Activity Three for: Shared Power

Why We Live Where We Live: A Collaborative WebQuest Project Between High School Students and Fourth Grade Students

Goals:

• To familiarize fourth grade students with active learning strategies using electronic formats [WebQuests].
• To review active learning strategies with high school students based on their previous successful experiences to navigate/complete WebQuests.
• To introduce high school students to the essential elements required when designing WebQuests.
• To highlight the relationship between topography, water sources, natural resources (available minerals, forests, oil reserves, etc.) and the development/establishment of urban centers and rural communities to fourth grade students and high school students.

Objectives:

· To provide instruction to fourth grade students on collaborative techniques to generate optimal numbers of potential research questions.

· To provide instruction to fourth grade students on “winnowing” techniques that restrict WebQuest searches to information that provides reliable, relevant answers to the topic/essential question.

· To direct high school student groups to utilize previous WebQuest experiences to design a WebQuest appropriate for fourth graders.

· To assist high school student groups to apply their WebQuest experiences to create a visually appealing and intuitive format appropriate for fourth graders.

Description for High School Students:

· Groups formed (four students per group). Group roles and responsibilities discussed and then posted on an established website. Protocols for appropriate etiquette with electronic communications established and posted.

· Student in each group negotiate a consensus on the topics of interest for the fourth graders WebQuest investigations.

· Group ideas for Essential Question (EQ) investigations are posted to an established wiki site. A single EQ is chosen by group electronic consensus.

· High school student groups initiate web searches to identify relevant and interesting links appropriate for 4th grade students.

· Consensus is reached within groups regarding the WebQuest content and format.

· Editing and revision of the WebQuest content and format is shared among groups.

Assessment for High School Students:

· After the WebQuest project is completed by the younger students, the high school student groups collect formative and summative feedback. Using this data, each student composes and shares a reflective journal essay on the design experience.

Description for Fourth Grade Students:

· Groups formed (four students per group). Group roles and responsibilities discussed and then posted on an established website.

· Student groups come to a consensus on areas to investigate to answer the EQ.

· Questions are developed with group member feedback.

· Student groups begin WebQuest.

· It is understood throughout this investigation that each student is responsible for his/her own work. Sharing is for discussion purposes primarily.

· Consensus is reached within groups on the answer(s) to the Essential Question.

· Editing and revision of researched information is shared among group members who understand the final product is representative of the group as a whole.

· Answers from each group are posted at the designated wikisite. Groups compare answers.

Assessment:

· Student groups complete the formative and summative assessments administered by the high school students.

Activity Two for: Shared Power

A Computer-Based Exploration of the Native American Communities of Maine for Fourth Grade Students

Goals:

• To provide students the opportunity to research the customs, culture, history, and the significant current events for each of the Native American communities established in the state of Maine.
• To refine the research and electronic collaboration skills of fourth grade students utilizing the social software platform of an established wiki website.
• To provide students an opportunity to combine electronic audio and digital images collected and recorded from local Native Americans into a final product that can be published on an established open access oral history website. (www.voicethread.com)
• To encourage students to monitor the oral history website for local and global communiqués.

Objectives:

• To provide students with on-line or classroom time to begin investigating the customs, culture and history of the Abenaki, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Maliqeet, Micmac and Norridgewock tribes of Maine.
• To reinforce the students’ recently acquired access, navigation, editing and publishing skills with wiki exchanges, students will collaborate to produce an oral documentary of a local Native American.

Description:

• Assign students to groups. Have group members select their group roles and review role responsibilities.
• Provide students with on-line/classroom time to research the Native American tribes in Maine.
• Initiate/facilitate electronic communications between each student group and volunteers from local tribes, willing to co-participate with students to record their oral histories.
• Provide time for students to electronically combine their audio recordings with selected visual images that illustrate/emphasize key events of their interviewee’s oral history. Students in each group will use electronic communication with the wiki to exchange information and to make final revisions.
• Assist students in posting their final product to an established, open access oral history website.
• Provide student groups with class time to monitor the suggestions, revisions and queries posted for their individual projects. Provide student groups with class time to maintain electronic contact with their new Native American friends.

Assessment:

· Each student posts a reflection paragraph to the class moodle site that describes a Native American custom that is similar to one that their ancestors recognized or that is similar to one that their family recognizes.

Activity One for: Shared Power

Think – Pair – Share Activities for Middle School and High School Students

Goals:

• To introduce students to the utility of “pre-thinking” prior to a lecture and to present a collaborative strategy that can reinforce basic concepts to be presented in future lectures using electronic communication exchanges.
• To engage students to access information on the world wide web, communicate with their partner using an electronic messaging network and to provide social frameworks that facilitate classroom dialogues.

Description:

• The teacher poses one or more questions. This is done on the local web or moodle. Each student is required to read the questions and develop a written response to each question. These questions can be simple reinforcement of topics covered in class, such as how scuba diving and mountain climbing affect the volume of air in the lungs using Charles’ Law or the Ideal Gas Law, or can be broad questions designed to stimulate discussion. Examples of broad topics are listed below:

• What Determines Species Diversity?

• What causes ice ages?

• What is all that "junk" doing in our genomes?

• How do migrating organisms find their way?

• The students are paired and each pair has to produce a single response to each posted question. This can be done via email or as homework during class time. This should be a random pair assignment and the pairs should change every time so that all students get a chance to work together.
  
• Student pairs post their responses to the question set on the designated classroom website/moodle/etc.

• The teacher uses the response posts to supplement the lesson or stimulate class discussion on the selected topics. Randomly calling on students to voice their views on the topics during the lecture helps to keep the students engaged and ensures that all students are invested in the process.
• Each week’s lecture topics can get a jumpstart by this process. It will take a few times for the students to get used to the process but after doing this type of assignment they will become familiar with what needs to be done. The upcoming week’s topics can be introduced on Friday and the pairs assigned. The material has to be posted by Sunday night for the pair to get credit. Then during the week the teacher can call on the students to add what they discovered at the appropriate times during the lecture. This also allows for more topics to be introduced then can be done in just the lecture time and in greater depth.

Assessment:

· The electronic responses posted by each student pair can be analyzed by a second student pair for a variety of established criteria. These rubrics might include:

o The extent that conclusions/responses are research-informed

o The novelty/creativity expressed in the conclusions/responses

o The application of the responses/conclusions to recent/past classroom discussions OR to new/novel scenarios

Activity Three for: EstablishingTrust

Exploring the Ecology of the Gulf of Maine with Fourth Grade Students

Goals:

• Student groups will gain familiarity with different state and regional organizations that have a research focus on marine ecology/science in Maine.
• Student groups will develop an appreciation for the diversity and fragility of the marine ecosystem in the Gulf of Maine.
• Student groups will further develop previously acquired research skills so that they can generate thoughtful electronic communications/queries to local and regional marine scientists.
• Student groups will design a legacy project that includes research, stewardship and local and global electronic community outreach.

Objectives:

• Student groups will gain experience making electronic contact with marine scientists from the University of Maine, Bigelow Labs, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Department of Marine Resources, New England Aquarium, University of New England Marine Stranding Program, and other organizations with connections to the study topic.
• Student groups will invite local and regional scientists to access, respond and to update their recently created Gulf of Maine wikis.
• Student groups will continue to expand and refine their use of wikis by tracking edits, revisions and the comments posted by the scientific community.
• Each student group will design a stewardship project that could be implemented in the Gulf of Maine. Student groups will solicit support from the global electronic community for their Gulf of Maine stewardship project.

Description:

• Assign students to groups. Have group members select their group roles and review role responsibilities.
• Provide students with on-line/classroom time to research the species diversity and the symbiotic relationships between species in the Gulf of Maine.
• Using wikis have student groups develop a consensus on a question set that can be electronically forwarded to the participating scientists.
• Initate/facilitate electronic communications between each student group and marine scientists at local and regional research facilities.
• Provide time for students to electronically correspond with the research community. Request students and scientists post their queries and responses to an open-access, established wiki.
• Assist student groups in designing a unique service project that could be implemented in the Gulf of Maine. Have each student group post their project to a wiki website. Have students democratically determine the project chosen for implementation.
• Provide time for students to electronically solicit suggestions/recommendations from the research community for the implementation of their service project.
• Provide time for students to electronically solicit suggestions/recommendations and support from the global electronic community for the implementation of their service project.
• Request students, scientists and community members post their queries and responses to an open-access, established wikispace.

Assessment:

• Students will video record the significant events that lead to the successful completion of the Gulf of Maine legacy project.

Activity Two for: EstablishingTrust

Monitoring Global Seasonal Changes at All Grade Levels

Goals:

· To introduce students to the collection, compilation and analysis of weather data.

· To assist students with the publication of local weather data, that can be accessed by a global electronic community through the creation of a worldwide webpage.

Objectives:

· In this activity student groups will collect, analyze, compare, and present data about seasonal changes in their area of the world.

· Student groups will compare how the seasons differ in other places around the world.

· The student groups will present their data in an organized and coherent fashion on the web site.

Description:

· Student groups will represent the changes in our environment for each of the seasons. Depending on the age of the students, this can be done using drawings, a digital camera, possibly a video camera, and personal observations.

· Students will write and record narrative descriptions that will accompany their seasonal photojournals. These voicethreads, along with the original pictures will be placed on the voicethread web page (www.voicethread.com).

· Using the internet and email, the students will collect information from people in other parts of the world. This information will include written descriptions and pictures of the seasonal changes in their areas. For the younger grades the teacher, or perhaps parents, would post the emails. Family and friends are a great resource for this part of the project. Additionally, there are also a variety of web cams around the world that can be accessed for this information. One interesting modification is to have allof the electronic sources take a picture on the same day. This “world weather snapshot ” can be used to dramatically illustrate how the seasons differ around the world.

· Students will analyze the digital photos, comparing and contrasting the seasonal changes in different parts of the world. Other classes or schools could be invited to do the same. Seasonal photo comparisons could be expanded to include additional weather variables including temperature, humidity, precipitation, etc.

· A virtual field trip is the culminating activity for this project. Student groups select different geographic regions of the world to visit. A traveler’s electronic slideshow presented to the other student groups serves to highlight the relationship between geographic location and predictable weather patterns, predictable seasonal weather changes.

· A webpage/website dedicated for questions and answers can also be added at this point. Any time you put up this type of data, questions arise. Climate experts can be queried to help provide answers to those questions that may be too technical. The students can also be responsible for answering or finding the right person or web site to answer the questions posed on the web.

Assessment:

· Each student will complete the on-line group evaluation rating rubric, which encourages each student to honestly compare their efforts/contributions to those of their group members. The individual on-line rubrics will post ONLY to the instructor of the course.

· Additionally, each group will compare their on-line product to the other class on-line projects. Each groupwill then complete the electronic project rating rubric, established by all participants at the beginning of the activity.

Activity One for: Establishing Trust

Enhancing Middle School and High School Student Group Electronic Collaborations Using Creative Brainstorming

Goals:

• To provide students with an opportunity that develops creativity and trust building within an electronic collaborative community.
• To provide students with an electronic activity that models the brainstorming strategy known as morphological analysis.

Description:

· Students will work in groups of four.

· Students will agree on a time and a chat forum for this first activity.

· Students will determine the order of their posted responses…who will begin typing their first idea, which team member will post their idea second, third and fourth.

· This is a round robin activity…each student must post their idea in the agreed upon order – and no idea can be repeated a second time. Each response is to be unique/original/different from the ideas already posted.

· THE TASK: CREATE A NEW TYPE OF POTATO CHIP! USING “MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS”

· Provided ONLY as an example: To develop a new type of Fritos ® Corn Chip:

o Team members develop a list of attributes/characteristics of the current/traditional Fritos ® Corn Chip:

orange in color

salty

made of corn

rectangular in shape

packaged in bag

o From this list develop a list of general attributes for a corn chip:

Color

Flavor

Shape

Texture

Coating

Packaging

o Each group member contributes at least three novel ideas for each category of attributes

Color: Purple, Blue, Polka-dots

Flavor: Chili, Spaghetti, Pizza

Shape: Stars, Daisy, Triangle

Texture: Ridges, Holes, Pebbly

Coating: Chocolate, Garlic, Jalapeno

Packaging: On a kabob-stick, Pez-like dispenser, frito necklace

o After each group has generated your NEW combinations, select the three best new products based on the following criteria:

Uniqueness

Marketability to your age group

· All group members should contribute to the discussion. All group members should reach consensus regarding the selections…do not leave the chat room until you have done so.

· Post your final decisions to the class discussion board. Determine if any other groups created similar products/potato chips!

Assessment:

· Each individual student will post an anonymous response (short paragraph) that addresses the following two items:

1. Describe a recent assignment that required creativity/imagination where you might have been able to use/modify this technique to complete the assignment.

2. Describe the single most important factor that contributed to the successful completion of this assignment by your electronic community.

Activity Three for: Leadership

Demonstrating the Physics of Motion to Middle School and High School Students Using Digital Imaging Software

Goal:

• To reinforce the concepts of motion while familiarizing students with a variety of web design concepts.

Objectives:

• Students will contribute to a web site that illustrates motion and machines as they relate to the real world.
• The students will use electronic devices to produce and edit their own digital images of motion to create a finished product for web publishing.

Description:

· Students in this project will create a website that showcases a series of images that describe the physics of human and mechanical motion.

· The class will apply the laws of motion to practical real world examples.

· This web-based activity can be used as a supplement to a series of classroom lectures on motion and machines.

· This activity can be used within one school or could be structured as an activity between schools in the same district. At the high school level this activity could be adapted to become a service project that produces a tutorial on motion for younger students.

· Students will review websites that provide instructions on how to upload digital pictures. For motion, the pictures can be ‘burst’ or still type photos.

· The students in the participating schools will use digital cameras to record day to day motion activities.

· Using digital imaging software, students in their groups will create tri or multiburst creations that demonstrate the physics of motion. These groupings can be organized in whatever fashion the group decides. Some themes that could be used are playground, sports, machines with wheels…or other themes related to motion and machines.

· Students in each group will create audio descriptions that will be posted with the digital images on www.voicethread.com.

· The final website will be created by the students and published on the internet (www.voicethread.com) to share with other schools.

Assessment:

· Each student will complete the on-line group evaluation rating rubric, which encourages each student to honestly compare their efforts/contributions to those of their group members. The individual on-line rubrics will post ONLY to the instructor of the course.

· Additionally, each group will compare their on-line product to the other class on-line projects. Each group will then complete the electronic project rating rubric, established by all participants at the beginning of the activity.

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