NBHS Project MEET: Science Professional Development

Teaching Content With Online Lesson Formats

Science Department Professional Development

Project MEET

MEET Content Specialist-Carol Ventura
MEET TPD- Cindi Tougas
April 2002

Searching

Basic Searching Techniques

Using Search Engine Math

Use a (+) or a (-) sign whenever you use more than one keyword.

architecture +american

architecture +american -victorian

A plus sign is attached directly (no spaces) to the word or phrase you want to include in your search.

A minus sign is attached directly (no spaces) to the word or phrase you want to exclude in your search.

Quotations

When searching for topics with words that must be kept in an exact order, such as a phrase, or a name made up of two separate words you should use quotation marks.

Examples:

"white house"

shakespeare +"midsummer night's dream"

For further assistance on searching:

Searching the Web

http://www.newbedford.k12.ma.us/srhigh/tougas/techbits/searchweb.htm

Best Practices

	Aligned to the Curriculum Frameworks
	Active ("Hands-On", Interactive, Kinesthetic Learners)
	Collaborative (Grouping)
	Constructive (Applying new knowledge)
	Reflective (Good way to assess individual knowledge with collaborative learning.)
	Accessible Content to All Students (Universal Design)

Sample Spotlight Lesson

The Scientific Method-Created by Carol Ventura
A Hotlist on Science Bonding and Naming-Created by Carol Ventura

Links

Week One

TrackStar (http://trackstar.hprtec.org/)

A simple to use tool for creating online lessons such as scavenger hunts. You provide the Web sites and some "fact finding" or guiding questions and your lesson is near complete.

CLASP (http://www.massnetworks.org/clasp/about.html) The Curriculum Library Alignment and Sharing Project is working to provide a database* of lessons aligned to the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks. There is also a software program available through CLASP for lesson planning.

Filamentality (http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/) This tool allows you to create a variety of lesson formats. A whole spectrum of online formats from a very basic "Hotlist" to a more involved "WebQuest" are available to you for lesson plan creation depending on your instructional objectives.

Week Two

Teacher Resources

GEM (The Gateway to Educational Material) (http://www.thegateway.org/)-A site providing resources for educators. This may or may not have information on your particular topic.

Online Teacher Tools

RubiStar (http://rubistar.4teachers.org/)Online tool for creating general rubrics for a variety of topics.

Online Surveys (http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/pages/listsurveyci.html)

This is a list of sites that allow you to create online surveys and questionnaires.

Create A Graph (http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/graphing/) National Center for Education Statistics online graph generating tool.

Teacher Web (http://www.teacherweb.com) An online tool for teachers who want to create their own basic Web pages. Limited choices, but E-A-S-Y!

Babel Fish (http://world.altavista.com) A free online translation tool can be helpful in making content more accessible to students whose first language is not English. The downside is that the translation is a word for word translation.

*Database- A searchable collection!

Additional Links

Adobe Free Acrobat Reader for PDF files

Universal Design

CAST -Provides resources for understanding Universal Design

ReadPlease-A free downloadable program that provides text-to-speech.

Massachusetts DOE

MA DOE Curriculum Frameworks - This link will connect you to the current state frameworks.

DOE Tech-DOE's site regarding technology in education for the commonwealth.

Massachusetts K12 Instructional Technology Stds.-NEW standards for MA schools. Teachers in grades K-12 will be expected to assist students in acquiring this range of technology competencies.

VES (http://www.ves.ws/portal.html) This is a free set of interactive tools and resources. The Massachusetts Department of Education is promoting the use of VES by educators as a productivity and communication tool. One of the more helpful components of VES is the Virtual Hard Drive. Basically the Virtual Hard Drive gives you your own online storage space for documents and files. Currently each VES user has 50 MB of storage space.

Teacher Technology Links

www4teachers.org

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators

Teach-nology

EdHelper

The WebQuest Page

-Cindi T.'s WebQuest Collection

Education-World

Science Teacher Links

Textbook Resources