Using AT strategies to support Science learning at Secord P.S.

Future Scientists at Secord Elementary School!

Rebecca Clark at Secord Elementary School recently started a Science unit on living things.  Students in her class have been learning about parts of a plant, what plants need to grow, as well as planting bean seeds to track the growth cycle of a plant.

Itinerant Resource Teacher, Andrea Statton, met with Ms. Clark to co-plan and co-teach a Science lesson using some of the Promethean peripherals to engage her students and to have students demonstrate their understanding of plants in a variety of ways.

Students were excited to observe the changes in their bean seeds; using the sound recorder in ActivInspire with the ActivSound microphone, students shared how their seeds had changed.

Students then had the opportunity to place their seeds under the ActiView document camera so that everyone in the class could see the changes the student was describing..

This page was set up as a container activity in ActivInspire so that students would receive immediate feedback as they worked. If the students correctly labelled a part of a flower, they heard applause; if they were incorrect, the word bounced back.

Next, students were shown a time lapse YouTube video on growing bean seeds. Students were then asked what they learned from watching the video and Ms. Clark annotated their responses using the pen tool.

(left) Ms. Clark continued the lesson by asking students some Yes/No type questions; students demonstrated their understanding using ActivExpressions. (right) Finally, students documented their observations in their log book.