Final Project

My final project is going to be about the Water Cycle. I chose the Water Cycle because it was a topic that I actually had to teach about during my teacher assisting placement for my Unit on Earth’s Systems and Interactions. When I was teaching the Water Cycle to my 6^th graders, I felt like it would be a good fit for the technology integrated lesson plan because there are a lot of components that would be learned by students much better in a more visual and interactive setting that technology can provide. Many of these “cycles” such as the rock cycle and water cycle can be hard for students to interpret when just reading about it. Therefore, I think it is important that for these challenging topics we provide means for students to work hands on with the concepts and create meaningful projects for authentic audiences. Incorporating technology into these experiences can both empower and transform student learning.

The outline of my lesson plan includes introductions to the water cycle, explanations of the water cycle via online virtual and interactive labs and a final project presentation of a Rube Goldberg Machine Screencast modeling the water cycle. To begin frontloading for this unit, I will use Padlet and some pictures of landscapes to get students thinking about the different places and phases in which water can be found. I will then move into using some interactive Water Cycle labs from both “Earth Guide” and a Weebly page. This will hopefully accommodate all levels of learners by allowing students to work at their own pace, have interactive visuals and have sound options. The final project will be a group project with pairings made based on pre-test scores to allow those who are similarly minded to work together. This project requires collaboration in order to make a final screencast project that is a Rube Goldberg Machine whose components represent different parts of the Water Cycle. Different teams, based on the different tiers of students, will have varying project requirements in order to modify the project in a way to accommodate all levels of learners. I think using the screencast for the final project will require an extra degree of collaboration and group interaction that a poster does not require, thus meeting the technology standard stating that “students will contribute constructively to project teams, assuming various roles and responsibilities to work effectively toward a common goal” (ISTE Global Collaborator 7C) while also meeting the NGSS requirements for developing a model representing the Water Cycle.

Assessment Plan

Objective	Formative Assessment	Technology Used
1 & 2	Water Cycle Diagram Pre-Test	Online Virtual Lab Quiz
2	Where can I find water?	Padlet
1	Bunsen Burner Demo	Google Forms
1 & 2	Interactive Water Cycle Activity	Google Doc Submission
1 & 2	Water Cycle Review	Quizlet Live

Objective	Summative Assessment	Technology Used
1, 2 & 3	Rube Goldberg Project	Webquest and Screencast
1 & 2	Water Cycle Quiz	Google Forms

Below is a figure that shows an example of the beginnings of a Rube Goldberg Machine.