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Lesson and Curriculum
 Lesson
at a Glance:
Curriculum: WISE
Grade: Sixth
Topic: Plate Tectonics
For the lesson in the video, Ariel and Jeff had their students continue
working on a two-week tectonic plate unit from the web-based,
inquiry science environment WISE. The lesson began with the children at
their
computers answering broad questions about what they know about
topics related to plate tectonics, such as mountains, volcanoes, and earthquakes.
After recording their thoughts and completing additional explorations
into plate tectonics, the students used the computers to create
models
of plate interactions and also to record explanations of their
models.
Ariel explained that at that point in the lesson her job was to
have her students justify their models and explain their decisions
to her. When the models were complete, the students in Ariel’s and
Jeff’s classes exchanged their work and, as a class, critiqued the
other class’s models and explanations. “When students are
looking at peer models and evaluating them,” explained Ariel, “what
they’re thinking is, ‘Is mine as good as theirs, or is theirs
better?’ So they’re not just doing an evaluation. They’re
also doing self-assessment.” The next step in the lesson was for
the children to revise their models before they learned more
about plate interactions.
Both Ariel and Jeff feel strongly about
the efficacy of a computer-based inquiry environment for science
education. “The
difference between computer learning and a book is the interactive part,” explains
Jeff. “It is really neat to be able to show them how to take the
Earth and twist it so that you can see everything that’s going on
inside that relates to events that are occurring on the surface… It’s
a very visual way of presenting what happens on the planet, and
why things occur and I wouldn ’t
trade it for anything.”
"What’s On Your Plate?”, the activity depicted in the
video, was developed by Concord Consortium as part of the “Making
Thinking Visible” project, funded by the National Science Foundation
under grant No. REC-9980600, Dr. Janice Gobert, Principal Investigator.
WISE
(“Web Integrated Science Environment”) is funded by
the National Science Foundation (REC- 0128062), Dr. Marcia Linn,
Principal Investigator, UC-Berkeley. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions
expressed
are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views
of the National Science Foundation.
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