Activity 3C
C & I 335
Summer, 1998

Melissa Netznik
Lincoln School
Springfield, IL

Title: Famous Scientists from the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Grade Level: Science/6th Grade

Time Frame: Two 50-minute class periods (The initial research will take place during a series of stations, which will take approximately seven class periods. Three of the stations will involve scientists research, while the other four will deal with the topic being covered in science, Mixtures and Solutions.)

Overview: During our Renaissance thematic unit, students will be studying a variety of topics related to this time period in each subject area. In science, students will research famous scientists. Each team will then create a slide to present their scientist's biographical information. This will become part of a class Hyperstudio project, which will be combined with mathematicians, which are going to be researched in math. The final Hyperstudio project will be entitled, "Famous Scientists and Mathematicians from the Middle Ages and Renaissance." This two-day lesson focuses on the creation of the slides for the Hyperstudio project in science.

Purpose: To allow students to create a multimedia presentation to present research collected during our thematic unit.

Objectives: Students will be able to:
1. Work cooperatively in a team to research scientists using a variety of resources, including the Internet, CD-ROMs and printed materials. (This will be completed prior to this lesson.)

2. Summarize the important information researched about their scientist and write a biographical sketch using these important details.

3. Use text and graphics to create a slide for the Hyperstudio project.

Resources/Materials:
1. Internet, CD-ROMs, and printed materials to be used during initial research

2. Hyperstudio program to create presentation

3. Macintosh computers (Seven computers will be ideal to allow each team to work at once to create their portion of the presentation. This will be achieved by utilizing computers within our team.)

Activities and Procedures:
1. Prior to this lesson, which will focus on creating a Hyperstudio presentation, students will have completed a series of research stations to research famous scientists from the Middle Ages and Renaissance using a variety of resources, including the Internet, CD-ROMs and printed materials.

2. As a class, we will "Storyboard" the Hyperstudio project to plan what the presentation will look like, and set guidelines for each team's slide. Each team should include at least a paragraph and a photograph to present their scientist. They must also include buttons and transitions to allow the user to go back to the home page or onto the next page.

3. Students will now summarize the information gathered on each of their research grids, and write a biographical sketch of their scientist.

4. Students will locate a picture of their scientist to incorporate into the Hyperstudio project.

5. Each team will now work at a computer station to create their portion of the Hyperstudio presentation.

6. The Hyperstudio presentation will be presented at the Renaissance Faire, our third quarter culminating activity.

Evaluation: The teacher will use a rubric to score the students on the following requirements:
1. Each student will be graded individually on their specific research grid.

2. Each team will be graded on their slide for the biographical sketch, graphic, the accessibility to other pages using buttons, and the use of a transition to the next page.

3. Each team member will also be graded individually on their participation in the team.

Other Considerations:

• This activity enhances communication skills by allowing students to work in cooperative teams to research and complete the project.
• It also enhances summarizing, synthesizing and evaluating skills because students must choose the most important details obtained from their research to include in their Hyperstudio presentation.
• The topics of issues and legalities may be approached by discussing plagiarism while researching. Also, the teacher may point out that Hyperstudio is a copyrighted program that must be purchased in order to be used.
• This lesson meets the needs of students representing a variety of learning styles because students are working in heterogeneous groups. Also, multimedia presentations do the same because they incorporate the use of text, as well as graphics, audio, and video, which is important when meeting the needs of students possessing a variety of learning styles.