be uploaded to BlackBoard (same location as our Critical Commentaries) with your self assessment attached all as a single document.  Don’t forget your +’s and ->’s in the self assessment!
• Mini-Grant Proposals (just your drafts!) are due this Monday 7/21 by email to Michael and Andrea

And now, onto APK work!

The remainder of the class was spent observing, participating, but mostly complicating each other’s APK stations.

 

The newly dubbed “Team Fossil” AKA Team Earth Science got us observing all sorts of water which we then labelled as good or bad. There was a period for revision and reflection which got a lot of praise. But not after we fully discussed if you actually could drink toilet water or not.

Team Bio had us discuss who a scientist actually is and then had us put some careers and then ourselves on a spectrum of science. Lots of energy and movement at this station held our attention, despite emerging personalities of “the bad kids in class.”

Team Physics had us label a blank map of Rochester with notable locations and the Genesee River; which got the bad kids riled up (in a creative way).  Lake Ontario was interpreted as the ocean, and a cloud; while Charlotte Beach got some pretend campers thinking that Rochester was near North Carolina.

Lastly, Team Chem presented data and graphs to our make-shift campers who got to draw the own individual graphs and make our own graph of heights (which got some people changing how old they were…).

Overall, APKs went very well for all groups.  Some revisions need to be made but after our experience with such a tough audience I’m sure we’ll all do great.  Two important things to remember; first, we’re not teaching we’re only assessing prior knowledge (hence the APK) if a content question is asked of you just respond “I don’t know, what do you think?” and second, if pictures are a means of your data collection don’t forget to build that into your presentation!

 

Next up for class blog: Team Fossil’s very own Tiarra! (Not sure if we’re blogging for Wednesday or Friday, but you talked so well of the neighborhood and school we’re visiting that I think you’d be the perfect person to put our experience into words.)

Guess who’s back, back again? Cebby’s back, tell a friend! Yes ladies and gentlemen, Ceb has returned from another day in EDU 486 to tell you, the people, about what happened. So, what’s the latest? Well…

 

We started off class by looking over our returned critical commentaries. Focusing on our feedback and score, we voiced any questions or concerns that arose. A common criticism was the need for the unpacking of dense ideas written in our discussions. Occhino reminded us that we can always return a revised copy of our commentaries for an improved grade, but noted that they should be returned around the next day.

Our second critical commentary was due today, so we had a discussion about the readings and our thoughts about them. The topic of a technological divide between old people (anyone over 40 years old, according to Kaitlin) and young people came up. Ryan mentioned that younger people have been used to the increasing technological development in our age, and are easier to adapt to new technologies easier. Someone else also brought up the point that young people have more time to play around with technology, as they have fewer responsibilities. Occhino asserted that, despite his age, he was capable of adapting and taking on the challenge of learning how to use new tech. Rather than being a difference in age, there was a difference in mindset. Some people would be willing to take on the challenge of learning a new technology and others would not.

 

Next, Tiarra told the group her experience at the Freedom School and the surrounding community. She met Brother Brooks, who was described as being tapped into the community and saw the community as a powerful resource for the school and vice versa. He knew everyone’s name and made sure to ask the young ones he came across, where they were coming from and where they were going. Tiarra also informed us about the school’s market and the amount of pride it has instilled in the community. Overall, I’d say that her story has intensified the hype for our trip to the Freedom School on Wednesday.

 

While on the topic of Wednesday, we began developing our APK (assessing prior knowledge) concept interviews. Starting my spitballing concepts to create a station around, each choice was written on the board. We teamed up in pairs to tackle a concept from the board, and then went off to our own spots in around the room to get started. Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly), the teams were quite familiar…

 

Later, we came back and gave each other a rough pitch of what we were planning to do. Eric and I are planning on assessing the students’ knowledge of who scientists are and what they do. Jellica (yet another name for the Chemistry duo), planned to assess the kids on data analysis, specifically correlation. Team Fossil (aka Earth Science) and Physics were going to look at water quality and watersheds, respectively.

Following this, we were given the option to work on our grant project or the APK, with the requirement that we come up with an outline for our grant project. The option to leave was also provided, but like the giant ner… I mean cool kids we are, none of us took that option.

 

So, on next Monday will give the dry run of our APK interviews! Good luck, everybody! By the way, the next class blog will have to be written by… Jazzy Jess!

• What ideas does this idea spark for you….

How real is the concussion concern for East High sports teams?

Let’s brainstorm together – reading the article below, I ponder the following things:

• Connecting STARS with UR researchers (such as Jeffrey J. Bazarian, M.D., associate professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and lead author of the study, published in PLOS ONE.)
• There are many recent published research on the topic in addition to the one above, including more from the UR.
• Possible visible and invisible factors to model: “What is an adequate rest period? We don’t know. Six months may be enough for some players but not for others,” Bazarian said. “The autoimmune response and inflammation we observed in the blood of players who didn’t recover could be a result of genetics, diet, or other factors, but it was not the result of a concussion, since none of the athletes suffered one.”
• Possible empirical studies: “Contact sports” – what counts, what doesn’t, Comparing East to other schools?, What are the tests beyond the MRI test that researchers did… what can we duplicate?  For example, how might we estimate “head blows”?

Researchers were able to track every hit, from seemingly light blows in practice to the most dangerous type of hit – a bobble head phenomenon known as rotational acceleration. They found that the players sustained between 431 and 1,850 head blows in the single football season, none of which resulted in a concussion.

 

Off-Season Doesn’t Allow Brain to Recover from Football Hits, Study Says

Study from University of Rochester this past April

Bazarian’s analysis revealed that white matter changes in the players’ brains started to look different from the control group when players experienced as few as 10 to 15 head impacts with a rotational acceleration that exceeded 6000 rads/sec2. For reference, when a person nods his head up and down as fast as possible, this produces a rotational acceleration of approximately 180 rads/sec2.

Hi All -

I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep up, but I thought it might be interesting to post one idea a day for possible STARS / Donor’s Choose project proposals.

Check out this cool one!!  I’m going to a PI meeting for STARS in D.C. August 20th, and this workshop is one of my options to check out.  Dates: “July 01, 2014 – December 31, 2014” – Could it BE more perfect?  I know it says that the deadline for application is July 1st, but if anyone is REMOTELY interested in participating, let me know.  I’ll see if extensions are possible.  Looks awesome to me!!

April (Y.F.L.)

 

Innovate to Mitigate (innovatetomitigate.org) is a competition for middle and high school students to design a method for combating climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The goal of the competition is to engage teams of students in project-based learning either in or outside the classroom as they design and test a prototype that reduces CO2 and demonstrate that it is effective. Projects can relate to chemistry, environmental science, social science, or behavior change. Interdisciplinary teams of students are welcome! At the end, they will create a video and poster presentation for an online conference. Scientists will judge the presentations; $1,000 in prizes will be awarded. The deadline for application is JULY 1st, but space is limited in this first pilot of the competition to 20 teams, so it will be first-come, first-served. The competition will close in December (2014). Contact Gilly Puttick (gilly_puttick [a] terc [dot] edu or 617-873-9712) for information or to register.

Workshop Link: http://www.innovatetomitigate.org