Collaboration+Across+the+Nation

Presenter: Carol Roth - Central York Time: 10:30 - 11:15 Room: 275 Contact: croth@cysd.k12.pa.us

__Description of Presentation__

Don't you want your students to be curious about what is going on in the world outside of Central Pennsylvania? We will look at how you can create a project that could help your classroom to connect with other classrooms throughout the United States. I will be showing an example of what we are doing in my Earth Science classes as we study natural resources. Students share what they learn about the natural resources of Pennsylvania on our state page of the wiki we created.

Website I use to inquire about student interests to create groups for our big collaboration project. (password for survey "cypanthers") [|Quia site for Interest Survey]

Our class wiki set up for collaboration with states all over the country. A work in progress... Wiki for Natural Resources Collaboration

Carol teaches Earth Science.

Chemistry & Physics - make connections, students to think beyond the "four walls,", the more data you collect, the better results Biology - think of native things to the area, trees, insects, animals, etc. Environmental Science - stream studies the most common, comparing their results Earth Science - "Our Local Resources Project" - all students complete Essential Questions:
 * 1. Question: What do you teach that could be connected with others across the country?**
 * How are Earth’s resources used &/or conserved in our community?
 * How will you make a contribution to positively influence this resource?


 * Steps:**
 * Choose a local resource (pw cypanthers, quia site - surveyed students for interest in different natural resources)
 * Research the Resource and local connection
 * Make a plan for action
 * Ideas: incinerator, power plants, organizations to help protect, parks, power: geothermal, solar, wind, hydroelectric

Wrote paper at the end, How this project affected them and how their part of the presentation went Rate the participation of the group
 * Making a difference**: volunteer for a conversation org., create a web site for an org., make a documentary, plan end enact a change in how something is done, newsletters,

Her project represents PA and wants to know other states
 * 2. Question:** **How could you make connections?**
 * NSTA Listservs
 * science conferences
 * Who do you know?

Idea: Students making invitations to pass out to conference folks to join their project


 * 3. Question: How could you share?**

Google Form/Spreadsheet Blog/podcasts Discussions Videoconferences/Skype Wiki (Natural Resources Collaboration Wiki - each state has their own page)
 * Students posted their projects to the wiki, then college in Wisconsin in the process and will post toward the end of their semester
 * Creates a dialogue for what is different in the different states
 * Slideshows, music videos, newsletters, (wide range of students, learning support to Honors)
 * The kids post the info. to the wiki. She assigns a wikimaster for each class.

Reminder about copyright, use of creative commons for images, etc.


 * 4. Comment: Remember to Celebrate**!
 * Newsletter
 * Web site
 * Open House (during or after - this is what they did)
 * Invited parents via mail, email
 * Other teachers in her school did the local region, while she did PA. Over 50 parents attended just in Carol's class...similar numbers for others.


 * 5. Comment: Closing suggestions:**
 * Hang in there! Folks will be excited and then not follow through, but then others not in the original contacts, request to join
 * Build slowly
 * Create a network of educators who share the same vision as you do


 * 6. Question: What ideas do you have?**
 * Warwick uses skype quite often
 * CV connection with Daniel Pink
 * Remember you can do collaborations with those close by - own district, those you meet here, etc. (One class makes games and teaches third grade students, third graders gave feedback to the high school students)
 * Question by participant about videoconferencing - they have multiple systems, the first time they tried ichat, they would get feedback that way, so they went with videoconferencing
 * Question by participant - How much guidance given to the students? A: very open, but she did have rubrics and such, powerpoints were not allowed, unless they were non-linear, they built their own projects, they actually incorporated more than what she had expected,
 * Some kids did Google Earth tours, one of the topics was hydroelectric power plants along the Susquehanna River, took pics, and then created a Google Earth tour
 * Another group went to Gladfelter paper in Spring Grove, interviewed the president, toured the facility, students provided a DVD to Gladfelter.
 * Shared a student-created newsletter created in Pages (Mac).
 * Other projects prior to the large project to ease the kids into the various applications/hardware
 * Percentage of project completed in class/out of class?- Honors 50/50, General 75/25 (block schedule), work on other items in between
 * Question about set curriculum, how does this fit into time frame? They picked something that was really big in their curriculum, the students focus on one area, and then get the other areas through others' projects, she had to shift things a little bit, felt this was worth it though
 * How do you approach dept. chair/admin. to be supportive - her district encourages collaborations, technology, and taking risks