As Dr. Michael Orey (2009) said, constructionism is first-hand experience where you have the chance to build or create something. When you have the chance to create something, one tends to put a little more thought and effort into it. An example from my classroom is that instead of having my students do a written book report, they create a book report out of a cereal box. They cover it and are to include different things on it, but they have a chance to be creative. They were immensely proud of their work that I will be displaying for Open House tomorrow night. They way in which they finished their projects varied. Some students flattened their cereal boxes while others kept it solid. One student did his report on Leonardo DaVinci and made his cereal box look like a book, complete with being able to open it like a secret compartment book. Being able to create embeds information in the brain as it tends to excite students.
The next step is to take that constructionism approach and apply it with technology. In this week's chapter, Generating and Testing Hypotheses, I found that most of the resources would not work for my classroom. Most of that is due to the content that I teach as much of what was offered for examples is too advanced for second grade students. However, the Darwin Pond website intrigued me. I am planning out how to better incorporate my science and social studies texts with the language arts series. One of our stories is called Around the Pond: Who's Been Here? and I thought it would be appropriate to study the science chapter on animal life cycles during this time. Allowing students to create their own creatures by tweaking characteristics and seeing how the creature does in the environment will do a better job of explaining animal traits such as camouflage better than a textbook ever could.
Reference:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author.
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
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If you have access to a computer, there is an interactive game called Spore that has the user start with a single cell organism and grow into a large creature. This might be useful.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I checked out www.spore.com and it sparked another idea. When it comes to creative writing, students often have a hard time being creative. I usually have them create an animal and have them give it super powers. I can have students create a spore creature for science and then use their weird creation as a jumping point for their creative writing assignment.
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