Live From Mars was active July 1996-December 1997.
In-Class Techniques
I used the following techniques while running an electronic field trip:
smart filters, expert
teams, jigsawing, slide show productions using ClarisWorks 2.0., reading
pairs, teacher
assistant for a day (TA for a Day), etc.
One of the students' strongest experiences of learning was when I chose
them to be TA for
a day. During one or several periods I observed their ability to drive
the Macs, interact and
help their fellow students, and solve problems that arose. I tried to
pick a student whose
particular talent matched the shape of the day's lesson. So one young man
who was great
at the "Edit" menu was given the job of TA for a Day when I ran my
NY minute on cutting, pasting, moving, and erasing images, text, movies,
and sound files
from slide shows.
The response was so positive that I started playing with the concept. I
ran a number of TA
teams for a week with equal success. Of course I got a chance to reteach
skills, ostensibly
to the TA, but the other students had their ears firmly to the ground so
they would not miss
out. We all learned a lot.
Expert Teams
Have the kids split up into expert development teams. Have at hand
materials prepped and
ready to go:
ASIDE The seventh grade class that went on last year's Live from Antarctic
field trip
found it interesting to push around the idea surrounding the way sunlight
and time zones
distribute themselves globally. Successfully transferring our planetary
system's relation to
the sun is the best way to create a domain of knowledge for moving to the
subject of the
inner planets. And the CD Small Blue Planet does a wonderful job of
conveying the
concept of the planet's chromosphere. If you would like a tour of the
planets in anticipation
of LFM or any solar astronomy unit you are teaching, check out the
University of
Arizona's Tour of the Planets.
The expert team that looked at this footage was responsible for finding
the best 3 minutes,
using one-minute segments. The team used the VCR inch meter and
annotation techniques
as their tools.
ASIDE Here I tend to limit tape "watch" time to 10 minutes at a time
believing that a
hands-on activity associated with 10 minutes of viewing provides a bounty
of information,
more than enough for middle school students to assimilate (post here link
to "Learning in
Humans and Machines" European Science Foundation).
Where info came from
What I did not understand
Where I went to clarify what I did not understand
Words I had to look up
Topics of great interest to me
During the LFA project last year our class took a vote on which learning
center to join.
With much discussion and debate the kids strongly, overwhelmingly chose
the center
dealing with survival in extreme environments, which led to living
quarters, which led to a
program within my local region called "Math Renaissance Project." The
project had a Mac
software program and curriculum to teach middle school math by designing a
habitat for the
South Pole station. During broadcast 3 when a high
school student Elizabeth showed us the new living quarters, the design
sparked much
interest in the kids. Here is a lesson in real classroom management,
though. While I was
able to snag the lesson book and software for designing South Pole
habitat, I did not
execute the lesson in class because of time constraints. Typical of a
classroom teacher,
great ideas and materials, no time.
VIDEO COMPONENTS- ANNOTATION AND NOTE TAKING.
Web Chat, Virtual field trip into KAO, teacher registration and mail list
as way to connect
with real people.
Teacher orientation broadcast is a great way to become familiar with the
content and process of the project.
Link to downloadable book mark file for LFA, LFS, LHST and LFM.
Kids loved slide show project at end of year
Quakes show
NIH Image and expert online and in class.
Info management is different for an electronic field trip because of so
much material. A speed reading course is
not out of line.
Remote sensing history???
Down load pages for off line viewing using a Graphical browser give
instructions for using
NETSCAPE. Using Netscape as a multimedia tool.
Hard drive management-a real classroom issue. What I do and have done.
Complex instruction set Stanford School of Ed work?
Other people doing or referencing projects-
CoSN, Global School House, Academy One, NASA K-12 Internet Initiative,
etc.
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| The Fundamental Tools |
Introduction to Electronic Field Trips
In-Class Techniques
Written by Scott Coletti, Middle School
teacher
Crittenden Middle School, Mtn.View, CA.
Please send suggestions or comments to scolett@quest.arc.nasa.gov
Teacher's Note-For item 1- Pre search your CD ROM resources, noting key
words. Also,
of course, it is a good idea to teach searching for information on a CD in
a quick NEW
York Minute (post link here-my NY minute on searching electronic
resources).
Teacher's
Note- Do a presearch on whatever
connectivity you have. Saving bookmarks, noting key words, and teaching
search
techniques for electronic resources.
Teacher's
Note- As with any great teaching,
the job is to develop a focused lesson that leaves room for the wondering
human mind. I
try to leave room in my lesson design so that if I see lights go off in
the students' eyes, I
can figure out how to connect their interests to the topic. One tool I
use is slide show
production using the draw module inside ClarisWorks2.0. Asking the kids
to choose a
curricular topic related to our electronic field trip gives them open
range on what they want
to express.
Annotations using word processing and quick-time clips in the ClarisWorks
draw environment. The ability to take short (10 second max) clips from
video/audio and
drop them into ClarisWorks with appropriate annotations
proved to be a hit with my middle school kids. They thrive when
presented with this kind of task. For the last couple of years they have
spent hours outside of
class generating these slides for their slide shows. They are willing to
struggle with some
fairly abstract concepts to figure out how to add
quick time audio and video to their presentations. In order to
intelligently choose the footage, they had to review the tape, nailing
down big ideas of
concept and content. This was a fruitful endeavor in the class.
LESSON PLAN/S HERE
Use electronic excerpts from Teacher's Guide on net.
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