How Safe Is Your Backyard?

Summary

Scenario

Student Pages

Rubric

Index of Projects

Subject: Science, Math, Language Arts, Technology

My seventh grade science students will use this theme based activity across the curriculum, incorporating technology into the classroom. The students are working on the Lake Unit. The students will team up with other students via the internet. They will collect and analyze soil and water samples from selected areas, converse with the other students, record and plot all data, and make a presentation. The science students in my class need to be actively involved in their learning. The seventh grade students will use the world wide web as an interactive multimedia format suited for education with text, video, animation, graphics, and sound.

Grade Level:

The students engaged in this activity are in my seventh grade science class but the subject matter involved can be used at any grade level.

Abstract:

Just how safe is the soil and water in your backyard? This project was to design a theme based activity across the curriculum, incorporating technology, to be used in the classroom. The students will collect and analyze soil and water samples with other groups via the internet. The students will put the results on a chart or graph. The seventh grade students will use the world wide web as an interactive multimedia format suited for education with text, video, animation, graphics, and sound. The World Wide Web has brought revolutionary changes to education. We can now observe new data as it happens. The potential for enhancing our classroom presentations with up-to-date information in a multimedia format offers students an exciting new way to learn. Students are exposed to the latest in technology and it gives them access to a variety of information using the internet. Students will be able to communicate with other students and participate in universal problems. Students will be more actively involved in their learning. Join us to test the soil and water. We welcome your participation.

Learner Description/Environment:

Albert E. Grice Middle School is located in Hamilton Township, New Jersey. Grice is situated in a suburban area and has a wide range of socioeconomic groups from upper middle to lower income families. My class consists of nine color computers with speakers and CD-ROMS, a laser disc player with computer interface, a television monitor with audio (English or Spanish), and a laser printer. I teach six classes and each class has between 22-30 students.

Time Frame:

The students will start the project in the fall in order to get other schools involved. Testing of the soil and water will begin as soon as everyone is locked in and on target. Some of the time frame will depend on other schools such as location, time difference, and so forth. My students can work on the testing during the month of April but time is still needed to gather the data, put it together, and make presentations. Tentatively the time frame will be between 3-6 weeks.

Rationale:

• Students need to be more involved with their learning.
• Students need to be shown or discover the purpose of learning.
• Learning, teaching, and facilitating needs to be based on real life problems and real data.
• Using the World Wide Web will attract students who were raised on video games and television.
• The teams involved will analyze the soil and water samples.
• They will cooperatively work together to create a final product. Perhaps experiencing for the first time that division of labor is an essential part of learning and part of real life skills.

Learner Outcomes:

• Students will test the soil and water, converse with other students via the internet, record and plot all data, and make a presentation.
• Students will develop a cooperative learning environment.
• Students will be allowed to be in charge of their own learning.
• Students will be responsible for their use of time, preparation of assignments, and completion of assignment/assignments.
• Students will become more independent workers.
• Students will work in their groups with the teacher as a facilitator.
• Students will write email letters to send, read email letters sent to them, save email, print for hard copy, reply to email, attach files, pictures, or other materials to email being sent, and keep an email address book.
• Using Search, students will find 2 or 3 programs that can help navigate the internet.
• Students will look for files, gophers, news groups, etc.
• Students will obtain experts for the online projects, do web pages, and update files.

Alignment with Standards:

New Jersey State Science Core Curriculum Content Framework Chapter 5

New Jersey State Science Curriculum Standards

New Jersey State Cross-Content Workplace Readiness

New Jersey State Science Standards Assessment

New Jersey State Science Standards (Processing Standards) Chapter 5.1-5.12

Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy

Structure of the Learning:

Content:

• The curriculum content is approved by the Board of Education and Curriculum advisor.
• The project consists of soil and water analysis , recording data, graphing or charting data, and a presentation.
• During the students' preparations as well as during the project, students will utilize the internet for communication and research.
• Students will have input to refine the project as the project progresses.
• Students will also have a better understanding of the ground and water beneath our feet.

 

Process:

 

• Students will form cooperative learning groups of four to five people.
• Teacher will discuss his/her expectations for the project.
• Students may at this point decide to rearrange groups.
• Students will use a search tool that uses a single or series of keywords that will be decided upon by their group.
• Students will return a list of sites that contain or relate to the keyword.
• Students will observe the information and determine its usefulness to the project.
• Students will look for reputable sources.
• Students will have to contact other schools sometime during the year and identify those schools that want to participate in the project.
• Students will discuss and determine the best time to do the project.
• Students will determine where and how the soil samples are to be collected.
• Students will make a decision on what they are going to analyze in the soil and water samples.
• Students will discuss materials needed and test procedures.
• Students will keep logs as well as a disk for a hard copy of anything taken off the internet.
• Students will record results from all schools and design a chart or graph for illustration.
• Students will make a presentation at the end of the investigation.
• Teacher will review work completed and observe as well as record ongoing progress.

 

Product:

The students will be responsible for a fifteen minute multimedia presentation. The students will be able to explain the importance of testing our soil and water. Explain the tests they performed. What they were testing for? What did they find? Were all the results the same?

Assessment:

The students will be evaluated according to creative ability, scientific thought, thoroughness, technical skill, clarity, dramatic value, team work, observed behavior, safety skills, manipulative skills, and instructional skills. Teacher will also comment on strengths and weaknesses. The students will also make an assessment of the investigation. Does the project need refinement? Where? How might we do __________________Differently?

Project/Unit Evaluation:

The facilitator and students will need to determine the efficiency of time management of the team members throughout the project. We will also determine the good and bad points of the project and rectify them for next year.

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Created for the NTEP II Fermilab LInC program sponsored by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Education Office and Friends of Fermilab, and funded by United States Department of Energy, Illinois State Board of Education, North Central Regional Technology in Education Consortium which is operated by North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL), and the National Science Foundation.

Author(s): Rosanne Fabiny

School: Albert E. Grice Middle School, Hamilton Township, New Jersey

Created: November 17, 1998 - Updated: November 10,2001

URL: /ntep/f98/projects/pppl/backyard/present.html