I added students to the blog by allowing them to be authors to my blog (Go to 'settings' then 'permissions', then 'invite authors'). I had a separate blog for each class. We compiled a list of the most relevant questions for the water unit (see below). I left my post with all the questions open at the front of the room and students signed up for a question. When they had completed their first post, they came up and signed up for another question. They posted their information using pictures, videos, links and their own words. Some students volunteered to take on a third question so that we would have information for all the questions and other students worked on giving feedback and giving editing suggestions on the completed posts using the comment box below the post.
Tomorrow we are going to work together to come up with some really good 'understanding' and 'application' type questions. Students will then decide on groups and pick questions. They will only be able to access our blog site for the information to address these questions and they will have to cite any blog post that they used when explaining the answer to their question(s).
On Thursday students are going to write an 'open blog' test on the basic knowledge posts. We have talked about this already and students think it's a pretty cool idea. Again, students will only have access to the blog post to answer the questions and they will have to cite the blog where they got their information.
So far there has been great 'buy in' for this project. Students have been working hard and have been focused. I am a little concerned about whether they will learn all the information, but I think we'll just have to keep working with the material in different ways so that they have to use it repeatedly and therefore will hopefully remember and understand the information.
Again, any thoughts, questions or feedback would be appreciated.
Example post (just the first one on one of the class blog sites)
what are the strongest currents? why?
Currents are caused by different things. Wind effects the water that is closer to the surface. The currents in deeper water are caused by sunlight creating heat pockets in different areas, the warm water then tries to pass through the cold water where the sun hasn't hit and it creates like a "wind" underneath the surface. The direction the earth moves causes different currents in the North and South hemisphere. The North hemisphere's currents turn to the right. The South hemisphere's turn to the left. The last thing that has an effect on currents are continents. When the currents come into contact with continents they are forced to move either South or North. With the continuous flowing of currents in all four directions; along with the Earth's rotation, keep the currents moving counterclockwise in the South hemisphere and clockwise in the North hemisphere. The strongest currents are the ones that are caused by the Earth moving and sending them in different directions.
The following is the list of questions that the classes compiled: (I left the student's first name just to show how the sign-up worked)
What is a food chain? Maddy L.
What are some difficulties that animals living in freshwater have to overcome?
What are some difficulties that animals living in saltwater have to overcome? Richard
What are some difficulties that plants living in saltwater have to overcome?shayelle
What are some difficulties that plants living in rivers, lakes and ponds have to overcome?
What are some adaptations of aquatic organisms for reproduction?
What is an adaptation?(Jamie B)
What are some adaptations for survival (feeding, breathing, shelter)?shawna
What are some adaptations for avoiding predation?Farha
What is a bioindicator species?Elizabeth e
What is a sea-floor vent? What are some adaptations of organisms that live near sea-floor vents?
Human Impact
What is pollution? Christina T
What is acid rain? Frances h
What major industries cause the most pollution? jacob
How much water do we use? Shania M.
How fast do the water resources deplete? Evan G
What are pollutants? Kyle M
What are greenhouse gases? Maddy L.
Does pollution affect animals lifestyles? Clayton
What types of pollution pollute water? Frances H
How do we purify water? Wentao
How do we sustain water resources?Binta B
What are the impacts of flooding?kyle M
What are the impacts when there is not enough water?
What is a point source of pollution? What is a non-point source of pollution?
How does agriculture pollute water? Shayelle M
What happens when there is too many nutrients in the water?kyle M
What is biomagnification? jamie b
How do we monitor water quality? What do we monitor in the water?
Frozen water
What are the different kinds of glaciers and their distinguishing characteristics?jamie.h
How do glaciers shape the landscape? andrew s
Why/how do glaciers move? emma c
What is an ice field? Kyle S.
Describe some of the major glaciers in Canada. Clayton
What is an iceberg? Yousuf
What is an ice age?dominic
What happens during an ice age?breeze
How many previous ice ages have there been and when were they? Elizabeth E
What is pack ice?christina T
How do scientists determine the age of ice?shawna
How important are glaciers as a freshwater source? jacob
Ocean
What is a tide? How is it formed? breeze
What is a wave? How is it formed? Farha
What is a tsunami? (Wentao)
What is an ocean current? Binta
How does the ocean affect air temperature? yousuf
How are beaches formed? dominic
Where are the strongest currents? Why?emma c
What properties determine whether a body of water is considered an ocean? Jake S.
What are hurricanes? How are they formed? Shania M.
What does the ocean floor look like? Describe the different parts of the ocean floor.jamie.h
How do waves change shorelines?
Describe how waves break on shore. Kyle S.
How does temperature change with the depth of ocean water?
What is salinity and how does the salt get in the ocean?
Freshwater
What is a watershed? Jake S.
Describe all the watersheds found in Canada.
Describe the shape of a river from its headwater to its outflow.
What is erosion/deposition? liam c
What is the water cycle?Drew B
What is an aquifer? How is water contained in the ground? zhora c
What is the water table? Evan G
What is a lake? What is a pond?Kyle S.
What is a stream? What is a river?liam c.
What is run-off?andrew s
What is a wetland?richard b
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