RRC reflection

I decided to do a BLOG on blogger.com rather than myspace because I already have a personal account with myspace and wanted to be able to compare them. Although this site was very easy to use, I like the myspace because it has more variety and because I am familiar with its layout. The templates for blogger.com seem to be very restricting where as myspace has thousands of different layouts and no two pages ever look the same.

This RRC was interesting because it allowed me to search for websites that connect to my content that I can use in the classroom next year. With Regent's Living Environment, I feel it is pretty hard to find popular culture that connects to the content. Animation, corny songs and interactive web sites were most of the information out there.

I realize next year I will most likely be teaching Living Environment which is why I wanted to explore within this subject. Unlike the Living Environment course, AP would have more connections between the content and popular culture due to the more in depth nature of the course. Fad diets could be researched to connect what the students see celebrities doing and how those diets affect the storage of nutrients in the body. Also, steroids in athletics could be examined to see exactly what steroids are being used in addition to how they affect athletic performance due to their impact on the body.

A BLOG could be very useful in the classroom to direct students to interactive website and connect to their out of school literacies (Hinchman, Alvermann, Boyd, Brozo, Vacca, 2004). By having students listen to a song and watch an animated movie on mitosis, the students use different "texts" to facilitate their learning and accommodate different learning styles.

The activities on my BLOG are multi-modal because its uses "new forms of communication media" to engage students in learning difficult and often dry material (Love, 2005). Also, by having students create their own BLOG and post biology related content on it, they are now redesigning the activity to "construct new meaning" (Love, 2005). Students could post information they explored on the internet relative to the Living Environment course on their BLOG and explain why they find the activity helpful to engage their classmates in learning as well.


References
Hinchman, A., Alverman, D. E., Boyd, F., Brozo, W. G., Vacca, R. (2004). Supporting older students' in-and-out-of school literacies. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 47(4), 304-311.

Love, M. S. (2005). Multimodality of learning through anchored instruction. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 48(4), 300-311.

Biology in Motion

http://www.biologyinmotion.com/

This website has several different interactive activities for students to do in the subject of biology. The site uses familiar references such as a lock and key in addition to cartoons to explain content such as evoluation, enzyme receptor/signal relationship in addition to ATP energy and storage.

HHMI BioInteractive

http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/

The Howard Huges Medical Institution's BioInteractive is a website that has lectures, videos, animations, interactive demonstration and virtual labs. This website is more structured that the others I have found and a negative is that some of the videos have to be purchased to view.

Cells Alive

http://cellsalive.com/

This website is a great resource that provides several interactive animations of cell processes. Cell models, Mitosis, Meiosis, and the Cell cycle are a few of the animations that allow students to control the speed of the process in addition to providing an excellent visual to further comprehension.

Greg's Science Song Music

http://faculty.washington.edu/crowther/Misc/Songs/music.shtml
This site takes popular songs from several era's and changes the words to explain science concepts. These songs are pretty funny and the students will recognize many of the melodies.

http://www.science-groove.org/Now/Myofibrils.mp3
This song takes the 80's hit My Sherona and changes the words to Myofibrils. It explains exactly what the myofibrils function is within the muscle.

http://www.science-groove.org/Now/Glucose.mp3
Here the song is Sugar Sugar and the words are changed to Glucose to explain what kind of sugar it is and that it is needed for glycolysis.

The songs relate to several different science subjects so one has to scroll down to find the songs that relate to their specific science such as biology, chemistry, physics or earth science.

Brain Pop

http://www.brainpop.com/science/seeall/

Brain pop is an animated educational website for students. They show animated movies with Tim and his robot friend Moby to answer questions that a letter is send to them asks.

In this Brain Pop, Tim and Moby answer the question "Are penguins only from the South Pole?". The movie then goes on to explain why penguins are brids that cannot fly to solve the mysteries that many students may ask. http://www.brainpop.com/science/diversityoflife/penguins/

This next Brain Pop answers the question "Is respiraton the same as breathing?". These movies are very educational but interest students because they are animnated.
http://www.brainpop.com/health/respiratorysystem/respiration/

Brain Pop is available for a fee and has movies with most subject areas located on the site.