Web Technology Project Based Learning in Secondary Science

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Web Technology Project Based Learning in
Secondary Science
Successful models of web based teaching strategies

• Patrick Wells (pwells_at_bishops.ntc.nf.ca)
• Presentation site
• http//www.bishops.ntc.nf.ca/science/csta/index.ht
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Why project based learning?

• I made a commitment to fit project based learning
  into my curriculum. I have found the benefits of
  this type of learning are very positive for the
  learners.
• In the past, back in Netscape 1.0 days, I built a
  large number of web sites to help students
  looking for useful course information on the
  internet. Then the idea!

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Why make web pages?

• I had a lot of fun building web pages. I thought
  my students would also enjoy making web pages.
• I was also interested in having the students
  focus on the course curriculum without being
  distracted by the excess information found on
  some web sites.
• I decided to have students build their own online
  text books to suit curriculum needs.

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Making the lesson is the lesson!

• I am a constructivist teacher. As a learner I
  found while building web sites I learned about
  the content.
• Getting students to construct web sites develops
  their understanding of concepts based on their
  own experiences.
• I believe this project based learning strategy
  has maximized results for student efforts.

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The Basic Plans

• I use three basic types of projects
• Major individual projects
• Small task group projects
• Large task group work projects.
• One thing all these projects have in common is a
  high degree of planning. I have a project web
  site and always have detailed instructions for
  all projects conducted (I use handouts also).

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Examples

• Lets look at the instructions for the major
  online projects from the Biology Page.

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Samples
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Conclusions

• Project based learning using technology has all
  the positive attributes of this style of learning
  with the added bonus of opening up the internet
  to students.
• Ownership - The student builders not only
  construct an understanding of concepts, they own
  the resource they developed. There is pride in
  ownership!
• Process - The lesson models a process for
  acquiring and organizing knowledge.

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Thank you for coming!
On behalf of Ron and myself, I would like to
thank you for coming to our presentation. If you
have not picked up a contact card here is our
information Ron Smith - ODonel High,
rsmith_at_odonel.k12.nf.ca Patrick Wells - Bishops
College, pwells_at_nf.sympatico.ca Just like
California, but a wee bit colder!
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