Sunday, June 27, 2010
google doc/ podcast
Update
Recent Activities
Google Map
Need your URLs!
I see you put a spot for your podcasts on the Welcome page. That's great. I need the URLs to link it to. If you can send those to me that would be great. Also, I see the Climatology page. I will try and fix that on the navigation. Thanks, C.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Group Project Updates
Kristen's pages:
-Construction of Gardens
-Types of Plants
Kaila's pages:
-Climatology
-Types of Gardens
We are both planning on putting our two new resources on these pages. We were thinking that we should make another page "resources" where we could post ALL of our stuff from the semester - podcasts, digital stories, etc. How does that sound? We will create this and post our stuff and you guys can add to it.
We will do the inspiration concept map but is there an easier way to do it besides re-doing the whole thing since Melissa created it in the first place. Honestly I don't know that we even have any changes to make. What do you think? We could take out a few things we didn't use but I don't think we have anything to add. It's hard for us to re-do it when we don't know what everyone is doing for their pages.
Can someone put the podcast together and post that? Also I think Melissa is the one who did the ePals and Google map (and Chad helped) can one of you guys post that?
That should be everything let us know your thoughts!
Kristen and Kaila
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Pod Cast Submission??
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Final Project
It's time to start collaborating on the final project. I've looked it over several times now and there is a LOT that needs to be done. I think we're going to have to sit down and assign tasks. Otherwise it won't all get done. Let me know your thoughts/schedule. Thanks.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Pod Cast
Saturday, June 12, 2010
PodCast
I appreciate your input!
Chad
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Google Map
http://maps.google.com/maps/mm?ie=UTF8&hl=en&ll=37.0625,-95.677068&spn=29.910058,52.470703&z=4
Module 4 Seed Exchange
Mystery Seeds Project
What have been your greatest challenges and how did you overcome them?
What have been your greatest successes so far and what do you think contributed to these?
What is your favorite gardening activity?
Were our seeds able to grow in your garden or only under the conditions we listed they needed?
They would also share growth information perhaps on a weekly basis.
What do you do with the plants you grow in your garden?
How/where were our seeds planted? Is your garden outdoors/indoors?
They could share pictures of their garden setups. (Using out time lapse configuration would be a neat tool here.)
Does it rain a lot where you are? Do you have an irrigation system?
How do you measure the amount of water the plants receive?
It might also be fun to ask more about the social or cultural aspects of gardening -- such as, how many people in your neighborhood have a garden? Why? Is it for growing food, or for making their yards pretty?
Does your garden attract any animals or insects (aphids, butterflies, birds?)
The gardens will consist of planters that will be 4' x 4' for 4 small groups and 5'x5' for 5 small groups that will be located both inside and outside. We can grow plants that are native to our region outdoors while we pursue the collaborative aspect of the project indoors (so the environment is more easily controlled). In using seeds from other regions, we could plant some indoors (using the conditions that are most like the native region) and some in our own gardens and make record of which ones cannot grow in our region. Students will use math skills to measure and determine the area of the planters as well as figure out how to divide the planters equitably among small groups for the project. They will also have less weed intrusion this way. [This idea also came from the Leeds project as Eagle Scouts in the area volunteered to build wooden planters for each classroom].
I am not sure that all of the plants have to be of the same type. In fact, I think it would be more interesting if they were of differing types but this would necessitate more resources for children to use in identifying them and make their task a little more challenging. If they were all the same type of plant (i.e. edible/vegetable), it may be easier for students to associate with a region.Using the mounted camera system, we would also be able to collect data on shadows in the garden, which could be used later to talk about the Earth's rotation on its axis and the changing of the seasons.
The 4th grade Social Studies GLCEs focus on learning about the United States. By the spring, students should have some idea about the other states that form the Union as well as have some background knowledge about some basic characteristics of each region (where they are located geographically and how that relates to our location, how the climate of different regions compares to ours).
Students need to do their own garden planting outside (with their teacher) before embarking on a collaborative effort so they have a better understanding of space, plants to choose and why, soil, etc. These could be done simultaneously though as I know time is limited. It is important that students gain an understanding of the region we live in and the plants that live here. Then they can do comparisons between our region and other regions. Doing their own garden first also helps work out some of the challenges students may face with gardening in general before they collaborate.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
MovieMaker projects
Just an update. I added my thoughts to the Google Document started by Melissa. I have also started working on my MovieMaker project using the topic How Plants Reproduce. It looks like these are going to be neat projects to share.
Once you all have edited the Google Doc as you wish, let me know and I will post it to our blog as we're required.
Melissa - did you say you had started the Google Map part of this assignment yet?
Friday, June 4, 2010
ePals/Google Docs
Please feel free to change the document in any way. I would like to broaden my way of thinking about this project in general so I can begin to see the big picture. I feel like I have a lot of little parts and so far, the only way I've been able to connect them is through focusing on a few objectives. The concept map, for me, was like a list of objectives and I want to be sure each branch is covered. I am struggling with the micro view of it and some of the semantics (how the project would play out in a classroom). Perhaps if you all shared a brief summary of your lessons, I could add them to the concept map? I am not trying to make more work for anyone but I would like to be able to see other ideas.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Mod 4
I'm going to be out of town all next week, so I'm trying to get everything for this and next week done before I leave on Monday.