SciSTARTS Tech Night

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SciSTARTS Tech Night

• November 15, 2006

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Welcome and Announcements

• SciSTARTS Website
• Upcoming dates
• Participant work area
• Cluster meetings and site visits
• CM training at sites
• Preferred form of communication
• Lesson presentation

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Integrating Technology into the Science Classroom
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Online Collaborative Projects

• Involve students in projects in which they are
  collaborating with other classes around the world
  to gather data, test results, and collect
  evidence.

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Online Collaborative Projects (cont.)

• California Standard Addressed
• Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful
  questions and conducting careful investigations.
  As a basis for understanding this concept and
  addressing the content in the other three
  strands, students should develop their own
  questions and perform investigations.

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Online Collaborative Projects (cont.)

• Examples

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Data Collection Projects
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Great Sites for Collaborative Projects

• CIESE/Stevens Sponsored Collaborative Projects
• Global School House Project Registry
• Co-nect Telecollaborative
• TERC's Testbed for Telecollaboration
• KidProj Project Gallery
• Education World
• EnviSciNetwork Projects

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Creating Interactive Student Research Activities

• Powerpoint, Keynote, Word, Excel, or a web editor
  allow you to embed links.
• Open from the desktop or post to a server.
• Filamentality (Rich Kelly)

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Lab Assignment (Pick one)

• Review collaborative or data collection project
  sites and identify a project that aligns to the
  standards you teach. Create an action plan for
  using that project. (Independent)
• Begin creating a interactive research project
  with embedded links. (Guided)

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Becoming a Community of Learners

• The Next Step for SciSTARTS

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One Goal of SciSTARTS

• Rural schools and small districts tend to be
  isolated
• Very few teachers at each grade level
• Little or no curriculum leadership in science
• Therefore, one goal of SciSTARTS to create a
  community of learners with similar backgrounds
  (grade level, school, love of science education)

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Tools at our Disposal

• Blackboards threaded discussion
• Email (See SciSTARTS website)
• Webinars

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What is a Threaded Discussion?

• A "threaded discussion" is simply a chronological
  listing of people's comments (with their names
  linked to their comments).

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Tips for Participating in Threaded Discussions

• Treat others with respect and courtesy, as you
  would want to be treated.
• Observe the basic rules of Netiquette
• Listen carefully and reflect upon the message
  before responding.
• Respect diversity of opinions.
• Say something precise that adds to the
  discussion, including questions that are
  answerable and not purely speculative.
• Do not attack any of your peers for their ideas,
  but wrangle with the ideas directly.
• Review your response before posting it to the
  community.
• Label all postings with the main point you are
  trying to make.

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Lets Check the Discussion Boards

• NSTA Discussion Forum
• SciSTARTS Blackboard Forum

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Assignment

1. Sign in to the SciSTARTS Blackboard site.
2. Review and respond to AT LEAST two maps.
3. Post one new thread to the group.
4. If time, respond to a new thread.

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Evaluations and Wrap Up