Office of Instructional Technology

Multi-disciplinary Inquiry-based Projects for the 21st Century Collaborative Classroom

iSite: Second Grade Global Communication and Collaboration Science Research and Publishing Project

Project Links

Overview Pacing MiniLessons and Activities Resources and Materials Differentiated Learning 21st Century Technology Learning Standards Student Work Samples Assessment Next Steps: Going Global Professional Development and Support

Pacing

Phase 1

• Teachers will make a KWL chart to find out what students know and want to know about Honeybees.
• Students will learn how to use reference and trade books to answer questions and learn about their topic.
• Teachers can ask the school librarian to compile a set of books for their 2nd grade class to use for this purpose.
• Students will learn how pictures can provide additional information to the text.
• Students will be divided into cooperative groups. Each group will research one aspect of honeybees: drones, worker bees, queen bees, hives, making honey, etc.
• Each group will give a speech about what they learned about honeybees. The teacher will transcribe their speech on chart paper. The student/teacher/parent volunteer will type the text onto the computer.
• Each group will learn to find appropriate pictures for their text on the Internet and how to download them to their computer. They will insert them into their multimedia presentation document. Hand drawn items will be scanned into the computer by the student/teacher to insert into text.
  4. The texts from each group will be combined into a single book and published using the Lintor Publishing System.

Phase 2

Students will use the same process to research an animal of their choice.

• Each student will choose an animal to study. (In some cases students can work in pairs or groups of three).
• Students will give a speech about their animal. The teacher will transcribe and then type their speech.
• Students will find and place appropriate pictures from the Internet (or hand drawn and scanned) into their text.
• Students will publish their individual books using the Lintor Publishing System.
• Each student will get a copy of the honeybee book and copy of their individual book. The classroom library will also get a copy of the honeybee book and a copy of each student's individual book.

Phase 3

Creating and sharing eBooks.

• Students will learn how to record their voice and add a read aloud feature to their books.
• The teacher will take the digital version of the honeybee and animal books and learn how to reduce file sizes to make them web ready through the use of an assortment of software.
• eBooks will be posted online and shared with other students, parents, teachers, and relatives from around the world. To promote global communication skills, students will participate in online read alouds and book discussions with students from a different schools, via skype.com.