http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Education/ConservationCentral/teacher/default.cfm
Finding Common Ground Curriculum is a middle school curriculum developed by the Friends of the Smithsonian National Zoo and Fujifilm. This curriculum is aligned with both the National Science and the National Social Studies Standards, and contains six modules. Teachers may choose to incorporate all of the modules into their curriculum, or simply choose the ones they want to use. If all six modules are incorporated, students may develop a Class Conservation Action Plan at the end of the modules. The curriculum includes several online, interactive simulations and games that greatly enhance the modules. It also includes family learning activities and investigation questions for students to answer as they are investigating the environment.
The six modules are:
- In My Own Backyard – Students conduct a biological inventory of their schoolyard
- Understanding Habitat: The Temperate-Forest Biome - Students apply what they learned in the first module in a live field study and an online, virtual field study
- Exploring the Temperate Forest: Biodiversity and Interdependence – Students explore the interdependence of plants and animals
- Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park Research and Conservation – Students apply research and design a virtual Panda Habitat
- People and the Forest – Students create a conservation model
- What You Can Do! – Students create a Class Conservation Action Plan
This curriculum is inquiry-based, stimulates creativity and curiosity, encourages students to journal, ask questions and take steps to create a collaborative product at the end of the modules. The virtual games and activities are well-done and engaging for middle school-aged students and younger. I’m going to go through some of the modules with my 5 year old daughter, and I believe she will be very interested and able to understand many aspects of the curriculum.
WBI Scoring
Instructional Aspects
• Objectives clearly stated: 5
• Objectives appropriately sequenced: 5
• Instructional strategies appropriate for the objectives: 5
• Instructional activities / process clearly described: 5
• Tasks adequate/significant for achieving objectives: 4
• Resources adequate/significant for achieving objectives: 5
• Learning achievement adequately evaluated: 4
• Evaluation criteria clearly expressed: 3
Motivational Aspects
• Gaining and maintaining learners' attention: 5
• Relating to learners' interest and goals: 5
• Building on learners' prior knowledge and foreshadowing what lesson is about: 4
• Providing positive feedback and feeling of accomplishment: 5
• Motivational strategies serve for objectives: 5
Web Design Aspects
• Navigation clear and easy to access: 4
• Authorship and date clearly stated: 5
• Text follows rules of grammar, spelling and literary composition: 5
• Using of multimedia visually appealing: 4
• Mechanical aspects: 4
• Web design appropriate for objectives: 4
• Web design appropriate for learner characteristics: 4
Total 90/100
While I wouldn't send a child to this website to navigate on his or her own, I can see that this would be a great curriculum unit for teachers to use.
ReplyDeleteI found the Build a Panda Habitat interactive activity and other activities, which I really enjoyed, and I think add much to how students can interact with the site. However, students would need a direct link to these activities, instead of navigating through the site.
I thought that the interactive aspects allowed time for students to show understanding of a concept and also offered motivational strategies to encourage deeper thinking and engagement.
Again, as just a curriculum to follow, I think teachers could do a lot with it, but this isn't a website for students to go and start using, as all of the PDFs are multiple pages long. I think this would overwhelm any student, since it is intended for a teacher.
Overall, I would definitely teach the material first and then allow students to go to the interactive games and try the activities.
Teachers could create a link to the website or use Lanschool to demonstrate (model) how to use the site before the students actually use the site. I think some of the activities are very engaging and would be beneficial to the students.
DeleteI think you're right. It is a bit too much for a child to do on their own, but the educational resources for a teacher is great!
DeleteI completely agree, Anna, I wouldn't send a student to the site and expect them to go through the modules themselves. This is a curriculum with some really nice virtual, interactive features built in. The reason I was drawn to it was the interactive features. I have gone through this site with many teachers and students and they love the interactive elements and the real world experience.
ReplyDeleteI like how the instructions open in PDF; I'm planning a similar approach for my WBI learning modules. Linking PDF's is a great way to add user-friendly content to websites. The light, organic theme of the PDF's is well done and inviting. It's definitely geared toward teachers, although inquisitive students may find the resources and step-by-step instructions to be useful for self-directed learning. The website looks like something out of the late 90's. Not a lot of flash, but the PDF's pick up the slack with their detailed instructions and attractive design.
ReplyDeletePDF is still useful when you need your learners to slow down and master some of the specific steps for doing something.
DeleteI think this is an example of what Dr. Hu said is more like a digital book...now I get what she meant about needing interactivity. This WBI was not visually interesting to me and looked like a long list of sequential print documents to open.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that it is aligned to National Standards could be helpful to teachers.
It might be a work-in-process? Maybe they will add more interactives as they prepare them?
It was created several years ago... :-)
DeleteA teacher can plan lessons integrating the interactive parts on Conservation Central page with the curriculum part. This way it won't be boring for students to read only the text...
ReplyDeleteI think the site lacks interactive elements. I like the PDFs for the lessons and think they would be a great fresource for a teacher to take into the classroom, but I feel like they are missing out on some great opportunities to draw children into the site and educate them directly.
ReplyDelete