Full Description
What would it be like to LIVE as a cell? Would Jupiter respond to a wall post by Copernicus? What/whom would a savannah "friend"? Would an ant read an atom's updates? Would a cancer cell debunk a gene's error? With K-12 students learning and LIVING roles as science concepts, science and learning take on a MySciLife of their own.
MySciLife draws students into a digital world where they LIVE what they learn, visualizing themselves as scientific concepts, objects, or people. Built within the popular GlogsterEDU (edu.glogster.com) learning environment, including extensive multimedia, and supplemented by TeachersFirst's (www.teachersfirst.com) classroom resources and professional development, MySciLife is reminiscent of popular social networking spaces but is a safe, education-friendly environment where students design and maintain "science identities." They creatively define identities via profiles, activities, and digital media shared as "living" concepts/personas, experiencing science through social connections appealing to both girls and boys. The MySciLife platform leverages tools such as microblogging "updates" and digital storytelling, engaging students to LIVE the science they learn. Within a private and safe community that can be monitored directly by teachers, students' "science identities" interact and connect with those created by other students. MySciLife also allows students to critique each other's online representations and defend their characterizations by citing evidence, data, and research.
MySciLife captures students' creativity with digital media as a dynamic process and ongoing assessment of scientific understanding. Whether portraying the role of an abstract scientific concept or as a concrete animal or body organ, students' learning and assessment become a living experience of science in a social, collaborative environment. Maintaining a MySciLife role makes science learning a longitudinal process rather than a static project in time. MySciLife students direct their conceptual roles, adding a new layer of thinking as they communicate and LIVE science. MySciLife brings science to life. | "....taking on the "persona" of the subject matter requires the student to understand that person/principle well enough to provide a realistic response to a question or comment directed to the "persona." Students may consider this a form of social networking but it is really intellectual interactivity and a very creative way to enhance learning. Kudos to the project team! I can't wait to see it in action!"
"I can easily envision MySciLife becoming wildly popular-- and wildly productive."
"I have two good friends who work in the science fields - nanotechnology - and both will retire within 5 years. Who will take their place? We MUST get kids excited about science!!"
"What impresses me is the connection made between creativity and scientific discovery."
"Both TeachersFirst and Glogster are respected names in education so I know the project will be teacher-friendly. But what is really exciting is that this project makes science student-friendly too."
"This is one of the most innovative and exciting teaching/learning ideas I have come accross in over 30 years in education!"
"This project is science learning for the future."
"Real science is done the MySciLife way." |
