Just for Teachers
This Webquest is the creation of a group of teachers who are availing themselves of an opportunity provided by MCLA. Inservice graduate credits are being awarded upon completion of this project. MCLA Professors Dawn Rodriguez and Emily DeMoore are working with Joan LaRocca, Micheleine Lanoue, Peg Winslow and Linda E. Neville at Silvio O. Conte School to create an integrated educational experience for 7th grade students.
On this page, teachers will find lesson plans, Standards, worksheets, handouts and web links. Check the file library on the left.
Below is a Website Glimpse. This listing was constructed as part of our
assignment with Dr. Emily DeMoor. She asked us to look at these
websites and evaluate them as to their usefulness to our curriculum
needs. Peg Winslow is the Science teacher. Linda E. Neville is the ELA
teacher.
The Once Upon a Time in North Adams Book
The Once Upon a Time in North Adams... Book was compiled in 1988 by Judy Noel and Susan Grande, APT Teachers for the North Adams Public School District. The title of this book was written by Jennifer Collins, a grade 7 student at the North Adams Middle School during 1988.
From the introduction to the book: "This book was written as the result of an idea to record for future generations the important events in the lives of school children in the city of North Adams during 1988. Students from the creative writing classes, grades 1-7, in the Academic Program for Talented Students, all shared in the production of this book. Through both the individual stories and the accompanying pictures it is hoped that readers will catch a glimpse of life in North Adams in 1988 as seen through the eyes of young people." ----Judy Noel and Susan Grande.
Evaluation of Science Websites on the Internet
Peg Winslow and Linda Neville Website Glimpse
A Walk Through Time
http://www.globalcommunity.org/wtt/walk_menu/index.html
I think students will enjoy this site because they can jump around and choose what to investigate. I also think that the material above some of the students. I would probably have them work in pairs and cover the geologic scale before using the site. I like the idea of physically comparing the events occurring over time to a mile. This would show them that animals developed near the end and humans in the last inch. Each pair would choose two events, one before and one after 500 MYA. They could write about each event and include a picture. This would be mounted to a dowel on colored paper corresponding to ¼ of the 5000 million year time span. The dowels could then be placed around the quarter mile track by Noel Field. The students would then walk the loop four times reading the cards as they go. Just seeing how closely spaced are the cards once animals developed would drive home the scale of geologic time.
---Winslow
This was a good site to show the students how a film strip in imovie would develop to tell their story in a digital form. ---Neville
Creating a Timeline in Word
http://mcla.mrooms.net/mod/resource/view.php?id=798
This site is useful when working in a certain time period. The example shows the Jurassic Period Which is obviously perfect when I teach geologic time scale. This would be a useful tool to create local history timeline of either natural or human history. We think this would also be a useful tool when the students study memoirs in ELA and develop their own. They could use it as an outline and put in their own photos. ---Winslow ---Neville
Pulse of the Planet
http://www.pulseplanet.com/archive.html
Originally I had difficulty getting the sound to work. When I recently tried I was able to hear the two-minute blurbs. Although students generally enjoying listening to something instead of having to read it, I do not think this site has much use for my classroom. I tried several spots. The ones on Tibet seemed over the head of the students. I also tried some snow and environmental topics. I found them too narrow for my use. I feel that they are just come-ons because the site seemed always ready to sell something. ---Winslow
I had no luck hearing anything substantial either. I did explore a
little further and found a link that included stories people had
submitted about their encounters with Nature that I could use to
encourage student writing. ---Neville
Explore Learning
http://teachingboxes.org/mountainBuilding/index.jsp
The two I looked at would be useful, but have a major drawback of charging a fee for use. At this time I am enrolled can assign students the gizmos of my choice. I am not sure that I will have this next year. I find some of the Gizmos are better than others. Plate Tectonics is okay for a review but I feel students need more background than is available. I also think it is boring. However, I do like the Building a Topographic Map Gizmo. I am unsure why it was titled Mountain Building. I think the students will enjoy this one because they can be more active and increase/decrease the terrain and rotate the view. It also gives them experience using topo maps which is always on the MCAS. I did find a couple of errors where the contour lines crossed. I would start the students with Reading a Topo Map Gizmo before I went to the building one. I will definitely use these in my class room. I will incorporate them and then show the students a Mt Greylock map I have on a transparency and then go to Google Earth to look at it from both view options. ---Winslow
I hadn’t seen Gizmos before. Think they are really a great way to demonstrate Earth Science concepts. Liked the graphic map, could use it when I make a connection between the memoir on Mt. Everest and the link to our Mt. Greylock. I told the kids to imagine 6 ½ Mt. Grelock’s piled on top of each other, to suggest the challenge to a teenager/adult. The Gizmo site would have been a great visual. ---Neville
Schoolyard Geography
http://education.usgs.gov/schoolyard/MapSketch.htm
This is how I started the hands-on part of our unit. The site was vary useful in helping me show the kids how to map our school area. They were able to find Silvio O. Conte Middle School, with some difficulty because of the school's history, but once found, they were able to determine the perimeter, and area of any position. We found our school looks like a giant "F" from the satellite image on http://.earth.google.com. "Sense of Place" took off with this activity! ---Neville
Nova Online: Continents on the Move
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ice/continents/
I like this site. It gives students choices and has nice graphics. The amount and level of reading is somewhat above the level of many students. I suggest this be used as an optional activity, working in pairs, or I could also project it on the screen. I particularly like how it ties in to the Everest site. It also creates opportunities for students to think like scientists. ---Winslow
Teaching Boxes
www.teachingboxes.org
The two sites from DLESE (Digital Library for Earth Science Education) are both excellent. They each contain lesson plans and resource sites for teachers. They are actually more like units, which contain multiple lessons and activities. Each unit spans 8-22 days. I will not probably use the whole unit due to time constraints, but will definitely use parts. The mountain building teaching box is perfect for our Science/ELA Everest unit. The plate tectonics teaching box is useful in the science curriculum and matches the frameworks. Even the resources alone are excellent. ---Winslow
