Tuesday, June 5,
Simulating the Real World in Your Classroom:
Dianne Fulton
Natural History Museum: (http://nmnhwww.si.edu)
A Gem of a Story- http://www.bsu.edu/teachers/academy/gems/
This project would
correlate to our current (and future) science goals of earth science. Part of our current FOSS science curriculum
is devoted to identifying rocks and minerals.
I start this unit with Aliki’s book Everyone Needs a Rock.After
learning the properties and attributes of rocks, A Gem of A Story, will
interest the students in all kinds of special rocks that have been
discovered. Different activities listed
in this site also correlate with the hands on experiments that we do in the
classroom. After
an introduction of “A Gem of a Story” on the LTV hook-up, I would let small
groups of students use the computer to explore the museum and learn about the
gems. This process would take
approximately one week. If further
activities were used, the unit could coincide with the Earth Materials unit of
9 weeks.
Students could fill out a simple checklist to
verify which gems they observed.
Students could write out a narrative or imperative paragraph on what
they discovered. This would be assessed
by our writing rubric.
After researching this, I also think the Square of
Life Project would fit in best with my curriculum and grade level.
Square of Life (http://www.k12science.org/curriculum/squareproj)
This project would
correlate with our science study of “Life Structures,” as well as our studies
in environments. A project like this
also includes math and language skills. I would begin this project by
explaining about collaborative projects, and demonstrate what activities we
would be conducting. The site has very
detailed steps of action that a classroom would need.
The site has a timeline
with certain deadlines that we would follow.
The last project was March-May 2001, and again in September-December
2001.
Assessment: the teacher
can create alternative assessments. The
project also provides suggestions on assessment. “Students can be evaluated
based on initial writing exercise, participation in classroom discussions,
mapping and classifying work done with partner or in small groups, written
learning log entries, accurate completion of their square and that of their
partnering school, expository writing in the form of a final report, final oral
presentations, and overall collaborative group work.”
The Weather Webquest at http://sg-4.beth.k12.pa.us/lkrenz/welcome.htm
I have used Webquests before in my classroom and
the Weather Webquest is well written correlates with our Houghton Mifflin
Literacy Program in our 3rd grade theme of Weather. Obviously, this also fulfills science goals
and objectives and provides for the scientific investigation.
A Webquest format makes it easy to introduce to
the class. I use the LTV hook-up and go
over the information. Next, groups are
designed to work on activities. The
tasks are clearly stated and easy to follow.
There are many suggestions to final projects and how to obtain
epals. This is definitely a Webquest
that is user friendly. The assessment
rubrics are provided and seem adequate.
Other Resources:
Webquest on
Springfield, Illinois that I designed for CI335.
Out
of This World Webquest – Site for Solar Systems.
The Illinois State
Museum – Utilize our own city’s museum.
I have used the fossils and the Discovery Place. Then you can follow up with a field trip.