Ocean Life Webquest

http://instantprojects.org/webquest/introduction.php?AuthorID=12487

The concept of this Web Quest, as you can tell from the title, is about discovering life in the ocean –more specifically, the waters surrounding the CNMI. Our group chose this topic because we wanted a project that is focused on local issues. Right now, there are a lot of conservation programs going on in the CNMI; many of which are focused on protecting our ocean and the life that exists within, and we felt that this is a great opportunity for students to learn more about their ocean area and how important it is to our community.

The purpose, once again, is basically for awareness. If our students are aware of what we have out there, they’ll have a greater sense of responsibility towards taking care of our sea-life. Overall, learning means awareness, and awareness allows us to make educated decisions. This Ocean Web Quest will surely improve student learning in many ways. First of all, they are learning about their own island’s ocean life. This Web Quest allows the students to not only learn about other ocean regions, but they get a chance to learn about their own since it isn’t offered in the textbooks. In other words, it’s a great supplement when considering local education. Another hopeful outcome of this project is that it will entice the student’s, and will hopefully create individuals who want to take up a profession in conserving and improving the CNMI’s ocean life.

The most important lesson I learned from this activity not only came from the topic we were working on, but I also learned something I think is very valuable. Doing the Web Quest project has given me another tool to help student learning. I realized how much you can do with a Web Quest, and how fun and informational you can make it –all at the same time. The only disappointment I had about this project was that the Web Quest generator we used didn’t offer us much when it came to graphics. I would like to find one, preferably free, that allows me to create a more visually appealing Web Quest. Besides that, the whole experience was great.

What About Me

Hello Everyone!

My name is Jocelyn, and this is my son. This is actually my very first time to have a Blog, and I must admit that it really is a very cool thing. I'm not used to posting stuff about myself on the internet so don't be surprised if my introduction has missing ends. For instance, notice that my description of this picture doesn't share my son's name. It's not unusual to be hesistant about sharing certain information over the net. Who would want to be a victim of identity theft or whatever other threat the net holds? We should all be smart about what we put about ourselves on the internet. It's a cool, but dangerous thing.

Oh, and this other picture is my favorite picture of my dearest fiancee and my one and only son. Yeah, and another little tidbit about me that I'm willing to share is that I'm adding one more son in this ever-growing family.

So with that, I end this introduction of myself. Actually, I should apologize about the lack of information of myself. At least I've shared my thoughts about the internet... maybe that would tell you a little bit about me :)

Mind Mapping: "Systems In Our World and Beyond

The concept shown here is called “Systems In Our World and Beyond”. I chose this angle because I wanted to link the different systems found on earth and in space. The overall concept was “Systems” and the title, “Systems in Our World and Beyond” is actually just a branch of this whole concept of a system. The main goal was to let students know that systems are everywhere, and they exist so that there is function. Through this concept, I hope to teach and extend on the idea of a “system” so that students come to the conclusion that they are actually part of a working system that they must take part in to ensure that the system keeps working.

Creating this “Mind Map” actually helped me think deeper about this concept that I have been working on, and to me that is the most important lesson I learned from this activity. I love working with big concepts or ideas, and then connecting them to smaller, more specific ideas to teach things in an integrated fashion. I learned this from Mr. Rob Schultz. Thanks to him, I learned that the best way to teach the many objectives found in our Standards and Benchmarks can be linked together if you find something that a good handful of them share. The process of putting it all together through the webbing process was a very helpful one since it helped me make connections that I didn’t think of before. However, putting it down on paper was a different story when it came time to use the Inspiration program.

I actually loved the Inspiration program because it was so easy to use. Since I have already organized my thoughts out on paper, I just had to put it in an outline form that I found in the program. This outline form can then be viewed as a web, and, TADA, I created my own “Mind Map”. It was so great to find a program that could create a web from an outline instead of having to draw circles and lines on Microsoft Word. I know that I will continue to use Inspiration. I think that the only thing I would do differently next time is to be more creative with my mapping. I’ll only be able to do this with more exploration of Inspiration.