ITES Activity 3 by Joanna Pendleton

For those who used to read this blog, and this might pop up on your Feed Reader... This is an activity for a class I am taking on the NC Essential Standards for Information and Technology.  I will be linking the IT Essential Standards for 5th grade to the Science Essential Standards for 5th grade.  If you're not an educator (or even if you are), you may just want to bypass this one. I won't make any promises about posting anything else, but maybe you'll hear from me again before another two years pass. Who knows?

1. Sources of Information
• ITES: Use various sources of information to complete a task, making sure that the resources chosen are relevant and reliable.
• Science Connection: A teacher could assign research on any one of the science standards and require students to use resources.  Since the Science Essential Standards are supposed to be inquiry-based, students might even be asked to come up with their own questions to answer using different resources available to them.  Science Standards that would lend themselves well to research using print and non-print resources would be:
• 5.P.2.1 - water cycle
• 5.E.1.3 - global weather patterns
• 5.L.1.2 - human body systems
• 5.L.2.1 - comparing ecosystems
2. Informational Text
• ITES: Use appropriate and differentiated strategies to read information in a variety of formats and genres.
• Science Connection: Again, the ITES objectives would best be met in the context of a research assignment. See above for Science Standards that would be best for research.
3. Technology as a Tool
• ITES: Use technology tools to gather, organize, and present information.
• Science Connection: In addition to using technology tools within the context of a research project as mentioned in previous points, technology would be a great tool to use for some of the other Science Standards as well:
• 5.P.1: Force & Motion -- Students can watch demonstrations and experiments online or using the Discovery Education Techbook, making predictions as they go with the teacher facilitating discussions. Students can also create a graph using any number of technology tools (5.P.1.3).
• 5.P.3: Heating & Cooling Matter -- This standard requires the students to explain the effects of heating and cooling. After conducting investigations, students can use technology tools to create and publish their explanations to demonstrate understanding.
• 5.E.1: Weather Patterns -- Technology is an absolutely essential tool for students to be able to collect and compare weather data so that they can make predictions.
• ALL: Really, technology could be used as a tool in teaching any standard. With so many ways for students to gather, organize, and present information using technology, the possibilities are endless. I would say that for this IT Standard, the teacher should just be careful to make the use of technology as authentic and practical as possible. For example, students need not be required to type lab notes when a pencil would be just as effective. BUT if the students are to explain a concept, the teacher may wish to have a student create an informational blog post so that he or she can receive some authentic feedback.
4. Research Process
• ITES: In 5th grade, students need to be able to carry out a research process in collaboration with others.
• Science Connection: See IT Standards 1 and 2 for a list of Science Standards that could be taught well within a research project context.  In order to encourage collaboration, many of these standards could be broken up and each student or group assigned a small piece of the objective. When students present their work to one another (hopefully using technology tools that would encourage authentic feedback), they can be held responsible for what is being presented as well.
5. Safety and Ethical Issues
• ITES: In 5th grade, students should understand how to be responsible with hardware, how to use information ethically, and how to be safe on the internet.
• Science Connection: For any published research (written, posted, etc.), students will need to understand the IT SE Standard.  See IT Standards 1 and 2 for Science Standards that could be used well in a research project setting.  Again though, this standard could apply to any Science Standard in which technology or information could be used -- practically all!