El Science project-o

We will be using Stellarium to help the student's locate and identify three constellations. Students will locate Cassiopeia, Ursa Major and another constellation of their choice. Students will read the origin story of each constellation they chose and draw the constellations out on a piece of black construction paper with white crayon.

Content:
Grade Six. Standard 4 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.
Objective 2 
Describe the appearance and apparent motion of groups of stars in the night sky relative to Earth and how various cultures have understood and used them.
A. Locate and identify stars that are grouped in patterns in the night sky.
B. Identify ways people have historically grouped stars in the night sky.

Pedagogy:
Students will use inquiry process skills to explore the constellations of the night sky, specifically observing, identifying, and collecting data.

Technology:
We will be using Stellarium and the internet. Students in inner cities often cannot see all of the stars in the night sky due to city light intervention. Using this program will provide each student with the opportunity to see the constellations clearly.

Google Earth--- Frustrations

http://sites.google.com/site/kmceducation/google-earth-tour/EnvironmentTour.kmz?attredirects=0

Brittany Crowder's Earths surface- this had a lot of detail that I liked. I enjoyed that was more global with many different areas being focused on. Madison White's- Physical Characteristics- She had really great videos- excellent resource. Christa Chamberlin- Cultures- I don't think she had her place markers saved to her folder...

Virtual Tour on Google Earth

Social Studies – 3^rd Grade Core

Standard 1: Students will understand how geography influences community location and development.

Objective 2 Describe how various communities have adapted to existing environments and how other communities have modified the environment.

· Describe the major ecosystems (i.e. desert, plain, tropic, tundra, grassland, mountain, forest, wetland).

· Identify important natural resources of world ecosystems

· Describe how communities have modifies the environment to accommodate their needs (e.g. logging, storing water, building transportation systems).

· Investigate ways different communities have adapted into an ecosystem.

TPACK

Content- In this virtual tour, students will be shown different regions and environments of the world that require humans to change the environment in order for them to live there. The tour will show a mountain, wetland, forest, and a plain region, showing the physical features of each environment and the students will be asked to think and research how humans have altered the ecosystems to make it more livable, and after being able to see in a concrete way the areas, the students can make more connections and analysis. This tour is focusing on the environments that need to be altered.

Pedagogy: Students will engage in discover inquiry as a result of this tour. Students will visually explore a few of the different environments on the earth that requires humans to alter the ecosystem in order to inhabit.

Technology: Google Earth serves the pedagogy because students are to take a tour and see different environments through the different features, including image technologies and video technologies. This application will get the students excited because the lesson will be presented in a very hands-on way, allowing the students to explore and learn on Google Earth on their own. This technology will be great because they children will be physically engaging in searching and analyzing through this resource as well as having access to encyclopedia information and pictures that can be connected right onto Google Earth.

Location	Activity	Google Earth Content
1. Plains: Uintah County "Little Desert"	Observe the ecosystem of plains and look at pictures of the how the environment is changed by humans. Read wikipedia and then formulate what modifications were made to the environment or the habitat.	Placemarker wikipedia panoramio
2. Mountains: Wasatch Mountains	Observe ecosystem of mountains and look at different pictures to find out how the environment has been changed or how humans have changed to fit the environment.	Placemaker wikipedia panoramio
3. Desert: Moab Utah, Lake Powell, Utah	Observe ecosystems of Desert and look at the environment and learn about it and figure out ways that humans have changed ecosystem. Give a path to Lake Powell to show how a damn was used to change ecosystem	Path Wikipedia Panoramio Path Placemarker
4. Forests: California Forests, Stara Planina, Bulgaria.	Observe Ecosystem of two different forests, one local to the U.S. and another very far away. Discover the ecosystem of forests and analyze how it has been changed	Layers Path Wikipedia Panoramio Placemarker