In 10 years of teaching science I have used a variety of online communication tools in my classroom, including email, web site links, and streaming video,
My teaching team has its own webpage attached to our school’s homepage where students and parents can access the following important information: daily activities in each of the four core classes; information about upcoming events such as field trips, school pictures, etc.; homework page with attached links to the actual document, if applicable; due dates for projects, etc. The students can also access our individual email addresses from this page to send email. I think this is a very effective way to keep parents “in the loop” and help students to be better organized and prepared for class. We spend an entire class period during the first week of school explaining to students how to access the web page, what information they can find there, and how to email any of the teachers if they need additional help or have questions that were not answered by the web page.
I used to keep a hyperlinked list of web sites for my students to use whenever they were going to the computer lab or were doing research on the Internet, but I had a hard time keeping it updated. Links become broken or hijacked, as in one unforgettable incident involving a website about the periodic table and full-frontal nudity! It took a lot of time trying to manage the links and ensuring that they were all still working and valid, so I now just use a few links for each project, which I carefully check each time before I have the students go there.
Last, but definitely not least is using streaming video! We don’t have a lot of money for science videos in the budget and even if we did, they would probably be out of date in a couple of years, depending on the scientific topic. With steaming video and an LCD projector, I always have the most up-to-date information available. Most recently, I was talking about the volcano that just started to erupt under a glacier in Iceland. We had been discussing geothermal energy the month before and some students still had a hard time with the idea that Iceland is the world’s number one producer of geothermal (“heat from under the Earth”) energy. Being an island, it was, of course formed by a volcano, but then there’s that whole covered with ice thing…some kids just didn’t get it. Then the volcano erupted in the middle of a great moving sheet of ice. Black molten rock and scarlet flames shot high into the air, instantly vaporizing the ice into steam. It was very impressive on CNN that morning, but as I tried to convey my excitement to the kids, my words were simply not enough. Later that day I logged on to MSN.com and there was the link to the CNN video clip of the eruption. I was so excited to be able to share that with my students and to help them make the connection between what they learned in class to what was going on in the outside world. A similar thing happened when I was looking for streaming video about animal habitats. PBS.org is an invaluable resource for teachers. I found several full-length videos about habitats from NOVA and Nature that were appropriate for use in my 6th grade science classroom. The kids squealed with excitement (at least I think it was excitement…) as they watched a giant Burmese Python swallow a full grown alligator in the Florida Everglades. You just don’t get that much reaction when you are reading about invasive species and protecting natural habitats in a book. Literally the day after we watched the streaming video, CNN ran a story on how officials have declared hunting season on the Python in Florida in an effort to curb the tens of thousands of released “ex-pets” that are starting to endanger the already endangered species that are protected there. I will probably cease to include video requests in my budget in the future. We simply don’t really need them very often anymore. Using video streaming allows you make real-life, up to date connections, at the speed of your Internet connection for FREE!
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