Saturday, March 26, 2011

WebQuest Progress

This week I have been doing a lot of brainstroming... I am thinking about hooking the students by introducing them to Cammy Caterpillar. Cammy is sad because all her friends are beautiful butterflies now and she wants to beautiful just like them. The students' task is going to be to help Cammy figure out how she can turn into a  butterfly. They will have to explore the WebQuest links to learn the life cycle of a butterfly. They will then use that information to explain to Cammy that she needs to do to become  beautiful butterfly. I have been compiling links to add to my WebQuest and I am very excited about the progress I am making.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Course Project Thoughts

The course project for my EDEL 522 class this semester is to create a WebQuest. This assignment is a culminating project to show what I have learned this semester about website development and student needs. For this assignment I will be creating a WebQuest for my 2nd grade students. As I stated last week, I am thinking I will create a WebQuest for the Butterfly Science Unit I will be teaching next quarter. 
The standards I will be addressing are:

Life Sciences 
2. Plants and animals have predictable life cycles. As a basis for understanding this 
concept:

a. Students know that organisms reproduce offspring of their own kind and that the offspring resemble their parents and one another. 
b. Students know the sequential stages of life cycles are different for different animals,  such as butterflies, frogs, and mice. 
c. Students know many characteristics of an organism are inherited from the parents. 
Some characteristics are caused or influenced by the environment. 
d. Students know there is variation among individuals of one kind within a population. 
e. Students know light, gravity, touch, or environmental stress can affect the germination, growth, and development of plants. 
f. Students know flowers and fruits are associated with reproduction in plants. 

I am familiar with the resource that enchanted learning provides called Zoom Butterflies. I have used enchanted learning resources before and look forward to using Zoom Butterflies for this science unit. I also look forward to finding many more valuable resources too!

Monday, March 7, 2011

Instructional Project: Initial Thoughts

Now that I have explored the Instructional Project in detail I have to say I am very excited to begin this project. I am thinking it is going to be a lot of work but it is going to be a very fun experience. Since I teach 2nd grade and one of our big science unit is life cycles, my plan is to create a Web Quest on butterflies. I feel this is a topic that the students are really excited to explore and I can't wait to create a fun engaging Web Quest for my students :)