Concept Map Confession

I have a confession to make; I am crossing over to concept maps. Recently, our class was introduced to www.Mywebspirations.com and ever since I have been finding ways to incorporate these maps into my classroom instruction. This program is very easy to navigate and create personalized concept maps that could truly fit into the instruction. The webspiration program gives the teacher the opportunity to insert pictures and change colors unlike the concept map programs that I previously used.  I realized that I was hooked on concept maps last Friday when the students seemed very confused with the distinction between the universe, galaxies, and solar systems. Mainly, they did not understand which was bigger or what encompasses what group. Immediately, my mind jumped to make a quick concept map and during the break that is exactly what I made. My field instructor and the students really liked this graphic organizer and I feel it really helped explain the topic.

As you can see, at the top of my blog page there are two concept maps. The Universe one, I have already mentioned. It was printed out for the students to keep and reference throughout this astronomy unit. The other concept map deals with EM waves. This is a concept that we will be starting soon and will also be printed out for the students’ notes. Most likely, this concept map will be the basis for a Web Quest project. The students will break into groups and pick an EM wave to investigate. The groups would then teach their fellow classmates the EM wave they learned. This concept map will serve as the back bone to the lesson. Overall, I have definitely learned to appreciate and institute concept maps into the classroom.        

Rocket Scientist: Ready for Launch

Hello out there, I just watched a clip where a teacher successfully integrated technology in his classroom. This teacher stepped up a common bottle rocket creation project to teach numerous concepts. In groups the students formed companies, budgeted, researched multiple plans, bought materials, assembled rockets, and tested their designs. They used an internet program from NASA to project how their rocket would fly. Some characteristics of effective learning environments are exemplified in this lesson such as group work, hands on projects, working towards a goal, and learning multiple concepts (not just about rockets but companies, economics, teamwork). With these ideas in place this lesson incorporated “learner centered” and “knowledge centered” environments. This lesson, I feel, could also be “assessment centered” even though it does not have explicit assessments noted. The teacher has many opportunities during the lesson to provide feedback to the students with formative assessments. For instance, the teacher could check each group’s budget and materials lists to estimate if they are on the right track or need helpful feedback. The students, themselves, also receive feedback by plugging their data into the NASA program, which gives them a way to test their rocket before launch day. Outside of this being a group project I do not see them building a large sense of community from this project. It’s a very competitive project against the rest of the class and I also do not see a connection outside of the classroom or at home. However, for the most part this is a successful learning environment project.

The role of technology described in this lesson is to guide the students rocket designs to achieve an advanced design without physically testing their model. The NASA program enables the students cognitively think about important factors of optimal rocket design, change variables affecting their rocket, and test out a rocket simulation to check their ideas. I use to help conduct this same bottle rocket project at Rowan University summer camp that I chaperoned. The participants broke into teams and made a rocket. When complete they would go outside and test it. The problem with that is that after a few tests (if they were lucky to get a second or third attempt) the rocket would break beyond repair. This technology eliminates the initial guesswork at which design will prevail by running their design through a simulation as the initial testing period. Then on launch day they should be pretty confident that their rocket will venture far distances. This technology piece adds an efficient touch to this project. As this week’s reading suggests this lesson uses technology that connects real world problems with the classroom instruction. The students are transformed from bored science learners into rocket scientists ready for launch.     

The only things I would do differently in this teaching example would be integrated groups and more computers per group. While watching the video, I noticed that the groups where same gender and, for the most part, same ethnicity. It seemed that the teacher let the students select their own groups. I, instead, would conduct this more like the business structure the teachers tries creating and select their groups. This makes it more realistic to work together in unfamiliar groups to achieve a common goal. Also, I would (if possible) give the students more laptops to work with for this NASA program. If students could explore their individual ideas first they might be able to contribute more heavily to the group design, by figuring a fast design or launch pad. The students could even delegate group members to focus specifically on design, fuel, pad, or launch. This would maintain a realistic business feel to the rocket project.

http://fcit.usf.edu/matrix/lessons/lp0028.html

SMART board lesson

After visiting the College School, I uploaded the SMART Notebook onto my laptop and explored the program. Mainly, I was looking for more applications of the SMART board in the science classroom. I found some premade interactive applications on topics such as the Periodic Table, stopping distance, chemical bonding, and the rock cycle. When I went into school on Thursday I showed my field instructor all of these applications and a few that we learned from the College School (Magic Pen, Cloning, Erasing to Reveal, Rotating Dice, etc.). The Rotating Dice was his favorite since we had problems creating fair groups without enraging the students. My field instructor saw great potential in all of these items and even invited the Special Education science teacher in to show him these newly learned uses of the SMART board. My field instructor and this Special Education teacher are scheduled for collaborative teaching starting on Wednesday, which means students with exceptionalities will be integrated into the general classroom. It was very interesting to see the students at the College School and the way the teacher used technology to help their individual learning. I am looking forward to using the SMART board more effectively in the integrated classroom.       

Baseline Classroom

I wanted to give a brief summary of the classroom I observe. The classroom has multiple pieces of technology including a SMART board, an Elmo projector, TurningPoint remotes, 24 netbooks, a DVD/VCR, and calculators. Many of these technologies are integrated into the instruction. My field instructor uses the SMART board to display PowerPoint notes and to add extra notes or emphasis during the lesson with the multicolored pens. The Elmo projector is similar to an overhead projector except it portrays the teacher’s podium. This is mainly used to fill in a worksheet as a class. The TurningPoint remotes are an interactive polling system where the teacher can make questions on an application within PowerPoint and assess the students’ comprehension of the material. Each student gets a remote and can click in their answer. Then the answers are shown along with the percentages of the class whom answered correctly/incorrectly. Recently, I created the Final Exam review questions using this program which served as an interactive multiple-choice for the students. The netbooks are also used regularly in the classroom because my field instructor often assigns web quests to the students. The DVD/VCR player is used sparingly, due to the SMART board. The calculators are used throughout the week to help students solve equations. Overall, this classroom has lots of opportunities for technology to be used with instruction.      

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