Tech Happy » science

W.o.W!

azrunner — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:07:02 +0000

One of the main content areas I cover with my seventh graders has to do with biomes and the elements of different biomes. This little site from the Missouri Botanical Gardens provided some great resources for working with students in understanding the different features of different biomes. Background information, maps, plant & animal images & descriptions…all the basics to get into the biomes. With my students this year we did a little bit looking at endangered species within different biomes and explored why there were endangered species in all the different areas. Great for student research or support materials.

Learn well!

W.o.W!

azrunner — Sun, 03 May 2009 20:34:25 +0000

site: Barwon Bluff Marine Sanctuary

Yes, I have been busy collecting lots more great sites, which I’ll be sharing through the rest of the spring and into the summer. The site this week is a great reference and resource for teaching students about tides. Living in Arizona most of my students have very little experience with tides. I used this site to demonstrate the relationships between the Earth, moon and sun during different tides for my students and it helped answer a lot of questions. Click on the home page link for ideas and resources. I found the most valuable bits to be the two animations and the slide show of high & low tides. Lots of good ocean-related resources!

W.o.W!

azrunner — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 22:43:07 +0000

Site: Earth & Sky: A Clear Voice for Science

I promise I’ll move on to some non-science sites in the coming weeks, but as I try and build things for this year I’ve just got a bunch of science resources that are really, really cool. This week’s site is Earth/Sky Kids, a site for current, science related material. The site is divided by subject areas (space, animals, plants, bizarre, etc…) and each area has a number of current articles relating to that area of science. In addition, there are a number of podcasts included and blogs for discussion on topics. All in all, a wealth of info on what’s happening right now in science. The articles themselves can be used by students in fifth grade and up (most likely), but the ideas can certainly be posed to younger students and used as a reference by all teachers. Personally, I’ve been using the articles with my seventh graders for their weekly science article reviews, which I hope to have up on our class blog soon (still working out some technical issues on it-but look for the link soon!)

Learn well!

Blogging With 100’s

azrunner — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 02:12:30 +0000

Ok, now that I’ve got the job comes the real work. One of the things I’m trying to sort out right now is just how to set up blogging (which I want my students doing) for over a 100 students-actually about 150. I want them blogging about the investigations we do in class as a way of reflecting and communicating as well as responding to various questions, articles, and so on. My biggest question is this: individual blogs or a big blog that all can write to? I’m also contemplating middle ground solutions, i.e. setting up a blog for each class that they can write to or creating blog groups so they are only sharing the blog with 3 or 4 other students. While ideally I’d like them each to have their own I haven’t found a good way of managing that as yet (or even offering it). 21classes has come the closest, offering 50 student blogs with my account, but I would need 3 or 4 of those to cover all my students. And while one blog would be easier to manage, one blog for 150 authors doesn’t seem sufficient. There are a variety of options for the middle ground, but if anyone has any ideas/feedback on how blogging has worked best for them with their students-feel free to chime in!

Learn well!