Online Projects, Collaboration Sites and Publishing Opportunities

Lesson Idea Name: Seasons and Sunlight

Content Area: Science
Grade Level(s): 2nd
Content Standard Addressed: S2E2. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to develop an
understanding of the patterns of the sun and the moon and the suns effect on Earth

Technology Standard Addressed: ISTE standard 6: Creative Communicator- students communicate clearly
and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats, and
digital media appropriate to their goals.

Selected Online Project/Collaboration Site/Publishing Opportunity: Journey North

URL(s) to support the lesson: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/sunlight/sl/2/index.html

Describe how you would incorporate an Online Project/Collaboration Site/Publishing Opportunity in your
classroom (Minimum 2 paragraph overview):
This project is about how the earths rotation causes day/night and also seasons. Showing the pattern of the
earth around the sun and the moon around the earth can be kind of hard. It is an abstract concept, and you
cant exactly physically show your kids. You can show videos and you can demonstrate in the classroom, but
they cannot really see or experience the real thing.
Through Journey North, your students can track the length of the day and other things that indicate what
season it is. In the topic of seasons, Journey North focuses on plants and animals through the seasons. The
students can pick different topics or things to track and through this can figure out the signs of the different
seasons.

Describe how the following features are addressed in this learning experience (note: all of them may not be
addressed in the project, but most should be if you are reaching a high LoTi Level).
a. Collaboration with peers, near-peers, mentors outside their classroom and often beyond their
school: Through Journey North, you can collect data and then submit your classroom data.

b. Student-centered learning and knowledge creation (creating original data and or producing original
products as a result of engaging in a project): The students will create a bulletin board about the
season that they are in and how that effects animals and plants.

c. Higher-order thinking: The students will have to connect how the earths tilt and rotation around the
sun affects the seasons which in turn affect all living organisms.

d. Students publishing their original work to others who will use/care about their product: The
students will create a bulletin with their work and findings on it. A picture of this can be submitted to
Journey North and can also be posted on the classroom blog for parents to see. The students can also
submit their online data that they collected and recorded through the Journey North website.

Blooms Taxonomy Level(s):

Remembering Understanding Applying Analyzing Evaluating Creating

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 Online Projects, Collaboration Sites and Publishing Opportunities
Levels of Technology Integration (LoTi Level):
Level 1: Awareness Level 2: Exploration Level 3: Infusion Level 4: Integration
Level 5: Expansion Level 6: Refinement

Lesson idea implementation and Internet Safety Policies: The first part of the lesson has to do with the
earths rotation around the sun. While Journey North does provide some pictures, I think another website
would be better for this. You could use a BrainPop video or something from YouTube. For this I would also
have the students come up and act as the sun, and earth. Once they understand how the earth moves, they
are ready for the next part of the lesson about the seasons. It is important to know that while the earth is
moving, it is moving at a slight slant making some parents of the earth closer to the sun than others. This is
what creates seasons. Journey North has a data sheet where you can report the length of each day, and how
this relates to the seasons.
After this, the students can do their own exploration through the website of how animals and plants are
affected by the season. It also shows how animals migrate to places that have a climate that they enjoy.
Through this, they can see that different places around the earth have different climates at different times.
While one part of the earth may be in summer, another part of the earth may be in winter.
The students will be put into groups based on what they are interested in researching. They will then collect
data about the seasons, how the earths rotation affects that, and the animals and plants, and will add their
products to the bulletin board in an aesthetically pleasing product.

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