Online Projects, Collaboration Sites and Publishing Opportunities

Lesson Idea Name: Analyzing Human impact on the community

Content Area: Environmental Science
Grade Level(s): High School
Content Standard Addressed:
SEV4. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to analyze human impact on natural resources.
Technology Standard Addressed:
Creative Communicator: Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of
purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals .
Selected Online Project/Collaboration Site/Publishing Opportunity:
CNN IReport
URL(s) to support the lesson:
http://ireport.cnn.com/

Describe how you would incorporate an Online Project/Collaboration Site/Publishing Opportunity in your
classroom:
For this lesson students will be tasked with adventuring out into the surrounding area of the school and
making observations on how human impact as effected the ecosystem. During this process groups of three or
four will collect data in whichever way them seem fit to show the affect we have had on the school’s
ecosystem. After collecting data student will also go back out and collect photo and/or video evidence to
support their claims.
After all data is collected students will be tasked with creating a pseudo-documentary in which they will use
their photo and video evidence along with a spoken aspect to show the current state of the environment.
Students will also be tasked with providing some sort of suggestion on how they would fix things. After this
students would use CNN’s IReport function to be able to publish their documentary for all to see.
What technologies would be required to implement this proposed learning activity in a classroom?
Students would be required to have access to the internet to submit to the IReport web page. Students would
also need access to some sort of camera that can record video and audio. If students wanted to edit in the
photos with their documentary then they would require some sort of editing software, which comes with
IPhone’s now, but if they do not have access this would not be required.
Describe how the following features are addressed in this learning experience (note: all of them may not be
addressed in the project, but most should be if you are reaching a high LoTi Level).
a. Collaboration with peers, near-peers, mentors outside their classroom and often beyond their
school: Students in this lesson would be required to work with students in a group to collect data, and
they also may want to reach out to grounds keepers or people around the school who may have more
knowledge on the environment around the school.

b. Student-centered learning and knowledge creation (creating original data and or producing original
products as a result of engaging in a project): Each group is not only required to collect their own
data, even if they share the same idea with another group, they also have to each create their own
documentaries to be submitted.

c. Higher-order thinking: Students are not only being forced to think about content knowledge, but also
how that content connects to the world around them. Taking a big picture idea and localizing it for
their immediate surroundings requires much more investment and high order thinking.

d. Students publishing their original work to others who will use/care about their product:
With the IReport publishing tool the students would have their work published on the internet and then could
possibly submit their documentaries to their local news as well.
Bloom’s Taxonomy Level(s):

Spring 2018_SJB
 Online Projects, Collaboration Sites and Publishing Opportunities
☐ Remembering ☐ Understanding ☐ Applying ☐ Analyzing ☐ Evaluating ☒ Creating

Levels of Technology Integration (LoTi Level):

☐ Level 1: Awareness ☐ Level 2: Exploration ☐ Level 3: Infusion ☒ Level 4: Integration

☐ Level 5: Expansion ☐ Level 6: Refinement

Universal Design for Learning (UDL):

I believe the lesson I have planes falls mainly in the action and expression section of UDL because it really hits
on the idea of students utilizing multiple technologies and other tools to communicate understanding of a
topic. Students are taking the reins here and are leading their own learning over this topic. This lesson allows
for students to determine not only what data they want to collect, but how they want to show their
understanding and the importance of that data.
Lesson idea implementation and Internet Safety Policies:
When it come to posting the documentary safety is a big issue to worry about, but one way to complete this
while still remaining safe would be to first not include any of the students names or information in the
documentary’s. It would also be a good idea to not mention the schools name specifically and refer to the
ecosystem as on for the whole county or city. Also it would be very important to send home a permission slip
for students to be able to post their work online with parental consent.

Reflective Practice:
I believe allowing students to take the lead on their own learning in this lesson truly enriches their learning
experience and allows them to become invested in their work. In the future I think the main thing to enhance
the lesson would be to simply contact a local news station first and see if they have a similar publication
system and see if they would want to work with out students.

Spring 2018_SJB