In the sixth grade social studies standard 1, objective 4, point a, it asks to identify innovations in manmade structures over time, and their influence on meeting needs. In the standard itself, it says to analyze how the earliest civilizations created technologies and systems to meet community and personal needs. Each one of the world wonders in this virtual tour addressed needs of the community or a certain individual, like with the Taj Mahal or the Giza Pyramid. The other two sites met community needs, and all of these structures were newly created technology in architecture.
Pedagogy:
This activity calls for the students having to compare how these ancient wonders would have been built today, etc., therefore asking them to make contrasts and critically analyze. They will also make connections between the past and the present. The teacher would be helping them with guiding questions and instructions in the process.
Technology:
The students will be using Google Earth to locate these sites, as well as use the internet to research the answers to the activity questions for each one. This is a valuable skill to master for more complex research projects/reports that they will do in the future.
Find out why it was built, and make a strategy of how you would build something like this using the modern tools we have today, as opposed to what they used back then.
Students will find this location.
2. Taj Mahal, Agra, India
Find out the history behind the construction of the Taj Majal (why and how it was built), and how many tourists it attracts to India each year. What does it have in common with the Giza Pyramid in Cairo?
Students will find this location.
3. Great Wall of China
Find out how long the wall is in miles. Then, figure out where the wall would end up if it started here in Provo and headed straight to the east.
Students will find this location; They will locate where the wall would end if it started in Provo and went eastward.
4. Colosseum, Rome, Italy
Find out what it used to be used for, and what it's used for now. If you could hold an event there, what would it be?
Students will find this location.
Details of image overlay / path / polygon:
There will be image overlays of each one of the wonders in this tour. There will also be a path that goes along the Great Wall of China, as well as one the length of that from Provo eastward.
* What is the content you’ll be using in your lesson? In this lesson, the content being taught come from the 3rd Grade Language Arts Standard 1, Objective 2, which says: Develop language by viewing media and presenting. By viewing this media presentation (digital story) of Shel Silverstein's "Boa Constrictor", the students will learn of the possibilities that exist with expressing poetry using technology and media sources. * What is the pedagogy you’ll be using and why is it a good fit with the content? The pedagogy being used fits right in with the content, because through using Shel Silverstein's poem, they will have been taught how to visually interpret poetry in their own way. After making an interpretation of poems, which will help them in developing their language, they will be required to make their own storyboards. As they do this, they'll be guided by the teacher's written instructions that will help them in their own presentations step by step. * What is the technology you’ll be using and why is it a good fit with the content and pedagogy? The technology that will be used is Photostory software, where they will bring their interpretations of poems/stories to life with added music, and their own voice recordings for the narration. These things put together with their drawings that represent their chosen poems/stories will be a good representation of their learning about how to present media. In the process of doing all of this, they will have some guidance from the teacher, but will also be helping each other towards making the same end product in their groups.
Standard 1 Students will understand that the shape of Earth and the moon are spherical and that Earth rotates on its axis to produce the appearance of the sun and moon moving through the sky.
Describe the shape of Earth and the moon as spherical.
Explain that the sun is the source of light that lights the moon.
List the differences in the physical appearance of Earth and the moon as viewed from space.
To fulfill this objective, it is obvious that to be able to provide good descriptions of the earth and the moon, an external resource would need to be found in order to do so. Looking through the www.uen.org website, I found a website that is quite useful. Looking at steps ‘b’ and ‘c’ of the objective stated above, I was pleasantly surprised to find that one can find a clear visual that describes each one. For example, to explain that the sun is the source of light that lights the moon, a child could see from the first visual below that it is because the moon orbits around the earth as the earth orbits around the sun; whatever light found on the moon is because of it coming between the sun and the earth. To illustrate this even clearer, go to http://www.fearofphysics.com/SunMoon/eclipse.html. On this website, this visual is brought to life because it’s a moving visual of the moon and the sunlight that comes in contact with it as it moves past the sun. As the students watch this, they will then be able to describe this process in their own words, having observed and analyzed the seen movements.
The top left picture shows an outsiders view of the earth, moon, and sun, which is a great tool to nourish understanding of the moon’s movement in sync with that of the earth around the sun.
The above visuals have all helped clarify the movement and appearance moreover for the moon than of the earth, so leading the students to the following link (that brings the below image to life) that shows a view of the earth from the moon would be vital for their full understanding of this objective: http://www.fearofphysics.com/SunMoon/frommoon.html. (The green dot represents a city on earth, as is made clear on the video.)
After seeing these videos/visuals, the students will have a pretty clear idea as to the appearance of the earth and moon from space. They will be able to describe the stages of light that both the earth and the moon go through as each day and night passes by. Making these connections and establishing that the moon’s relation is to the earth as the earth’s is to the sun will be what students accomplish in this part of the lesson. Then, another video off of the already-used website that shows the phases of the moon can be found at http://www.fearofphysics.com/SunMoon/phases.html.
To address the remaining part of this objective, we need to talk about the earth and the moon’s shape being spherical. From what they have already seen, students know that both the earth and moon move in round motions as they go through their respective axis’s. To illustrate that they both move in round motions like a sphere, using the computer program “Stellarium” would be at least a bit of an insider’s look to how the sky appears when the earth is passing through a day and night. By fast-forwarding through a day and night on this program, the class will be able to see the sphere-like movement that the earth goes through as it circles the sun. After seeing this, it can be assumed that the moon would move around the earth in the same way. Below is an image taken off of google images, to illustrate the contrast between night and day that can be seen on Stellarium.
Stellarium and FearofPhysics.com both work as great technological tools to help any teacher that’s teaching about space and movement in space. Many children are visual learners, so this would be quite an effective way to presenting this part of Standard One for Third grade science!
