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Group #15618 Module13
- 1. Critically Engaging the 21st Century Learner in Visual Worlds and Virtual Environments 2009 VIRTUAL Visual Literacy Conference Austin Peay State University Kim Morrow, Ursula Price, Dan Przybylski & Lynette Taylor
- 2. Interactive Visual Literacy Tools for Future Scientists
- 9. Visual Worlds and Virtual Environments www.learningscience.org The true scientist never loses the faculty of amazement. It is the essence of their being. Hans Selye , Newsweek, 1958
- 21. First Three Years Results
Editor's Notes
- Learningscience.org provides a large collection of reviewed websites and visual literacy tools to help students increase comprehension of science content. The site breaks down these tools by grade level and strand of science. Strands of science available for use through learningscience.org include Science Inquiry, Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Health and Environmental Science.
- In our world today we rely heavily on visual images to disseminate information. Using cutting edge technology such as learningscience.org and other Web 2.0 tools along with traditional teaching methods our school system has seen a positive relationship between using visual literacy tools and comprehension in content areas such as science. Due to the diverse nature of our student population today, educators are constantly seeking new ways to improve comprehension as well as engagement. Visual texts increase both comprehension and active student engagement.
- Students may use a table as a prewriting and research skill in order to organize questions that are to be answered.
- By using interactive strategies and tools such as learningscience.org and teaching resources from authors such as Moline and Drew our system has found the key to unlocking concepts for students who may have been left locked out without the visual images.
- We have found that even young students who are at the pre-reading stage can use visual images to increase content knowledge as well as maintaining comprehension skills throughout their school career (K-12).
- Visual literacy tools encourage higher order thinking skills due to the nature of the tool. These tools require a student to interpret the content knowledge into a visual form which utilizes the top four skills in the taxonomy; application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
- When students were given quality instruction using Web 2.0 tools and then required to apply those skills into meaningful assignments which are evaluated in the same manner as a written assignment, comprehension is increased as reported by teachers in our district.
- In our quest to find tools and strategies to engage our students, our team found this incredible website, learningscience.org. By incorporating many of the tools found within this site we have achieved our goal of increasing comprehension skills while remaining true to Hans Selye’s ideal. Students are not only engaged, but are engaged in meaningful lessons using real world applications. Some of which we have prepared for you today. Today we will introduce some of the tools our teachers have found to be key to this process.
- This interactive site helps children understand the concept of how plants grow. It assists them in understanding the right conditions that are needed for the plant to grow to its optimum height. If the plant is given too much or little light or heat, the plant will die. This simulation allows students to move the levers for light and heat and watch the plant move.
- This visual applet introduces students to the concept of the melting and freezing point of substances. Students are able to choose the substance with the lowest melting point then heat it while watching it melt. The applet gives students the temperature needed for the substance to melt or freeze. It visually allows them to see the process in action as the substance becomes a liquid.
- This site uses visual images to allow students to see and control changes in the weather. Students move the controls for temperature and humidity to create a particular day, sunny, windy, and rainy days. The temperature and humidity have to be correct to create conditions for a particular day. This site not only allows students to report the weather, but to control it and understand the concept of how conditions create rainy, sunny, and windy days.
- This applet allows students to see in action how the earth and moon revolve around the sun. It also lets students choose the hour to see how far the earth and moon have moved within 24 hours. The site gives students knowledge and understanding of how day and night related to the earth and moon revolving around the sun.
- The British Broadcasting Corporation’s site Science Clips offers online activities designed for children ages 5 – 11. The site covers scientific topics in formats appropriate for each age group. Users are not required to download any software to run the activities listed on the site but the computer must be equipped with a Flash player. Ourselves in one of the interactive teaching tools offered through the BBC’s site. Ourselves is designed for children ages 5- 6 and allows the student to see the visual differences and similarities between human and other animal structures as well as the difference between living and non living items. In this applet students are able to see the actual movement of different animals. This is not a concept that can be accurately described in text form only.
- Students label the body parts of all the living things in the activity. This visual tool allows the student to see the similarities between humans and other animals as well as insects. The visual tools provided uses terminology easily understood by students in this age group. However, even without the text, the visual tools used allow students to see the similarities and differences as well.
- Teeth and Eating is another highly visual BBC activity designed to teach students the differences between the teeth of humans and other animals. This activity aids in increasing a student’s comprehension of the topic area by utilizing visual aids. Html code for the activity is included to allow educators to post the activity to their blog or website. This function works well for curriculums that include online assignments. This option further improves a students visual literacy skills as well as exposure to other Web 2.0 tools.
- Layers of Time is an activity which allows students to explore how fossils are made and is one of many visual literacy enhancing activities through the BBC’s Paleontology site. It also teaches students about the different periods as they relate to fossilization. Students are then allowed to complete a matching activity to demonstrate what they have learned from the activity. Exclusive of text, this activity provides images to describe the formation of fossils.
- States of Matter is an interactive Java Applet that can be run from the Internet or downloaded. The applet helps students visualize what happens to molecules as heat is added or removed and the element or compound changes states of matter. This concept is something that students cannot actually see and is usually presented as a model or picture in a textbook. However, with that model, students cannot see the actual movement of the molecules. By adding the interactive visual model students experienced much higher comprehension of this abstract concept.
- Balancing chemical equations is a confusing and challenging topic for students because it involves both knowledge of science and also mathematical equations. The Balancing Chemical Equations gizmo by Explorelearning is an interactive program allowing students to see and manipulate the atoms represented in chemical equations. As students work through practice equations on this program, students develop a mental model for what is happening in the equation. . While doing this, student may also learn a great strategy that they can use when still learning how to balance equations. They can draw models/diagrams to assist them with balancing the equations or to ensure that their work shows a balanced equation.
- The Create A Graph program enables students to compile a wide-variety of data graphically. While just the ability to generate graphs is tremendous, this tools is also useful to teach visual literacy skills. For example, students can collect data and create a graph. Then give the graph to a different set of students to read and interpret. This would be excellent practice at reading for meaning. Once in middle and high school, a large portion of text students deal with is expository. Graphs are an expository text-feature that students must learn to read and interpret in order to comprehend informational text. Since students are able to manipulate features such as scale and intervals, pointing this out to students can also assist them with their interpretation of graphs. It is important to look not only at the line or bars, but to also look carefully at the scale to see if the graph is misleading.
- Our findings have been tracked over the past three years and here you can see the overall success of this program throughout the K-12 levels. The first year of using visual literacy tools system wide we saw an increase in comprehension of 50% for K-5; 66.8% for 6-8; and 45% for 9-12. The next year’s comprehension again increased with reported gains of 55% for K-5; 75% for 6-8; and 60% for 9-12. The third year an increase was also reported with K-5 having a 65% increase from the first year; 6-8 reporting a 84.8% increase from the first year and 9-12 reporting a 75% increase from the first year.
- Through the use of emerging technology and visual literacy tools our school system has been successful in increasing comprehension through the interactive lessons found on learningscience.org.
- As the internet continues to become a daily part of our global society’s life, educators must combine the elements, tools and strategies that integrate visual literacy into the content areas. Today we have shown you a glimpse of how this is possible with one Web 2.0 tool, learningscience.org. The future is calling and our world is changing at a lightning pace. While this may be exciting it is also a monumental task for educators who must remain on the cutting edge of not only technology but the world marketplace as we instruct our future scientists, politicians, and citizens. As educators, we must remain students of the future in order to transfer our acquired skills as we model life long learning skills to our students. We invite you to journey into this exciting new future with us as we all seek to incorporate new tools and strategies that will continue to challenge the generations ahead.