Lesson 2- Rounding Up Resources

___ Instructional objectives
Students will gather resources to answer their focus questions- primarily using web searches, but also library and teacher texts, lesson planners, videos, and cd’s

___ Time required- 3-4 periods of 50 minutes
___ Advance preparation and prerequisite knowledge/skills –
Prepare samples of the types of activity materials found on the “teacher tools” handout.
Ideally, you will be modeling instruction for each of the student topics during this and the other teacher directed “checkpoints”. I chose plate tectonics and continental drift to build whole group initial vocabulary, and to model the use of posters and videos in particular, Selecting posters that showed big idea of change, and how sea floor spreading happens, then showing a pre-selected 3 minute segment of a video on this topic. (suggest Bill Nye "Earth's Crust)
___ Materials/resources required – the website list included in this unit is not exhaustive… but is sufficient. It is highly recommended that students can watch videos in class, or through library check out. Plan on order or reserving library books that demonstrate a variety of the concepts, and….. very useful to contact a science teacher specialist for lab activities in these areas.
___ Vocabulary-See team focus area sheet for ideas
___ Procedures-
1. Teacher models how to use the resources-
- go through the “teacher tools” help sheet, giving short demonstrations of each element (3 minutes each +/- )
-On projector, tv, or with board presentation, show students how to use web browser and note page together (either word process or page layout… we usually use Appleworks draw because the page is non-linear, and notes w/ urls and graphic elements can be arranged in useful ways on the page)
-Talk with a poster or diagram….. ask a question, then use the graphic to show the information.
-Briefly show a resource for hands-on activities, either a web download, teacher lab manual, or library book with experiments, which has instructions for managing an activity.
- show short pre-selection from a video, modeling how to preview/review the key information being looked for. (video suggestion)
- Walk whole class through the writing of a “Short summary”
- Explain/show that this kind of summary is what they will be doing in their “Question & Answer” notes. Model the Where, What, How form on that sheet
(i.e. Book title and page, or web url, or name of video- “plate tectonics is the theory that…..”, “activity lets students try to match continents like puzzle pieces.)

___ Activities –
Student teams choose roles for each activity day….. for many it is useful taking turns searching the different kinds of media. Multiple copies of the “Question & Answer Note Sheet” should be available. On each of the research days, teacher roams and assists like a good librarian would. Ideally, the actual librarian and any computer lab tech assists as well.
Important: EACH student needs to maintain their own copy of Q&A sheets to insure participation, knowledge building, and in case of absence or loss!
- Sample Q & A sheet(pdf file)
- starting list of resources
___ Extensions
___ Homework- Check out of books, videos for home review as appropriate.

___ Evaluation – All students show progress on Q & A sheet.