The project I explored was “What Impacts Global Climate Change?”. I customized parts of it to include section that assesses prior knowledge and initial questions before introducing the question of “What impacts global climate change?”. I also added several videos to show the visual effect of what climate change looks like from satellites. I teach Grade 7s in British Columbia and one of the curricular content areas involves the studying the evidence and human impacts of climate change so this projects was spot on for it. For my lesson, I would have students work in pairs and include parts of collaborative discussions in the project so students can scaffold each other’s learning. Pairs of students would explore the “module” sections together but then after each main part (7 parts total), there would be a whole class discussion that includes an individual reflection. Also, I would also have students create a poster to promote awareness of global climate change that includes learned knowledge and making presentations to other students in the school and possibly the community. Furthermore, students would also work in groups to design a service learning project where they can actively be a part of protecting the climate. The WISE research incorporates many of the 21st century learning skills such as questioning, comparing, rethinking and reflecting. Also, since science knowledge requires teachers to have strong content and pedagogical knowledge (i.e. TPACK), that is, knowledge on the content but then also how to deliver it to students in the best way, the Scaffolding Knowledge Integration Framework of WISE allows teachers to not transfer their misconceptions to students and allows educators to be a part of the learning process along with their students.
Hi Gloria,
I have some lesson stuff for you. Grade 6 in Alberta has a trees and forests unit which I was able to build a partial unit for last term. While I can’t get you the google site unfortunately, I have a simulation and video that looks at the balance between economic, environmental, and social factors in the logging industry. Feel free to make use/remix etc.
Video: https://youtu.be/jbnfGBKBrlI
Simulation: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/130292766/
– Dan
Thanks for sharing, Dan! I will definitely be using this for my class in the new school year. I also like that it is Canadian content as I have found that many resources I locate are American!
Dear Gloria,
I hope to hear how it goes with your class on this topic. I like how you have integrated the technology with teacher and student activities. You mention that pairs and groups of students can scaffold one another’s learning as they progress through the inquiry phases of this project. This is an interesting challenge for students as the misconception issue also applies to them. Kim, Hannafin, and Furtak et al. have a few suggestions that might translate well to student groups. Which scaffolding techniques might you like students to try as they support each other’s learning with technology? Thanks for your input, Samia
Hi Samia,
There were many scaffolding techniques I want to try from Kim & Hannafin (2011). For instance, collaboration and discussion is one technique I would like to implement so that students engage in the problem solving together but are also actively verbalizing their ideas and opinions in the process. Additionally, I can integrate “questioning” where students generate questions to ask each other or to other groups. Finally, the inclusion of peer feedback will allow student to reflect on their groups’ ability to work together and to consider their generated ideas.
Kim, M. C., & Hannafin, M. J. (2011). Scaffolding problem solving in technology-enhanced learning environments (TELEs): Bridging research and theory with practice. Computers & Education, 56(2), 403-417.