920FP-Sitler, Bridget


 * __Arctic Animal Adaptations Research__**

Librarian: Bridget Sitler Grade: 4th (also open to 3rd) Duration: 7-8 session, 45 – 60 minutes per session, one session per week (Idea for lesson from School Library Monthly Dec 2009)
 * NYS Standards –**
 * MST Standard 1: Analysis, Inquiry, and Design** Students will use mathematical analysis, scientific inquiry, and engineering design, as appropriate, to pose questions, seek answers, and develop solutions. **Standard 2: Information Systems** Students will access, generate, process, and transfer information using appropriate technologies. **Standard 4: Science** Students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles, and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living environment and recognize the historical development of ideas in science.
 * Social Studies Standard 3: Geography** Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live—local, national, and global—including the distribution of people, places, and environments over the Earth’s surface.
 * ELA Standard 1: Language for Information and Understanding** Students will listen, speak, read, and write for information and understanding. **Standard 4: Language for Social Interaction** Students will listen, speak, read, and write for social interaction.


 * AASL Information Literacy Standards –**
 * 1.1.2** Use prior and background knowledge as context for new learning. **1.1.5** Evaluate information found in selected sources on the basis of accuracy, validity, appropriateness for needs, importance, and social and cultural context. **1.3.1** Respect copyright/ intellectual property rights of creators and producers. **2.1.6** Use the writing process, media and visual literacy, and technology skills to create products that express new understandings. ** 2.3.1 ** Connect understanding to the real world. ** 3.1.4 ** Use technology and other information tools to organize and display knowledge and understanding in ways that others can view, use, and assess. ** 3.2.3 ** Demonstrate teamwork by working productively with others.

Materials: Smart Board, LCD projector and laptop – for librarian Laptops – one per student pair Headphones with microphones Smartboard Tools (other recording software could be used) Animal Adaptation websites – bookmarked on Destiny Examples: **Animals of the Arctic** [] Database **–** Grolier Amazing Animals Books – topics covering variety of information students will be researching Handouts – research topic organizer, website evaluation, scripting guidelines List of animals for research (for classroom teacher)
 * Arctic Adaptations** [|http://www.nps.gov/akso/parkwise/ students/referencelibrary/bela/arcticadaptations.htm]
 * Arctic Wildlife** [|http://www.saskschools.ca/~gregory/ arctic/Awildlife.html]

Objective: 1) Through collaborative research students will develop a greater understanding of the specific adaptations require of animals in order to survive in an extreme environment. 2) Through hands on use, students will examine some of the differences between databases and websites. 3) Students will increase their knowledge of the variety of technological tools and resources available to them. 4) Students will reinforce their knowledge of how to respect the intellectual properties of others and why this is important. Rational: This lesson builds on a generalized 4th grade animal adaptation lesson done by the computer teacher. It will provide students with a chance to study a specific animal’s behavioral and physical adaptations and its environment in detail. This lesson also provides an opportunity to cover a variety of research and information literacy skills. The lesson was open to 3rd grade teachers also as they study animals as a part of their curriculum.

Procedure: __Day 1-2__ 1) Students will have been assigned partners and an animal to research prior to coming to the library. Teacher will have created high/low pairs. 2) Upon entering the library, students will sit with their partners. Each pair will be provided with a copy of the research topic organizer. Using Pronghorns as the example, the librarian will walk the students through the information that is required for the graphic organizer. 3) The class with review exactly what physical and behavioral characteristics are. The class will watch a video clip about Pronghorns created by the librarian in order to demonstrate the expected product of their research. 4) Students will then take one laptop per pair. Once the students have logged onto the laptops the librarian will demonstrate how to get to the Destiny homepage. 5) Students will be asked to locate the Arctic Animals heading. At this time, they will be asked to focus on their animal’s adaptations (any additional information on the page can be noted after the adaptation information has been collected). The librarian will demonstrate a few of the bookmarked sites. 6) Students will be advised that all of the animals can be found on at least one of the bookmarked sites (some may be on more than one site). It is up to the partners to work together to locate the site that contains the information about their assigned animal. 7) Librarian will review how to fill out website evaluation form and explain importance of noting website used for research on the form. (Plagiarism, knowing where to go if more information is needed.) Teacher and librarian will be on hand to provide assistance. Librarian will have alternate websites/ books for students who are unable to understand the information provided on bookmarked sites.

__Day 3__ 8) Recap with students that previous class was focused on the adaptationsof their assigned animals. Advise that during this lesson we will be looking at more general information about their animals. Librarian will point out the pertinent sections of the organizer...description, diet, habitat etc. Students will again take one laptop per pair and log in. 9) Once students have logged on, they will be advised that they will beusing a database for the general research. Librarian will explain what a database is and how it is different from using Internet. 10) The Librarian will demonstrate how to access the database (GrolierAmazing Animals). Once all students are on, they will enter their animal in the search box. Students and librarian will walk through the database together. 11) Students will then work together to collect the necessary information from the database to complete their organizer. They will be reminded to record the citation information from the bottom of the page that they use. Teacher and Librarian will be available to provide assistance as needed.

__Day 4__ 12) Once students are seated and have logged onto their laptops they will be reminded that they will be using their research to create a short video clip about their animal. Ask students what they think they will need to create this clip. Discuss importance of creating a script and locating a good picture of their animal. 13) Librarian will provide students with a guideline showing the minimum amount of acceptable information while playing Pronghorn clip. Librarian will point out required information noted on guideline as it comes up in the clip. Class will then discuss guidelines and review differences between behavioral and physical adaptations. 14) Librarian will advise that students will look for pictures of their animals before starting their script. Ask if anyone is familiar with Google Images and how to access. Demonstrate district bookmark of site and how to search for it on the Internet. 15) Demonstrate use of the website using Pronghorns as search term. After locating a picture, the librarian will demonstrate how to save image to students’ folders. Students will be advised that only a single image will be needed. 16) Students will be advised to try to locate images that contain the photographer’s information on the image. Explain that Google Image only collects the images but does not hold the copyright and how to locate where the image is really from. All students will be expected to note original web location of the image used. 17) After locating and saving their image, students will be allowed to finish their research or begin working on their scripts as needed. Classroom teacher and librarian will be available to provide assistance with both research and scripting as needed.

__Day 5__ 18) Once all students pairs have their laptops and are logged on, using the laptop and projector, the librarian will log on to Google Earth and show students their school. She will then ask if students would like to see where in the world their various animals live. 19) Since Google Earth is only accessible through the librarian’s laptop, students will be allowed to come up to use Google Earth to locate their country. Students will first have to tell the class what country their animal lives in and provide a little bit of information from their research. The class can then try to guess where in the world they think the place is. Once class has finished guessing, the student will type name of country into Google Earth. 20) Once the image has come up, the students, under librarian guidance, will be allowed to click around the image a little bit in order to explore the country. The student and class will be allowed to briefly discuss what they find…ex. how far away from us, interesting things that might appear in the pictures as they are clicked on, what they think it might be like there. This will continue until all groups have had a turn. 21) If any time remains, students will continue to work on any research that is still needed for their topic. Those who are finished will be able to work on their script.

__Day 6__ 22) Students will use this day to finish any research that is still needed for their topic. As students finish their research they will be provided with a copy of the scripting guidelines and will start drafting. Classroom teacher and librarian will be available for assistance as needed.

__Day 7-8__ 23) At this point students should either be finished with their research and should be starting or have started writing their scripts. As students finish their scripts the classroom teacher or Librarian will review them. 24) Once a script has been deemed acceptable (meets at least minimum standards as per guideline and makes some sort of sense) students will be asked to rehearse their scripts. Each partner will be required to read half of his or her script. Once students have rehearsed their scripts they will be allowed to record their projects. 25) The students will go, one pair at a time, to a quiet area with the librarian. The librarian will instruct each pair on how to access the Recorder function of the SmartBoard Tools. Students will also learn how to include their selected image as the background for their recording. 26) Once the students are ready to record, the librarian will cue the students and start/stop the recording as needed. Students will be allowed to listen to their recordings once they have been saved. Recordings will be redone only if there are serious problems with the recording (no or low sound, too much or inappropriate background noise etc.). 27) Once students have finished their recordings they will be allowed to play on district approved “fun sites” such as BrainPop, Funbrain or other sites specified by classroom teacher while waiting for all students to complete their recordings.

Follow up: Students will be able to share their recordings with their classmates in the classroom. If desired, classroom teachers will be able to post recordings to their School Center website.

Evaluation: Classroom teacher will do actual grading of projects. The Librarian will be looking to see that students: -filled in all required information on research organizers (at least one piece of information per topic guideline), -made proper notation of all websites used (minimum of website name and URL) -included minimum of information for script as laid out in the scripting guidelines. (The classroom teacher, depending on student ability, can make exceptions on any of these.)