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Background
Lessons for Journey North
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You
can use the following standards-based lessons in preparation for or during
any Journey North study.
Seasonal
Change: Core Background Concepts
- Introduction: Tracking Seasonal Change With Journey North
Seasonal change is all around us. Children see it in the length of a day, in the appearance of a flower, in the flight of a butterfly. This Slideshow and Teaching Resources introduce Journey North, a free, Internet-based program in which students explore the interrelated aspects of seasonal change.
- Reasons
for Seasons: Exploring the Astronomy of the Seasons
To fully grasp what causes seasons, students need a variety of opportunities
over time to explore light, shadows, and Earth-Sun models. The five
activities in this mini-unit require few materials and offer some basic
strategies for exploration. You can use them sequentially or individually
to reinforce or lay the groundwork for your students' online investigations
of seasonal change.
- Seeing
The Light: Recognizing the Sun's Role in Living Systems
Students create webs that illustrate their thinking about how sunlight
affects living systems, such as food chains and webs.
- Global
Climates and Seasons
Several factors affect a region's climate and the number and types of
seasons it experiences. Here students explore colorful animations of
annual changes in temperature and precipitation.
The
Mysteries of Migration
Skills
for Tracking Migrations and the Seasons
- Where
in the World? Understanding Latitude and Longitude
In order to track migrations and other signs of spring, students should
know how to use latitude and longitude with ease. This engaging game
helps them do just that.
- Practice
With Latitude and Longitude: Find Your Lat/Long Using Google Maps
In this lesson students find their own homes on Google maps and determine
their precice latitude and longitude coordinates. They learn how to
pinpoint the location visually and then move north, east, south, or
west on the map by changing latitude and longitude values.
- Journey
North Map Basics
This teacher's lesson explains how to access and use updated Journey
North maps and related data.
- Making
Sense of Journey North Maps: Core Questions
Here you'll find guidance for helping students focus on what's
happening and interpret why it's happening as the season progresses.
- Journey
North Journals: Helping Young Minds Grow
This teachers' lesson offers tips on using Journey North journals to
inspire learning and assessment.
- Cultivating
Keen Observers: Teaching With Journey North Photos
Observation is at the heart of inquiry. This lesson explores strategies
for using Journey North's rich collection of photos to build students’
observation and thinking skills.
- Weather,
Migrations, and Plants
As students make local observations and analyze Journey North News updates,
maps, and data, they should think critically about the relationship
between weather and seasonal events. This activity suggests how they
might do that.
- Predicting
Migration Routes (example from monarch study)
Students
explore these questions: What pathways do migrating animals take? How
do our predictions change as we get new data? How could we explain what
influences these routes? (Also see Predicting
the Arrival of Spring with Red Emperor Tulips.)
- How
Does a Migration Move Forward?
As students gather and review migration data, they calculate the speed
and distance a migration travels and ponder what influences its progression.
- Making
Sense of Unusual Findings
This page
of questions and links to resources will help you and your students
try to "puzzle out" unusual reports and map events that contradict
what we (and scientists) might otherwise expect.
- Choosing
Random Samples: Mapping Data Made Manageable
As Journey North reports flow in from observers each spring, teachers
often feel awash in data. Here's some support for simplifying mapping
and introducing the idea of selecting random samples without bias.
Spring's
Journey North
Cultivating
Critical Thinkers
- You're
the Scientist: Verifying Data Collected by Peers
As part of Journey North's Internet Field Team, your students collect
backyard observations and share them with classrooms across North America.
This throng of student observers expand the eyes and ears of scientists
in ways never before possible. In this lesson, students explore ways
to assess the accuracy and reliability of data reported by other observers.
- Encouraging
Inquiry-Based Research
Students
categorize questions they generate in preparation for pursuing answers
that expand their existing knowledge.
- How
is a Hotdog Like a Shoe? Thinking by Analogy
One strategy that will help students better understand abstract concepts
is the use of analogy. By making analogies, just like scientists do,
students can relate things they don't understand to things they do!
This activity can be used throughout the project to help students better
understand unfamiliar concepts.
- Cycling
through Controversy: Debating Values and Viewpoints
Students practice taking different perspectives when debating environmental
issues. Then they take these into account when posing solutions.
- Ask
the Expert: Connecting Students to Scientists
Develop questions for scientists and other specialists that can't be
answered anyplace else.
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