Posted by David Wetzel
Online Productivity Tools
Google Docs is an easy-to-use online word processor that enables you to create, store, share, and collaborate on documents with your science and math students. You can even import any existing document from Word and Simple Text. You can work from anywhere and with any computer platform to access your documents.
Considering the versatility of Google Docs, there are many ingenious ways teachers use this free online program with students. Here are just a few:
- Promote group collaboration and creativity by having your students record their group projects together in a single doc.
- Create quizzes and tests using spreadsheets forms, your students’ time stamped answers will arrive neatly ordered in a spreadsheet.
- Encourage collaborative presentation skills by asking your students to work together on a shared presentation and then present it to the class.
- Students track and organize project data in a single spreadsheet, accessible to any group collaborator at any time.
- Students create a math word problem solving exercise.
- Embed their documents in a class wiki, blog, or LiveBinder for student use in projects or assignments.
Science Applications
The following are ready made documents you can use or modify for your classroom.
- Science Fair Project (MS) – designed for middle school students’ use as a simple step by step guide for designing a science fair project.
- Science Fair Project (Elem) – a basic outline describing the Scientific Method to help elementary school students complete a science project for a school sponsored science fair.
- Weather Pictograph – graph with the class or let students graph the weather using these pictographs.
Math Applications
The following are ready made documents you can use or modify for your classroom.
- Math Content Vocabulary Cards – students complete these cards by providing symbols, definitions, math representations, and synonyms for math terms.
- Math Quiz – generates problems automatically and you can even set the ranges of the numbers to generate in hidden fields (addition, subtraction, multiplication, operators, and facts.
- Spreadsheets - a simple document to kick start your use of Google Docs in class.
General Science and Math Applications
The following are ready made documents you can use or modify for your classroom.
- WebQuests – use this template as a guide for creating science or math WebQuests.
- Metric System – a study guide for helping students learn the metric system.
- Storyboard Template – ideal for student use to create their podcast or video of science or math concepts.
- Self-Assessment – allows students to assess their own confidence after practice of something, such as a lesson on one of the written multiplication methods.
- Compare and Contrast – students use this Venn diagram template to compare and contrast science or math topics, ideas, or concepts.
Tips and Ideas for Using Google Docs
When collaborating with students, it’s always best to create the doc, then share it with them. This will avoid any issues such as:
- a document is erased from the student’s account
- the collaboration settings are changed
- other avoidable problems having to do with ownerships rights
Here are some additional ideas for keeping your Docs list manageable and accessible:
- Create a folder for each class, group of students, project, etc. Since you can add one doc to multiple folders, you can cross-categorize as much and as often as you’d like.
- If you’re working with a lot of documents on one project, make sure you give each document a clear and easily recognizable name, connected with the project at hand (e.g. “Short story project - group A”).
Google Docs is a great tool for you and your students to use because of its cross platform accessibility, ability to use from anywhere with internet access, and student collaboration. So if you have not given Google Docs a try, now is the time to add this tool to your classroom’s digital footprint.
Posted by David Wetzel
Opening Minds with a New Set of Keys
The use of web based technology is growing by leaps and bounds every day. These online tools are the new set of keys for opening your students’ minds. The vast resources on the Internet are making the use traditional methods of teaching and learning obsolete in countless ways.
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Principles and Standards of School Mathematics (2000) states it quite well (also applicable to teaching and learning science):
- “some math becomes more important because technology requires it”
- “some math becomes less important because technology replaces it”
- “ some math becomes possible because technology allows it”
The use of these web based technology set of keys have the capacity to enhance lessons and engage students in new exciting ways of learning.
Web 2.0 Tools which Support Learning Science and Math
Web 2.0 is recognized as the second generation of the Internet. One of the most noticeable transformations with this second generation is the movement away from static web pages, lifeless purveyors of information, into dynamic and shareable content.
This transformation offers students the ability to spend more time using critical thinking skills to explore math and science concepts. The following are representative online tools which comprise the new set of keys to support teaching and learning in science and math.
Interactive Manipulatives – when you use interactive manipulatives with your students, they have the opportunity to learn the underlying ideas of science and math through modeling and computer simulation. The following are two examples of free online interactive manipulatives.
- FOSS Web – this is a collection of interactive manipulatives which students can use to explore science concepts and ideas. The site is a compliment for FOSS Science kits. This web site is designed for grades K – 8.
Surveys and Polls – these Web 2.0 tools offer the ability for students to conduct surveys and polls with other students, teachers, and others outside the confine of your classroom or school. The advantage with these online tools is the elimination of time needed for printing, distributing, and collecting a survey or poll instrument.
With less time and resources spent on preparing surveys or polls, students spend more time analyzing and drawing conclusions from their data. The following are two free online tools:
- Obsurvey – offers the ability to create surveys or polls without limitations on number of users, responses, and questions. You or your students can embed a survey or poll in a class or student blog for ease of viewing by potential responders.
- Google Forms – offer the ability to create surveys or polls. Just like Obsurvey there are no limits and responses can be readily transformed in to graphs.
Presentations – there are several Web 2.0 tools for you to use for lesson presentations and for your students use during present data collection techniques, findings, and conclusions for problem solving assignments and project based learning activities. The following are two examples of free online presentation tools.
- Google Presentations – offers the capability to import PowerPoint presentations or create your own. This tool also offers the ability to publish or embed presentations in any website or blog.
- Glogster – offers students the capability to create interactive posters to share project findings and collaborate on class projects. An interactive poster is ideal for use with interactive white boards during student presentations.
Concept Mapping – processing ideas and thoughts related to science and math topics is crucial for helping students develop a more thorough understanding of concepts. The following are two examples of free online concept mapping tools.
- Mind42 – offers simultaneous collaboration for in-class brainstorming sessions and student collaboration outside of class. No installation is required and it is accessible from anywhere or any computer platform. Students can create colorful interactive mind maps using colors, images, links, and a variety of text styles.
- Wise Mapping – uses diagrams to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. You or your students can use it to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas, organization of thoughts, developing problem solving strategies, and decision making.
These are just a sample of available Web 2.0 resources as a new set of keys for opening students’ minds in science and math. Please feel free to add your favorites online tools in the comment section.
Posted by David Wetzel
Like everything else on the Internet, trying to find images is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Without the right tools for finding science and math images on the web it is often an impossible, or at least mind-numbing, task. What is needed are search engines which make the job easier.
This is where the tips and tricks provided below help this seemingly impossible task by using the top search Web 2.0 search engines and tools available today. These are valuable resources for both you and your students when trying to find just the right image for lesson or project involving digital media.
Image Search Engines
The search engines and tools discussed below are specifically designed to search the billions of images available on the web. The following are tips for finding images, along with selected tricks for using the features of each search engine or tool.
Google Images Swirl – organizes image search results based on their visual similarities and presents them in an intuitive interface. Image Swirl currently works for nearly over 400,000 queries and they have plans to include additional queries in the future.
The trick to finding the right science or math image is to type in a specific word(s) such as fractal geometry or bald eagles. A collection of images appear and clicking on one of the images provides the following.
You can continue clicking on images until there are no longer any images within the category for you to view.
Image Swirl also provides a list of additional search words which lead to additional images related to the initial search word(s).
For example: in a search for images of Bald Eagles you can also use the search words Endangered Species, Birds, and Aleutian Islands.
Fagan Finder – is a directory of search engines, data bases of stock photographs, photo sharing sites, science and education sites, news and blog sites, and others. If you’re in need of specific science or math images, this is a great place to begin the search. Fagan Finder is designed to help you and your students find things on the web, in this case images.
PicSearch – connects you and your students to the vast image resources of the Internet. PicSearch searches the web for images which are perfect for schools and educational settings. This search engine uses filters to ensure offensive images are eliminated from its data bases.
When a query is sent to PicSearch the result is received as a set of thumbnail images, which are then sorted to ensure that they are as highly relevant as possible. By clicking on a selected science or math thumbnail image, you are forwarded to the original web site where that image is located.
Tag Galaxy – is a search tool which provides an exceptional visual experience when searching for images on Flickr. You can make an initial search using a keyword or tag, for example geometry. This keyword or tag appears as an image of the sun in our solar system, with planets circling the sun. By clicking on the sun all Flickr images related to the search tag are displayed. Next a sphere appears with all the Flickr images related to the geometry tag.
The sphere can be rotated in any direction to find a science or math image of your choice. One trick when using Tag Galaxy is to use the advanced search feature by selecting one of the keyword or tag planets circling the sun. Clicking on a planet narrows the search to fewer related images. Continuing this advanced search technique narrows the search to find the desired image.
According to Educause Learning Initiative (February, 2008), the use of images provide both teachers and students with visual stimulation for critical thinking in any educational endeavor where projects use digital images for visual learning.
An important tip for your students is to ensure images are copyright free before using them for assignments, especially those which will appear on the web when complete.
