I'm having a blast doing an enrichment project with about a dozen students. We are following a scientific research vessel that is exploring the Canterbury Basin and documenting what they are doing via blog entries. Each day I have my students work on reading those blogs and harvesting out the most relevant information using Diigo annotations.
The blog entries give a pretty simple to understand description of the science they are doing...as they are doing it. With a Teacher at Sea, we get glimpses into the processes by which they study the crust of the earth in search for answers about all sorts of things.
Imagine my kids excitment when they read about the current project being conducted at Canterbury Basin which is on a transform boundary. We just finished studying about plate boundaries and I don't think they thought they'd ever use that info much. Heck I don't use it very much either. But sure enough it is that boundary that produces enough sediment that the rising/falling of the sea level can be studied at his location.
The other evolving part of this project is the use of Diigo. Now I haven't worked out all the bugs...and as Bill Ferritier likes to say, I'm being digitally resilient...ie I am using multiple work arounds. But I have to tell you that despite all the pain in my neck this has been, I'm LOVING Diigo. We are annotating the blogs as we read them and then dissecting what they mean. Now imagine my little kids (6th graders you know) trying to understand that the geochemistry of this sediment can tell scientist about the cycling of sea levels...and this cycling is important to the coastal cities survival throughout the world. We're just at the most basic places, but they are digging through...asking me questions and pulling out info they think is relevant.
I have them write summaries and email those summaries from Diigo to me each weekend. OK...not all are great. But most of these kids "get it" and are pretty interested in the science being conducted. I think they are also grooving on the conversation we get from highlighting important things from the blogs and then chatting (via the annotation commenting feature) about why it's important and what are the next things we should look for.
Believe me when I say I don't know what I'm doing. But I think we're doing some good stuff...and I know this is a perfect enrichment project for those kids that are super motivated, want to do something beyond the routine class stuff and will follow through with minimal teacher hand holding.
This is the kind of thing that puts me in the zone of a perfect teaching situation. I love it because they are excited and interacting with stuff well beyond my skimpy set of science skills. I know NOTHING about geochemistry or micro palentology or ____________________. I don't have to because there are 60 scientists that know everything...I just have to facilitate the conversation!!!! Isn't this the best?
Image copied from "All Hands on Core" blog post from the JR Resolution 11.18.09 http://joidesresolution.org/node/896
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