What to do, where to find resources, and where to
post
3_1. Please read at least one of the articles
listed in "Resources: Investigations & GIS in Schools
and Communities," and spend some time looking at
one of the online support Web sites. Make notes about
what you notice, particularly with reference to classroom
application of the investigation.
"Resources: Investigations & GIS..." is located
in this course outline.
3_2. Prepare a brief analysis of one of the
articles, Web sites or hands-on lessons. Your analysis
should address at least four of the following questions:
- Which investigation, which problem? Which
article, Web site, or hands-on lesson are you describing?
What is the real-world problem situation the students
are investigating?
- Students' connections? In what ways do the
students connect with people, data, and problems in
this situation?
- Educational benefits, curriculum connection?
What are some possible educational benefits to
the students involved in this investigation? What
is the curriculum connection?
- Use of GIS / tools? How do the students and
teachers use GIS to assist them in their investigation?
For web sites, comment on tools provided or used for
visualizing and mapping data.
- Data characteristics, sources, support? What
are some characteristics of the data used in the investigation?
Where do the students get the data needed for their
investigation? For web sites, what support is provided
for collecting and/or obtaining data for the investigations?
- Challenges? What do you imagine are some
of the challenges for the teacher in managing this
type of investigation?
- What would you change? If you were going
to conduct an investigation similar to this one with
your students, what would you change about the content,
the classroom management, tools, or the assessment
of student learning?
3_3. Compose a new message in your class discussion
forum, give it a relevant subject heading, and either
paste your analysis (the answers to at least four of
the questions above) into the body of the message, or
attach it as a file to the message.
3_4. Later in the week, choose one or more of
your Forum members' postings to read and respond to,
applying the techniques you learned last week for including
"all" Forum members as the audience for your
post.
3_5. Continue becoming familiar with and using
additional Forums such as Main, and Tech Help.
|
