Week 2 of Science Experiment

Well, I put together my science experiment on plants via VoiceThread. I liked that tool-- really easy to use, not very time consuming either! I can definitely see myself using this to display a classroom experiment.

Science Lesson Plan

For my science lesson plan, I am covering the first grade science unit on plants.

CONTENT: Standard 3 Students will develop an understanding of their environment, Objective 1:Investigate plants and plant growth. In this particular lesson we will be focusing on observing and describing plants as they grow from seeds. We will also be investigating and reporting conditions that affect plant growth.

PEDAGOGY:Inquiry process skills. Observing-- children will observe plants as they grow from seeds. The children will grow a plant of their own, watching it daily to report its growth. Inferring, predicting, hypothesizing, measuring, analyzing data-- we will do a class experiment that will tell us the best conditions for plant growth. One plant will be placed in the dark, one will be placed in the sunlight. Another plant will be given water, while another plant will go without water. We will have one plant that receives sunlight and water. At the end of the experiment they will analyze their findings. The children can report what conditions affect plant growth by measuring which plant grew the most and looks the healthiest.

TECHNOLOGY: Kidsperation. Kidsperation is great for concept mapping! I can discuss with my classroom what we know about plants and what we want to find out. This will be a great lesson guide since it is driven primarily by the children. Every time a child has a question or wants to learn something new, we can add it in. Once the experiment is over, we can go back to the concept map to review what we have learned.

Google Earth Tour

So here is my tour for the health services lesson that I described last week. I would also like a guest speaker from each location to come talk to the children about what they do, what services they provide, and allow the children to ask any questions. Below is the google sites URL.

http://sites.google.com/site/whitneygetour/health-services-lesson


I took the tours that three of three of my classmates put together, and they were AMAZING. I loved the exotic locations they chose, which is funny because they liked the fact that I stayed local.

Mallory did her tour on volcanoes and sink holes... really creative! I loved the photo overlays and the activities she chose.

Ashley Daley's tour was all over the world! It was really neat to be taken to the different locations that I have never been to before but have always wanted to visit.

Alyssa Young did her tour on the ancient civilizations, and she was able to find videos from youtube to go along with her stops of the tour. I think the students would enjoy watching those videos and learning in that unique way.

"Hi! I'm Tour Guide Barbie!"

This week we are planning our virtual tours. I am nervous, because I have never used Google Earth before... but I'm hoping for the best. Take a look at what I have planned for next week.

(1) CONTENT. In terms of content, I went to the Utah core curriculum. I chose third grade health. Standard 7: The students will understand the value of service and effective consumer practices.
Objective 3: Summarize the role of health services in the community.

1. List various health services.
2. Define the role of each service.
3. Identify situations in which the health services can or should be accessed.

I chose to focus my tour on different health services, because I thought the children would find it interesting. I also thought it would be a good idea for them to know where they can find these services, and how close we are in case they need access to them.

(2) PEDAGOGY. This lesson will incorporate the collaborative learning. Once the health service is located on google earth we will collaborate, taking estimates, and using the ruler to find out the distance from the school to the health service. If I could add one more thing, I would have a doctor from each location come to the classroom and share with us about his job. The children could ask questions, too.

(3) TECHNOLOGY. We are using the Google Earth tool to view our health services and to find out the distance they are from the school. I think this tool is a good fit with our content and pedagogy, because it will give the children a visual for each health service mentioned. It will also allow us to measure the distance from the school to the health service, adding to both content and pedagogy. I think a Google Earth tour is a fun, free, and fast way instructional approach to teach this curriculum. It allows teachers to show their students visual images captured via satellite. Google Earth is also something they can learn how to do on their own, which they just might do!

Location	Activity Description	Google Earth Content
1. Utah Valley Regional Medical Center	Measure the distance from the school to the hospital	Ruler, placemark
2. Provo Dental Care	Measure the distance from the school to the dentist's office	Ruler, placemark
3. Personal Health Lifestyles	Measure the distance from the school to the nutritionist's office	Ruler, placemark
4. Provo Counseling Center	Measure the distance from the school to the counseling center	Ruler, placemark