Reflections

I viewed Ashley, Tammy, and Natalie's voice threads and they all did wonderful.

I think the different ways we discussed we can use technology in the classroom were very useful. I liked using Stellarium, I think it would be important for the teacher to have a clear objective in mind on how they wanted to use this program to teach, but it is very helpful in observing the sky. I also really like kidspiration and I think that would be a great way to teach and also assess what students have learned about a particular subject. I think the hard things in using these technology tools to teach science would be just making sure you have the resources and that each student is able to use them adequately to be effective learners.

Science Challenge

Technology Enhanced Science Activity!

The activity I will be doing will be using Stellarium to understand the rotation of the earth and our view of the sky as we move. The CONTENT I will be focusing on is 3rd grade science, Standard 1, Objective 2d: Use a model to demonstrate why it seems to a person on Earth that the sun, planets, and stars appear to move across the sky. The PEDAGOGY I will use will be:
1) Ask the question "Why does it seem to a person on earth that the sun, planets, and starts appear to move across the sky?" Have the students discuss in groups their ideas.
2) The students will then do a simulation using Stellarium. They will conduct a simple investigation and gather data to discover about the appearance of the sky during the rotation of the earth. On Stellarium, students will select a point on earth they would like to observe the sky from. Using the features on Stellarium, they will select under "sky viewing options" the equatorial grid. They will choose one constellation they want to observe, the moon, a planet, and the sun. Using the fast forward feature, students will record the position in the sky each of these items at a certain time of day/night over the period of a month.
3) Using the data they have collected, students will construct and explanation for the question they first discussed.
4) The students will then discuss investigations made and develop explanations using their observations.
The technology being used works very well with the pedagogy because it allows the students to question, gather data, and come to an understanding with the data they collect.
The REPRESENTATION of the content produced by the technology is multimodel in that it uses visual and textual technology to teach the subject. It will help the students better understand why the sun, planets, and stars appear to move across the sky because they are actually able to view the movement of the sky using Stellarium.

Virtual Tour Reflections...

I watched Ashley, Tammy, and Natalie's earth tours.

I think the virtual tour is a great way to help kids discover the world right inside the classroom. It is a very interactive way for kids to learn and I'm sure get them excited about discovering new things. It's great because you can't always hop on a bus and go on a field trip to anywhere you want, but having them use Google earth is a great way for them to experience a little more about what you are teaching. The disadvantage of using Google earth tours would be the time it takes to create the tour. Also, if this is an assignment they were going to do at home, hopefully the students would have the resources available to view the tour.

Ecosystems Around the World

Content for Virtual Tour:
3rd Grade Social Studies Objective 2
Describe how various communities have adapted to existing environments and how other communities have modified the environment.

a. Describe the major world ecosystems (i.e. desert, plain, tropic, tundra, grassland, mountain, forest, wetland).

b. Investigate ways different communities have adapted into an ecosystem.

I chose to do the virtual tour on major world ecosystems and how communities adapt to those environments because this curriculum fits very well with using this type of technology to teach. I think the best way to learn about the environment is to go out and explore it. A third grade class will probably not be allowed to fly to South America and Africa to learn about the ecosystems there, but they can learn through seeing pictures, watching films, finding it on a map, and reading about it. This multimodal representation helps students to be able to interact with the environment in a sense and discover more about it then just reading about it in a text book.

Location	Activity Description	Google Earth Content
1. Sahara Desert	Read about the Sahara, describe the inhabitants who have typically lived there over time and how they survived. Look at the temperature in the Sahara Desert. Now compare it with the other locations on the tour. What are the differences in temperature? What do you think causes the differences?	Wikipedia
2.Amazon Rain Forest	Read the National Geographic article and think about why the rain forest is in danger. What are the negative influences on the environment? How is that impacting the surrounding community? Come up with your own plan based on what you have learned, to help the rain forest survive.	National Geographic Article
3. Rocky Mountains	Look at pictures of the mountains at different times of the year. What are your observations? What are the changes you see at different times of the year. How do you think the surrounding community of people adapt to the changes in the weather? How do the animals adapt?	Picture Links
4. Florida Everglades	Watch the National Geographic clip about the Everglades. What are the Everglades a home to? What are the negative influences right now impacting the Everglades?	Video

thoughts about digital stories

I think that creating and presenting digital stories is a very fun and creative way to teach in the classroom. I think that it could be very challenging though because of the time that it takes to create a digital story. On top of all the other responsibilities a teacher has, it may be hard to make the time to create a digital story to present the information you need to verses using some other digital technology to get the job done.