Wilson,+Jane-920

Tomlinson Middle School Fairfield, CT EDC 920 Final Project Restless Earth WebQuest

=Restless Earth WebQuest =


 *  http://tms-science.wikispaces.com **

As part of the **Grade 6 Science Geology Unit**, students will be learning about volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis. This is a collaborative unit with three science teachers, Tamara Weinberg, the library media specialist and me, as the technology resource teacher. Each teacher would be responsible for various aspects of the lessons. We chose a wiki format to allow for all teachers to contribute and make updates anytime and appear instantly for a class. The wiki will be used by the students as a webquest type website for viewing only; they will not be contributing to the wiki. Tamara and I also thought we could integrate many of the tools from this course using this web-based wiki format. Lessons on searching will focus on key-word searches, whether they are used for our data base subscriptions or commercial websites. Aspects of website evaluation will be covered and citations of sources will be explained and expected as part of the finished project. We have incorporated Google News, Google Maps and GoogleEarth as research tools. .
 * Curriculum and Standards **

The lessons are standards based, support the curriculum, and are developed around this geology unit of study. The essential question revolves around the energy in the earth’s systems; how do internal and external sources of energy affect the Earth’s systems? This is defined in our Core Science Curriculum Framework and approved by the CT State Department of Education.
 * Student Centeredness **

Each science teacher has four class periods of science a day. The lessons will be introduced and conducted for all three teachers’ classes of students simultaneously during the four periods. This is a rare opportunity for these students to mix with members of other “communities”. The students will be working in groups in the form of a team comprised of various roles to address a natural disaster. Since three classes will be together during each period, the groups may be composed from different classes. Thus management of students, transitions, and resources, and locations will be planned out for ease of flow and accessibility. Students have much choice and flexibility. They may choose a restless earth topic of volcanoes, earthquakes, or tsunamis. Then they form groups for brainstorming questions based on their chosen topic. Each group member will take on a role, background researcher, historian, geologist or environmentalist, to answer questions relating to his job within the team. They may confer with students from other groups who have the same role.
 * Instructional Design **

Students are expected to complete tasks during the pre-activities, the activities of researching and writing the expository piece, and the post-activities of preparing a visual project and presenting it at our Restless Earth Fair. Adaptations for students with learning disabilities can be made. There is an additional role of safety expert that can be performed by students with learning challenges. One aspect of this role is to put together a safety kit for people to use to prepare for, during, and after the disaster. Books and other resources are available for lower level readers as well. Graphic organizers are available for all students to use if they choose. We have listed various interactive Internet activities on the wiki for those whose learning style is better suited with this format or if students finish early. Motivated students may choose to participate in our district’s Earth Day for extra credit. They would need to register with their teacher and display their project at this celebration.
 * Assessment **

The checklist and rubric is available on the wiki and in printed form. It contains due dates for each task and associated point value. The students would use the rubric to self-assess and their teacher would score them as well. 