District: East Greenbush Central School District

School/District Representatives: Howard L. Goff Middle School

SLO Project Name: Earth Science: Rocks, Volcanoes and Earthquakes

Authored by: Mary Anne Chylinski, Rich Hill

E-mail: [email protected] [email protected]

Homepage address: http://blackboard.neric.org/ Username: goff Password: 8r

Grade Level: 8

Subject Area: Science, Technology

Learning context:

Mathematics, Science, and Technology

Standard 1: Analysis, Inquiry, and Design Students will use mathematical analysis, scientific inquiry, and engineering design, as appropriate, to pose questions, seek answers, and develop solutions. Performance Indicators: Apply mathematical knowledge to solve real-world problems and problems that arise from the investigation of mathematical ideas, using tables Formulate questions independently with the aid of references appropriate for guiding the search for explanations of everyday observations Construct explanations independently for natural phenomena, especially by proposing preliminary visual models of phenomena Represent, present, and defend their proposed explanations of everyday observations so that they can be understood and assessed by others Carry out their research proposals, recording observations and measurements (e.g., lab notes, audio tape, computer disk, video tape) to help assess the explanation Design chart of observations to help them address their research question or hypothesis Interpret the organized data to answer the research question or hypothesis and to gain insight into the problem Modify their personal understanding of phenomena based on evaluation of their hypothesis Standard 2: Information Systems Students will access, generate, process, and transfer information using appropriate technologies. Performance Indicators: Use a range of equipment and software to integrate several forms of information in order to create good text-based presentations Systematically obtain accurate and relevant information pertaining to a particular topic from a range of sources Standard 4: Science Students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles, and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living environment and recognize the historical development of ideas in science. Performance Indicators: Explain how the atmosphere (air), hydrosphere (water), and lithosphere (land) interact, evolve, and change Describe volcano and earthquake patterns, the rock cycle, and weather and climate changes Describe the sources and identify the transformations of energy observed in everyday life Assessments:

Pre-Assessment: Preliminary Activity 1 in the Musical Plates Folder served as an assessment of student prior knowledge about the cause of earthquakes. During this activity, students made 4 hypotheses about the cause of earthquakes and volcanoes.

Post-Assessment: At the conclusion of the Musical Plates activity, students were to save the documents they created in their own personal folder on the schools server. As a teacher I can access their folders as read only documents. Assessment of the knowledge they gained navigating the schools computer network and saving documents was made when I browsed their folders to check that the documents were created and saved to the proper network location. Assessment of content knowledge gained was assessed based on their answers to the questions posed in the activities. In addition, students were given a multiple-choice test requiring them to be knowledgeable regarding the cause of earthquakes.

Post assessment of the Locating an Epicenter lab is the hardcopy of the completed answer sheet.

Post assessment of the students reading of the Earth Science book and performing the SQ3R reading method was that I collected a hardcopy of the SQ3R’s and quizzes were given based on the books content.

Procedure and Exemplars:

1. Login to the East Greenbush SLO course on nericblackboard.org using the class username and password and access course documents tab for the following activities.

a. Access Journal Entries 1-7 to check their science binder notes for completeness and to review past journal entries

b. Access “teacher tips” and learn to create folders and save documents to their personal webspace. (During this activity, students received their unique username and password for the EGCSD network) c. Use curriculum and rock review documents as resources to review and prepare for future exams

2. Login to the East Greenbush SLO course on nericblackboard.org using the class username and password and access assignment tab for the following activities.

a. Musical Plates: Activity based on collaborative web project authored by Joshua Koen. Over a three-week period students complete 5 Activities and save their answer documents to the student folder they created on the school network

b. Locating an Epicenter: Over a three day period students modeled the procedure used to identify earthquake location based on arrival times of S and P wave at a seismic monitoring station. This is a NASA SciFiles activity from “The Case of the Shaky Quake”

c. SQ3R: Students practiced the Survey Question, Read, Recite and Review (SQ3R) method of improving reading comprehension during assigned readings of Chapter’s 1-8 of their Earth Science textbook. The chapter 1 SQ3R was performed in English class. Subsequent SQ3R’s were performed in science class.

Instructional Modifications:

We surveyed each student regarding computer access at home. Questions asked included whether or not they had: a study hall and on which days; a computer at home; pc or Macintosh; Internet access and if so, LAN or dial-up; printer; and information regarding whether the student had multiple homes and the access at second home as well. This information was evaluated and a student priority in- school computer usage list was disseminated to team teachers. This allowed team teachers to monitor the computer usage in their room so student without computer availability at home can be given priority to gain access during study halls and enrichments.

Time Required: One month Resources (materials): A blank map which students were to indicate current earthquakes according to their latitude and longitude, student notebook for recording journal entries, earthquake activity log, sq3rs, a computer with Internet access, handouts and an Earth Science Textbook.

Reflections: We chose this lesson because there are a lot of current websites associated with earthquakes and volcanoes. Students were able to access real time data for earthquake activity and while doing this found that on average the Earth experienced 20-30 earthquakes a day. This realization made the subject more real to the students. The websites available also enhanced the textbook and lecture material on the topics by providing nice illustrations and background scientific information necessary to better understand the topic.

Students were enthused about the activity and ended up working more independently on the activity than we thought they would. The design of the project allowed for a differentiated learning experience. The faster students were engaged in some of the more detailed information offered at some of the websites. Another advantage of the computer setting is that students who do not usually become engaged during science class were more engaged in this activity than I would have expected.

We learned how to modify computer-based assignments to accommodate students who have limited computer access outside the school setting.

Submitted by:

______Mary Anne Chylinski Rich Hill

Approved by:

______Terrance Brewer Date