Module 2 Reading Assignment Journal

For this module I got to go use the WISE system! It was a blast.  Easy to use and lots of cool pictures and videos really help bring the lessons to life.  Especially for those teaching middle school science this could be a great resource for teachers to have!  I went through a couple of the different lessons that WISE let us preview.  I did a quick comparison of the ones that offered a distance learner to see what was different.  It was very cool!! As a teacher who has both distance and in classroom kids it is a difficult task to pace all the different students.  The distance learners being an especially difficult task.  With no camera or mic half the time we can't tell where they are.  WISE let the student self pace but still involved them with both the teacher and the class as a whole!  My favorite one was the density and buoyancy lesson.  That incorporated so many different ideas and subjects.  Having them explain and look at concepts while also having different side projects such as a poster.

I was just telling my students the story of Archimedes!  I loved the different modalities it was hitting for the students.  The eighth grade science lessons are so good! I just inherited another teachers classes and they will be great reviews to see what the students know and what we need to go and review again.  The visual representations in these are going to be great to spark conversation and hopefully allow the students to begin asking more questions and going deeper into the concepts. 

Review of two sites in the reading:

The first site:

GLOBE (www.globe.gov)

Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment is a really amazing resource.  It includes just an astounding array of teacher resources for use in science classrooms K-12.  In addition to all that they have training for teachers to get involved with the global community.  With so many resources it gives students an insight into problems and solutions that the world community faces.  My favorite thing is that it involves the students in the current science and what is being done to benefit the environment.  With the US finally getting back on its environmental awareness track (hopefully will stay there) the material that this site offers is very good to help explain what is going on in their current lives.

The second site:

Project Athena (https://pcos.gsfc.nasa.gov/studies/athena/athena.php)

That is not the URL that was provided by the text.  I believe that the original Project Athena is no longer available.  This new one seems to be focused on adults and full scientists.  This could be used in a high school class to help describe the process that NASA uses in its projects.  The project itself is pretty interesting but has very limited use for teaching middle school or even most science lessons.  There are no resources for teachers or anything really showcasing concepts for classroom use.

Over all GLOBE had a lot of good resources for teachers to  use and allowed students to reach out to world wide communities and see data sets from around the world.  Project Athena I believe is no where near as helpful and I believe has changed since the text had been printed.