Carly Yeagle, seventh grader at Ridgely Middle School, recently completes an assignment in her science class worth bragging about. The project is the Living Environment Project. Students create presentations that detail the behavioral patterns and internal and external features of an organism, plant or animal. Carly selected the Toucan. “Mrs. Houchens gave our class a choice in how to present our information. I chose to create a pamphlet, but we could have chosen to create a poster or use any other approved format.” (Science teacher Mrs. Rounsaville-Houchens knows the rewards that come with allowing some student choice.) The project gets graded on criteria such as accuracy of information, images, and correctly-cited sources, both print and database sources. Carly explains that this assignment taught her a lot of things, including “to learn how systems, such as digestive, circulatory, respiratory, etc. help the organism carry out life functions.”
Mrs. Rounsaville-Houchens carefully plans this project to scaffold the information needed to fulfill the requirements. Students spend some time in the library to review the use of Destiny in order to search for print materials. Also, the library media specialist, Mrs. Cook, demonstrates the process of citing sources, using a user-friendly digital tool Easy Bib. Mrs. Cook also reviews the databases available to students in the BCPS One portal. Last, she shows students how to locate brochure templates in the most recent Microsoft applications.
“Our laptops add a lot of options for us when we have assignments like this.” Carly said. The device provides accessibility to a number of resources, something some students have never had. Research is conducted, sometimes, from the comfort of their own homes, allowing students to demonstrate knowledge in a variety of ways. Carly says, “I really like using OneDrive, too, because I can work on my assignments at school or at home, and it always saves my work, even if my device dies or I forget to click save.”
Mrs. Rounsaville-Houchens carefully plans this project to scaffold the information needed to fulfill the requirements. Students spend some time in the library to review the use of Destiny in order to search for print materials. Also, the library media specialist, Mrs. Cook, demonstrates the process of citing sources, using a user-friendly digital tool Easy Bib. Mrs. Cook also reviews the databases available to students in the BCPS One portal. Last, she shows students how to locate brochure templates in the most recent Microsoft applications.
“Our laptops add a lot of options for us when we have assignments like this.” Carly said. The device provides accessibility to a number of resources, something some students have never had. Research is conducted, sometimes, from the comfort of their own homes, allowing students to demonstrate knowledge in a variety of ways. Carly says, “I really like using OneDrive, too, because I can work on my assignments at school or at home, and it always saves my work, even if my device dies or I forget to click save.”
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