This is a lesson that covers many of the Norwegian curriculum learning goals for 7th graders. It implements goals from social studies, science, and math, and reading and writing different representations is as well always a goal in every subject. This lesson has three steps.
Step one: Codap graph representations that show 27 mammals and some features for each mammal. Students can explore and play around with different grapes and different mammals. They are then going to choose one they want to investigate further. Using the graphs, they can, for example, decide that they want to investigate the fastest, highest, shortest, or oldest mammals.
Step two: The students are going to investigate the graph closer and use other internet resources to find more information about the mammal. They are going to make a Prezi presentation about the mammal they picked.
Step three: I created a Google MyMaps with three layers: carnivores, herbivores, and both. The students are going to place a pin under the layer that fits their chosen mammal, at a location that is representative of where this mammal lives. Here they will post the link to the presentation they made in Prezi.
Step four: I will download the MyMap where all students collaborate have placed many pins as a KML file, and open it on Google Earth. Here we will watch the Google Earth presentation and be able to access all the presentations. Depending on the class and teacher, the class can look through every presentation together, or look at some presentations and give eachother feedback.
Reflections:
I think the Google MyMaps and Google Earth connection is very helpful and interesting to use in education! It shows “the bigger picture”, and every students can show and do their work collaboratively.