ALMOST DONE!

we're almost done...and that long thing was getting hard to follow!

Website 2

Thought I would start a new one since the other was getting long.

I'm sorry you had so much trouble with the links, I must not have explained it well. The home page looks great! one of the questions I asked was about the standards...I wasn't really sure if they're standards we're meeting as students making the website...or the standards the tools and other items we uploaded to the site meet.  I still haven't gotten a response so I suppose we can wait on that for a little longer.  Also, if you want to just post on here three more websites that I can add to the resources page.  I added hort.vt.edu, instructorweb.com and csgn.org.  Maybe you could find a couple more kid friendly sites to even out the resources page a little?  Otherwise I think it looks good. I'm writing one more lesson plan to set up a wiki page for the students to write about their garden and keep a journal about it.  Do you think it would work best on the "Preparing For a Garden" page?? That's where I was thinking of putting it.

Web Site

O.K. i worked on the site a small amount... This may sound dumb but i feel like im working against someone doing the opposite.. I can write and add pictures but i was trying to link some words to a web page and ended up with the link in the middle of the sentence.. talk to you soon..

Beginning website

It's looking like there are some things to be done individually, and some pages need contributions from both of us.
Individually we need:
At least 2 web pages that need one or two new ideas as well as a new item such as another lesson plan, podcast, or digital story, and 3 additional websites.  Also we need to post everything we've done thus far.

First we just need to come up with a structure for the pages for the site.
For example:
Description of the project itself, what is project-based learning.
Concept map featuring all of the ideas for our project.
Informational tools for students: Digital stories, podcast, ePals w/ googlemap
Lesson Plans: both 1&2 lesson plans and any additional lesson plans.
References: websites and collaborative blog.

maybe that could work as a rough outline... I don't know if I included everything it's a long list on the module of things we need.  Take a look, let me know your input.

script

Now that we know how to plan a garden and plant it, it is important to know the procedures to care for the garden.

Water is the most essential ingredient for plant health and growth.

Different plants need different amounts of water, so the plants should have been grouped by the amount of water needed.

Another important aspect of watering plants is mulch.  It keeps the soil cool in the hot sun, and it helps to absorb rain water by keeping evaporation at a minimum.

For flower gardens, it is a good rule of thumb to give them around 1 inch of water per week.

For vegetables, it is important to soak the plant thoroughly.

The weather is also important to monitor when watering your plants.

If it rains, you most likely will not need to water the plants that day.  Also, if the temperature is high or it is a very sunny day, the water will evaporate faster, so it is important to water more than on a cold or cloudy day.

Weeding is an important aspect of gardening as well.

If weeds begin growing in the garden, it is important to pull them out so they do not take away nutrients from the plants we are growing.

It is helpful to weed on a day or bi-daily basis, and is easiest to weed after it rains and if the weed is long enough to get a firm grip on to pull out the entire weed, including the roots.

When you weed, it is also important not to harm the existing plants in the garden.

Another important part of gardening is monitoring the bugs that are crawling or flying around your plants.

There are some bugs that are helpful, such as bees for pollinating, or bugs that eat the bugs eating your plants, but there are also bugs that can be destructive.

Checking the weather, watering, weeding, and keeping an eye on the bugs in your garden are important every day when taking care of your garden.

Concept Map Revision

lesson plan 2

I honestly don't know what about our project can have data collection.  My first lesson plan was on weather and it's effects on gardening, so I can't really do that again, but we also need to update our concept map.  Let me know if you have any ideas, especially for things that can have data collection.  My kidspiration trial is expired, so you'll have to create the updated one.

week of 10/18/10

Hi,

Looks like this project is not necessarly joint either except to make sure that were not making the movie about the same topic. I think we can make it about the lesson plan. So I am going to continue with that.

Google Docs

Above is our group google docs assignment.

(T. Shepherd/K. Woodard)

map

o.k. im trying to get this map over here and im not real sure how either. I will keep trying and if not I will be on here at 8:30 tonight.

Module 5

I can't figure out where the templates are in TaskStream.  Because we are each doing our own lessons, mine will be on weather & gardening.  Weather is one of the science benchmarks in elementary school.

module 4

I made the map, I posted it, but with the google doc I have a mac and I don't have right click. I don't know how to get it on here so can someone please do it. thanks.

Google Map

View Agriculture Map in a larger map">



We decided to create a route from our school to our e-pals passing through different agricultural regions to be discussed and compare and explored in class.  Each agriculture region has different climates, soil, and crop growth.  Also across the country there are different flowers and gardens.

GoogleMap

Is Arizona where our students are from or where their e-pals are? We need to create a googlemap and it's also do tonight.  I created one and I think you accepted the invitations.  I just made it so anyone can edit it. We could do a map marking places across the country by agricultural region.  I'm looking at a website that talks about 10 different agricultural regions  www.usda.gov/news/pubs/factbook/002a.pdf  That's the site to the pdf file I'm talking about. So a route can be made  from where ever our classroom is to our e-pal classroom, maybe passing through some of the regions.  Let me know if you can or cannot see the pdf.

Google Docs

I have created the google docs folder and added Emma as an editor and Ms. Woodard as the Viewer, but I do not have James' email? Please let me knw if you can not see the google documents.

Assignment

Now we need to create and assignment for the students and incorporate another set of students from another place to get their perspective on the topic.
For gardening, different plants or crops can be planted in different parts of the world based on soil fertility, sunlight, and weather conditions in that region.
Maybe an assignment could be finding their latitude and longitude point, researching the climate of the region, then find two other climates and note what is different about soil and weather conditions in those places, and how that might affect gardening. Finding the latitude and longitude points could also be related to the map portion, and could even get into what kinds of plants and foods grow closest to the equator and what happens when they get farther away.
These are just a few ideas that popped into my head. Feel free to add on or throw out something totally different. Let's get this rolling! :)

My websites

http://www.kidsgardening.org/

This is the 1st site I did.. it is an awesome site for educators, the children and their families. The site gives resources, grant and fundraising options as well as classroom projects, parents corner and fun facts. This site would definitly be useful to the classroom and teacher.

http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson167.shtml


This site is a great site for teachers it has lesson plans as well as different activites for the children to do.

http://www.kidscom.com/

I thought this site would realy be able to help connect the classroom to home. You can build a virtual garden for your children. It is a free website and has sections for parents, students and educators. So not only can they work on the real garden in the classroom they will be able to have their very own virtual garden as well.


These are the 3 websites I will be evaluating.

Websites to be Evaluated

http://eartheasy.com/grow_gardening_children.htm

This website is a good resource for the teacher because it gives tips for what to grow in a garden and tips on getting the children involved.

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/firstgarden/


This website is a good resource for teachers and the student because it talks about the fundamentals of gardening, soil health, food, sunlight, tools, procedures, etc. as well as containing a teacher's guide.


http://www.biology4kids.com/files/plants_photosynthesis.html


this website is a good source for the students to learn about photosynthesis.


These are the websites I am evaluating

KidSpiration Concept Map

This is our preliminary concept map. 

Concept Map

Because I haven't heard from you James but I have such a busy day tomorrow, I'm going to open the program.  I'm going to open Kidspiration, I don't know if by downloading one you download both of them, but that's the link I'm clicking on, and I'm going to use the ideas we listed to create it and post it on here.  If you have any other ideas please post them tonight.

Assignment

Okay, so we need to brainstorm over this blog, the assignment is due tomorrow.  First we need to decide who is going to open either Kidspiration or Inspiration first.  I haven't touched either so please let me know if you have so I don't.  For gardening I would think the end result would be to create a real garden.  Some things they would have to learn along the way would be what plants would grow in our climate and how much sunlight and water they would need.  Also we could talk about parts of a plant, why plants are good for our planet, photosynthesis, pollenation, etc. What are your thoughts?