Notebooking, Teaching, and Technology

I've recently become addicted to the Cornell Ornithology Lab here at this SITE . The site features live streaming of two web cams set up - one watching a red-tailed hawk nest and one watching over a blue heron nest. Both nests have fairly recently hatched young that can be observed.  I took screen shots of both nests above. You can even ask questions online to volunteers who man the IM board. I showed them to a second grade class I was covering and I had them make inferences about the weather, habitat, and eating habits based on what they could observe (the red tail hawk usually has some dead mouse or bird in the nest which always makes a site much "cooler" in the eyes of the kids). Careful when watching...it is VERY addictive :)

Here is a short video of a project I had to do in an Earth Science class I am taking (I am going for my second master's degree in Elementary Science Education and will hopefully be done next spring). The project required that teachers put together a "Wonder Box" of Earth science items and design a lesson plan around the box. This reminded me of a project I had done with fourth graders during my student teaching in Social Studies. I had students work in groups and they had to design a museum box that held "artifacts" of specific Native American tribes. I put together a short 1 minute 30 second video that highlights how I made my "Wonder Box" (or museum box) and how it can be done in a Social Studies class and how the activity can be incorporated into a notebook assignment. This could also be used in science. Student's can create a biome box and have artifacts of what might be found in that biome and why. Student's can create an animal box ...

This was a cute moon phases booklet that a teacher shared with me. She made it at a training and we were looking for the easiest way it could be done with her 80 fourth grade students (once we work it out I will post!).