Summary
The goal of this lesson is to find ways to inspire and motivate students to believe they can achieve anything they dream. Young people need role models that they can identify with and there are a number of minority scientists that can provide the proper motivation and whose accomplishments infuse that sense of drive and inspiration.
Students were asked to work in groups in order investigate a minority scientist or inventor of their choice. They had to generate a report using advanced web searches of credible websites. Once all of the information was compiled the students had to select the most appropriate tool to present the information to their peers and the community. This assignment allowed for the students to explore the practical application of the scientific enterprise, and in doing so realize that ordinary people often facing great hardships can do great things and become successful. This is important because children in the early stages of adolescence need to see science-related careers as a real option for themselves.
TIPC Ratings
Research and Information Fluency: (IDEAL) Students select appropriate digital tools, evaluate, and utilize information; apply varied research skills to find and evaluate resources; use information and resources to accomplish real-world tasks. The real-world tasks include: research, synthesizing information, deciphering which source is credible and reliable. The resources were print (magazines, journals, books, newspapers) and non-print resources (Government site, Youtube, Google, Wikipedia, and various websites.
Communication & Collaboration: (Approaching) Students initiate communication in real and non-real time; communicate and collaborate with learners of diverse cultural backgrounds; form collaborative teams to solve real-world problems {(digital literacy, collaboration in real time or non-real time} , and create both extemporaneous and scripted speech for presentation to an audience
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: (Developing) Students apply critical thinking skills as they make decisions about the reliability of sources, the myriad of sources to choose from, and effectiveness of the sources. Students choose the research methods and the communication tools to create an original multimedia product. The students collaborate effectively beyond the regular classroom
Creativity and Innovation: (Developing) Students research and prepare their extemporaneous and multimedia products both individually and as groups. Groups use Googledocs to communicate in real and non-real time with off-site partners. They practice the process of a collaboration and self assessment, and evaluate each group member using various methods (whole class discussion, Googledocs, , and SchoolSpace discussion boards).
Student Artifact
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