Participation in this course gives the future science educator opportunities to visit sites of historical, geologic, and biologic importance. The instructors are familiar with many of these sites and provide you with many opportunities to collect information.
Furthermore, each field trip taken provides an opportunity to gather information to develop lessons. Much of this information is not available in classroom textbooks.
You will use the tools that you may have or made available to you through supporting grants. These include your phone, iPad, educational apps, data collection and observation tools.
This post will provide ideas about how to take advantage of the tools you have to collect and rework the information into a workable artifact that your students can use to learn about the things that you discovered. More posts will be provided as new tools are made available.
Using Google+
By now you are familiar with Google+. Photographs can be uploaded manually or automatically to your Google+ page. If you would like, you can use Facebook or Instagram for your personal work, but class entries must be done on Google+.
Link to Event
The instructors will post an "Event" to which all participants will post and make comments. For example, the first field trip will be to the "Roma Bluffs" on July 17, 2013. This field trip sets the foundation for a study of the Rio Grande River Watershed. To learn more about Google Events read more...
Using Party Mode
Once you receive an invitation to the event, post that you will be attending. To post photographs automatically click on "Party Mode" on your phone or iPad on the day of the event. This allows all photographs taken with these devices to be automatically uploaded. Uploading on your iPad will not take place until you are connected to a wireless network. You will need to activate party mode on Google+ for your device. To do so, visit the Google+ site to learn about the process. To set up read more....
Photograph and Video Data
While at the sites photograph and video the events as they happen. Participants should interview fellow classmates or individuals that may add to the information you are seeking.
Use your judgement about what to photograph or video. Ask permission of those that you include, especially if you are planning to use their likeness in your lessons. There is nothing wrong with staged shots or events, as long as they portray the events accurately and help you tell a story.
Use Paper Journal
Your phone and iPad provide you with accurate and meaningful documentation, but it is your journal that provides the greatest flexibility when in the field. Your instructor will give you more information than you can absorb. Our memories have limitations, therefore, it is important to write down the names of plants, animals, locations, and pertinent information.
Use the journal to sketch maps, features of plants and animals, and information that may be necessary. This information can eventually be shared with others on Google+ or Google Drive.
Sketching as a Means of Obtaining Detail
Sketching is a lost art. Many of our greatest pioneers used sketching as a means to document the world around them. Today with high quality optics, cameras tend to be used more often than the individual picking up the pencil and paper to note the details of a plant or insect. Lost is the opportunity to turn the drawing as a tool to engage in detailed study. The observer gets more out of a drawing than from a photograph. The time it takes to snap a picture is a fraction of the time spent really noting the subtleties of an object acquired through drawing. Throughout this course sketching or drawing is emphasized.
Reflection
Graduate school is difficult enough without developing the skill of thinking critically. Each semester will provide you with opportunities to change the way you think and act. Thinking about how the events you experience fit into your world, is only possible when you put ideas on paper. Even if you just write a few sentences a day, you will reap the benefits that writing has the potential to give. Reflective prompts will be prior to each trip. Creating your own prompts will increase your experience, so try creating prompts.
These tips are a few of the brief notes that will fine tune your observation and exploration. Exercise your skills between and during field trips and classroom observations.
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