2.6 Information and Communication Technologies

I use information and communication technology (ICT) to make lessons both exciting and relevant to students. ICT can be used to access, create and communicate information. Learning how to use it empowers students to participate in our knowledge-based economy (ACARA, 2019). ICT Capability is a General Capability in the Australian Curriculum and encompasses both the effective and responsible use of digital technologies (Figure 1). In my science classes I present ICT as a source of up-to-date information and as a tool which enables students to work collaboratively and be creative.

I integrated ICT when teaching global systems and climate change to my Year 10 Science students. They were extension students and needing to be challenged with new tasks and engaged by relevant content. I integrated ICT into this using the following steps:

1. Students used their existing ICT research and communication skills to create short presentation on global systems.

2. Students explored how scientific organisations present data on climate change.

3. Students used real climate data to create graphs on Microsoft Excel.

1. Students used their existing ICT research and communication skills to create short presentation on global systems.

Rather than simply delivering information about global systems (the biosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere), I gave students the task of researching them online and creating short presentations using Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides or similar software of their choice (Figure 2). The presentations were completed within a single lesson, and one group of students presented each day over coming week. This create an opportunity to revise the content in an engaging way and get feedback on their understanding.

2. Students explored how scientific organisations present data on climate change.

One of the major strengths of ICT is its ability to process and communicates large amounts of data. Climate science is a continually developing field that is complex and a major geopolitical issue, static and interactive data visualisations are an effective way off communicating information about climate change to the public (Newell, Dale & Winters, 2016). The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) collects atmospheric climate data and have a range of dynamic data visualisations on their climate science website (Figure 3). I asked students to make predictions about how the Earth’s climate has changed over time and compare them to NASA’s Climate Time Machine interactive data display.

3. Students used real climate data to create graphs on Microsoft Excel.

I gave the students the challenge of graphing real atmospheric greenhouse gas data using Microsoft Excel. Learning to operate Excel enables students to record, analyse and visualise large datasets. Climate data from 400,000 years ago to present day is available to download online. I curated data in a spreadsheet, ran a short tutorial on making basic line graphs on Excel then allowed them to work together to solve the problem of graphing a very large dataset. The students initially struggled but persisted with the task and were able to create clear graphs with of different climate data such as greenhouse gas concentrations and temperature anomalies (Figure 4). The students' work was comparable to graphs of climate data presented in the media (Figure 5). The students felt a great sense of accomplishment after this task and were able to engage with the information at a deeper level.

References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2018). Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/information-and-communication-technology-ict-capability/

Newell, R., Dale, A., & Winters, C. (2016). A picture is worth a thousand data points: Exploring visualizations as tools for connecting the public to climate change research. Cogent Social Sciences, 2(1), 1201885.