TPACK

What is the content you’ll be using in your lesson?
The content I will be using in my lesson is sixth grade, standard 1 students will understand how ancient civilizations developed and how they contributed to the current state of the world. They will explore places like the pyramids, and the Great Wall of China. By doing so, students will get to see how the ancient people build and created these beautiful structures.

What is the pedagogy you’ll be using and why is it a good fit with the content?
The pedagogy that will be used is Google Earth. Students will be able to see what they are studying about. They will first learn about these structures in a lesson, then they will have the chance to visit them themselves.

What is the technology you’ll be using and why is it a good fit with the content and pedagogy?
The technology that will be used is Google Earth. This is an extremely useful tool for students to use because it allows them to visualize what they are learning about. They can experience the hsitory and place, and create their own meaning out od it. It is a good fit because it allows the students to learn about a place or event in greater detail rather than reading about it.

Virtual Tour Plan

Location	Activity	Google Earth Content
1. Stonehenge	Students will write a journal entry to how they think the monument was made.	Using a link, a picture and a short article about Stonehenge, students will learn more about how the it was created.
2. The Grand Canyon	Students will draw a landscape with the Grand Canyon in it.	Using google terrain function, students will view and explore the canyon.
3. The Great Wall of China	Students will estimate how long the wall is.	Using a wiki link, the students will click on the link to find information about the wall. Also using Google earth students will get to visit the wall.
4. The Egyptian Pyramids	Students will draw pictures of the pyramids.	Using the 3d feature on google earth, students will visit the pyramids, and compare their drawings to the real ones.

There was an Old Lady...

TPACK/ Storyboard

Content: For this next assignment we are to create a storyboard for a video that we will be making. We have chosen to do one on "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly". This is a circle story, and we will be teaching the elements of that by watching our video. This will expose students to a new way of seeing a story.

Pedagogy: The pedagogy we will be usuing will be the use of a storyboard in the classroom. This will allow children to see stories come to life. Hopefully by them seeing this, it will spark their creativity and hopefully they will want to create a storyboard of their own. Students can either make up their own stories, or use the words like we are doing. The students will be able to see how to the storyboard is made, and they will all make one themselves, in groups, or as a class depending on the level the students are at.

Technology: The technology that will be used will be iMovie, or photostory. These programs allow you to create movies or videos of the work you have done. Students will either draw their own images, take their own with a digital camera, or get pictures from the internet. These tools will allow students to create their movies with ease.

Science lesson TPACK

The lesson that my group created used the program Stellarium. This program helps you visualize constellations, the sky, and many other things. The content area of the activity used the sixth grade core standard 4 which states that students will understand the scale of size, distance between objects, movement, and apparent motion (due to Earth’s rotation) of objects in the universe and how cultures have understood, related to and used these objects in the night sky. Using objective 2, indicator a, locate and identify stars that are grouped in patterns in the night sky, the students performed an activity to identify constellations that are shapes of geometric figures. 

The pedagogy that I have demonstrated by using this program will help students understand space better. It can be a confusing thing, and by using a program like Stellarium you will help the students understand it better. Before the activity, it will be helpful to introduce the students to a number of different constellations. By doing so, the students will get a better understanding of what a constellation actually is.  

The technology we used helped enhance this activity by letting the students interact with a real sky. It is hard for students to visualize the stars, and constellations are often times hard to identify.By being aware of this program, I am able to help my students learn and understand the universe a little better. Using this program, you can see the constellations up close, and see how they created shapes. The technology influences how the students learn. I am a very visual learner, and seeing the constellations drawn out really helps me see what shape they actually are. This activity allows you to become a more effective teacher, and it shows that you know how to integrate other subjects into others. This lesson integrates geometry and science. These two subjects can be a little tough to understand, and by doing an activity like this, you are able to understand it a little better. 

The Tech Savvy Teacher

Students often find science and math a bit boring. Using a program like Stellarium, students will become engaged with the constellations, stars, and the night sky. The program is easy to use and students will have no problem accessing the information it holds. You can do neat things with this program. One example is you can look at the sky the night you were born. But, we are not going to learn how to do that now. This time we will learn about constellations and how they form geometric shapes and patterns. For this activity, the students will identify at least 5 constellations with a geometric shape or pattern. Then have them draw the constellations on a piece of paper.

Discuss with the students that constellations are made up of stars, and that they create different kinds of shapes. Explain to the students that you will be finding shapes in the sky. The first step is to open up Stellarium. Then the student will click on the drawing of the constellations and names of the constellations icons in the lower left hand corner of the screen in the tool bar. This will bring up a screen that looks like this:

Next,  the student will use the mouse to move the sky around until they find a constellation that has a geometric shape. Here are some examples:

This is an example of triangles.

In this picture you see a triangle and a parallelogram.

This is a picture of a constellation that is the shape of a kite. 

As shown in the above pictures, there are lots of geometric shapes made out of stars. Through this activity students are able to better understand math through a science activity. This activity expands the students' knowledge about star constellations. It helps them become more familiar with their names as well as what they look like. This activity is for sixth grade, but it could be used in lower grades as well.