http://www.scribd.com/doc/2745184/Vertebrate-Zoology

This was a cool assignment that truly got me thinking that this really would be an awesome idea in the future to have.  It would make life easier for not only me, but also for any school interested in highering me, or looking for someone with my criteria. 

Within this section I would love to the opportunity to have the students to be able to go to these different ponds and test the water quality. For them to understand that the water quality is pretty bad in many areas and from the different factors we test (pH, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity) the students need to understand what causes these factors.  By having a turbidity probe, DO probe, and a pH meter we will be able to understand that different levels of these factors within the different bodies of water we work with.  Based on these value and the observation of the location of these water bodies, the students can hopefully use this hands on assignment to fully understand more about water quality and the different factors which cause these qualities.  By telling students the water qualities of areas and showing them pictures is not truly helping them think and giving them a need to know.  By having them test these different areas hands on, this can help them truly think hard and long as to what causes these results.   Based on the results collected and which areas are most likely to become worse over time, my students can have an influence on which ponds within the town recieve fountains.     

The turning point technological tool will be an excellent tool for as a school to have within our classrooms.  Within my  classroom this tool can help to get my students heavily involved, bring their preconcieved notions to the surface, and learn along with their fellow classmates the different knowledge I am attempting to inundate them with.  This tool can help students who do not want to share their answers with their peers to truly participate, and it gets the students to think outside of the box, since with this program I will not be giving them the answers to the questions, they must work with other students in their classroom to come up with an agreed upon answer.  Please take this tool into consideration, and if you would like further information Chris D’amato at damato@eden.rutgers.edu.  Thank you so much for your time.

Within the unit we have been discussing water and the different factors which influence water quality.  Today is the fun day.  We have had five fish tanks in the back of the classroom:

Fish tank 1 – nothing but tap water

Fish tank 2 – distilled water, one water plant

Fish tank 3 – distilled water, two water plants and a snail

Fish tank 4 – distilled water, two plants, and some fertilizer (representing runoff)

Fish tank 5 – distilled water, two plants, snail, and a fish

These tanks have been sitting in the back of the classroom for two weeks and today our task is going to be to use different measuring equipment to determine different factors which affect the quality of the water, and which tanks have better conditions.  I first need to explain to the students what we are testing for, which will be brief since we have already discussed what affects water quality.  We are going to start with dissolved oxygen readings of each tank.  Before beginning the students need to all make “educated” guesses” as to which tank will have the highest dissolved oxygen levels, and which will have the lowest and so on.  Another test the students will be doing is pH along with a turbidity test.  They have been taught the meaning of these tests, so from what they have learned, and the results they get, they must explain why it is at the levels it is (for each test) and whether or not their guesses were close to their actual data. All of the tests I have used within this lesson plan contain tools within Investigating Environmental Science through Inquiry.  There is a pH sensor along with a turbidity test and a dissolved oxygen test all through a package from Vernier.    

Vernier is an awesome tool for if I get the opportunity to teach environmental science (which is my ultimate life desire).  There are so many amazing resources and the teaching environmental science book through inquiry (from what I read) seems to be an excellent tool for furthering my education along with my students. 

http://mckenney.wikispaces.com/, http://mckenney.wikispaces.com/Goals, http://mckenney.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Community

2) The learning goals are for the students to look further into their understanding of xylem and phloem and how exactly water transport works within a plant system.  The water experiment is basically allowing for a visualization of the water transport while the entire goal is to get the students to think outside of the box and understand why the colored water dyed the plant stem that color. 

3) I think this project will really get the students thinking about water transport within a plant, the importance of the process, and how exactly it happens.  I think that after seeing the step turn the color of the water students’ curiosity will want to be satisfied and will yearn to understanding why this happened.  This is creating a need to know and a want to know which are important when teaching.

4)  I asked the students to create their own webpage and attach them to my website so that other students along with myself can access the results. This will help me, as the teacher, to see if the students understood exactly what they were looking for, and if not I can allow time for change or reflection.  Also, through sharing their results online I can tell students to look at someone’s page who is on the money in order to help other students get on track. 

5)  Oh boy, I learned I really have no idea what I am doing with many things on a computer.  I could not figure out how to get any of the site given as examples to work for me, which was extremely frustrating.  I was also extremely angered by the fact that I could not get the pages to link together.  This is an excellent teaching tool, and not extremely complicated which is why within my assignment I asked the students to make their own results page within the book of my pages. 

When I was teaching during my freshman year summer, I had a lot of trouble being on time during each activity.  I was always running over time with the class, and I was late numerous occasions of bringing the students to their patiently (not always) waiting parents.  My cell phone was the technology which helped me to really stay on track.  The new cell phone which I had just bought had three alarms instead of one like my old cell phone.  I was able to set a vibrating alarm with my phone on my waist in order to remind of different times, and from then on I was not late bringing my students back to their parents.

Community:

During high school in my A.P. Environmental Science we learned many different ideas about the environment and what encompasses these different ideas.  During this class we learned many different things, and in order to learn more, we video conferenced with other schools.  We video conferenced with different areas, about what they had learned, how they learned it, etc.  This was an awesome experience and it help us as a class come up with questions we had for the other classes.  We learned so much, and gained somewhat of a friendship with the class we worked with.  During high school the club I was a member of called Students for Envrionmental Action (SEA) video conferenced with other schools within our area (as their class period) to educate them on our watershed, and how they can help keep it clean.  The young students we worked with through video conference learned so much, and all wrote us letters of thanks for teaching them about the water shed.  

Innovation:     

I have never been an organized student, and this has been one of my biggest down falls throughout my life.  Once at college however, things changed.  The class websites such as sakia.rutgers.edu or rutgersonline.net have helped me in so many different ways.  These websites have helped me remember different due dates, helped me organize when and where things are (assignments, activites, etc), and keep me up to date on the activities and notes during class.  The addition of these websites into my school career have created an amazing improvement in my organizational skills, handing assignments in on time, and my overall school performance. 

Good Technology:

These technologies that I have listed are good technologies because they have benefited me in one way shape or form, while also benefiting the students.  Though for most of the technologies I mentioned I was the student, I can see how the different things I have mentioned could also help the teacher.  The class website seems to be at large a benefit for the teacher along with the student because the teacher does not have to give constant reminders of when things are due, and if they have something to tell the whole class they can send a large email rather then send each student an email.  Technologies that benefit someone in one way shape or another are good technologies, as long as this technology does not decrease other factors aka there are no negatives to these technologies. 

Poorly:

PowerPoint was a tool created which was supposed to help benefit students especially with teachers that have bad hand writing.  I feel that this excellent tool if used correctly can benefit students; however, it is a tool that is being used extremely wrong.  Teachers are placing their notes onto the PowerPoint, and then proceed to read directly from the slides for the entire class period.  This is not a good way to keep students attention or increase their learning.  PowerPoint needs to be combined with other teaching methods in order to be an effect way of educating students on a certain topic.