The 6th graders at my school are studying Volcano locations around the world, focusing on the latitude and longitude of each location. We began the use by setting up three classroom accounts on Mapskip which is a global pincushion similar to Google earth, but does not require a download (helpful at school). After each person "tagged" their volcano and added 5 interesting facts, as well as a picture, we turned our attention to Google earth. We "tagged" the locations in Google earth and then created a virtual "tour" of our volcanic regions. The kids were blown away.
They had already fallen in love with being able to zoom in on their school and backyard, but now they saw the global aspect as informational and entertaining.
Geospatial literacy is an awesome tool that when applied in a school setting sets up productive authentic lessons and learning for students.
web2.0 class discussion post
2 comments:
Hi Michael,
Thanks for experimenting with MapSkip in the classroom - we sure noticed the sudden surge in Volcano placemarks... :-)
Please also thank your students for their hard work finding the volcanoes and tagging them with historical facts and the great photos they found. You made our day here at MapSkip!
Also, if you have any suggestions about MapSkip on how to make it easier to use in the classroom, please let us know here: http://www.mapskip.com/sitetools/contactus.php
Thanks again,
Thomas
Hi Michael,
For all things science, you have to check out Steve Spangler's site. He came a couple times to my 4th grade class at Willow Creek (near Park Meadows). He became popular in Denver being on a news channel. Now he is popular since he is on Ellen. His site has great youtube clips and science ideas. http://www.stevespangler.com/
:) Lynne
Post a Comment