Virtual Tour

Check out my Revolutionary War Tour!

Virtual Tour Plan

Location	Activity	Google Earth Content
1.Lexington/Concord, MA	In the first activity, I will have the students measure the distance of Paul Revere's ride with the ruler.	I will have them look at the ruler as well as a picture from Wikipedia of the different paths the British and Americans took in the battle.
2. Philadelphia, PA	Students will complete the linked Declaration of Independence Word Search.	I will have them look at a link for the word search, as well as a picture of the Declaration of Independence.
3. Saratoga, NY	Students will read an article about the Battle of Saratoga, considered to be the turning point of the Revolutionary War.	I will have them look at a link for the article, as well as a picture of the battle of Saratoga.
4. Yorktown, VA	Students will read and respond to a short article about the Treaty of Paris which happened at Yorktown.	I will have them look at a link for the article, and type a response to the colonists demands and whether they think they were fair.
Details of image overlay / path / polygon:	The thirteen colonies will be highlighted in a polygon so that students can clearly see where the Revolutionary War and colonies were.

TPACK:

The content which will be used in this lesson is from the Utah State Core, under Standard 2, Objective 2--"Evaluate the Revolutionary War's impact on self-rule." Through viewing the key events of the Revolutionary War and where they are actually located, students will be able evaluate the Revolutionary War, and with their knowledge from other lessons, they will be able to evaluate its impact on self-rule. From this activity, students will understand the key events of the Revolutionary War and will have a better picture of where the Revolutionary War was fought.
The pedagogy which will be used is viewing the events and places for themselves. The activities will be self-directed, with the teacher acting as a facilitator and making sure that the students are viewing the articles and doing the activities correctly.
The technology which will be used is Google Earth, as well as some links to the web, and pictures so that students will receive a better understanding of the events of the Revolutionary War. This technology is effective because students from Utah cannot travel to where the events took place, so seeing pictures and seeing the places geographically through Google Earth helps them to realize that the War actually happened and was a defining part of our nation's history.

Breakfast in Bed Story

Storyboard and TPACK Questions

For our digital storytelling activity, we chose the poem "Breakfast in Bed" by Kenn Nesbitt. It is a humorous and fun poem, and the story will depict pictures of the different scenes.

• CONTENT: We are using a poem that has rhyme at the end of each line--the rhyme scheme is aabbccdd...and so forth. From this, student's will learn about rhyme and the sounds that different words make. Also, the poem uses some creative vocabulary, so student's will see the words with the pictures so that their literacy will be improved. Overall, our content is largely literacy and word focused, as we are using a poem.
• PEDAGOGY: Hearing the story read aloud will strengthen student's listening abilities, a big part of their literacy. The pedagogy used will be the storybook itself, and seeing the pictures as well as hearing it read aloud which appeals to auditory and visual learners.
  
• TECHNOLOGY: We will be using PhotoStory3 to create our digital storybook, which will help our story come to life technologically. We will create the story using audio, pictures from the web, and music in the background. This technology is a perfect fit for the pedagogy of reading the story aloud because it allows students to be able to go back and listen to it again and again. This technology fits with the content because it allows students to hear the rhyme and see the vocabulary words.
  

TPACK Questions

The content we are focusing on in our science experiment is how heat can be created by rubbing two objects together, such as hands or cloth. We are also exploring whether lubricating the two objects (lotioning the hands or wetting the cloth) will affect the temperature change. In order to explore this scientific content area, we are using the pedagogical tool of exploring and experimenting to find out what happens--instead of just being told that two objects rubbed together creates heat, students have the opportunity to actually experience it which will help them to remember it easier. Scientific content is always better when it is a hands-on experience, because that is how the scientists discovered it, and so it helps the students to discover it the same way. We used probes in our experiment because we are dealing with temperature change, and this helps to tell the temperature and the temperature change. The graph the technology creates is also helpful in seeing the temperature change and how the heat is created by rubbing the objects together.

The Tech Savvy Teacher

Our project is designed for third grade students, and addresses the Utah State Core Curricular Standard 5 Objective 3, which states “demonstrate that heat may be produced when objects are rubbed against one another.” For our scientific experience, we will be using a temperature probe, lotion, carpet, cloth, and our hands to show how heat is produced when objects are rubbed against one another. In a third grade classroom, you could introduce this lesson activity by having students visualize sliding down a slide with water and without water, and what they think the difference would be.
For each of the items, we took the initial temperature of the objects, and then produced friction for thirty seconds and took the final temperature of the objects. We started off with rubbing our hands together to produce friction, and then produced friction with rubbing our lotioned hands together. Next, we rubbed two pieces of cloth together to produce heat, and then put water on the cloth and rubbed it together. We thoroughly tested the Utah State Objective because we tested the differences in heat between rubbing un-lubricated and lubricated objects together.
The technology of using the temperature probe helps kids in many different ways. It helps teach kids to compare things and events with the visual reading of the temperature with non-lubricated objects and lubricated objects, as well learning how to read initial and final temperatures in appropriate units. They use their observation to conduct reasonable explanations for what has occurred with the temperature. The temperature probe is an easy way for kids to get an accurate reading, and the Logger Pro application helps students to graph the temperature changes as well. This method of technology is very useful in a science classroom, and fun for kids to use too!

Results of Probe Experiment
Hands (non-lubricated): (initial temperature) 82 degrees Fahrenheit (final temperature) 91.8 degrees Fahrenheit
Hands (lubricated): (initial temperature) 82 degrees Fahrenheit (final temperature) 86 degrees Fahrenheit
Cloth (non-lubricated): (initial temperature) 84 degrees Fahrenheit (final temperature) 92 degrees Fahrenheit
Cloth (lubricated): (final temperature) 75.8 degrees Fahrenheit (final temperature)78.8 degrees Fahrenheit

we love working with the probe!

Pictures (from top to bottom): lubricating the cloth, unlubricated cloth rubbing, lubricating the hands, and unlubricated hand rubbing.

*graph at top of page is the curve that unlubricated cloth rubbing made*

TPACK and science

This week in class we learned about TPACK, which is term referring to combining technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge. TPACK is so important for us as teachers to understand because without knowing about these three aspects, our teaching would be missing something. Technology is increasing and vital for us to incorporate into our teaching; understanding the content we are teaching is important so that we can teach it effectively; and having strong pedagogical knowledge will help us to teach effectively. Through having TPACK, we will be able to be effective, well-rounded teachers.
We also learned about different technological tools to be used in teaching science. I thought that using a computer microscope was really cool, because instead of squinting one eye to try to see the enlarged object, you can just look at the computer screen and focus it. Taking a picture of the object while it is enlarged is also useful; I remember having to draw pictures of what we saw, and this is a much more accurate and memorable tool for kids! I think having a computer microscope in the classroom is so useful and the kids would have so much fun with it.