Science Projects that I Viewed

http://kyliemm.blogspot.com/2009/10/science-project.html

http://techbrooke.blogspot.com/

http://tecchelsie.blogspot.com/

I learned that I can implement microscopes to study living and non-living things and to study soil. There really are so many things that you can discover with science just by using the technology that we have today. I think it's amazing that children can look at the moon phases or any other night time feature so easily. They can record their findings so much easier with Stellarium and can better see things using the microscope. I think using the temperature probes would also be helpful to learn about temperature in a visual way.

Moon Phases Science Project

Science Project Planning

The experiment that I want my students to participate in is to use Stellarium to draw on a calendar that I give them what the moon looks like for a month. Every day they will get on Stellarium and look up what the moon is going to look like that night. Then they will report their findings and discuss it in groups.
The content I will be focusing on is:
Standard 1
Students will understand that the shape of Earth and the moon are spherical and that Earth rotates on its axis to produce the appearance of the sun and moon moving through the sky.
Objective 2
Describe the movement of Earth and the moon and the apparent movement of other bodies through the sky.
b.Use a chart to show that the moon orbits Earth approximately every 28 days.
The pedagogy that this science experiment will help develop is that students will be able to observe and make a chart of the moon for one month. The students will acquire the data about the moon and then process it by looking at their findings to see that the moon orbits every 28 days.
I will have my students do a couple of extra days besides 28 so that they can see that there is a pattern. They will be able to use this data to create an explanation of how the moon orbits. The pedagogy of observing, making a chart, processing, and analyzing. This pedagogy is a good fit with the content because in order to see that the moon orbits every 28 days you need to be able to observe, make a chart and analyze it to see a pattern.
Stellarium is an easy way for the students to physically see the moon every night. Sometimes at night it is not possible to see the moon, but with Stellarium there won't be any cloud covers and if a student forgets they can just look up one of the nights that already has passed. This tool works well with the content of observing the moon because you have to be able to see the moon in order to see the pattern and the pedagogy is to observe and analyze so of course that's what you would be doing when looking at the moon on Stellarium.

Indigenous Peoples

This is the tour of the Indigenous people in a couple of places across the world.

Indigenous People Tour

Reflection on my VIrtual Tour

http://cyndihampshire.blogspot.com/2009/10/virtual-tour.html#comment-form
http://tecchelsie.blogspot.com/
http://techbrooke.blogspot.com/2009/10/james-and-giant-peach-tour.html?showComment=1255626664331#c1795906869296785112

These are the blogs that I looked at and commented on. They were fantastic!

I think an upside of implementing virtual tours in the classroom would be to grab the student's attention. A virtual tour is something out of the ordinary and it allows the student to go where you would not be able to take them. It's a great idea for when you are studying history and you want them to be able to see the places that they are studying about. I loved the idea that Brooke had to explore the setting of a book. This is a great way for them to understand the places that a character goes in a book. They can go at their own pace and do what they want at each location. It's a great tool!

A downside is that they may not put all of the layers or uncheck the layers that you do not want on. This will depreciate their experience with the location and they will not get everything out of it that you will want them to. Another downside is that there are usually a limited number of computers so not every student can do it at the same time, but eventually everyone can benefit.

Overall I want to use virtual tours in my classroom!

Indigenous People Virtual Tour-Come look!

Indigenous People Virtual Tour

Here is a virtual tour of the Indigenous People.
Third Grade Social Studies
Standard 2
Students will understand cultural factors that shape a community.
Objective 2
Explain how selected indigenous cultures of the Americas have changed over time.

1. Describe and compare early indigenous people of the Americas (e.g. Eastern Woodlands, Plains, Great Basin, Southwestern, Arctic, Incan, Aztec, Mayan).

I chose to do a virtual tour on the ancient indigenous people because I thought that this would be a fascinating way to get this subject started. I am interested in these people and I want to get my students excited by interacting with them in a way.
A google earth tour would be much better than any other instructional method to introduce this topic because it will easily catch the students' attention. They hopefully will be excited to learn more. This will allow them to explore the subject matter before we even really delve into it.

Planning of my virtual tour

Location	Activity Description	Google Earth Content
1.Mayan Ruins	Draw the outline of the Mayan city. Indicate what each building is. Write about what goes on in each building.	Have the places of interest, and 3D buildings on
2.Incan Ruins	Have students decorate the doors to their houses. Then describe why they put the things that they did.	Have the roads, street view, terrain and 3D buttons on.
3.Plains in North America	Have students gather sticks from home. Then make tepees using the sticks and paper. Decorate the paper. Then disuss how you would feel taking down and putting up the tepee all the time so you could move.	Have the terrain and geographic button on.
4.Aztec Ruins	With clay that represents adobe create an Aztec home or pyramids making the clay into stones. Then discuss with a friend the structure that they created.	Have the terrain, street view and 3D buildings on.