Techy Trekkers

Students began the lesson thinking about their school grounds and drawing a picture of what that looked like. Then the teacher had them study everyone’s drawings to find commonalities. Wh... See More

Students began the lesson thinking about their school grounds and drawing a picture of what that looked like. Then the teacher had them study everyone’s drawings to find commonalities. What kinds of land features, plants, or animals did they notice? What they discovered was that very few students included any plants or animals at all. Next they looked at their schoolyard using Google Earth. As they zoomed in, they looked for similarities and differences between the googled view and their drawings. Finally, they went outdoors and using cell phones, students took ‘geo-tags’ and emailed them to their school accounts for use later. How the teacher weaved the technology and actual student observations together to create an interesting 5 E lesson on local flora and fauna was masterful. Do take time to read this article if you are looking for a new way to use current technology to enhance life science lessons.