Virtual Tour's Connection to TPACK

5th Grade Utah Social Studies Core

Standard 1
Students will understand how the exploration and colonization of North America transformed human history.

Objective 1 Describe and explain the growth and development of the early American colonies.

a. Using maps -- including pre-1492 maps -- and other geographic tools, locate and analyze the routes used by the explorers.

Connection to TPACK

The Google Earth Virtual Tour of when Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 attends to every aspect of TPACK as described below:

Technology: This assignment utilizes a computer program called Google Earth. It is essential that students become familiar with the basics of this program because it is become widely used. In fact, my sister just called me yesterday and said that her boss at work played a trick on his mother-in-law and pretended to be near her hometown by describing the environment around it using the pictures from Google Earth...I don't think she was amused! Students need to be aware of their resources, and hopefully they'll find a better use for them than just jokes.

Pedagogy: Students will be more motivated to learn if they can visually see what they are learning and identify with the material. That is why the students have an activity at every tour location that includes a journal entry. This will help the students think of the voyage as more than just a set of abstract facts.

Content: The information discussed in the virtual tour about the voyage was all taken from "I, Columbus" edited by Peter and Connie Roop. This book is a compilation of some of Columbus' journal entries. The entries are simple and give the reader a good glimpse of the situation at the time of the voyage. The virtual tour presents the information simply and chronologically using the journal entries as a guide. The students learn information about the route of the voyage, yet they do not have to read it from a textbook. Other non-fiction books for the teacher's reference include "Christopher Columbus" by Kristin Petrie, and "Christoper Columbus" by Susan Bivin Aller (it is important that the teacher has a good grasp on the content in order to create a comprehensive tour).

Virtual Tour Plan

Location	Activity	Google Earth Content
1. Palos, Spain	August 3, 1492: Columbus kept a journal. Keep a journal of your travels during this virtual tour as if you were Columbus. For your first entry, write about your feelings as you set sail for your adventure and discover new people and places.	Describe info about voyage: On August 3, 1492 Christopher Columbus began his voyage to "India" with 3 ships called the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. He hoped to discover wealth and convert the people to his religion. Use info from non-fiction books about subject. Show picture of Columbus
2.Canary Islands	August 8, 1492: Calculate how far Palos, Spain is from the Canary Islands. In your journal, discuss 3 options you have to take care of the boat problem. What are the pros and cons of each? Which one would you decide to pick if you were Columbus?	Boat trouble! Drop anchor at the Canary Islands. Learn about the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria from Wikipedia or non-fiction books. Show picture of ships with facts about each.
3.Bahamas	October 12, 1492: In your journal, write what you would name a piece of land you discovered and why. How would you communicate with the people? What would you explore first?	Land ho! But is it really India? Columbus named the islands San Salvador and Fernandina. Show pictures of the Bahamas and of India. State information about the welcome Columbus and his crew received from the natives.
4.Cuba	February 25, 2009: Imagine that you get to talk to Columbus. What would you say to him? What are 3 questions you would have for him?	Columbus thought that Cuba was the Indian's name for Japan. He still did not realize that he had not made it to India, he had discovered a new land. Columbus ended up making it back to Spain on March 15, 1493 but he died in 1506 and still never knew that he had discovered a new land.
Details of image overlay / path / polygon:	Connect the path of Columbus' travels and include a 5th spot that takes the tour back to Spain, right where it started (use path tool).

PhotoStory Video

Storyboard +TPACK=GREAT

Our digital story presents the poem written by Shel Silverstein entitled "Messy Room." Not only does this project emphasize literacy in the classroom, it also incorporates technology, and visuals that will hold the students' attention.

This is how TPACK is specifically used in our digital story project...
CONTENT: Students will not only gain experience with a different genre of literature (poetry), they will also learn the importance of personal hygiene and keeping our living areas clean. Students could identify how the messy room is a safety hazard as part of 1st grade Content Standard 1 Objective 1.

PEDAGOGY: Students will be actively engaged in the presentation because of the visual nature of this project and their connection to people they know in the pictures (namely, their teachers).

TECHNOLOGY: Students will hear a poem via a computer program and can follow along with their own typed copy. The poem and pictures are presented using PhotoStory (the pictures were taken using a digital camera). After the students view their teachers' video they get to make their own digital story in small groups.

We are working on putting our digital story together but here is a sneak preview...

TPACK

Our M&M science lesson incorporates all 3 aspects of TPACK...
Content: Standard 3, Objective 3 in Utah's 1st grade core curriculum states that students will be able to "Collect, organize, and represent simple data." Students do this through sorting M&M's into their respective color groups and representing the information in the form of a graph.
Pedagogy: Students will be excited to participate in this experiment because of the reward at the end (yummy M&M's!). The teacher will have students to work in small groups so they can help each other while teacher walks around and assists groups who need her help.
Technology: The lesson simply uses the graphing aspect of PowerPoint. This is a simple tool that students can use to quickly and professionally represent their data. 1st graders will be able to handle the difficulty of this task because it is within their zone of proximal development; however they will need to first have the task modeled and then receive scaffolding along the way.