BASIC

PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS: SPREADSHEETS, WORD TEMPLATE, NARRATED POWERPOINT

Name: Emily Webb

Grade Level: 2nd
Content Area: Science
Basic Productivity Tool Used: Narrated PowerPoint saved as an .MWV
Standards Addressed: Georgia Performance Standards

S2E3. Students will observe and record changes in their surroundings and infer the causes of
the changes.
a. Recognize effects that occur in a specific area caused by weather, plants, animals, and/or
people.

Blooms Level of Critical Thinking:

Remembering Understanding Applying Analyzing Evaluating Creating
Description of how to implement in the class:

Students will be observing the changes of an outdoor school environment throughout the
changing of seasons. The teacher will introduce the topic by facilitating a class discussion on outdoor
environments and the different habitats they already know of from previous experience. Together as
a class, students will record the different factors affecting environments on the interactive board,
such as weather, foliage, animals, plants, people, construction, etc. Then, the teacher will break up the
class into small groups of four or five students and provide each group with clipboards. Students will
be equipped with either digital cameras or iPads (one for each group).
The class will then go outside of the school building to discover a local outdoor environment
where they can observe the environment attributes they just discussed. Each group will choose a
different area outside that they want to observe, and they will record notes on that area using their
clipboards on the environments animal and plant life, relationship to human activity, weather
connections, and any other salient information. Students will then take several pictures of their
environment using the digital cameras or iPads.
Students will repeat this process threefour times over the course of three months to observe
seasonal changes in their environments, taking detailed notes and pictures each time. When the
students have completed their observations, each group will present their research in a PowerPoint.
They will demonstrate the changes in their environments over the observed months, providing notes
and pictures for each observation in the presentation. Students will write about how the plant and
animal life changed, how people affected their environment, and any changes created by weather.
They will then add narrations, transitions, and other polishing touches to their presentations and
save them as .MWV files to be presented to the class as movies. When their movies are complete, the
students will upload them to the class blog to be shared with parents and the broader community.
For an extension activity, students could also observe the environmental damage or needs in
their specific environment that could use help or improvement, such as littering or an unprotected
animal habitat. In their PowerPoint presentation, students would discuss these issues and propose
ways that they and other members of the school community could help to remedy these problems or
implement new ways to protect their environment. This project could also be extended to last all
semester or all year to better observe seasonal changes. Students could also choose to research the
environments or habitats of other areas around the world and create presentations on those areas
using the same methods as this project.

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 BASIC PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS: SPREADSHEETS, WORD TEMPLATE, NARRATED POWERPOINT

Level of Technology Implementation (LoTi): LoTi Level 4 best describes this project because
students are the primary users of all technology throughout the activities, and they have choice
regarding their specific environment, how they will record data, and how they will present their
research.
Description of the sample spreadsheet and graph/chart provided *: Students will design and
produce unique narrated PowerPoint presentations, published as movies, to share with their class
and beyond on the class blog. These presentations will vary in style and depth; however, students are
expected to have written descriptions of their research as well as pictures documenting the
developments of their environments over a period of time. The students are expected to produce
polished PowerPoints, incorporating appropriate style choices and transitions. They will utilize the
narration function to add voice recording to the presentation, and the final product will be a movie.
Other comments about your proposed spreadsheet/graph/chart activity: Throughout this
activity, students are actively engaged in authentic learning experiences that utilize basic
productivity tools and other important technology. Students begin this project by recording their
thoughts on the interactive board. They utilize digital cameras and/or iPads to capture images of
their environments, and then students compile their final projects into narrated PowerPoint
presentations. These presentations will be turned into movies, and students will utilize computers or
iPads to upload their projects to the school blog to be shared with their families, their school, and
beyond.