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Science Resources

There are many different ways to integrate technology into your curriculum.  Below are three different models for how tech resources can support your students learning goals.   All three designs use the standard as the guide for establishing learning outcomes.

Sample Design #1

This design outlines a specific performance task for students and provides resources for research.  These can offer students guidelines on the characteristics of reputable resources for research.  The multimedia presentations can be created giving students options to use tools they are familiar with.  If you want students to use a new presentation tool they are unfamiliar with, allow time to experiment with the tool options the goal of learning to use a new presentation goal is not included in this design.

UNIT: The Earth’s Changing Forces

By the end of this unit of study students will be able to:

  1. Demonstrate knowledge of terms, geological phenomena and processes, and landforms associated with earth’s constructive and destructive forces and processes
  2. Identify both constructive and destructive forces that shape the earth’s surface
  3. Apply understanding of weathering agents and process that are involved in creating a variety of landforms
  4. Apply understanding of human methods to control earth’s constructive and destructive forces and processes
  5. Demonstrate understanding of human interaction and relationships to earth’s constructive and destructive forces and processes

Culminating Activity: Develop a travel mulimedia presentation of Georgia landforms that have been shaped by constructive, destructive forces, or by a combination of both forces.
Goal: Apply knowledge and understanding of earth’s constructive and destructive forces within a real world scenario.
Role: Travel Agent
Audience: peers, administrators, public
Scenario: Your travel agency is developing an overnight field trip for students to learn more about constructive and destructive forces in Georgia. Your job is to create a travel poster, or PowerPoint infomercial, of your field trip that will attract principals and schools to your travel agency. Remember to be creative and select only the best attractions that support student learning! Your fleet of coach busses is waiting, so good luck!

Product: Using information from your research, activities, and personal field experiences, create a multimedia presentation that describes what people can learn about on your trip. during their field trip. This field trip should support Georgia learning standards by highlighting Georgia’s own landforms and surface features shaped by constructive and destructive forces. It will be important that your travel poster include a map of Georgia that identifies, locates, and describes at least:

  • 2 landforms in Georgia that were caused by constructive forces,
  • 2 landforms in Georgia that were caused by destructive forces, and
  • 1 landform or process that involves both constructive and destructive forces.

In your research and development, it will also be important that your travel poster show what forces were involved in creating or destroying these landforms. Your poster should be colorful and attractive for principals and schools to review, complete with illustrations and/or photographs. You might also consider types of accommodations for large groups of students to visit and other unique characteristics that the locations might provide.  Below are some resources for your project.

Resources

Georgia Landforms: Tallulah Falls, Appalachian Mountains, Pine Mountain, Stone Mountain, Amicalola Falls, Sawnee Mountain, Brasstown Ball, Yonah Mountain, Brevard Fault Zone, Lookout Mountain, Blue Ridge Mountains, Cumberland Plateau, Sand Mountain, Providence Canyon, Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia Barrier Islands, Georgia Rivers (Chattahoochee, etc.) Google Maps-Locate the locations above with a map, satellite, or quest view.

Volcano World – Simple website that allows students to visit volcanoes and other unique landforms around the world through virtual reality. Contains other valuable resources related to volcanoes as well.
Can we predict volcanic eruptions? A simple, interactive, and organized site that allows students to explore the latest research.

USGS-Earthquakes for Kids – Directory page for kids from U.S. Geological Survey that includes opportunities for students to locate the most recent earthquakes in their area and “Ask a Geologist” among others.

NOVA – Earth – Directory webpage from NOVA that includes opportunities to for students to read and interact with some of the most dramatic landforms and forces that shape the earth.

National Geographic Forces of Nature – Quality, media enhanced online activities that illustrate the forces of volcanoes and earthquakes. Includes atomospheric hurricanes and tornadoes.

Sample Design #2

This design has a more structured approach than the first.  Here resources have been categorized by standard and the phase they support in the learning cycle: engage activities, inform activities, practice activities, and performance activities.  This method scaffolds the 4MAT learning cycle the identified by Bernice McCarthy.
UNIT: Electricity & Magnetism
S5CS3. Students will use tools and instruments for observing, measuring, and manipulating objects in scientific activities.

a. Investigate static electricity.

Engage Activities

Inform Activities

Practice Activities

Performance Activities

c. Investigate common materials to determine if they are insulators or conductors of electricity.

Engage Activities

Inform Activities

Practice Activities

Performance Activities

Sample Plan #3

This design is a basic list of informational links and games that can be used to launch a unit, references for research, or as reteaching resources.  Think of this as a library of resources organized by the standard they teach.  This is the least structured and most flexible of the three designs demonstrated here.

UNIT: Electricity& Magnetism

S5CS3. Students will use tools and instruments for observing, measuring, and manipulating objects in scientific activities.

d. Identify and practice accepted safety procedures in manipulating science materials and equipment.

Safety Games

S5P3. Students will investigate the electricity, magnetism, and their relationship.

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