Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Using Blogs in the Science Classroom
I have been trying to come up with a way that I could use a blog effectively in my science classes. I frequently have students find articles in newspapers that deal with science. The kids are then required to write a short review of the article and relate it to things that we have or will do in class. Instead of having the kids do their article reviews on paper and follow it with a classroom discussion, the kids could do their review as a posting and then the other students in the class could comment.
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Would you post the article on the blog? Could you use the site from the newspaper as a subscription and have the students read the required article, then post? It may open the minds to other items that they want to explore. Explorations will in turn prompt more questions and possibly some nice little video experiments. I remember watching video experiments in my Inorganic Chemistry college class.
ReplyDeleteI am not very comfortable with blogs yet in fact I had trouble starting the activity. I like these ideas and hope to borrow them sometimes. I also teach science. It would be great if our students can connect with students all over the world who are working on similar topics. Imagine how enriching this could be.
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy reading blogs that compile and comment on many links. Perhaps you could have them peruse several articles (3-5) and instead of a review post a few sentences with their summary or opinion. Students could then vote on the articles they think are the most interesting.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't you also have the kids read other people's blogs about articles relating to science concepts and then respond to those other bloggers with insightful comments and questions? That way, students are not only engaging with the articles relating to the class but also people's comments on those articles? You could use that to teach objective versus subjective writing.
ReplyDeleteYou might even do your own blog on the article and have the students respond to your insights. You could leave out important parts and have the students help you fill in the gaps.
To Teresa:
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of having the article posted or linked to the post. That would have them doing reading of multiple types and it would give them an opportunity to reference specific quotes that have relevance. - Great idea.
Have you seen the site http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/? I teach science and have the students do an article off this page. There are a lot of other activities on this site that are just great for the science classroom and a lot of them utilize technology.
ReplyDeleteAnother suggestion might be to have students search for articles relating to the concepts that your are learning in class and then have them right a blog, reviewing the article with a link for others to follow.
ReplyDeleteCould you possibly create a wiki and gather information about a particular topic and build an information base. It could be revisited by future classes and built on.
ReplyDeleteI am new to blogging but I like the idea of the students searching for the relevance of what they are learning in your classroom. I also like the fact that they don't just find the material they respond to it. Thinking is involved, not just repeating someone else's idea. Our lower grade science teacher is teaching a unit on the rain forest. She links up to another classroom via a Skype and they share information class to class. Kids love it. Perhaps Blogging with another class would be of interest
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