Students in Mrs. Rounsaville-Houchens’ science class conducted research on a disease, condition, or disability. Milana Klopouh, a seventh grader at Ridgely Middle School, shares information about the process. “We are able to choose from a list of diseases, or Mrs. Houchens says she will approve something not on the list, if we have other ideas. Our group is researching Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, ALS. We are curious about it because of the several Ice Bucket Challenges online, but we really don’t know too much about it besides what we see in the videos that have gone viral.”
The actual process included receiving instruction from the library media specialist around research and citations. Then, it is up to the students to gather information. Milana explained that students are expected to save notes on all the criteria, rather than dividing it up. “Mrs. Houchens said that all of us should research all of the criteria because we are reading different articles. She didn’t want us to miss anything. Microsoft 365 allows us to share our notes with each other, and it also allows multiple group members to edit our PowerPoint at the same time. It’s definitely better than facetiming on our phones.”
Mrs. Rounsaville-Houchens and her colleagues at Ridgely are making students 21st century-ready. Learning with critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity is making a difference for our students.