Secrets at the Sea!

Here is a great site based on the grade two science curriculum level on the topic of oceans. On this website they display something similar to a television news program where you follow along on information and news about oceans. The news broadcaster has a mini speech bubble, and once you are finished reading it, you simply click on the bubble to hear the next set of news being said about the ocean. After the news reporter is done talking, you have the ability to click on the "field notes" at the bottom of the page where it explains several topics in relation to the ocean such as food webs, killer whales, tides, salmon, plankton and many more. Once you click on that topic it reveals a page of information that you can further read about and learn! It also displays a picture with the information, so not only are you reading about it but you are seeing it as well and getting a visual perspective!

To incorporate this website into my class I would have the students pair up with a partner to search through and complete this site. After they have gone through, read and listened about all the various news broadcasts and information, I would then have them read through the field guide and choose a topic that they want to do their own news broadcast on. They could choose anything from killer whales to salmon and plankton. After they chose a topic, they would return to their desks and with the teachers help I would help them write up a short news script about the topic they chose where each of them gets a turn to talk. Once all of the students have completed this step, I would then have them create a podcast news broadcast, where we would add in fun music as well and they could broadcast their information to the rest of the students. If my class had our own classroom web page, I would post these podcasts up on the web for the parents/guardians to listen to, so they can see what their child is working on and learning about in class!

After completing this task, I would then have my students revisit the site and just play around. If you click on the on/off button the television it takes you to another world on the site where you can click to various areas and learn more about the ocean! It makes you almost feel like you are a character of the site which engages the students more into its content. I feel that this site would benefit my students learning because not only are they learning about oceans and the animals that live in it and some issues such as pollution, but they actually get to make their own news broadcast about it using podcasts which reveals them to even more use of technology. By using the podcasts to wrap up this lesson plan, they are having the ability to collaborate information that they learned from the site and create it into a final presentation. Also, the site makes the student feel like a character as they have to proceed through all of the news broadcasts and can click on links to other areas about oceans, it even takes you to a small town and you can ride an airplane too!