Whale of a Ride

Created By 
Raquel Gonzalez, Leslie S. Gwin,

&Sylvia Oliveira

 

Invitation | Situation | Interactions | Tasks | Standards | Assessment | Tools

Invitation: How can we challenge students to use technology to demonstrate  their understanding of the life, habitat, and needs of undersea creatures?

Situation: The lesson will take place in the classroom and in the library.  A slideshow presentation storybook must be completed to finish the product.  Internet is accessible in the classroom.  Each group will need to have a disk to save the slideshow presentation.  It will take 3-4 weeks to complete.

Interactions: Grade Level:    (4-5)
The teacher guides students through an introduction to the unit.  He/she serves as a facilitator and guide through the use of a slideshow presentation software.  The teacher informs students of the rubric used to evaluate student projects.  The teacher also guides students through the use of appropriate websites for research purposes.

Tasks:    The student will:

• visit various websites and select an ocean animal to research
• answer the following questions: What does it look like?  What are the animals main body parts?  How does it eat?   How does it obtain its food?  What ocean does it live in?  What part of the ocean is its home?  Does it migrate?  When?  Where?  Who are its enemies?
• create a group summary
• participate in creative work, draw pictures, comparing and contrasting appearance
• process and transform the information they have gathered
• create a four slide presentation
• illustrate a brochure

Standards: This project responds to local curriculum guidelines and to State Standards.
   4.2(a), (c), (d), (e)     4.3(d)                     4.4(a)
   4.8(a), (b)                5.2(a), (c), (d)          5.3(d)
   5.4(a)                      5.9(a), (b), (c)

Assessment:    Each group will work collaboratively to produce a slideshow presentation about a selected animal of the ocean.  The presentation will be evaluated by the following rubric.

Tools: CD ROMs:    Grolier's Encyclopedia, The San Diego Zoo Presents the Animals! 2.0, The Children's Encyclopedia, The World Book Encyclopedia
                Topic Hotlist

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The Activities: