K12science is a science teachers dream. It is a website that incorporates collaborative science projects into the classroom. This site provides a number of interactive internet projects that classrooms from across the globe can team up and work on together. Each classroom will participate in the same activities at their school. There is a number of tasks and questions each class is responsible for answering. Classrooms will then post and compare their results on the project site. This site is an awesome way for students to see how life in other parts of the world is like in comparison to their own. This site is awesome! I really wish I would have known about this site sooner, because I teach k-8 science and some of these activities would have been great projects for my students to participate in.
Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC) Collaboration Center is like bringing a field trip to the classroom. This website allows students to videoconference and interacts with different schools, professors, professionals, and experts on a particular subject matter. I choose to explore one of the interactive programs called “Program Flyer: CSI: The Experience Meet the Expert: Forensic Science” This program allows students to interactive virtually with a Crime Lab investigator at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. Students will be given the opportunity to compare and contrast real science to television perception of forensic science, compare different fields of forensic science, develop an understanding of the complexity of fields related to forensics, and ask questions to the expert. This think this site is also another site that would be very beneficial to use in my classroom. I am currently having the student’s research particular careers within science and medicine. Forensic psychology and investigator are of the two most popular choices in my class. I think this program would have been very popular in my classroom with the students. This is definitely something that I could have used to give them further information about that job field, along with teaching to the interest of my students. I could have set up different programs within the careers the students were interested in and have them participate in an interactive experience along with research information for the profession they choose. This would have given them practical hands on knowledge and experience that one cannot obtain inside the classroom with a book.
For a global cooperation project, I think Flickr would be an good site to use within your classroom. Flat Stanley’s are a popular theme/ activity to use within the elementary school classrooms. For those of you who do not know what a Flat Stanley is, it is a paper doll that is sent in an envelope to other classrooms across the world, with the promise of returning back to it home classroom with a detail description of the places he has traveled. Flat Stanley is a great activity for elementary schools to use in the social studies classroom. It allows students across the globe to interact with one another via snail mail. However, with up the upcoming trends in technology, snail mail might not be the best way to travel anymore. By using flickr, classrooms can post via the internet a global map with pictures and information about their Flat Stanley’s travels. On Flickr, schools could collaborate together to share pictures and information about all the places Flat Stanely’s have traveled in a year. This would be a great way to expose students to different cultures and countries around the world.
