Abstract
To make life a little easier
for novice middle school science educators we decided to have our middle
school methods students complete an assignment in which they were to
locate some educationally valuable interactive web sites that aligned
with North Carolina’s middle school science standards. Students
enrolled in a middle school methods course located various science interactive
websites and presented the sites to the class. The students demonstrated
how the websites might be used in teaching the science competency objective
or science strand. At the conclusion of the presentations, students
were given a list of the websites presented and given a brief description
of how the site could be used in a middle school setting. There was
positive feedback from students after completing the assignment. Many
of the in-service students enrolled in the class incorporated many of
the web sites into their lessons. This activity is one of many techniques
of teaching students how to use technology as a tool as well as providing
novice educators with powerful sources of information to share with
students and colleagues.
Finding appropriate Internet
sites to share with middle school students can be challenging. The Internet
can be characterized as both the world’s largest and messiest
library. Trying to match websites that meet the needs of students can
be a time-consuming and frustrating experience. To make life a little
easier for our middle school pre-service and in-service (teachers with
a degree seeking to add middle grades science certification or licensure
to their existing credentials) science methods students we decided to
have our students complete an assignment in which they located useful
interactive web sites that aligned with the 2000 North Carolina’s
middle school science standards. We selected the North Carolina Standards
for this activity because of the number of in-service educators enrolled
in the course and its alignment with the National Science Education
Standards (National Research Council, 1996).
This article provides a
brief listing of a few outstanding science education websites that we
believe are well aligned with the 2000 (and proposed 2003) North Carolina
Course of Study Science Competency Objectives for grades six, seven,
and eight. Because the North Carolina Course of Science Study was designed
to align with the National Science Education Standards, the interactive
web sites also align with the National Science Standards (National Research
Council, 1996). This activity was implemented to provide students practice
using the web as an instructional tool as well as provide them with
a collection of useful sites that could be used in their own middle
grades science classrooms. The Internet is an invaluable resource that
brings a treasure trove of useful (often free) resources within a few
mouse clicks of the classroom. With this assignment we hoped our students
would not only be able to learn how to use this powerful resource more
effectively in their classroom, but to use it more often.
The 2000 North Carolina 6-8 Standard Course of Study science standards,
which formed the basis of the Internet investigation assignment, consists
of four “Strands” applicable to each of the three grade
levels and four topical areas of competency goals for each grade level.
These strands and content areas are all present in the proposed 2003
North Carolina Standard Course of Study. Additionally, these content
standards are consistent with the content standards described in the
National Science Education Standards (1996), which organizes the middle
grades science curriculum content into eight categories of content strands
that apply to grades K-12. These categories include “unifying
concepts and processes in science; science as inquiry; physical science;
life science; earth and space science; science and technology; science
in personal and social perspectives; and history and nature of science”
(National Research Council, 1996, p. 104).
The assignment directed
the students to select strands and competency objectives from the 2000
North Carolina Science Standard Course of Study and asked them to find
good web sites for facilitating middle grades students’ learning
of that content. The 21 students enrolled in the methods course were
asked to select either a competency objective or strand from the North
Carolina Standard Course of Study for science in grades 6-8 and locate
interactive web sites using search tools such as Google (2003) and Dogpile
(2003). The assignment required students to present the web site to
the class and provide feedback on its relevance to the middle school
science standards. (See Figure 1 for a sample of the Interactive Website
Assignment). Feedback from instructors and peers provided after presentations
was the evaluative method used for this assignment. Instructors provided
criteria for evaluating web sites for this assignment emphasizing the
following considerations:
- The
websites needed to be reputable.
-
The websites needed to be free or at least inexpensive. (Some of the
sites found and included in this article were free at the time of
the student research and are now fee sites. However, all sites included
here are at least available for extended free trial periods.)
-
The sites needed to be highly interactive—as opposed to merely
online text.
-
The sites needed to clearly address identifiable curriculum learning
objectives.
Specific criteria for evaluating
web sites can be found at the North Carolina Department of Instruction
website: (http://www.ncwiseowl.org/Professional/criteria.htm).
