Monday, October 29, 2012

It's a Big World Out There!

Earlier this summer, I made a list of goals that I wanted my students (and myself) to accomplish this year. Recently, I've added a few more goals to that sheet.  One new goal, that I'm particularly passionate about, is exposing my students to this big 'ol world around us. For some, it's not so easy to hop in a car and road trip around the state. It's especially not as easy to travel around the country let alone the globe. Through different projects and activities, my goal is to show students our country and world through technology and communication.  I've found a couple of ways to do so... Take a look!

International Weather Investigation

When prepping for my weather unit, I set out searching for a weather data collection form. I came up short until I saw a link that led me to Skype. I clicked on the link and was reading about an International Weather Investigation based out of Sydney, Australia. I think I screamed out loud. After reading the overview, I KNEW we could participate. Basically, students in Sydney need 3-weeks worth of weather data about our climate. Perfect, right? I added our name to the Google Doc and waited for my email full of information. By 8:00 AM the next morning, my inbox had two brand new emails from Sydney. I could barely contain my excitement. Really - I kind of freaked out.


To start the project, my classes mapped out where other participating schools were located. With world maps in hand, students were using the Google Doc to find countries and schools all over the world. We were marking places in Asia, South America, Russia, America, and so on.  It was incredible! Today, my students collected their first afternoon of data. I didn't even have to remind anyone about the project. I recommend YOU checking out this spectacular climate project here.

Hurricane Sandy

It's hard to fathom what a hurricane might be like in Missouri. We're accustomed to talking about tornadoes and severe thunderstorms. I wanted my students to be aware of what was happening on the other side of the country. Today, I spent a chunk of science time talking to my students about Sandy hammering the east coast. I found video clips to show my students and they asked several questions. We grabbed the maps and figured out who was being hit the hardest and several students asked about our pen pals and I.W.I. friends.


How do you get your students to see the big world that they live in? How do you open their eyes outside of their current residence? Do share!

3 comments:

  1. LOVE it!! We've used skype to connect outside into our world . . . and video clips like you've shown . . . my friend in VA shared my son's TX marching band performance to open up dialogue about the character traits it takes to be in a marching band and they all wanted to know if they had marching bands like that in VA . . . technology certainly helps facilitate their learning, eh? Keep up the great work, Jordon!

    Barbara

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  2. im confused, since when did snow turn into foam...and I can't believe hurricane Sydney came all the way up from the country of Sandy and hit the US on the Specific Ocean

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  3. ScamBusters! Who you gonna call!October 29, 2012 at 7:43 PM

    the people in Sydney sound like a scam. I would watch out...they just want your weather data for weather theft (its similar to identity theft, but for weather). I once did the same thing with someone I met on chatroulette, the much better version of skype, and before I knew it...it was raining where I was...and sunny where they were.

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