Middle School Science Collaborators wanted

Greetings,
Science in the middle school and everyday is a little zany so I looking for anyone who would like to join in the learning (fun). I teach science on an 8th grade team in northern New Hampshire. So what could we collaborate on? In the area of science I can be pretty open but here are my first thoughts:

student blogging and commenting on science and tech topics
student collaborative research/experiments-ideas here?
Here is one, collaborative product design-students work together digitally to design a product that does something. End results are placed on video/slides and uploaded to a central project page

I like the last one best but, it is ambitious for a newbie like myself. I like this one because it can address some specific learning outcomes regarding design, communication and 21st century literacy. I also like the fact that it would require some collaborative development of the project by the teachers, therefore modeling of the process.
Anyone interested?

Tags: collaboration, distance, middle, school, science

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rick Biche on September 16, 2007 at 8:03pm

As an update, I posted an official invitation, with a few more details, on my blog at A Teacher's Thoughts.

Permalink Reply by Dean Mantz on October 6, 2007 at 6:15pm

Rick, I just ran across your posting. I would love to get some of my science teachers involved. What grade levels are you thinking of getting involved? I do have a couple science teachers that would be interested. Question for you, do you have access to the Discovery Science Connection website provided by Discovery Education?

Permalink Reply by Rick Biche on November 2, 2007 at 2:46am

Dean, Sorry for the long wait. I must have missed this when it came in. I am still interested in having collaborators. I have one other teacher at this point who expressed interest (from Thailand) so I would be looking for more. I don't think I have access to Discovery Science Connection but I will check with our Librarian. If you still have teachers interested you can move the conversation to my contact page on my blog, http://ateachersthoughts.com.
Look forward to hearing from you.

Permalink Reply by Glen Westbroek on October 31, 2007 at 8:24pm

Rick,

I just found your post while searching in the collaboration group (which I just joined.)

I teach 7^th and 8^th grade science in Utah. I also teach a Biology class for 9^th grade students. Our district has very STRICT restrictions with respect to blogging, podcasting, and most Web 2.0 tools. I like your idea on the collaborative product design uploaded video/slides concept. I'd love to continue the discussion with you and see how we can collaborate.

Permalink Reply by Rick Biche on November 2, 2007 at 2:51am

Glen, my thinking was to run things asynchronously due to time zones and schedules, although we would all be using the same block of time to do the project. I was thinking a wiki would be the best way to go for this. I think the students need some get to know you time prior to beginning, whether that is through blogging or some other means I hadn't decided.
What exactly are your limitations? You can contact me on my contact page on my blog, http://ateachersthoughts.com

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