In my future classroom, I plan on being a first or second grade teacher that teaches math, science, social studies, and english. For my technology integration plan, I would like to have my students participate in a fun, three-week science project. For my students’ science project, students will draw a paper from a hat. Each paper has a specific sea creature on it that they will be assigned to for their project. The first week the students will be able to do their research in the classroom or computer room and will receive an ample amount of time in order to answer their questions they are required to answer for their research. The second week students will be creating their own posterboard so that they can design and display their information that they found on their sea creature. This will also give students the opportunity to be creative with their poster. The third week the students will be getting in groups of eight (there are eight different sea creatures) in order to work on creating a skit where they will also be incorporating their information about their creatures. This will be something fun for the kids to do and is a great way for the students to present what they learned instead of getting nervous about “presenting” their project.
For the whole three-week science project, I will be creating a webquest for the students to use in order to follow the steps to their project, as well as have a way to find out what materials they will need to use in order to do this project. I will also be making a rubric for the student’s project so that they will know what is required of them in order for them to do well. During the three weeks that this project is going on, I will create a sea creature blog. Every week, each student has to write a journal about what they learned, interesting things they discovered, and post comments or questions they may have. This will help the students progressively evaluate how they are doing with their projects. At the end of the three weeks, students will also be given a survey that I created not to test them, but to see how they felt about the project, what they liked and didn’t like, and what they learned overall. This will help the students to reflect and think after the project, what they did, and what they learned. I decided to use these technologies because they benefit my students the most. They benefit them by thinking, reflecting, and growing from what they learn. These pieces of technology aid my students in making the project a worthwhile learning experience.
This project will not only help my students to learn about sea creatures and learn something in science, but it will also teach them that they can use technology in order to aid them in their learning. Students will not be graded on every assignment that they do, and this will help them to remember that this project is supposed to be fun. The journal blog that the students do each week, and the survey they do at the end of the project, will help them not only to reflect on their work and how they are doing, but it will also help me to see how I am doing and if my students are successively progressing in their learning. This project will also help them to learn about new tools in technology that may be helpful to use throughout the year with other assignments. Since the students will be familiar with the digital tools, it will be more beneficial to their learning when used in the classroom.
