How do you use technology to teach science?

[The Innovative Educator]

Innovative Educator Maria wants to know how other science teachers use technology to teach science.

She shares...
My students make Power Point Presentations, Publisher Booklets, they are allowed to write reports too, of course, but they usually choose shorter writings :)

One year I was lucky enough we had Blackboard so my students could blog once a week on a given topic.
Now I want to try interactions with other classrooms.
It will be a challenge because the school I am at now is not equipped well enough. But I think I better start searching for partners now, so when equipment is available I am ready :)

[The Innovative Educator]

Good discussion Maria,

The OIT offers some classes on integrating tech into science geared toward middle school that you may want to check out for resources and ideas. Also, I know there's a lot going on with science in Second Life. In particular I know NASA has a big presence there. I'm sure others do too. In the classes we offer they point teachers toward using a variety of technologies -- including Google Earth, Weather Bonk, Excel, PowerPoint, PageKeeper, WebQuests, United Streaming and classroom blogs -- that can be used to enhance in-class instruction and the Exit Project process.

There are two Grade 6 Science classes. One focuses on the use of Google Apps, such as Google Earth and Google Collaborative Docs, to support a “Severe Weather” unit of study. The other focuses on the use of probes to support a water quality investigation as part of a unit on ecosystems.The Grade 7 Science class explores technology tools that can be used enhance a unit on human body systems. The Grade 8 Science class is designed to help teachers use technology to support the management, research and presentation of science exit projects.

Maybe some of this will be of help or lead you down some other interesting paths. All the class content resides at our website.

Check out the Classroom 2.0 discussion on this topic here.

[Maria Fleyshgakker]

I want to share with other teachers my thoughts about Power Point Presentations. I know the software was created to present the results of some research but I now consider it a tool that helps my students learn the topic not just present what they had learned using some other tools. It took some time and experience to notice that while they search for pictures on the internet and while they put animations on the slide show they understand and remember the terminology much better. The first time it happened I asked them to make a PPP on Ecological Successions, pretty boring topic if you just have to read a textbook. I only gave the class all the vocabulary words. Their creativity and involvement was amazing. Using the same text they created over 30 projects. Each was unique and when the time came to take the Regents Exam that year nobody made mistakes on questions related to Ecological Successions.
Since then I have used PPP as learning and teaching tool for years. Now I have an opinion that PPP is not necessarily a writing assignment – it also can be a reading assignment. It’s like keeping notes while reading by copying and pasting the info on to your PPP (they have to be very selective because on PPP you can paste only so much:). Then you decorate your notes, make them move and fun while rereading several times. This way you stay on task, move with your own pace, read information on your own level of understanding (often very different from the way your teacher would explain)
I started to also give them assignments in Publisher with the same idea. The difference is that the Publisher requires a little more advanced writing and editing skills. One can’t just list the vocabulary words with bullets and put pictures. In Publisher you have to connect sentences into paragraphs. So usually Publisher comes after they master PPP.
By the end of the term when I give the last assignment I also give a choice of how they want to present or more accurately how they want to learn through making PPP or Publisher (booklet, card, sign), or more traditional essay writing in a word-processor. By the way my final topic is usually something for the future: car of the future, energy of the future, lights of the future etc :) :) :) there is not much info in the textbooks about that.
I am very proud of my students and their achievements. This year I have one class of special ed kids and they turned out to achieve even more than the kids in other classes because they had a chance to work at their own pace. I think this is what made the difference.

[The Innovative Educator]

Hey Kristi,

I think that www.Classroom20.com is the right community for this question.

Lisa