States of Matter Kidsperation Activity

Through doing this technology enhanced science activity, I gained a lot of knowledge about various ideas for using technology in an elementary school classroom. Through Kidsperation, a variety of templates can be created to help students categorize, classify, and sort data according to different properties. Stellarium can help students observe things such as the night sky, the phases of the moon, the planets, or the rotation of the earth in a simple and quick manner. The digital microscopes and probes can also be very useful technological tools to implement into science instruction in the classroom. With the microscopes, the students can collect and observe different organisms. The probes will help students learn to analyze data about temperature and so forth as it is being graphed and recognize how what they do affects the data being graphed on the computer. These and other technological tools can greatly enhance learning in the classroom when effectively implemented into instruction.

I watched and made a text comment using VoiceThread on the following demos:
1. Natalee Biggs
2. Lauren MacDonald
3. Audrey Sanders

Science Challenge Plan

Activity: Using the Kidsperation activity template I have created, the students will demonstrate their knowledge about the physical properties of solids, liquids, and gases by sorting a series of objects into the correct Supergrouper box based on their physical properties.



TPACK
1. Content:
5th Grade Science: Standard 1, Objective 2a: Identify the physical properties of matter (e.g. solid, liquid, gas)

2. Pedagogy:
-Classifying
-Describing relationships
-Analyzing Data
This pedagogy is a good fit for the content because in order for the students to clearly understand the differences between solids, liquids, and gases, they must be able to analyze the physical properties of each, describe the relationships between them, and then classify objects according to their physical properties.

3. Technology
I will be using Kidsperation to create an interactive science activity. The students will categorize a series of items according to their physical states as either a solid, liquid, or gas. The kidsperation technology is a good fit with the content and pedagogy because it will allow the students to analyze and classify different items according to their physical properties and to describe the relationships between solids, liquids, and gases by simply dragging each item into the correct Supersorter box.

The Upside and Downside to Virtual Tours

I downloaded, watched, and commented on the virtual tours of the following classmates:
1. Natalee Biggs
2. Brooke Stevenson
3. Audrey Sanders


I think that one major upside of implementing a virtual tour into an elementary school classroom is that the class will have the opportunity to visit a variety of places around the world that they would otherwise not be able to visit. Through a virtual tour, the students are able to see the physical features of important buildings, a variety of terrain, the continents and oceans of the world, and so forth from their desks in the classroom. Great learning opportunities become available to the students when tools such as google earth are implemented into classroom instruction and learning.

A downside to implementing a virtual tour into the classroom is the extra time it may take to create the tour. For many teachers, being able to navigate around google earth may not be their strong side. To these teachers, the excessive time it takes to learn how to create a tour and then effectively implement it into daily instruction may not be worth it. Other more simplified methods of instruction may be preferred by teachers because of the extra time creating a virtual tour requires.

World Ecosystem Virtual Tour

Follow this link to access my Google Earth Virtual Tour on the major world ecosystems!

Virtual Tour Plan

3rd Grade Social Studies
Standard 1, Objective 2a: Describe the major world ecosystems (i.e. desert, plain, tropic, tundra, grassland, mountain, forest, wetland)

I chose to do a virtual tour on this topic because by actually being able to travel to these world ecosystems using google earth, the students will be able to more easily grasp the characteristics of each world ecosystem and will better understand where each is located. The terrain and 3-D images that can be seen in a virtual tour will make the ecosystems seem more realistic and will help the concepts being learned to become more concrete in the minds of the students. Using a Google Earth Tour for teaching this concept would be much more beneficial than trying to teach the students about the different world ecosystems using worksheets and textbooks.

Location	Activity Description	Google Earth Content
1. Desert (North Africa's Sahara Desert)	Show picture and discuss major characteristics of desert ecosystems. Have students write a descriptive journal entry about what they think it would be like to live in a desert.	Picture of the Sahara Desert
2. Mountains (Rocky Mountains)	Have students create a watercolor painting of a mountain range based on the view and pictures of the Rocky Mountains.	Picture and 3-D image of Rocky Mountains; use the Terrain Layer
3. Tundra (Antarctica)	After viewing the picture of the tundra, have the students research basic characteristics of the tundra. Using the information they have gathered, create a class web with tundra in the center and the characteristics of the tundra branching out from the center.	Picture of Tundra
4. Grassland (South American Pampas)	Have students view pictures and talk about the kinds of animals that are found in grasslands all over the world. Play grassland animal bingo to solidify the concepts.	Pictures of South American Pampas and grassland animals