Tellecollaborative Projects

I was pleasantly surprised today when I easily found a very interesting tellecollaborative project after we were sent to search for one to discuss. The project I found can be viewed here: Square of Life

From the website, the basic description of the project is:

Square of Life: Studies in Local and Global Environments is an Internet-based collaborative project in which students will investigate their local environment and share that information with other students from around the country and the world. Participants will:

• Identify living and non-living things in their school yards.
• Share their findings with other participating classes.
• Look for similarities and differences in the reported data.
• Prepare a final report or presentation based on their findings.

I found that I could use this project at any age, but since I interned in a Grade One classroom and this is an internet based activity that could actually be done in an Early Childhood Classroom, I will discuss how I would implement this in that age setting.

Both "Plants" and "Animals" are core Science Units in the Grade 1 curriculum and I think this project would supplement both units wonderfully. Students can not only view plants that are native to their environment, but they can also view these plants at different stages of growth and compare the plants they found in their environment with those found around the world.

I also think that if students were able to look for living creatures in their "square" that this could be a powerful way to convey animals and animal life to students. They can realize that an animals habitat can be as small as a square and that these animals can get everything they need to survive in this tiny home.

Finally, classifying is a large part of Grade 1 skill development and simply classifying things into living and non-living would be a worthwhile task for students of this age level.

All in all, I know my Grade 1s would have gained so much from doing a project like this during my internship. I can't wait to try it out when I get my own classroom!