Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Science VoiceThread


Here is my voicethread science project that was explained previously. Sorry but on the first page of the project my voice recording is on there twice!! Enjoy!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Science Challenge

For my science lesson plan, I decided to focus on science in the 6th grade. I chose:

Standard 1: Students will understand that the appearance of the moon changes in a predictable cycle as it orbits Earth and as Earth rotates on its axis.
Objective 1: Explain patterns of changes in the appearance of the moon as it orbits Earth.
A: Describe changes in the appearance of the moon during a month.

I chose to use the program "Stellarium" for this lesson. This program can show the night sky from anywhere on earth at any time. Therefore, I figured it would be a good idea to let the students explore the moon phases by looking at the same location on earth, but at different days throughout an entire month. After they are done exploring, I will have them draw and describe the phases of the moon and how they change throughout the cycle.

Content: The content I will be focusing on is the standard I previously stated. I will want the students to learn what phases of the moon look like and how they change throughout the month.
Pedagogy: Students will explore, illustrate, and describe the phases of the moon.
Technology: The students will use the program "Stellarium" on the computer in order to explore what the moon looks like during every phase of its cycle.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Virtual Tour Reviews

I looked at the following people's tours:

Malorie Walton: I thought the activities were a really good idea. The idea of doing New Zealand was also really original!
Alyssa Young: I really liked the idea of doing ancient civilizations. I think this makes something so hard to visualize much more real!
Ashley Daley: This was such a great tour, she did a really good job! I liked how she covered such different places.

Virtual Tour

The following is my virtual tour of landforms caused by earthquakes and volcanoes. To start the tour, click on the placemarker that is of a sun. This will include the instructions and what layers to use for the entire tour. Enjoy:)

Also, apparently the videos that I embedded work on my Google Earth work on my computer but will not upload onto my blog virtual tour. So here they are:
Grand Canyon Video
Appalachian Mountains Video

One last thing, here is the link to my google site so you can see the real version:
Virtual Tour

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Virtual Tour Planning

Content:
Objective 2

Explain how volcanoes, earthquakes, and uplift affect Earth’s surface.
b. Give examples of different landforms that are formed by volcanoes, earthquakes, and uplift (e.g., mountains, valleys, new lakes, canyons). I choose to do a virtual tour for showing different features of the Earth's surface because I figured this would be the best way to really show a 3D view of these places.
Pedagogy: The students will learn through using an interactive map. This map will help them to discover things about the earth's surface by making discoveries of their own. I will be using different features of the earth (such as lakes, mountains, craters, and canyons) in order to show them all the different effects of volcanoes and earthquakes. This interactive map will help them to each discover all of the different places on the earth on their own and work at their own pace.
Technology: The technology I'll be using is Google Earth and its various tools. Using hands-on technology will help the children to become more excited about what they are learning.




Location Activity DescriptionGoogle Earth Content
1. Hebgen Lake, Montana

(formed by earthquake)
Research how Hebgen Lake was formed and the effect of the earthquake. Measure with ruler how long it is from one end to the other. Use placemarks to show where to measure from.

Ruler, placemark

2.Grand Canyon, Utah

(along earthquake boundaries)
Look up pictures of Grand Canyon and ask children how they think an earthquake could form a canyon like this. Show video on Grand Canyon from You Tube.

You tube,
Placemark, layers, image overlay

3. Appalachian Mountains, Maryland

(along earthquake boundaries)
Look up pictures and formulate own opinion of how these may have been formed. Compare these mountains to canyons from the Grand Canyon. Use layers to show how different in size these mountains are from the Grand Canyon.

Layers, image overlay

4. Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii

(volcano crater)
I will placemark two different sides of the crater in Hawaii and have the children use a ruler to measure the distance between the two ends.

Placemarks, ruler, layers