#zooinverse

[dillydollthe1st]

not mine from : https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/marcartro/amazonoil/about/research

“Amaz’ N’oil” - A real, recently launched, science project supported by YOU citizen scientists if you go to  https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/marcartro/amazonoil

[teachjh21stcentury]

Making the most out of distance learning: The Mammoth, The Map, & The Mongoose.

Distance learning is something that I view like a long distance relationship.  It might work in the beginning, but in the long run you’re still just missing something and most of the times it doesn’t work out for those involved.  Now, perhaps that is just from personal experience, but it just seems like it makes sense like the law of gravity.  

I’ve never tried too much in the way of distance type learning with a professor or peer on a far flung continent or another part of the country Skyping with me or my class.  The only true experience I had with this was briefly in college when our chemistry professor went to the climate change summit in Germany and taught our class via Skype from Germany.  It was different and there was  a short lag which was probably hardware issues on our end, but it kind of worked.  It was actually most interesting just hearing about what was happening and knowing that your professor is talking to you from Germany. 

Other than this experience and that of this graduate program being all online I don’t have much to go off in regards to distance learning and resources. Obviously, the internet provides students with information and resources that can be acquired from anywhere in the world. There have been a few resources that I have found that fit this category of distance resources or distance learning.  The TEDTalks on Youtube present one of the best ways for students to hear from some of the greatest minds of the 21st century and they come from all over the globe and discuss issues from all corners of the Earth. 

One particular TED Talk I like to show my students during the Diversity of Life unit is about the possible dextinction of the Woolly Mammoth. My students absolutely love the topic and I normally play a clip from Ice Age prior to it as a way to get them engaged. 

This video and the TED Talks as a resource are only made available to students thanks to the scientists and other professionals throughout the world that contribute their time to discuss their findings and the abilities of the internet.  This video is certainly worthwhile watching and truly peaks the interests of my students.  It also provides me with a starting point for a discussion with my students in regards to whether we should or should not bring back extinct species.

Another resource is GeoGuesser.  This resource is probably best suited for a social studies class as an anchor activity or built into the curriculum in some other fashion.  GeoGuesser basically drops you somewhere in the world on a road using Google Street View.  You are then able to move about on the roads and eventually you can take a guess at where you are actually at in the world.  The activity blurs any obvious road signs and this makes it difficult as the player must take clues from the environment, the road surface, and the building structures.  It is an interesting and engaging activity.  

Once a student guesses where they are the program measures the distance from where you picked and where you actually were and then gives you points. Perhaps this would work well with the themes of geography for social studies teachers.

Another great distance resource is the Zooinverse website.  This website has some truly awesome content.  Basically, the website is a scientific community where data is crowd sourced out to anyone accessing the program.  This information is then cataloged and actually helps scientists. 

There are some 40+ different activities that people can interact with and contribute to on the website.  This in my opinion is a great distance resource as it gets students involved in something that they otherwise would have zero access to and at the same time they are acting as ecologists, meteorologists, biologists, geneticists, and so much more.  

The example that I chose to highlight is from the Snapshot Serengeti activity where students work through game camera pictures to identify the animals within the pictures.  At first you would think this is pretty simple and the answers are lion, zebra, and elephant.  This is not the case. Many of the pictures at night and identification is not simple.  Also, there are many species including the mongoose, honey-badger, and the wildebeest that students can get an opportunity to identify.

Also, a student identifies an animal they must also identify how many there are, what they are doing, and if any young are present.  

The activity is quite amazing as there are also brief videos at times and it is simply amazing to see the variety of wildlife.  This activity is a huge hit with my students when we get to the diversity of life unit.

While I understand that distance learning and distance resources are more popular than ever I feel that it is very important that teachers find resources that fit their style of teaching, their grade level, and their student abilities.  

I would put these two resources up there for any teacher teaching science or social studies for grades 6th - 12th and feel confident that students would enjoy them and learn from them.  

I highly recommend that you check them out for yourself as both are equally entertaining and challenging.