Technology Integration Plan

My unit of study for my sophomore Biology class is all about sustainability. In order to understand sustainability, students first need to have knowledge of food webs. By observing food webs in nature and their delicate balance, students can also observe human society and how it impacts these food webs. This will allow students to gauge human interaction with the environment and determine what kinds of human behaviors area sustainable for the environment.

My lesson begins with a Do Now which prompts students to individually what they believe a food web is and provide an example of a food web within their own community. This activity allows students to begin brainstorming about what they already know regarding food webs and relay that information into animals in their own backyards. My lesson then continues on the SMART board where students get out of their seats and put their answers on the board. This is followed by a mini lesson via power point on the SMART board with an official definition of food web, introduction to trophic levels, and examples of each trophic level. The relationship between trophic levels, energy flow, and population size is also explored as students respond orally to prompts and take notes using the T-chart provided.

Finally, the mini lesson is followed by students breaking up into groups of three for a collaborative group activity. Students will be given lap tops and watch a Youtube TedEd video titled “Rewilding Our World.” This video explores the phenomena of trophic cascades and how human impact have changed how food webs function. Students will then utilize the application CK-12 to choose a food web and research which organisms play crucial roles in the food web. They must then research how human activities have impacted this particular food web. Students will then use the application Lucid Chart to map out the food web in the form of a diagram and pin point human interaction within the food web. The diagram should utilize pictures to enhance the look and support the ideas within the food web. The students will then print two copies of their food web diagram. One will be for their reference and the other they will hand in at the end of class as their exit ticket.

For homework, I will assign a short essay highlighting their food web and how human populations have impacted it in regards to species populations, energy flow and dynamics. Students will also be required to define three vocabulary words in their notebooks for the next class: ecological niche, competition (biology), and population growth.

My assessments for this lesson will reflect student participation during class, active note taking practices, mechanically sound and accurate responses, organization of notes and detail, accuracy, and creativity of food web diagram.

You can access my lesson plan by following the link below:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6pdTAbc8HVhbnV4T2ItTVJiOEE

Digital Citizenship: Super Digital Citizen

The Digital Citizenship video, Super Digital Citizen, deals with the notion that students need to learn to be responsible members of the online community. To address what his means, the teacher in the video asks the class about how we can be safe and responsible online. He receives answers about not sharing information, not bullying, etc from his students. He then shows them an app where they can create their own comic hero who speaks about digital citizenship. I google the app myself and found that he used Comic Life, a pay per use app, though it does come with a free trial. When the students completed their super hero, he then had them place themselves in a comic about to make a mistake online and have their super hero intervene.

I believe this is a great idea, especially at earlier grades. By teaching students that our actions and words online have an impact on our daily lives, we intervene in potential future disasters. For example, by addressing the issue of plagiarism and highlighting the value of our own work, you can teach students how crucial it is to be a responsible online citizen. Not only will they take more pride in their accomplished work but also save themselves from some serious trouble in school and even more serious consequences outside of school if they plagiarize. Another key aspect of online citizenship is not partaking in online bullying. By teaching kids early about its impacts, we save our students from the social pain and isolation that bullying can cause. We also prevent drama from online spouts from coming into the classroom and taking away precious classroom time.

The link for the video can be found below:

Digital Literacy: Using Critical Thinking to Find Trustworthy Websites

This Digital Literacy video showcases a middle school classroom who is speaking about what types of websites are trustworthy for research. To get her students to think about this topic, the teacher first defines what trustworthy and bias mean and then has the students engage in an activity. In the activity, the students must convince their principal that an all year school program is not beneficial by using trustworthy websites to find research on the subject. The students end up finding what they believe to be trustworthy sites and cite that some websites had pop up ads and thus were not trustworthy.

While I think this is a great start to determining what types of websites are trustworthy, I definitely don't believe this is the end all lesson for a sixth grade classroom. The teacher could have guided a students a lot more on the topic. For example, the websites that the students presented used a lot of highlighter colors and looked very unprofessional, a clear indication that the website is not a trustworthy source for research. In the sciences, when students have to perform research for their studies, they are expected to use websites that either end in ".org" or ".edu." Since these websites are linked to organizations and educational institutions which are held accountable for the information that they provide, they are much more trustworthy sources than the common ".com" site that many students run into. By reviewing this very simple concept, the instructor could have easily paved the way for students to differentiate between personal and organizational websites and their value in education.

The link for the video can be found here:

Digital Citizenship: Improving Research Skills with Effective Key Words

In this Digital Citizenship video, a middle school class is showcased who are learning about being more precise with their online searches. The video shows the teacher engage the students in three learning activities to help them achieve this goal. First, they play a game similar to Taboo where the students must precisely describe a word without saying the word itself. Next, they must research a topic beginning with only one key word and then adding more adjectives and nouns to make the search more precise. Finally, they partner up to research a different topic.

I believe this is a great strategy in teaching students the importance of precision in making searches. The sciences are a very research heavy field. Thus, it is imperative that students learn early on how crucial it is for them to be as precise as possible with their research. This will ensure that they spend less time finding the right information and more time extracting the information and using it to achieve their goal. Often times, students will also give up on doing research because they cannot find the information that they seek. This is usually due to their search not being precise enough. However, sometimes it is also the database that they are using that may be inappropriate for the type of research the students are doing. Thus, it is important to teach students about appropriate database use in conjunction with this lesson on precision.

You can access the video here:

Pew Survey Results: Teens, Social Media, and Technology

The Survey performed by the Pew Research Center on teens and their internet usage was a predictable one. By reflecting on what these social media outlets represent, we can easily match the trends in the report with the real life application of social media use by teens. For example, the report shows the highest prevalence of Instagram use by the upper middle class and rich. Instagram is a platform for mostly showcasing places you've been, things you've eaten, and unique videos you've created. All things that are more accessible to families who have money than those who do not. Whereas Facebook, the primary social media outlet for all socioeconomic classes, usually caters more towards postings of family, keeping in touch with friends, and following news and media outlets.

Another predictable aspect of the results were that students from lower socioeconomic communities were online more frequently than their wealthier peers. When wealthy students are actively playing sports, going to clubs, in tutoring, or even running their own small business, students coming from lower socioeconomic families are keeping themselves entertained online because they lack the resources to participate in any of the said activities.

The most striking portion of the results were the percent of females who play video games online or on their phones. I was not expecting the number to be as high as fifty nine percent. Growing up my female classmates were mostly not interested in any sort of video game. Perhaps the spread and variety of games on smartphones has lead this number to increase throughout the recent years. There is also much less stigma in this decade about girls playing video games than there was in the previous ones.

With as many as ninety two percent of teens online, it is imperative as a teacher to reach them in a space where they can relate to and one that they frequent. By interacting with kids through their mediums and incorporating new and fun applications and technologies into their learning, teachers can break through generational barriers and create a space where learning is fun, entertaining, and relatable!

MolView!

Description:

"This is a molecule or molecules or chemical structure view or viewer, sketch or sketcher, draw or drawer, search or searcher, find or finder webapp!

Some features:

- draw structural formulas

- view 3D molecules

- search and view compounds

- search and view proteins

- search and view crystal structures

- view NMR, Mass and IR spectrum

- calculate molecule dipole"

Application:

MolView is perfect for Middle School and High School science classrooms in discovering, viewing, and drawing molecules. The application brings molecules to life for students and allows them to see the building blocks of molecules and their different formation(s). In Middle School, the application might be best used by the teacher in creating 3-D formulas and molecules to exhibit to students what different molecules look like. The teacher may also want the students to take apart the molecule to explore its smaller parts further. In High School the application would better serve student more independently with the students actively building molecules themselves as they have the background knowledge to do so. The biggest drawback to this would be the independent nature of the program in high school. Each student would need his or her own computer or table and if your school is lacking the funds, using the app equitably would prove to be challenging. 

Here is a link and some screen shots to MolView! 

www.molview.org

Pocketlab!

Description:

"PocketLab connects with a single button to your iPhone or iPad and instantly streams measurement data that you can see and record. PocketLab measures acceleration, force, angular velocity, magnetic field, pressure, altitude, and temperature. Using our cloud software, you can easily analyze your data, create graphs, and integrate your data with other software. PocketLab has the same features as lab equipment that costs thousands of dollars but is low cost and intuitive to use."

Application:

What an amazing concept! An app that lets you make scientific measurements and syncs the results to an iPhone or iMac? The possibilities are endless! This app would be most beneficial in studying physics due to the nature of the application. Although my specific content area is Biology, I could use the application in Middle School grades where covering physics concepts is a part of the common core standards. For example, kids love to parachute army men off high objects. How great would it be to attach the app sensor to the army man and record his velocity and acceleration as he falls? Or we could create a race track where the force, velocity and acceleration can be recorded as the car gains momentum. 

The biggest drawback of the app is the cost of the sensor. The sensor costs $98 which really is not that expensive given the nature of other science instrument costs. The application itself is free which is an added bonus. 

Here is the link and some screen shots to this revolutionary product:

Link:

http://www.thepocketlab.com/

CK-12

Description:

"CK-12 is an app to help students, and teachers improve K-12 learning globally by providing self-pace learning content & tools.

Learn over 5,000 math and science concepts at your own pace and in your own style! (videos, assessments, interactive objects, etc)"

Application:

This application is a great resource to use for educators in providing supportive materials to students at home. Biology teachers can utilize this app after reviewing learning materials in class as a supplemental support for their students. They can assign a specific reading or have students search for videos and articles themselves on a given topic at home. The app works on a PC, tablet, or even smartphone so students have multiple outlets to use the resource on. An example of using this application would be to assign students to find one article or video on CK-12 for homework on the plant processes such as photosynthesis. Given the nature of the application, the use of technology outside of the classroom would be an issue. However, you could set aside ten minutes of class time for students to use the application in school if your student body is in a economically disadvantaged area. 

Here is a link to CK-12 and some screen shots!

www.CK12.org

Movenote for Education

Description:

"Add your favorite content from whatever source you want, and record video alongside to it with your computer, tablet or smartphone."

Application:

Move note is a great new tool that brings the power of Google Apps and recorded video together. This app allows users to record themselves with a webcam while uploading and speaking about a document. The document can be from Microsoft Word, Google Drive, or even be a Google Doc. The finished product can be shared through Google Docs or through email.

This app could not make creating a flipped lesson easier. Biology teachers could use this app to record themselves presenting a lesson with the proper supporting materials so that that students may view the lesson and home and come into class ready to engage and use their new found knowledge for application inside the classroom. Obviously, this means that students would have to have computers at home in order for them to reap the benefits of a flipped lesson. Ideally, this app is for those teaching communities with strong technological support at home.

Here's a link to the app and some screen shots!

www.movenote.com

Lucid Chart!

Description:

“Lucidchart is a web-based diagramming tool that makes drawing diagrams fast and easy. Students can work individually on assignments or with an unlimited number of other classmates to create and edit diagrams in real time -- great for group projects.”

Application:

Lucidchart would be a great addition to any curriculum and content area. In a biology class, Lucidchart could be used by the teacher and students in creating flow charts and diagrams for projects and lessons. For example, Lucidchart could be used by the teacher in a lesson about food webs. The instructor could use the program to create a food web and after the lesson introduce the students to the app so that they may collaborate on a food web of their own. Another type of project that Lucidchart could be used with is creating family trees for a specific species. As a Biology teacher, you could have students map out a species' evolutionary family history by collaborating on an intricate flow chart beginning with the original species and spanning to other species, families, phylum, etc.

A problem that a teacher may face in using such a tool is technology accessibility at home. The app is also fairly complex depending on the type of chart the students want to create so tech support and app literacy may also be an issue, especially in younger grades or with students with limited technology skills.

Below you'll find some screen shots of the app and a link to the app itself!

Link:
https://www.lucidchart.com/users/registerOrLogin/free?showLogin=false

Science Bits!

"Science Bits provides teachers with lessons that help them teach science in a way that engages their students. Based on the constructivist 5E Instructional Model, Science Bits lessons use high quality multimedia interactive content to develop an inquiry-based, learning-by-doing method. Science Bits can be used either as a substitute for textbooks or as complementary material."


In a biology classroom, Science Bits can be very helpful in planning and supporting a science lesson. As schools and curriculum move more towards incorporating and mandating technology in the classroom, an application like Science Bits becomes highly useful. Science Bits works perfectly with smart boards and allows students to interact with the lesson in place of traditional oral dictation. The app also allows the instructor to post lessons online with corresponding activities so that students can be active learners at home as well as in school.


As with most technology, the biggest obstacle to using this app would be whether or not students have the access to the technology at home. The benefit of this app is that it can be used primarily in the classroom if your students don't have the access at home.


View below for some sample screen shots and for the link to the app!
















The link to Science Bits: 

http://www.science-bits.com/en/

Flipped Lesson: Clean Coal

For my flipped lesson I decided to pick the topic of "Clean Coal." In my theoretical biology class, my students are learning about sustainability and how we can become more sustainable as a society. In order to do that, they need to learn about different natural resources that we use and their impacts on the environment and communities. Since coal is the cheapest, most widely used and abundant resource, it is a crucial resource to cover. The fact that there is so much information that is easily accessible to students about coal also makes it an ideal topic to want to flip a lesson on.

During the day of my lesson, I am having my students work with a partner for a pair activity. I will be presenting them with a theoretical community which is in need of a power source. They only have the capabilities to use either coal or nuclear power. Using their prior knowledge about nuclear energy and their new found, self-taught knowledge on coal, the students are responsible for choosing one method of energy to provide power to the nearby town. They are then to write a short report on what type of implications the new plant will have for the surrounding environment and nearby town. This will serve as their exit ticket for the day. During their partner time, I will be walking throughout the classroom ensuring that each pair is on the right track and providing prompts for them to think about while working on their report.

The idea of a flipped classroom is a great one. I believe this idea will work better with more simple topics and concepts which don't need extensive scholastic support. Student demographics will also be a concern as if you work in a lower socioeconomic area your students are less likely to have access to technology outside of school.

To read my Ted-Ed lesson click here:
https://ed.ted.com/on/waTIsb7a#watch

Using Padlet to Plan a Unit About Biology

This past week we planned out a unit using the bulletin-style application, Padlet. The unit topic that I chose was Sustainability, a topic that is seldom spoken about outside of consumer goods. Sustainability is perhaps one of the most important concepts to educate future generations on as our current way of life around the world is not sustainable by any means. Projections based on human population growth and consumer "needs" of an ever developing world economy show dire prospects in the near future if certain changes are not made by the upcoming generation. I planned out my essential questions so that in answering them, a student could explain whether or not a society, behavior, or resource is sustainable.

 Finding resources for a unit on sustainability was not too difficult as there are many prime examples of cities, communities, schools, and home which are becoming more environmentally friendly. A google scholar search provided me with articles to provide my students and a search on YouTube provided with the sustainable school video. As my students will be responsible for researching sources of information, I opted to use Instagrot as a research tool for my students. This tool automatically filters any inappropriate search results that may pop up. I also opted to use Kahoot! as a form of summative and formative assessment. Kahoot! allows students to build their own quizzes and administer them to the class. By using this app I can assess not only the quiz that the student has administered but also the results of the quiz itself as a form of understanding of the material.

 Check out my Padlet post below:

Created with Padlet

Pedagogy and Technology

This week I was able to create an info-graphic using the Chrome app "Venngage." The app provided plenty of pre-made layouts and templates which made the process of creating an info-graphic fairly painless and simple. My only concern was that the template that I chose was titled "fact or fiction" and attempted to pass off climate change as fiction. Perhaps if I paid for premium their templates would not come with conservative propaganda.

supporting technology in the sciencesInfographic

The info-graphic which I developed lists instructional strategies and a specific activity falling within that strategy. Another column provides a technology which can complement the strategy and activity at hand. When searching for technologies to implement in the different activities, it was important to find technologies that supported the activity instead of supplementing it to ensure meaningful technology integration. The technology used should be one tool for students to utilize in order to complete the activity and reach the goals set by the lesson. The technology should not replace student interaction and learning.

 For example, under the instructional strategy "Share ideas and opinions,"
I listed Kahoot! as an appropriate technology to use for a modified four side activity. This technology provides users the ability to create quizzes and answer them via computer or smartphone. Instead of me creating the quiz and having students take it online, I would have the students work in pairs to create quizzes and implement them in class for their classmates. This way students have to research and comprehend the material prior to creating the quiz and their quiz provides me an assessment of their classmate's understanding of the material as well as the quiz maker's understanding.

The History of Technology in Teaching Biology

Creating a Powtoon has certainly been an interesting feat. The app is really simple to use, resembling a mashup of Power Point and Windows Movie Maker. And the cartoon itself is certainly more entertaining than a regular Power Point presentation. The time constraint it puts on assembling a short video is a fallback though. My video was a little over two minutes and yet it took me almost 4 hours to make. While the layout concept is easy enough to follow, the way the program functions is incredibly inefficient. For example, I had to scroll between "styles" every time I wanted a simple rectangle if I was on a different style layout. A combined master layout would have made the process much easier of assembling characters and props. I also felt like it would be a bit difficult to come up with a science themed cartoon as their props were definitely geared more towards business than a Science classroom.  

Because of the ridiculous amount of time the very short cartoon took to make, I probably wouldn't frequently use Powtoons in my classroom. The app could be used once in a while to make mundane or dry topics a bit more interesting with the animation and added humor. I do feel that the cartoon would be better suited for younger students, maybe fifth and sixth graders rather than high school students who might see it as insulting to their age. Another way the app could be used is if I had my students use the app in school to present a project in place of power point. This scenario would play out much better in a school who's students have internet access at home rather than a lower socioeconomic status community. 

All in all the app is creative and fun to play around with albeit very time consuming. I enjoyed my finished cartoon product and I hope you do too!

PowToon Link:

https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/dAxzfnwX7oj/history-of-technology-in-biology/