Week 4:Using Online Data in the Classroom

Yikes! I am running behind in this class and on my blog. I sort of got distracted looking at online data. I have the seeds of a few ideas in my head. When I was exploring the ideas for a blog or wiki that used current events, I was looking at Science Daily, which totally sucked me in and on the umpteenth article that I read, I found a little link on the side to an old story that linked to a project called Project Bud Burst that uses citizen scientists across the nation observing plants and reporting when they do things like get their first leaf, first flower, first fruit, etc. It is all in the spirit of observing global climate change. There is data, but it was overwhelming. I think if I spent more time I could come up with something, but I also like the idea of my students participating in a project like this. There is even a version for elementary aged students called Bud Burst Buddies.

Another idea I spent some time fooling around with is water quality. There is a nearby river that has a sewage treatment facility that dumps treated water into it. I found the data for sites up-river and down-river from the facility and thought it would be an interesting "Generate an Argument" activity to ask if it made any difference in the river to have that facility present.

This topic reminded me of Performance Based Assessments that I used in my classroom last year. The ones I used supplied students with data they had to interpret. I liked how easy they were to grade. My main concern with "Generate an Argument" is the amount of time it would take to grade and give feedback to students for their step 4 writing assignment. Perhaps if this was a collaborative effort with the English department? Although I like the idea of the "Generate an Argument" I am hesitant at times to fully embrace these models that come from academia. It seems that sometimes they are a bit on the unrealistic side. This activity would take some practice to be successful with my 7th graders!