How to Integrate Google Docs in Science and Math Like a Pro

Posted by David Wetzel

Google Docs offer an advanced set of collaboration and communication tools to help your students acquire the skills necessary to help them soar, in their education and out in the world. There is no hardware to maintain or software to install.

Unique features include:

• secure storage online.

• accessible from any computer anywhere with the Internet.

• multiple students or teachers can edit a document, spreadsheet, or presentation at the same time.

• the ability to embed videos from Vimeo and Animoto, along with images from Flickr or other sources.

• the ability to embed podcasts in presentations.

• free!

Science and Math Activities

The following are tips and ideas for using Google Docs in science and math classrooms.

Science Experiments - Students:

• write a collaborative lab report using Google Documents (word processing) and embed in a class website or Wiki.

• students collect scientific data (i.e., plant growth data) over a period of time using a Google Spreadsheet.

• prepare a group collaborative Google Presentation to present their findings and conclusions.

• they share their lab report, presentation, data, pictures, and spreadsheet with other students within their class, different classes in the school, and other schools in the district or across the country.

Math Investigations - Students:

• create a survey in Google Spreadsheets to ask other students to determine the number of times they send and receive text messages during a day.

• then they have two options - insert the data in another a Google Spreadsheet or allow the data to automatically update a spreadsheet as survey responses are received (teachers choice).

• prepare a group collaborative Google Presentation to present their findings and conclusions.

• they share their survey findings, presentation, and spreadsheet with other students within their class, different classes in the school, and other schools in the district or across the country.

The data collected from the survey has additional purposes such as determining mean, median, and mode.

Self Assessment Survey - Students complete an end of grading period or group project self-assessment survey using Google Spreadsheets created by their teacher. Their answers are automatically recorded in a spreadsheet which is only viewable by their teacher. Sample survey questions include:

• Thoughtfully completes work: Always, Mostly, Sometimes, or Never.

• Participates in class discussions: Always, Mostly, Sometimes, or Never.

• Contributes to group work and discussions: Always, Mostly, Sometimes, or Never.

• Gives best effort in class: Always, Mostly, Sometimes, or Never.

• Visits unapproved websites when using computers: Always, Mostly, Sometimes, or Never.

Additional Ideas for Using Google Docs in the Classroom

The following are ideas for classroom use.

• Group collaboration and creativity as students record their group projects together in a single document.

• Keep track of grades, attendance, or any other data you can think of using an easily accessible, always available spreadsheet.

• Create quizzes and tests using spreadsheets forms, your students’ timestamped answers will arrive neatly ordered in a spreadsheet.

• Encourage collaborative presentation skills by asking your students to work together on a shared presentation, then present it to the class.

• Collaborate on a document with colleagues to help track the status and success of students you share.

• Maintain, update and share lesson plans over time in a single document.

• Track and organize cumulative project data in a single spreadsheet.

How to Create a Survey

To create a survey form, either students or teacher, click on the “share” button on any Google Spreadsheet.

Then select the option “to fill out a form”.

Now start creating a survey form.

You can select multiple choices, text, choose from a list, paragraph text, or check boxes for options.

Answers are date and time stamped for validation.

Setting Up a Student Accounts

If your students already have email addresses, have them sign up for a Google Account using their own or school assigned e-mail account.

If your students do not have an email address, have students set up a free Gmail account (13 and older). You may want to consider signing up for the free Google Apps Education Edition (between now and July 31, 2010 to sign up students under age 13.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Google Docs Keyboard Short Cuts

Google Docs Keyboard Short Cuts for Spreadsheets

Additional Resource

Google Docs are a Free Online Educational Tool

Why Use Technology to Teach Science and Math?

Posted by David Wetzel

Using Technology in the Classroom

As many of you may have discovered, I also found that many of my previous colleagues have little use for technology for teaching.

They are mired in excuses such as using technology is cheating, students learn best through lecture, the stresses of NCLB makes it too difficult to do anything but have students memorize facts to pass the tests, etc.

So what are the advantages of technology?

Technology has tremendous power to help students obtain, organize, manipulate, and display information. Students can use technology tools (such as word processing, database, design, and graphing software) in the same ways as do professional scientists and mathematicians.

Using technology for meaningful activities also helps integrate a variety of disciplines, more closely resembling activities that people undertake in the world beyond the classroom. For example, word processing is a real-world technology that can help students develop better writing and thinking skills.

Using the computer, students write longer, more complex sentences and are more willing to revise and edit their work; they are able to concentrate on the thoughts they want to express rather than the mechanical skills of penmanship, spelling, and grammar.

Using technology in science and math class promotes learning activities in which students work in small groups rather than in isolation or as a whole class demonstrations. The technologies used in the classroom are not those designed explicitly to teach basic skills, but rather are real-world applications that support research, design, analysis, composition, and communication.

For example using Google Docs to collaborate on science laboratory reports, data analysis, and presentation of findings.

Another example is using classroom Wikis in Science and Math for collaborating on projects and sharing their findings.

A third example is use Twitter or Skype to communicate with students in other locations to collaborate on projects and assignments.

An Example of Teacher Resistance

Three years ago I was hired by a school district to teach middle school science teachers how to integrate Calculator Based Laboratory (CBL) Probeware in their curriculum.

After four weeks of providing staff development and in-class support regarding how to use these data loggers, with the eight science teachers in the school. The science teachers began to come up with strategies and techniques on their own for integrating CBL Probeware data loggers in their lessons.

At the same time all the teachers confided in me that they had all agreed in advance that using this technology was a waste of time and that they would resist every step of the way.

I was taking back by this statement, I thought that the integration difficulties in their lessons were due to not understanding the technology.

Their minds were changed as they discovered their students were more interested in science experiments, grasped the technology quickly, better understood concepts, and were able to make connections with other concepts. The teachers also found out that they were not behind in their curriculum and students scored better, on average, on chapter tests.

Fast forward to today, CBL Probeware has expanded to all areas of the science curriculum and has also moved into the math curriculum in selected areas as real-time data loggers.

So What Does This All Mean?

Students today are more technologically literate than many of their teachers. Today’s students have grown up in the digital age; they use Facebook, they Tweet, and they use the Internet for almost everything.

Instead of resisting technology, the goal should be to harness the technological energy in students and become a guide for the best ways to use technology to learn.

Any suggestions?

David R. Wetzel, Ph.D.