Sept. 25

It was quite interesting to view some of the other science activities that were done. One of the other groups I read about actually did the same topic as our group, but did it slightly different, and I thought it was a great idea. We used the digital microscope to view different nonliving and living organsims such as dirt and grass, but they used only leaves and examined dead and live leaves under the microscope. I thought it was interesting how we had taken the same materials and the same standard, yet created completely different lessons!

Science Activity

Welcome to Tech Savvy Teacher! Today we are going to learn about using a digital microscope to get up-close and personal to observe living and non-living characteristics in various things we found right outside! The standard we chose was third grade science, standard two, objective one, letters a and b, which is identifying the characteristics of living and non-living things.
The first thing to do with the students is to introduce them to the characteristics of living and non-living things, and help them become familiar with these characteristics. Characteristics of living things might include: breathing, ability to reproduce, movement, growth, etc. Non-living characteristics might include things such as: stationary, non-breathing, not able to reproduce, etc. To introduce this topic, you might first begin a discussion and have a worksheet with a column for living things next to a column for non-living things where they could write down some of the characteristics of living and non-living in these columns. Underneath these columns, you could have a column for examples of things that are living and some of their characteristics. The students could fill this column out while you project magnified living organisms, such as grass. With the grass projected, you could talk about some of its characteristics, such as its roots and talk about how this is how it gets its nutrients. After this, you could send the children out on their own to find non-living things, which they could bring in the class. You could go around the class and discuss a few of the items, while projecting them and talking about their characteristics.
Using the digital microscope, the teacher is better able to project the small item she is talking about, and the students have an opportunity to develop their skills in observation.

9-20

In class this week we discovered a lot of different kinds of technology you can use in your classroom, such as a program on astrology. This was my favorite one.

9-11

Today I learned about the Good books website.  That was a lot of fun.  I sent an e-mail out to a few friends and family members when I signed up, and I found out that my sister-in-law is already signed up for it, and she'd like to do something like this with the whole family!  I'm excited.

Hello

Hi,

My name is Heidi.  I'm taking a technology class, so I created this blog for the class.