Technology Showcase
Online Evolution Module
This project is a fully online instructional module for teaching evolution to high school biology students. It was originally developed using Moodle, but was recently recreated on Weebly because of new privacy settings by my school district. The module contains lessons on evidence for evolution, natural selection, and evolution in action. It includes such teaching resource as tutorials, web pages, interactive simulations, and videos. Student collaboration, communication, and formative assessments are done through blogs, discussion forums, a WebQuest, email, and text documents. A final activity, where students use their ingenuity to create a brand new organism, serves as a summative assessment. For a more thorough description and justification of this project please click here.
Unit Plan that Integrates Chemistry, Technology, and Digital Literacy
This unit plan addresses petroleum based fuels and alternative energy sources. The gist of the unit is that students learn how fuels work, discover and learn about alternative sources of energy and how to compare them, and choose which type of alternative energy would be the best option if gasoline had to be replaced. A primary goal of the unit is for students to apply their out-of-school digital literacies, specifically those related to social networking, to the context related tasks within the unit.
In planning this unit, I followed Jeffrey Wilhelm’s approach to inquiry. I generated an essential question, created a final project that addresses the essential question, and formed a backwards plan to get the students from point A to point B. I also used many of the discussion strategies described in the book, Engaging Readers and Writers with Inquiry, to foster communication and collaboration.
In planning this unit, I followed Jeffrey Wilhelm’s approach to inquiry. I generated an essential question, created a final project that addresses the essential question, and formed a backwards plan to get the students from point A to point B. I also used many of the discussion strategies described in the book, Engaging Readers and Writers with Inquiry, to foster communication and collaboration.
Technology Wiki
All students have different ranges of abilities and talents. To maximize the effectiveness of lessons, it is essential that educators vary their teaching strategies in an effort to reach all students. The aim of this project was to provide educators with a resource that allows them to accommodate various learning styles and multiple intelligences. To accomplish this, I created a database of activities and lessons, each geared toward a different type of intelligence, for various topics. I selected three topics within my of expertise, then designed or searched for lessons, activities, or assignments for that topic that addressed each of the eight multiple intelligences. The project was created as a wiki so that after the initial database was created, others in the educational community could contribute to it.
Stand Alone Instructional Resource
I created this project to introduce students to basic concepts in the field of Mendelian genetics, such as the general terminology, the segregation of parental alleles, and the use of punnett squares to predict genotypic and phenotypic ratios of offspring. The resource provides students with direct instruction using text, images, deductive and inductive learning strategies, scaffolding, problem solving, assessment, and feedback.
Teaching and Research Proposal Project
In my experience as a teacher, I have seen numerous examples of unsuccessful students with seemingly uncaring parents. I have also witnessed how the involvement and interactions of very engaged parents are reflected in the success of some students. As a result of my observations, it is my belief that many low-achieving students have parents who do not value education, and therefore do not set high expectations for their children. The reciprocal belief is that parents of successful students understand the significance of education, and therefore place a high emphasis on expectations and goals. To better understand the influence of parents on student success, I conducted research and planned a study that examined the following question: Do parents who place a high value on education have children who perform better in school?
Analysis of a Technological Application
By researching and implementing technological innovations in the classroom, there are several lessons that can be learned. One is that all innovations have advantages and disadvantages. In the case of WebQuests, which were evaluated in this paper, the pros outweigh the cons, but this is not always the case. It is important that an innovation makes a difference in student learning and achievement, and is not simply a new way of doing the same thing. Just as answers to certain problems come with experience, so does a full understanding of the capabilities of an innovation. Although this paper focuses specifically on WebQuests, the thought process and analysis can be applied to any application of technology.
Podcast on Curricular Effectiveness
Whenever new curriculum is considered, its effectiveness should be thoroughly evaluated. Likewise current curricular materials should undergo the same analysis to maintain a level of confidence in their usefulness. In this podcast, I surveyed two students to open up a dialogue about the validity of a newly adopted biology curriculum at my school. I'm not attempting to prove or disprove that the curriculum works. Rather, my intent is to express the need for further analysis. The podcast format of this project is especially useful because it allows the conversation to be heard by numerous listeners at their own convenience.
Content Review for Students: Wiki and Discussion Forum
I have found that my students are more engaged and work more productively when they collaborate and communicate with each other. These examples show two of the ways I use technology to promote these behaviors in my classroom. For the wiki, I created the basic template, and allowed my students to search for and post links to resources they found useful. Not only does this foster communication, it also accommodates differentiated learning. The forum is a more reflective activity that allows students to post their understanding of material, assess gaps in their understanding and ask relevant questions, and answer questions of others or direct them to available resources. (Note: Because of privacy settings on my school district's server, a link to the actual forum could not be provided. In place of a link, I substituted a screenshot of the initial forum post.)
WebQuest
This WebQuest was incorporated as part of the online instructional model described above. In this WebQuest, students will be informed that there are opponents of the Theory of Evolution in the community who wish to see it removed from the curriculum. The argument of these opponents, however, is not based on scientific evidence. The students will gather rational scientific evidence that supports evolution. They will use this information to create a PowerPoint presentation to be shown to the school board in support of the theory of evolution being taught in schools.
Upon completion of this WebQuest, learners will understand that the evidence for biological evolution overwhelmingly supports the theory. They will also be able to use this evidence to debate the existence of evolution.
Upon completion of this WebQuest, learners will understand that the evidence for biological evolution overwhelmingly supports the theory. They will also be able to use this evidence to debate the existence of evolution.
Description and Reflection of a Technology Enhanced Lesson
Evolution is sometimes a difficult concept for students to accept because many of the examples used to validate it have already taken place. Therefore, we as teachers present evidence of the results, but the students don't get a true picture of how and why changes to a species occurred. In this lesson, I used a computer simulation from Explore Learning to show the immediate impact of the environment on the evolution of a species as it is happening—not after the fact. In conjuction with technology, the lesson incorporated aspects of inquiry and constructivism to provide a learning experience that could not take place in a traditional classroom.