Taking Flight OETC15

Taking Flight

Sometimes a unit takes flight and it's crazy the places  you can go with it. This was the case with my Amelia Earhart unit. It wasn't initially designed as a science unit, but soon became the Presentation at OETC15 this year to show others how to integrate Technology into the 5 E Learning Model. The 5 E learning model is based on the  constructivist theory.  The constructivist teacher sets up problems and monitors student exploration, guides student inquiry, and promotes new patterns of thinking. Working mostly with raw data, primary sources, and interactive material, constructivist teaching asks students to work with their own data and learn to direct their own explorations. Ultimately, students begin to think of learning as accumulated, evolving knowledge.

 The key goal focus of this unit is that students could locate evidence and artifacts to support one of the popular theories about Amelia's disappearance and death. It started with a google presentation that can be found here: http://goo.gl/s8dXZy

Students each chose a theory they wanted to find evidence for. Within the presentation texts were differentiated so students had access to multiple levels of text.  The Chrome Extension Read and Write for Google was installed so the documents could be read to the children. Within this extension, students could highlight key details, look up meanings of words, and listen to the text being read. It multiplied the teacher until I could meet with each group.

As part of this unit we also had different leveled nonfiction.  Factual information was also located in small groups to help support the theories each group chose.  I helped them locate details to support their theory, which aligns to our common core standards for third grade. They then used this information, artifacts found in their research and information learned from one of the lead researchers, Ric Gilespie, pictured below. 

We were fortunate enough to Skype with Mr. Gilespie the executive director of TIGHAR. The day we planned on skyping I used Google Earth to virtually take my class to the location Amelia's plane was last heard transmitting from. Here is a You Tube link to see how this looks:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruupKdqYCV0  This was an amazing experience with my class as he shared how they researched the island.  A quick view of this can be found in this Animoto video created by Rebecca Levine our instructional coach at Rice https://animoto.com/play/0mOTKFzt6QNhruON5Ka9og 

One of the highlights of this unit was using Nearpod to teach kids thinking, reasoning, and analyzing skills using the freckle cream jar that was found on Gardner island and believed to be Amelia Earharts. Students were given the following image.

 The glass jar you see was reconstructed from fragments found on Gardner Island.  It was well documented that Amelia used this product because she hated her freckles.  Students used Nearpod to analyze these jars, read information related to this discovery, and discern based on the facts if this jar was Amelia Earharts. The thinking process unfolded as students discussed with partners the informational text related to this jar. As they went through this process they were asked to compare/contrast the properties of the two jars. As we neared the end I asked them to determine if in fact this jar could have belonged to her.  Based on the evidence I had given them thus far, they all were very positive it had. That was until I through in a new twist

Even though the glass fit in the box and appeared to be a replica scientists have yet to find any clear glass freckle cream jars, they have only found milk glass jars.  The students took this new evidence and then were given an opportunity to change their initial conclusion.  

This summer Ric Gilespie and the crew from TIGHAR will return to Gardner Island using Sonar Imagery to attempt to locate her plane. There are so many mysteries stories about this brave pilot, you can't help but fall in love with the mystery behind her disappearance.

I hope this paints a picture of the 5 E learning model in my classroom. It's science, a lot of science, observing, researching, discovery, and analyzing data within the common core reading standards.  Many teachers forget that ELA can be a powerful tool to use nonfiction text, which is often of high interest to many kids.  I hope this integrated approach motivates others to look at their curriculum and foster a love of Science and Reading.

A special thank you to Lou Sangdahl and her husband that stayed for my presentation, I had one of the last time slots at OETC15, and a decent number attended, but it is the support and encouragement of others that I appreciate the most.