I chose to explore and customize the “Orbital Motion and the International Space Station” project on WISE as it was an interesting topic to me at the time of selection. I modified the project from the original version, by updating the information and adding some updates about some topics previously brought up about the ISS’s deorbit plan. As the lesson was already well thought up, so I actually didn’t have much to add and probably wouldn’t need to either if I used it myself. My adjustments during use would most likely be in the presentation part of the lesson as the project is created to be used more for individual learning, and I think I would like to use it as a group as well for certain tasks so that group learning can occur.
If I was to use this project for my class, I would most likely incorporate the lesson with some math and PE to make it an integrated lesson as well. The project has content that can be used for Math lesson as students can learn how to do some calculations after learning the projectile concepts, though it might be more physics related. But the lesson can definitely involve some outdoor, PE component as students can experiment on projectile science with various objects as well to build better understanding. But ultimately, the students would all go back to the online environment to do each section and submit their results there for assessment.
Hi Wanyl
It is a great idea to incorporate the lesson as PE and some math activities. I think that these are real-life applications/learning that students can appreciate after the class. As a past student, a lot of concepts were taught in STEM classes, but there were not many real-life examples to either apply the concepts or comprehend the content we learned in classes.
Hi Wanyl,
I second the comment above! The idea to add physical education components in conjunction with the WISE is a wonderful idea. Adding the physical movements would be a nice “break” from the online environment and also have students to relate to the scientific concepts in a different manner. The additional of math would be a natural fit for this as well.
Thanks, YooYoung and Natalie. I do agree as well. I do think that best making more real-life activity connections with such integrated lessons would be much more “fun” and easy to absorb for both the teachers and students.
Hi Wanyi
I like the fact that everyone in the course is picking different topics — You have given us all some great ideas.
I wonder if you could expand on the “presentation part”. What would it look like? How would you capture the interest of the students.
A good next step might be to pole the students to see if they would like mathematics in their PE class. 🙂
Christopher
Hi Christopher,
Good prompt, I was picturing the presentation part in my mind and didn’t write it down. I did similar lessons in Science as well and modified the “presentation part” by changing the way I presented the lesson. For the lesson I did before, on Castles, the class learned about projectile weapons as part of the study as well. So first we presented some short and easy to understand siege videos for the students (grade 4s) and then looked at various weapons used at that time. For the production activity for the lesson, the students made catapults and other projectile weapons from what they’ve learned and “attacked” castles that the students made in class in groups for Socials Studies. The students got really creative and even made fake fireballs and reenacted the scenarios.
For this ISS project, I would most likely show them short films or simulations of items that land from a high altitude, and how they land. Then, I would probably do something similar for the “projectile” part of the assignment and have them physically test out how their satellite would land based on their calculations, and predictions after making a miniature satelite as well. What do you think?
Wanyi