Lucca Week 6 Global Awareness

I selected entering my students into the International CyberFair from the Global School website for my activity. My students will focus on the wetlands and water quality of Delaware. They will be testing the water quality in a local area of Smyrn, Delaware and then testing different samples from different waterways in Delaware to see how it affects the different ecosystems. The students will then create a project that can be entered into the International CyberFair, located on the Global School website. My students will create a website or video portraying the water quality in different areas of Delaware. They will then review 6 other projects to gain knowledge of other subjects and areas throughout the world. In class, will analyze the climates and ecosystems of those different areas throughout the world and then make predictions as to the quality of the water.

I think this is a great activity because my students do not have a lot of global awareness about how things are the same and different in any other part of the world. The neat part of the CyberFair is that they can see other students’ projects from all over the world and can even interact and comment on their projects. This is great because they can learn about other cultures and other areas throughout the world and they can also learn about an array of subject matter. I then wanted to take that information and teach my students something about the world, so at the end of the lesson, the students will compare the climates and ecosystems of different places throughout the world and make predictions on water quality. Consequently, this lesson will probably take several weeks (two or three) to complete. I don’t know how realistic this project would be for my classroom, only because of the time constraints. I already struggle with finding the time to teach 4 units of science in one year. If there was a way to adapt it to take up less time, or to shorten one of the other units, then I think it could be a really neat activity for my classroom.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Carly Shields on June 17, 2014 at 6:38am

What a great activity! I know the students would love it and it would be so relevant to them since they would be discovering things about their own water quality. It will make them be able to see how students in other parts of the world can do the same thing! Great lesson idea!

But I completely understand what you're saying about the time constraints! I don't know how people fit it all in! My frustration with technology is that there are SO many things we can do with the kids that would be beneficial, and set a great foundation for their future learning. So many technology based activities would create lifelong learners and students who are great questioners. But where do we find the time? It's so frustrating.

Permalink Reply by Krista Attix on June 17, 2014 at 7:27pm

Lauren,

It sounds like you really put a lot of thought into your lesson. Luckily, Delaware has access to several types of water which would make this lesson easy to incorporate. I think it is a neat idea to have the students explore what is around them and then compare that to other places in the world. I agree with you that many students do not have an understanding of global awareness. Viewing other students projects, and then comparing climates and ecosystems around the world should certainly increase their knowledge. They will have the opportunity to communicate with students from various cultures which should expand their horizons. This sounds like a great project for the students to participate in!

Permalink Reply by Tom DeMatteis on June 21, 2014 at 7:48am

Lauren,

This assignment really called on the members of our class to be creative when developing a global awareness lesson and your lesson on the wetlands and water quality of Delaware is a great example of that.

The part of your post that I can identify with is when you wrote about fitting a lesson like this into your curriculum. I constantly feel the pull between trying to integrate activities like the ones this assignment involved and making sure I cover everything in the curriculum that is expected to be covered. If I plan a new activity using technology and run into problems, which is something that often occurs, it causes me to loose more instructional time and I begin to feel that tug between wanting to integrate more technology but knowing I have to cover a certain amount of material.

Tom

Permalink Reply by Aaron Curley on June 22, 2014 at 8:20pm

I love the idea of having students predict the water quality in the different areas of the world. I think that you might be able to possibly fit this in as a long term project that they work on for 30 to 60 minutes a week. This would allow you to continue with the pacing of teaching 4 units of science.

Great job.

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