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Technology

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Melissa Boan melissa boan 595 Points

Hello! I am two classes away from student teaching and I am wondering what are the best ways to incorporate technology into the science classroom. I am also wondering how I can incorporate science in other content areas. Any advice would be helpful!

Arsema Ghirmai Arsema Ghirmai 1485 Points

Hello! I definitely believe in making whatever technology you use incorporate an aspect of relevance to the students life. Whether it's a Bill Nye the Science Guy episode, an experiment from ZOOM, or counting frogs jumping and eating flies off of WETA's homepage, useful tactics to grab students attention during warm up, or in class activities are effective. You can also have students keep journals to go with the various slideshow, mini movies, or recorded observations that they will make through out the year. Whatever you do choose, as long as students are engaging and being progressive there is some learning happening. As a teacher, you will find ways to personalizing it but every classroom, district,state is different. So make sure to utilize the resources available for you. Best of Luck!

J Will J Will 30 Points

Hello!  Depending on your subject matter, technology can be implemented in a number of ways.  Visualizing the science concept through discovery education by using the Smartboard may be beneficial.  You can do a number of class starters, lectures, matching activities and games on the Smartboard.  Teaching college, I use all of the Microsoft Office applications and lecture using Powerpoint.  At the end of covering a lecture to connect all facts together, I use online virtual simulations.

Courtney Lucca Courtney Lucca 620 Points

I am finishing student teaching now, and my guide teacher used a promethean board to do an electronic interactive science journal. It was really great, and you can make the flip chart look exactly like the journal with all of the section you would like to include. We also had the students try some coding. There are some websites that are free to go to that will give tutorials. http://readwrite.com/2013/04/19/how-to-raise-the-next-zuck-6-coding-apps-for-kids

Zaida Serrato Zaida Serrato 1770 Points

Hello, I incorporate technology in my class daily. My students do online virtual labs, create power points, use brainpop, stemscopes, and I use the el of to do wholegroup so that everyone has a chance to do something different. They have quizzes they can do and email me the results so that they can learn to use technology. Another good site is study jams and study island. Hope this helps

Adam STEM Adam 200 Points

The University of Colorado has some great interactive math and science simulations. They are available at http://phet.colorado.edu/

Ruth Hutson Ruth Hutson 65085 Points

I second Adam's recommendation of pHet's interactives. They can be done as a class, lab groups, or as individual. What age level/content area will you be teaching? It would help in my further recommendations.

Debbie Pentecost Deborah Pentecost 6238 Points

I've used several pHET sims and the teacher created work sheets. My students have found them to be engaging and doable for 5th & 6th graders. I often have to review afterwards to clarify concepts. I've also used Concordia Consortium? I wish I had found their dragon genetics module when I was teaching genetics. I think kids would love it!

Betty Paulsell Betty Paulsell 48560 Points

Every object you interact with in your life has technology behind it! Just think how a pencil is created and how you use it! Have students take an everyday object and describe the technology that created it and technology that is involved in the object as they use it. It is also easy to add science concepts about the object. Think of force and motion in the life of a pencil!!

Matt Nupen Matthew Nupen 585 Points

Find/choose tools that let students share their ideas and let you target their interests. Tools like DocentEDU and Explain Everything have had a big impact on my lessons. DocentEDU lets me pose targeted discussions questions anywhere in a text, including after a video I embed. Explain Everything gives students the ability to make amazing videos to show what they learned. Any tech that helps you relate topics back to your student's interests or is something students can use on their own is great. Smartphones are amazing devices and if it's an app or trick they use in the classroom, they may use it outside the classroom. http://spectralworkbench.org/ is one such example. DocentEDU has made it easy for me to turn non-science material into relevant science lessons. By adding videos, questions, and my own insight into the text I can pick almost any news article that my students will be interested in and help them see the science in it.

George Mehler George Mehler 1755 Points

Hello Melissa, My name is Dr. George Mehler, and I am a professor of science methods at Temple University. I have been developing a YouTube channel called FunScienceDemos which has hundreds of free and fun science demonstrations. There are a wide range of topics which cover every idea that young learners should know before high school and they adhere to the common core standards. We regularly release new videos and in the coming year we will be adding complimentary readings, poems, math problems, and worksheets for teachers to incorporate into the classroom. Check out and subscribe FunScienceDemos, I think you will find it useful. Best, Dr. George Mehler Ed.D., Temple University

Neena Paul Neena Paul 1335 Points

Hi Melissa, Technology can be so much fun in the classroom! Their are excellent programs (that may take some hunting to find) that work great. You can find programs where students can use a different medium to build concept maps,they could create videos and presentations, using programs such as Alice and Scratch to dig into the programming process a little bit all work well. You could also taken technology to the engineering side and use legos or different blueprint making software!

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