Instructify

BY KEVIN HODGSON

I often wonder about the potential for learning via social media, apps, and mobile devices. Take foursquare, for instance — it is an app that uses geo-tags, place locations, and community connections. Foursquare contains some intriguing possibilities for classroom use, particularly in virtual high schools and colleges.

If you’re not familar with foursquare, users earn badges and prestige by visiting real-world places. The foursquare app then shares information about their location with others in their network. The concept of earning points may turn some educators off from foursquare, since there are going to be winners and losers. But foursquare has more nuanced approaches, too, that can engage a wide range of students.

A resource website put out by a blog that tracks online education (Accredited Online Colleges) is a great place to mull over the possibilities of foursquare in learning. Here, they point out more than 30 ways that foursquare could be used for learning, from field trips to organized meetings to site-based research.

A few examples that I found interesting:

• Bring students from different classes together: Encourage students from different class periods to follow each other for more camaraderie, to enhance discussion, and create a bigger network.
• Track field trips with Google Earth: Google Earth now integrates with foursquare, so you can help your students remember where they’ve been on field trips.
• Create a place-based tour: Tag or check in to different venues you’ve mapped out ahead of time to take your students on a place-based tour. A University of Dallas professor and his students are working on an app to tie in audio, pictures, and video, too.
• Teach the history of your school: A library program at North Carolina State University uses foursquare to show students archived shots of the first freshman class, old school buildings, and other historical images based on the smartphone user’s location.
• Arrange spontaneous study groups: Check in at a location on campus and invite students to join you for a spontaneous review session or study group.

Ways to Use Foursquare in Education

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This article also appears on LEARN NC.

BY CINDY PHTHISIC

A class of second-graders sits and waves to themselves on screen as the teacher tests the web camera. The students know they’re about to make a video call using Skype. This is the first time they have ever heard about Skype, so they are not sure exactly what’s going to happen. For now, they are fascinated with just seeing themselves on screen.

While waiting for word on the other end, the teacher pulls up a Google Map to show the caller will be speaking to them from many miles away in Louisiana. A message flashes at the bottom of the screen indicating the caller is ready. Students go quiet as they hear their teacher place the call.

When a familiar face appears on screen, the students whisper, “I know him.” “He was at our school.” The caller is author Mike Artell, who had visited their school just a week earlier. The rambunctious group becomes still and silent. The students sit completely captivated.

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BY BILL FERRIS

Last year it was gas prices. This year, that darned economy is the culprit for killing school field trips. Even during hard times, your class doesn’t have to be confined to quarters. Target is again offering field trip grants worth up to $800 to 5,000 teachers this year.

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BY NICK YINGLING

Historical intrigue! Puzzle-solving skills! GPS units? No, its not the latest in the National Treasure franchise. (Nic Cage lovers can only wish!) Instead, it’s a fun new game called “Spy in the City” from the International Spy Museum, in Washington, DC. This AP piece helps debrief new agents on this new interactive mission assignment.

Part geocaching game and part tour through historical landmarks, this is a new strategy we may see more museums adopting as they trend more towards interactivity. Kids are more inclined towards hands-on learning than the velvet rope, “Please don’t touch the display case” atmosphere of the traditional museum. Since the spy trade conjures up images of cool gadgets, the interactive approach seems really ideal.

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BY BILL FERRIS

Summertime means fishing, camping trips, taking Junior to the zoo, and hitting the beach. All of those activities put you into contact with the wonders (or if you’re unlucky, the terrors) of the animal kingdom. July’s random roundup brings you the best Instructify posts that feature critters other than humans.

Tune in to The Great Turtle Race
The Great Turtle Race raises public awareness of leatherback turtle migration, plus threats to the creature’s survival, through the magic of sports. The site has lots of nifty race stats, such as how many hour-long dives each turtle makes. You can cheer on your favorite turtle, and elect to receive daily updates on how it’s doing in the field.

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BY REBECCAH HAINES

Kids these days, you know?  They don’t care about the state of the world.  They don’t care about endangered species.  They don’t care about the environment.  If you’re a teacher, you’ve probably heard statements such as these (and maybe even thought them a few times yourself in moments of frustraction).  It is up to us as educators to broaden our students’ horizons and give them a reason to care.  Field Trip Earth is one place you can go to expose them to some world views, and hopefully inspire them to conserve.

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If the closest your students have been to the White House is Google Maps, consider taking a virtual field trip via The White House Museum. You can look at floor plans, read detailed descriptions of the various floors and rooms, discover what goes on in each section of the White House, and learn about the history of the executive mansion. The tour covers everything from 3D models of the Oval Office to the storied history of the White House bowling alley.

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Your students may or may not know the importance of estuaries. They may not even know what they are. You can solve both of those knowledge deficiencies by taking them on an online field trip to Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in coastal Alabama. EstuaryLive presents two live broadcasts from Weeks Bay on May 15 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Eastern time.

Your students can learn about estuary wildlife, ecosystems, as well as the threats each of those components face. Since it’s live, you and your class can interact with the field trip leaders (check the technical requirements to make sure you can view this virtual field trip without any net-based hangups). If you can’t make the May 15 broadcasts, you can view archived field trips as well.

EstuaryLive is a great opportunity to learn a lot about environmental science without having to trudge through the mud. -BILL FERRIS

EstuaryLive

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One of the great things about the internet era is the ability to flatten the planet a little bit, and make the world a more accessible place. Back in my day, you learned about distant things by reading dusty encyclopedias, or maybe your teacher had a cousin that lived in a far-off place, and they would send you a postcard. Meet Me at the Corner is the modern-day take on the postcard-from-afar memories of my own elementary education.

Meet Me at the Corner is a site that aims to bring virtual field trips (and a few other things) to the classroom. The episodes are independently created, and most are hosted by children. They are linked with learning activities, and other resources that extend beyond the site. Too often, a company or organization will produce a virtual field trip that is nothing more than a marketing tool to encourage you to visit the physical location, and while in-person experiences are great, a lot of people out there can’t make the physical trip due to geographic or economic limitations. Meet Me at the Corner’s field trips are of high quality, but don’t have that over-produced feel. A great example is this episode with childrens’ auther Robert Sabuda — he is interviewed (by a kid!) on how he came to write and design pop-up books, and then he shows her how to make a pop-up greeting card. That’s pretty cool.

Kids can even submit their own videos to the site (what a great class project!) by creating an account. There are also pages for contests for kids, as well as tips for activities, although the Tips page seems very focused on New York City right now, and doesn’t have many listed. Once you create an account (it’s free, but it assumes you’re a kid and will request a parent’s email address to obtain permission) you can start submitting your own creations. -GRETCHEN SCHAEFER

Meet Me at the Corner

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Travel the World with Project Explorer

As budgets for field trips (and supplies and paper!?!) get brutally slashed in schools around the country, teachers are looking for alternatives. Okay, no, there never was any money for a field trip to Jordan, but Project Explorer gives the kind of information and experiences that replace — and even exceed in some ways — what you and your students might have found at that history museum that you suddenly can’t afford to go to.

Project Explorer, which was previously reviewed on Instructify, provides free, virtual field trips to global destinations for students at the upper-elementary-, middle- and high-school levels. They have recently added Jordan as a destination, which is filled with Project Explorer’s robust written, photographic, and video content about the nation’s history and customs. As with other destinations on Project Explorer, students are taken through Jordan by “tour guides.” Unfortunately, the tour guides are not a racially diverse bunch, which has two negative effects. First, it contributes to an overall sense of the outsider looking in on a culture that has little chance to represent itself with an insider’s voice. Second, it may be more difficult for students of color (now representing 44% of public school students in the U.S.) to identify with the guides and conceive of the notion that they too can become global explorers.

That said, Project Explorer provides a great way for students to explore Jordan, from key historical sites to cuisine to Middle Eastern music to more nuanced socio-political issues such as the experience of Palestinian refugees or Western stereotypes about Middle Eastern dress and terrorism. The video content is by far the most engaging part and there is plenty of it for your students to get access to the sights and sounds of Jordan. Accompanying lesson plans provide basic ideas that you can use as seeds for more robust lessons that link to key content for your students.

The new content about Jordan is a welcome addition to Project Explorer and we can look forward to planned trips to Singapore, Central America, Southeast Asia, and Greece and Italy, as well as content catering to the early-elementary level. More than an encyclopedia or a typical museum, Project Explorer gives kids the chance to explore the world…no buses or plane tickets required! -ABBY MARTIN

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When a five-year-old student gently lets you know that you have, yet again, failed to make your drawing of a cat look three-dimensional, you might just feel a bit inadequate. I do. Daily. I have a kindergarten student who is an astonishingly gifted artist — not only does she make drawings that put mine to shame, but she often points out details of perspective, framing, and color in book illustrations that I never noticed before. As her teacher I want to feed her talent, and yet there is a very good reason that I am a teacher and not an artist. Instead of flailing about on my own, I am finding ways to connect my artistic student to people who can teach her much more than I ever could about art, careers in art, and the artistic process.

MAGPI offers a free resource of the kind that can help bridge the gap between your students’ interests and your own ignorance! MAGPI programs use videoconferencing to connect students to experts and enriching experiences in a range of fields. K-12 programs include video conferences with children’s book authors and illustrators, ER doctors, musicians, break dancers, photojournalists, Holocaust survivors and other people with unique experiences and expertise. Some video conferences are focused on discussion, while others engage children in activities and long-term projects. All provide teachers with guidelines for preparing children to effectively engage in the video conference, which may include a sequence of lessons before and after the conference. I might add that in a time when school budgets are getting slashed, you might consider these as a way to have a “field trip” without spending a dime.

If you happen to teach within one of the MAGPI K20 communities in Pennsylvania, Delaware, or New Jersey, then you have access to ALL of the videoconferencing programs. The rest of us must click on the registration link for each program and hope there is a side bar indicating, “this program is open to national participation.” Everything is first-come, first-served, so consider joining the mailing list to find out about upcoming programs. To access the video conferences, your school must be connected to Internet 2 and have H.323 Videoconferencing Capabilities (so go ask your technology specialist about that if you aren’t sure). For those who get excited about what MAGPI has to offer, there is currently a national call for entries for 15 teachers to become MAGPI Fellows and participate more deeply in their programming. -ABBY MARTIN

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It seems that nothing in the education field is safe from the permeating presence of The Test. We spend hours analyzing data from The Test; We teach lessons to prepare for The Test; We review for The Test; We get funding as a result of The Test; We are praised or put down in the media because of The Test. Science, Social Studies, Art, Music, and PE are ousted from schools in the name of The Test. The latest victims of The Test are museums. In this recent NPR report, a new trend amongst museums is exposed — namely that of tailoring exhibits and school field trips to, you guessed, it, The Test. While making museums more relevant and engaging for today’s youth is a positive thing, forcing museums to bow to The Test is like forcing kids to make sure their imaginative play aligns to the standard course of study. Museums, like free time play, should allow students to gain experiences they can’t attain in the classroom.

I believe that at their hearts, field trips are most valuable for all of the other learning opportunities and experiences they provide aside from their relevance to state standards and curricula. For some kids, a school field trip is the only time they will ever get to go to a museum, an aquarium, or a play. Field trips expose students to a world beyond the classroom, a world where regular people are learning, and where they can focus on their own interests. Field trips inspire students to “wonder and discover,” and isn’t that really why we all became teachers? I know that I didn’t become a teacher in order to have the most “Level 4s” on the End of Grade Test. Especially as a Science teacher, I came to this profession because I wanted to inspire students to develop a curiosity about the natural world. What could be better than a museum exhibit or aquarium to inspire a child to learn more? Imagine the questions students will have and the explorations they could be inspired to undertake after seeing Willo, the dinosaur with a heart, at the NC Museum of Natural History. Or perhaps a visit to the Living Shipwreck exhibit at the Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium will spark an interest in your students.

But while field trips shouldn’t be viewed as test-preparation endeavors, they certainly can improve student test results. Teachers know that activating prior knowledge is an effective reading comprehension strategy. Field trips enhance and reinforce the topics to which students are exposed in the classroom. They widen students’ experiences and provide them with a background of knowledge that they can draw on later. In a testing situation, imagine students having to read a passage about dinosaurs. Which student do you think will do better on the questions about the dinosaur passage, a student who saw the Willo exhibit at the museum, or one who spent the same amount of time doing EOG testlets in the classroom? Whether or not museums actively “teach to the test” with embedded math problems as the NPR article seems to suggest, they will always be helping students prepare for testing.

Museums are one of the last educational bastions of resistance against The Test, and it would be a shame for their exhibits to be forced into the confines of standardized testing. By all means, museums should adapt to the changing characteristics of today’s patrons by incorporating new technologies and inquiry based learning. However, museums should allow themselves to be museums, not test preparation centers. Teachers, administrators, and school districts should continue to value museums and field trips for all of the things they do for students besides prepare them for standardized testing. Museums should help keep students and adults alike wondering and discovering. These photos show it better than I can say how museums can keep students, past and present, inquiring, engaged, and enjoying learning, and that’s the way it should be. -REBECCAH HAINES

Museum Field Trips Tailored To Teach To The Test

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On a blustery, icy winter day, we might all feel a bit like curling up, going to sleep, and not coming out again until the warmer days of spring.  Students and teachers don’t have that option, however appealing it may be, but a lot of North Carolina animals do spend the winter tucked away in hibernation and their stories can provide fascinating opportunities for our students to learn about animals, ecosystems in winter, and even medical research. The Animal Department blog at the NC Museum of Life and Science provides an excellent overview of hibernation and related states, detailing the winter survival strategies of several native North Carolina animals on the museum grounds.  The blog also follows the hibernation of Wendy the resident woodchuck in detail.

Perhaps the animal most famous for hibernation is the bear. The North Carolina Museum of Life and Science is also home to four black bears and the museum’s informative page about the lives of North Carolina’s wild black bears explains that while black bears enter a deep winter sleep during which their heartbeat slows and their body temperature drops, they can be easily awakened, which leads some scientists to question whether their cold weather slumber can truly be called hibernation.  For a deeper look at this question,  What’s in a Name? Hibernation Means Different Things to Different Animals by Mark D. Jones on the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission website provides more detail.  He explains that even though bears wake up much more readily than many other animals that hibernate, the deeper sleeping animals like rodents must leave their dens from time to time to eat and to eliminate waste products while bears can go for months without doing so.  Jones notes that researchers are trying to understand how bears process waste and avoid bone and muscle loss during such long periods of sleep, and their work may provide insights into human medical conditions such as kidney disease and the deterioration of muscular and skeletal systems.

Our native snakes spend the winter underground to avoid freezing temperatures and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh has a profile on hibernating snakes in their Nature Notebook, a regularly updated feature that profiles animals, plants, and other parts of North Carolina’s natural world.

Insects, too, change their routines to survive cold winter weather.  Teachers who are interested in helping their students learn more about butterfly hibernation can explore the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science’s distance learning page for details on their one hour Migrate, Hibernate, Pupate program, an interactive virtual field trip that features two-way audio and video with a museum educator and can be adapted for grades 1 through 12.

Learning about how animals sleep through our wintry weather may not make us feel any warmer, but it is sure to awaken our curiosity about the natural world around us. -KATHRYN WALBERT

Big Word of the Month: Hibernation

What’s in a Name? Hibernation Means Different Things to Different Animals by Mark D. Jones

Profile on hibernating snakes via the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

North Carolina Museum of Natural Science’s distance learning page

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Have rising gas costs put a stop to field trips at your school? More and more schools are cutting back on field trips to save money. Pity, since you can find so many whiz-bang learning opportunities outside the classroom. If your great field trip ideas are at risk, consider applying for a Target field trip grant. The retail giant will gole out 5,000 grants of up to $800 each this school year.

You can apply online anytime before November 1. You only get one submission, though, so make it count.  “Visit the zoo. Go backstage at a local theater. Tour a museum,” suggests the website. Of course, if you really want to win one of these, you could propose a trip to your local Target retailer. Or a nearby national park, that would probably work, too. -BILL FERRIS

Target Field Trip Grants

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Kids enjoy science most when it’s a hands-on experience. Words like “experiments” and “laboratory” (preferably pronounced la-BORE-ah-tory) mean getting out of your seat and doing something, whether that entails imploding steel drums or launching water rockets.

TryScience knows the value of the hands-on approach. That’s why they boast fun experiments and games, as well as a guide to field-trip-worthy science centers around the world. For a fun class activity, have everyone create boats from aluminum foil and see how seaworthy they. Need to find a scientastic outing for your next field trip? Search by country and state to find a trip near you. If you can’t find anything nearby, TryScience has live webcams of exhibits at science centers all over the world, so you can take a look at human-sized soap bubbles in Japan, a Tyrannosaurus skeleton in Maryland, or the Butterfly Cam at the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science.

If you’re looking for a way to get your students interested in science, TryScience is a terrific place to start. Science is best experienced through action and investigation, and TryScience has both of these in bunches. Send your students there and start experementing. -BILL FERRIS

TryScience

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