Physical and Chemical Changes

I watched the following voicethreads:

http://techbrooke.blogspot.com/
http://nataleeb.blogspot.com/
http://alyssah287.blogspot.com/

After learning about the different technologies I could use in my classroom, I have become a lot more comfortable with the idea of actually using them in my class for the benefit of my students and myself. I really liked the idea of using voicethread to document the activities because it is a great way of keeping track and record of what we did. I'm also glad that I learned about the electronic microscope a lot more and had the opportunity to use it because I learned how easy and resourceful it can be versus an regular microscope. I enjoyed watching other peers' voicethreads because it gave me great ideas for future lessons using all the different technologies that we have available as teachers!

science challenge week 7

5th grade: physical and chemical changes and plants

For this assignment, I wanted to have the students do a unit of plants by planting seeds and caring for them. They would document the growth by observing the plants. At some point in the unit, we would talk about the different types of plants around the world and use google earth to view at different places and the types of climates that allow for certain plants to grow in those specific areas. We would talk about the physical and chemical changes that occur in plants and use digital microscopes to observe those chemical changes.

For content, we will be focusing on chemical changes in plants for the 5th grade. Pedagogy: we will be observing the chemical changes that take place in plants (ie. leavee changing colors). It will be a good fit with the content because it will allow us to see the differences between chemical and physical change and what is classified as chemical changes. Technology: we will be using digital microscopes to compare the differences between the different colored leaves. It is a good fit for the content and pedagogy because it will help solidify the term (chemical change) and allow students to explore chemical changes.

Virtual Tour Completed

Here is the final virtual tour that I have uploaded to my website: Pacific Islands.

And here is the embedded version:


This tour explores the different cultures throughout the Pacific Ocean.

I watched and commented on these three blogs:
http://techbrooke.blogspot.com/
http://betsy-elizabeth-rodriguez.blogspot.com/
http://julsosa.blogspot.com/

Virtual tours are such a great idea for using in the classroom because they help you as a teacher give students the opportunity to "travel." It allows students to learn about cultures, history, and many, many other things. I think the downsides of it might include the students getting off task just playing around with the different tools or trying to look up familiar places to them that don't have to do with the lesson. But other than that, I think it's a great tool to use!!

Virtual Tour Planning

For this assignment, I wanted to explore the Pacific Islands. I found one island from each division (melanesia, micronesia, and polynesia) and then I also decided to add another island that isn't part of Oceania but rather associated with the nearest continent. I thought this would be an interesting way to learn about the different cultures within the Pacific Islands. This could be taught using standard 2, objective 1 for the 3rd grade curriculum. A tour on this would be useful because these islands are "hard to get to" places and being able to view them and learn about them through google earth will allow students the opportunity to learn about each island and the culture. It is more entertaining for students to actually see the place and for them to be able to navigate around it will help increase their own interest in learning about each island.

Location	Activity Description	Google Earth Content
1. Ni`ihau (Hawai`i: Polynesia)	Students will determine the island's position in relation to Kaua`i and how far away it is (southwest, 18 miles )	Ruler
2. Saipan (Marianas Islands: Micronesia)	Students will determine how far north Saipan is from Guam (about 120 miles)	Ruler
3. Taveuni (Fiji: Melanesia)	Students will determine the latitude and longitude of the volcano on the island and the type (lat: 16.82 S, long: 179.97 W, shield volcano)	Gallery: volcanoes
4. Taiwan	Students will determine how far north Taiwan is from the Philippines (about 225 miles)	Ruler