What
Are Vertebrates?
By
Amberly Gfeller
Mini
Project Two
June
12, 2012
Technological
Knowledge (TK)
I
will be teaching my students how to create a blog in order to share with their
parents, grandparents, or any other friends or family that are interested about the lessons they are learning. They will learn a science lesson about
vertebrates. I will first go over
how to create their blog at blogger.com by first creating their name and their privacy
settings. When creating their names we will use a name that will not easily identify them to not put them in danger. They will also set their privacy settings carefully in order to only let the people they approve see their information. I will also go over that
students cannot directly copy from a website or book, they must say the ideas
in their own words. Before working on their own, students will understand the basics of ethical use and Internet safety.
Technological
Content Knowledge (TCK)
In order to help each student learn more about vertebrates
using technology, I will have my students explore and search
nationalgeographic.com for animals that are vertebrates. After they do this they will then use
the program Kidspiration, KidPix, or another similar program to create webs
about what they learned while exploring nationalgeographic.com. They will then upload and post this web on their
newly created blog. If they wish, they can post pictures of vertebrates on their blog as well.
Content
Knowledge (CK)
Before the lesson the class as a whole will begin
making a KWL chart in order to see what the students already know about
vertebrates. We will then fill in
the “W” column with what they want to know. Also, before students get their own computer and time to
begin creating their project we will use the Promethean board to look at
animals that are vertebrates. We
will also read many books pertaining to the lesson. After we have read about and looked at these
vertebrates we will create a diagram as a class on the Promethean board so all
students can work together to create a chart about what makes a vertebrate and
what does not.
Pedagogical
Content Knowledge (PCK)
After the students have created their web about
vertebrates and posted it to their blog I will ask the students what they
have learned about vertebrates since they began this lesson in order to finish
filling in the KWL chart. I will
ask them what their favorite vertebrate is and if they have any vertebrates
living in their house. Do they
have any non-vertebrates living in their house? The students can work in groups and use their created webs
to figure out the answers to the discussion questions.
Pedagogical
Knowledge (PK)
We will then reflect on why it is important to know
about vertebrates. Why does it
mater if an organism is a vertebrate?
Technological
Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK)
The students will then each get a chance to show
their web, graph, or chart to the class over a projector and explain why they
picked to demonstrate vertebrates the way they did.