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Blogs I would like to create a blog in my General Science class in which students would choose and list the top five most dangerous volcanoes and offer information to support why each volcano belongs on the list. I feel that this would really engage the students and make for some great discussion on a topic we cover in this class.

Wikipedia In my classroom, I generally prohibit the use of Wikipedia as a source of information, especially in formal research projects or papers. However, if the students are completing an informal assignment, I often view the posting in Wikipedia and either allow or prohibit as a source depending on the credibility or accuracy of the information. Since it was part of this assignment, I made my first edit to a Wikipedia entry. Under the entry, "cardinal direction," I noted that this term was also the name of a rock band in which some of my friends are members. Hopefully one of them searches the term and will be surprised to see that someone made note of them.

Using Blogs and Wiki's To incorporate the use of blogs in a lesson activity, I would like to first like to create a blog in my General Science class in which the students would be asked to choose and submit a list of the top five most dangerous volcanoes and evidence to support why they chose each volcano for their list. This would provide some great discussion, a few disagreements, and ultimately an engaging class activity. This type of activity using blogs could be applied to nearly every topic we cover in General Science. To incorporate wiki's into an activity, I would like to instruct students in my Biology class to submit, add, and edit information on Charles Darwin and his journey on the HMS Beagle and how this journey shaped his ideas about evolution. This would provide a great timeline of events, and I feel that it would be interesting to see how specific the students get in terms of describing this topic. This, too, could be a great exercise in every chapter. I feel that students would be competing in a sense to fill in the missing information regardless of the topic.

Using Google Apps in Education There are so many Google apps that can be useful in a wide variety of lesson activities. In my General Science class, I assign several Powerpoint presentations throughout the year. I would like to use Google Docs to enable several groups of students to collaborate, create, and revise a Powerpoint presentation on The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. This would really give students a new set of tools that would enable them to work from various locations on one project.

Google Maps Lesson Ideas Being a science teacher, Google Maps can be used in a variety of ways in each of my classes. In my Biology class, I would like to have students create a mashup in which they mark various ecological hot spots throughout the world. For each location, there would be a marker to show where the location is and a list of the various exotic animals in the particular ecological hot spot. In my Science 7 class and in my General Science classes, we could create mashups to denote some of the world's most active volcanoes. Each marker would include information about the given volcano, including, lava type, years it has been active, and time of last major eruption. I feel that these activities would be highly engaging for the students.

My Google Map (Hanover Area School District) http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=100348026918119544532.0004883dd72e9f443129d

Using Google Earth and Google Sky Google Earth is a tool I use every year in my Science 7 class when we study topographic maps. For obvious reasons, Google Earth is perfectly relevant when studying this topic and engages the students more than most other tools. Each year, I take hte students on a tour of the world using Google Earth. A student will pick a destination and we locate it using Google Earth. We note the different landscapes, any notable landmarks, nearby waterways, and the general topography of the area. Of all the places in the world the students have to choose from, they most often select their own hometowns. Besides taking virtual tours of areas, Google Earth is ideal and can be used to give students a better understanding of a given area any time it may be relevant to course material in any subject.

Using Google Notebook Google Notebook is definitely a tool I can see myself using in my classroom. I frequently conduct online research projects and students often write down notes on scratch paper to stay organized. using Google Notebook would be much more engaging and far less cumbersome, as the students could manage all their information, pictures, and links on one page. Being someone who relies heavily on writing things down to stay organized, I found this tool quite useful for applications in and out of the classroom. My Google Notebook page on volcanoes: http://www.google.com/notebook/#b=BDQrtSgoQnpKfrpAl

J****erome B****runer** Throughout his career, American psychologist, Jerome Bruner has changed the way educators view learning. His view of children as active learners has heavily influenced curriculum design throughout the U.S.
 * Educational Theorist

Educational Podcasts While searching for teacher and student-generated podcasts, I found three that stood out and captured my interest. A link to each podcast's feed and a brief description of each is below. "This Week in Science" This podcast focuses on the strange events and news stories in science and technology for each week and would really spark student interest due to the content. feeds.twis.org/twis/science "EDtech Musician" This pocast focuses of mixing music, technology, and education. The episode I listened to used news audio clips and music from the era to create a timeline of the 1960's and 1970's. feeds.feedburner.com/EdtechMusician "The EnviroMinute" This podcast focuses on the steps individuals and corporations can take to better the environment. feeds.feedburner.com/environminute

Podcast Lesson Idea I often instruct my students to create podcasts in my science classes and encourage them to be as creative as they can be while still conveying the necessary information on the given topic. One idea I have for a podcast is to have the students research and answer questions about Yellowstone National Park and to take the role of tour guides in conducting a guided tour of Yellowstone National Park. While giving this tour via the podcast, the students will be required to mention many historical and geographic facts about Yellowstone. The use of sound effects, background music, photos, and overall creativity would be encouraged.

Web 2.0 Lesson Idea In my Science 7 class, I would like students to create a Google Maps project in which each group of two to three students creates a map of California with boundaries and captions that denote the many different landforms throughout the state. Some of these landforms and areas of the map would include the desert, mountainous regions, temperate forest, coastal regions, and temperate woodland and shrubland. This project would be assigned when covering Chapter 5 in our text book, which focuses on landforms.