While this center does not take the
place of Science lessons and Social Studies lessons
it does give students the necessary opportunity to explore
and research the world and takes the pressure off the
teacher of having to teach these subjects every day.
It can be tailored for elementary students, middle school
students & high school students.
To do this center the teacher must have
access to computers in the classroom (at least 1) and
a computer lab that you have access to once a week.
The teacher must also know how to use Powerpoint. If
you have these requirements, the rest is free and easy...well
it is free.
The idea is for the students to create
an E-book. They will have pictures and facts about the
subject just like a book.
This will cover too many curriculum standards
to list, but they are reading for information, using
technology, writing, typing, presented, working independently
and hitting the content of social studies or science.
An added bonus is after you have taught you students,
you have some time in the computer class to enter grades,
search the net for more teaching ideas, or what ever
because it almost runs itself if taught properly other
than a few questions that pop up.
Science & Social Studies
- The first thing to do is to select a subject to
research. For science it could be an animal, the planets
or any other subject that interest the students. For
social studies it could be a city, state, country,
culture or other interesting subjects.
- Once the subject is selected the teacher must come
up with a list of questions for the students to research.
The ideas for questions can come from books or web
sites. Examples would be: What is the population of
your country? Letting them add on extra or interesting
facts that they like is a good idea.
- Next is the most difficult step, teaching your students
how to use Powerpoint to make their E-books. This
can only be done whole group in a computer lab. You
should do a short research example and use modeling
to teach it.
- Model searching on the web for the questions they
need answered. You may want to assign a particular
web site that can answer most or all the questions
in the beginning. Eventually they need to be comfortable
with using search engines
- Teach them how to search & save pictures into
a folder. This is where their research comes alive.
Seeing pictures of their animal or their country fascinates
them and motivates them to do more.
- Have students write each fact on paper in complete
sentences. You can have them create a simple research
folder that they can decorate.
- Have students check out a book about their country.
They may get some facts from their as well, but the
point is for them to read it during a reading center,
familiarize them self with the country and peak their
interest. This will also make them understand that
research can be done with books as well.
- They need to take steps of the writing process such
as reading their project and rereading several times
to make corrections at the end. They need to have
at least 1 peer read their E-book. They can improve
the look and add bells and whistles at the end.
- Finally, the give their presentation in front of
the class, reading aloud their report showing page
by page of the E-book.
- They can work as partners in the beginning. Each
book can work in centers for a couple months because
they can only do it a few times a week not including
the 1 day a week in the computer lab