Tour Guide

Location	Activity	Google Earth Content
1. Mendenhall Glacier	Question and answer about glaciers in Alaska.	Terrain
2. Yellowstone	Write a letter to someone who has never seen features in Yellowstone	Terrain, seismic activity
3. Moab	List factors that contributed to formations	Terrain
4. Grand Canyon	Draw picture of what Grand Canyon looked like on the first day a river came through that valley.	Terrain
Details of image overlay / path / polygon:	http://www.danasjeeps.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/Moab_March_2007_006.118204820_std.jpg

The content that will be taught is how geographical formations are formed.  Kids will discover the various forms that water, wind and glaciers erode rocks and formations to create canyons, formations and mountains.

They will learn through discovery activities and research these things.

They will learn by using google earth, and wikipedia.  

Holes: an existential tale of treasure, love, and mystery!

Our TPAC preview of Holes, By Louis Sachar

Coming Soon...

This project is a 30 second or so long preview to the book "Holes" by Louis Sachar.  We thought it would be a good lead, or hook to get the kids that hadn't read the book excited to read it.  The story board explains what we had planned to do, and we anticipated it taking around 10 slides in about 30 seconds.  We would then turn the project over to the students.  They would be instructed to create a similar hook for a book that they had read, citing pictures they captured from the internet, and creating pictures of their own.  

Educational Theorist Alphie Kohn claims that "Children learn how to make good decisions by making decisions, not by following directions".  This project leaves the decisions up to the students so that they can develop those crucial skills.  I might not base my entire lesson plan off of Kohn's views on education, but I can see the value of allowing students to create something out of nothing from the choices they make.

The technology used in the project is pretty obvious.  We would use a movie making program, and digital pictures to create this trailer.  Between the technologies used to create the trailer, the 5th grade science core Standard 1 Objective 2, and the pedagogy of allowing students to make their own decisions, I think this is a fantastic combination of TPAC in the classroom.  

But you don't have to take my word for it... ba dum bum! 

BoryStord.

Better Than a Windbag

My sophomore year at BYU I took an Astronomy class. It was a morning class held in a planetorium. It was taught by a professor that was the 16th physics professor ever hired at BYU. The man knew about fossils, because he had watched them form. He would stand at the front of the class, spout off facts, and lecture. Most of the class learned very little, got poor grades, and complained.

I hope to never become that teacher.

On my group's last post, we wrote about an activity about a technology lesson that would give us an opportunity to apply the things that we have learned thus far in this class in a fictional classroom. We were then asked the following questions:

• What is the content you’ll be using in your lesson?

• What is the pedagogy you’ll be using and why is it a good fit with the content?

• What is the technology you’ll be using and why is it a good fit with the content and pedagogy?

The content we used for the lesson came from the core curriculum. We decided to teach from 6th grade science core Standard 4, Objective 2. That objective stated, "Describe the appearance and apparent motion of groups of stars in the night sky relative to Earth and how various cultures have understood and used them."

Much of the discovery aspects of this assignment was up to the children. When I present a lesson like this in a real class I will provide the students with directions for finding the information if they need the directions. Those who do not understand the assignment or don't know where to start might receive help individually, while those who already know exactly what they want to do can work on their own at their own pace. The amount of information and sources are up to them, but I would encourage the use of Wikipedia.

We would use the Internet where we would encourage the use of Wikipedia, and the program Stellarium. Some of the project would require the students to find something in Stellarium, requiring their ability to navigate that program. That would be combined with their ability to research things on the internet. Then they would be given the Australian and New Zealand flag, and required to research things on the internet they would find on Stellarium. That task would require some problem solving and basic understanding of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The North Star task would require a similar knowledge of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and could encourage discussion.

These assignments are creative ways to combine technology with content knowledge through using a unique pedagogy that can help the students discover these concepts on their own. Having them learn on their own is lot better than an old windbag spouting off facts at the front of the room.

Tech Savy Teacher: Move over Bill Nye!!!!1

We have been using technology in our classroom at Pretend Elementary School in the Fictional School District. Our students have really enjoyed the Computer program Stellarium, which is a fantastic program that helps students understand the movement of stars, planets and the relationship of celestial bodies to the earth.

Part one of our three part unit was to help the students familiarize themselves with the program Stellarium, and fine tune their web based research skills. They were to find three constellations of my choice, and identify them in Stellarium. They were then to find background information about what people and culture named this constellation and how it may or may not have been used for navigation at sea.


Ursa Major, "The Big Dipper"


Gemini, "The Twins"

Orion


Part two on another day, i gave the kids following clue. "On the Australian and New Zealand Flag there is a constellation. Find the name of that constellation, and change your location on Stellarium to one where you could see this at night." This required the kids to understand that this particular constellation is not visible in the Northern Hemisphere, and you must be South of the Equator to view.


The Southern Cross

Part three required the kids to find Ursa Minor in the Utah night sky. They were to center the constellation on the screen.

The North Star is in the center of the screen.

I then had the kids "speed up time" on Stellarium so that the circumpolar stars around the North Star were moving, while the North Star remained fixed. I had them hypothesis why this was. The kids had a hard time fully understanding what exactly what was going on, and led to a very beneficial class discussion about Polaris.

The Students here at Pretend Elementary are really enjoying these technologies!!

Astrology is NOT Astronomy.

I like to look at the stars, and I like to find constellations. I might be guilty of being that boring guy pointing stars out to the girls at bon-fire parties away from the city lights in my "younger" days. I haven't, that is until last Tuesday, found a good software that could (or could have) helped me identify information about constellations. I was on my own. Then when we talked about TPAC, and combining technology knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge and use the star sighting software in the classroom, my world opened up. That is the technology we are going to use for our assignment.

I've always seen my "classroom of the future" uses of technology limited to a projector, powerpoints, music, and maybe a Nintendo Wii. With the implication of the technologies that we talked about in class my vision of my "classroom of the future" looks more like "classroom of yester...day." My point is that there aren't just these technologies this class has opened my eyes to. There are more. And when I talk about my experiences at BYU in 25-30 years, I'll be sitting in a futuristic rocking chair, wearing a silvery shirt, wearing super-tinted sunglasses (from the radiation) and I'll chuckle that I thought it was awesome I could hook my computer up to a microscope.