Using Technology in Science

“We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.”  So states Karl Fisch, creator of the popular Did You Know slideshow in which some rather stark facts about technology and global society are revealed. Are we preparing our students with the skills they will need in order to be successful in the 21^st century? 

Many of our students eat, sleep, and breathe technology outside the classroom; why not utilize their interest and knowledge to complete motivating projects within school walls?  With a few digital cameras, students can create photo essays about various topics in lieu of a test.  For example, rather than giving my fifth graders a test about plants last spring, we spent several days outside documenting different plant vocabulary terms and processes. Each team was responsible for finding and photographing terms such as coniferous, deciduous, chlorophyll, stamen, etc . . . They were allowed to do this in any creative way they wished – some wrote fictional stories with embedded plant facts and photos, some created plant field guides to our school grounds, and others simply organized their pictures and concepts into a PowerPoint that was presented to the class. 

One hundred percent of my class preferred this type of assessment over a traditional paper-and-pencil test. Not only did it utilize technology, it incorporated many 21st Century Skills such as creative thinking, collaboration, and self-directed learning. Additionally, it was much more fun to assess. Rather than spending two hours grading the same exam for different students, I created a rubric based on required concepts, and I graded projects as they were presented to the class. Each one was different and showed the unique personality of its team members!

Many students also own iPods, and for minimal expense, you can have them create podcasts in lieu of written papers or speeches. Podcasting isn’t all that complicated, and with a little bit of research, you can upload students’ ideas to your school’s website (or even iTunes!). For example, when President Obama was elected, I asked students to pretend they were recruited as his new science advisor. They each created a podcast for the president detailing their advice on matters pertaining to science and technology over the next four years, and they published their podcasts on our school’s website. The kids loved it, and many of them produced better work for this project than they would have with a traditional written essay!

For more fun ways to incorporate technology into your classroom, check out the following lesson plans.

Science Lesson Plans Using Technology:

Introduction to Technology

In this lesson students have to figure out how to reach candy placed far away from them using only the objects they have at their disposal. This leads to a discussion of how technology, invention, and need are interrelated.

Seasons Culminating Activity

This lesson has students learn about the seasons. Students fill in a KWL chart, work on Internet research, answer quizzes, and, finally, create a PowerPoint presentation. They incorporate text, video, and images in the presentation.

Butterfly Adventure

In this lesson upper grade and lower grade students work in pairs to do research on caterpillars. They observe the characteristics of caterpillars, identify the stages in the life cycle of a butterfly, and graph the number of butterflies that hatch during a week-long period. Students then use Excel and PowerPoint to present their results.