Science



=** Subject: Science ** =

Technology:

 * Microsoft Power Point
 * Internet
 * Audacity [|http://audacity.sourceforge.net]

**Curriculum Standards:**

 * Standard: Scientific Ways of Knowing
 * Benchmark D: Recognize that scientific literacy is part of being a knowledgeable citizen
 * Indicator 8: Illustrate that much can be learned from the internal workings of science and the nature of science from the study of scientists, their daily work, and their efforts to advance scientific study.



**Description: **

 * Students will create a power point project on global warming and create a short podcast giving their oppinion on the topic and whether it changed after researching the issue.
 * The description of the power point is listed below:
 * 1) Students will spend two days in the computer lab researching global warming. They need to include in their project a definition of global warming, the causes and the effects of global warming, and what can be done to help the problem.
 * 2) Students will spend 3 days in the computer lab to create a power point project. The project must contain 10 content slides, a title slide with their name at the beginning of the project, a podcast slide, and a bibliography slide at the end of the project with at least 4 sources, one of them a print source.
 * 3) The project must contain at least 5 picture/images to help explain or clarify the content of a slide.
 * 4) Each slide must include animation.
 * After researching global warming, the will create a podcast giving their personal opinion on global warming and if there opinion has changed since beginning this project. The podcast has the following requirements:
 * 1) Create a podcast that is 45 - 90 seconds long.
 * 2) State your opinion and support it with at least one piece of information from your research.
 * 3) State whether your opinion has changed since beginning this project.
 * 4) Upload the podcast on the "podcast" slide of your power point project.
 * This is a list of websites that students may use to gather information:
 * 1) US- EPA Global Warming Site [|www.epa.gov/climatechange]
 * 2) An Inconvenient Truth [|www.climatecrisis.net]
 * 3) The Global Warming Information Site [|www.nationalcenter.org/Kyoto.html]
 * 4) Greenpeace [|www.greenpeace.org]



**Supporting Resource:**

 * An article titled //Building a Better Podcast// focuses on how educators can use podcasts in the classroom and utilize the technology for lessons. According to the article their are a few key ideas to focus on when creating or having your students create a podcast for educational purposes. The first idea is to "be prepared." Educators should train students to "know their audience, pick a theme, research talking points, and practice" before even beginning to record their podcast (Villiano, 2008). The next part is to focus on sound quality. Because schools can be noisy, Villiano suggests taking steps to filter out background noise. In this section of the article Villiano lists a couple of different ways to do this by creating mini "recording" studio where the podcast can be recorded. The article also provides links to resources for finding podcasts, creating and editing podcasts, and where to buy equipment such as microphones for your podcast.
 * In the article //Powerpoint - Creating Classroom presentations,// author Linda Star discusses how and when to use powerpoints as well as the "rants and the raves" of using them in a classroom. Their is also a section at the end of the article listing tips and guidelines for teachers to help their students create successful presentations.



**Tried and True/New and Innovative **:

 * This lesson contains both tried and true and new and innovative technology. Power point projects have been done for many years as well as researching topics on the internet. However,having students create a podcast to include in the power point project is a way to infuse a tried and true technology practice with a new technological twist. It also gives students an opportunity to actually speak about what they know and how they feel instead of always being asked to write about it.



**APA Citations: **

 * Starr,L. (2000) Powerpoint--Creating Classroom Presentations.//Education World.// Retrieved October 29, 2008 from:http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech013.shtml
 * Villiano, M. (2008). //Building a Better Podcast.// The Journal, 35 (1), pp 30 - 37**.**