Take students on a learning journey with livecams
Facilitator: Diana Benner (@diben) | http://ly.tcea.org/livecams
Session Description
Livecams will take students on an exciting and motivating learning journey outside your classroom. Come see how to engage students with livecams.
eagle cams
One of the most popular live nature webcams on the planet!
The original adult bald eagles pair, known as Ozzie and Harriet, had been coming to this nest since 2006. Ozzie passed in the early fall of 2015.
Harriet & M15 now occupy the nest. This is their sixth season as a pair at this location.
This is the nest of Bald Eagles Mr. President and The First Lady.
The mated pair live in the most idyllic of nest sites within Washington, DC, high in a Tulip Poplar tree amongst the Azalea Collection at the U.S. National Arboretum.
The Decorah eagles are nesting in Decorah, IA.
They begin courtship in October, productive mating in late January or early February, and egg-laying in mid to late February.
This was the original nest of Romeo’ and ‘Juliet.’ The pair of wild Eagles occupied the nest from 2008 - 2018.
Samson and Gabrielle currently occupy the nest.
Additional Eagle Cam Resources:
classroom connections
Mrs. Bratcher's students shared their fantastic projects with SWFEC. Mrs. Bratcher: My first grade class fell in love with our eagle family and have become eagle experts. I wanted to share their annual end of the season timeline recapping important events they observed while watching the cam. Harriet, M15, E12, and E13 have outdone themselves this year and I think my students have as well with their projects! I hope you enjoy watching this and see what an impact your eagle cam has on children.
Sandy William's high school class did a Save the Raptor Project. Ms. Williams: I wish to share a project my students worked this year called Save the Raptors. The goal is for people who fish to dispose of the left over fishing lines properly. Proud of my students as we are now discussing Save the Raptors 2 to deal with the problem of lead poisoning from lead bullets. And also proud my students have become eagle watchers and are invested in Saving the Raptors.
Ms. Fontin's pre-school students attended a student chat. After the chat, they discussed what they had learned about eagles. They also colored eagle drawings. The drawings were collected and made into an Eagle book.
The students also created art projects that were then hung in the lobby of a hospital.
Students Take First Place in Eagle Poisoning Project
The North Salisbury Elementary Team took first place in their division at the Maryland Eastern Regional Tournament. The team's project was about bald eagles on the Eastern Shore dying from lead carbofuran poisoning.
Helping Harriet STEAM Challenge
Harriet, a bald eagle, slipped and fell out of her nest. She landed on the ground below the nest and needs your help to get back into the nest. Using the materials provided to you, build a structure that Harriet can balance on so she can jump back into the nest. Use the Engineer Design Process.
bear Cams
Journey into Katmai National Park — watch the hungry bears dine out at Brooks Falls or salmon darting towards the underwater livecam.
Contains 5 livecams with Google Earth live.
The baby and toddler pandas of Happiness Village play, eat, learn to forage, and grow at the Shenshuping Gengda Panda Center.
The North American Bear Center is the only black bear and wildlife educational facility of its kind. Dedicated to replacing old myths with facts, people learn from the bears themselves about bear behavior, ecology, and their relations with humans.
Zoo Cams
Visit the Houston Zoo live cams to see elephants, giraffes, rhinos, flamingos, and more. Every weekday at 11 a.m. CST, the zoo is hosting a Facebook Livestream, offering viewers a glimpse into the animals’ daily lives. A few more zoo cams:
Here’s a list of all the zoos with webcams to explore.
Park Cams
April is a giraffe at the Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, New York, in the United States. She gained worldwide fame after a live video of her in the late stages of pregnancy, along with the subsequent birth, were put on YouTube. The birth was watched live by nearly 1.2 million viewers.
US NATIONAL PARKS
Hidden World of National Parks by Google Art and Culture
explore.org
using livecams in the classroom
STEP 1: Explore some live cam websites and decide on the one you will use.
STEP 2: Determine how you will use it in the classroom.
Compare captive to wild
Weather
Observations and inferences
Inquiry - Sample Inquiry Lesson
What would you like to know about the animal?
What do you think it eats? How do you know?
How can you help protect it? (conservation)
How will you collect data? Webcam Data Sheet Example
STEP 3: Implement lesson.
Museum Cams
A few collections exhibited at the LBJ Presidential Library have been digitized. Photos, telephone conversations, oral histories, and more can be found in the collections.
Space cams
“Traveling to Pluto” falls squarely into the “not physically possible” category of potential field trips. But as a virtual field trip? There’s no end to what you can do!
Here’s one exploring the International Space Station. It’s also available in 3D for a more immersive experience.
Take your own journey across Mars with these videos from the Curiosity rover.
This simulation lets you journey through the solar system and simulates the orbit of the different planets.
virtual field trip resources
There are lots of trips available these days. Here are just a few, most of which are free:
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History: Exhibits including Fossils, African Voices, Geology Gems and Minerals, Mammal Hall, Bones, Mummies, Insect Zoo, Butterfly Exhibit and much more!
Visit with Authors: This webpage lists authors that will skype with your classes. Check it out!
Veteran’s Day: An interview with a Tuskegee Airman.
Meet Me at the Corner: Meet Me at the Corner is a website full of online videos and resources for all ages.
360Cities.net is a great resource for 360-degree videos or panoramic photos.
Inside a Red Apple Tree – Looking out from inside the tree covered in bright red apples.
The Big Apple Farm – Harvesting apples
Pumpkin on Vine – Foliage and a pumpkin still on the vine
Pumpkins Ready for Harvest – The foliage has died back and pumpkins are laying right where they grew
Halloween Hide and Seek – Over 30 Halloween-themed items are hidden in this panorama for your students to find. Don’t forget to look up!
YouTube 360 videos lets you search for a plethora of immersive videos on all different topics. They can be used with VR goggles or you can drag the screen on a laptop.
New England Fall Foliage Fly Through at Bartlett Arboretum – Produced by NBC, beautiful views of fall foliage in all colors and an excellent explanation of how and why leaves change colors.
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier – The Changing of the Guard (Veteran’s Day) is a great 360 video of Arlington cemetery and explanation of changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Dia de los Muertos – Explanation and short video of Dia de los Muertos in 360 video
Google Earth – Go anywhere in the world and chances are there is a 360 street view. Google also has Google Voyager, which showcases 360-degree pictures with a theme.
Voyager – Thanksgiving Traditions – This tour takes you from Plymouth Rock to the Lincoln Memorial and explains how the Thanksgiving tradition evolved in America.
Voyager – World War I Memorials around the world – With Veterans Day approaching, this is a great tour of ten different World War I memorials around the world.
Check out Texas specific events via the Connect 2 Texas Events page. You can search and find a wide variety of events organized by grade level. Some recent events:
Mavericks, Dogies, and Drovers--Cattle Drives
Texas History Tuesdays Livestream: La Belle--The Ship that Changed History
The Museum Guide to the Pacific War
Include discussion and reflection after the trip.
To cement the learning from their voyage, make sure you have students discuss what they experienced with each other. Give them specific but open-ended questions to discuss in small groups and then ask them to write a short reflection on what they learned.
Possible questions include:
What have you learned today?
What surprised you about today’s trip?
How are you and the people in the trip the same? How are you different?
What other questions do you have after the trip?)
Perhaps have them keep a field trip journal that might include a map of each place they visit along with how it impacted them.
Use a map to show students where they have been and where they will be going.
Challenge them (and yourself) to see how many different states or countries they can visit this year.
Virtual Passport Template
If you are encouraging your students to take advantage of the multitude of free virtual field trips that are available now, here is a cool passport template in Google Slides or PowerPoint that they can use to keep track of where they have “visited.”