14.45 lancellotti

Scuola di Scienze e Tecnologie Sezione Geologia http://www.unicam.it/geologia/unicamearth/

TEACHINGEARTHSCIENCE:

A WEBSITE FOR TEACHERS

Lorenzo Lancellotti

PhD University of Camerino

Earth Science Department

"Science Education and Guidance in Schools: The Way Forward”

Firenze 21-22/10/2013

http://d7.unicam.it/teachingearthsciences


In the last decades the development of virtual and useful tools for

teaching science at school has increased really fast and:

“even without going totally virtual, the Internet can provide a rich and

valuable learning environment for anyone interested in the sciences” .

(Doherty, 1996).

Preliminary remark


http://www.circoloinformatico.it/


The research idea

The research starts form the idea that Italian teachers might benefit of a web

tool collecting the most interesting materials for teaching Earth Science.


• Italian science teachers are mostly biologists (more than 40%)

• There is lack of interest or competences in Earth Science Teaching

• There is a lack of Earth Science teaching material in Italian. Most of

references websites are in English and not structured for Italian schools.


The motivation



• To set up effective computer based teaching tools for Italian science

teachers.

• The website will host a repository of the most interesting and useful

Earth science tools currently available, adapted for Italian schools.

• The lectures will be tested on a pilot group of teachers.

The aims



• To evaluate relevance, efficiency and impact of this website.

• To evaluate if the website help teachers to feel more self confident

towards Earth Science teaching.

The expected outcomes


Scuola di Scienze e Tecnologie Sezione Geologia http://www.unicam.it/geologia/unicamearth/ http://d7.unicam.it/teachingearthsciences

Understanding teachers’ needs and selecting the themes to work on.

The sample is composed by the teachers who inscribed their schools at the

2012 Natural Science Olympiad.

•It is large

•It is geographically various

•It’s easy to contact The regional phase of Natural Science

Olympiad in Emilia Romagna

We decided to use this sample because:

The first step


The questionnaire

A questionnaire has been sent to the selected sample

Some of the questions asked to the teachers:

SI NO

nell’insegnamento delle scienze della Terra mi avvalgo del laboratorio*

nell’insegnamento delle scienze della Terra mi avvalgo di computer e proiettore*

nell’insegnamento delle scienze della Terra mi avvalgo della LIM*

nell’insegnamento delle scienze della Terra utilizzo materiale presente su siti specializzati*

ho fatto almeno una lezione di scienze della Terra in lingua straniera

Teaching behaviors

Il sistema solare e i pianeti La tettonica delle placche

La cartografia L’atmosfera e la meteorologia

Le rocce e i minerali Il clima

La giacitura e la deformazione delle

rocce

L’idrosfera marina

I vulcani L’idrosfera continentale

I terremoti Il modellamento del rilievo terrestre

The main themes request by the teachers


Poco d’accordo Molto d’accordo

Poco d’accordo Molto d’accordo

E-learning

The most request supplementary teaching materials


The preliminary data

The analysis of the collected answers shows that most of the teachers

normally use PC and projector, much more than interactive blackboard.


Moreover teachers say they would like to have more materials:

Animations

Movies

Hands-on activity

Test



0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

Il sistema solare e i pianeti

La cartografia

Le rocce e i minerali

La giacitura e la deformazione delle rocce

I vulcani

I terremoti

La tettonica delle placche

L’atmosfera e la meteorologia

Il clima

L’idrosfera marina

L’idrosfera continentale

Il modellamento del rilievo terrestre

%

Reguarding…


On the basis of teachers’ answers a dedicated website has been built.

The web site homepage



The web site is located in a specific area of the Unicamearth web page:

http://d7.unicam.it/teachingearthsciences/


where teachers can register

themselves to have free access

to the learning objects

http://d7.unicam.it/teachingearthsciences/


Some personal details are recorded, to carry out a statistical survey at the

end of the project.



Up to now the web site contains the first 3 teaching units:

• Plate tectonics,

• Volcanoes,

• Earthquakes



Each Unit contains different lessons, all of which including:

A screen shot of the website showing a page with all the learning object available

• power point file

• pdf file

• MP4 file

• set of exercises

• extra movies



The power point file

The ppt is composed by the most significant images flanked by key-point text.


The additional links: every time it is possible different links are inserted

Lab activities

Animations

Movies

In-depths

material


Using these links teachers can get most of the material they ascked for:


The pdf file

It is the content of the whole

lesson, composed by the same

images present in the ppt lesson,

but by a richer text.



The exercises

A set of multiple choice (from 10 to 20 depending on the lesson’s length)

and of open answers exercises (10)



The mp4 file

The slide show of the lesson with a voice off explaining the content



The additional short movies

A series of short movies clarifying the most important concept of the lesson


What teachers can do?

• The ppt lessons cab be used directly or modified.

• The pdf is a sort of guide for the lesson.

• The Mp4 is thought for the teachers, but it could be used also in a “flipped

classroom” approach.

• The exercises are a suggestion for the evaluation.

• The short movies are a simple way to explain complex concepts.


At the moment the registered teachers are close to 100.


A screenshot of some registered teachers


Each learning object has its own comment space, where teachers can

record their opinion.



A feedback questionnaire for the first two units has been uploaded.

It provides valuable information for determining teachers’ response, in order to improve the quality and the effectiveness of the web site.



The analysis of the first set of answers.

It confirms the highest % of biologists among science teachers.



and the use of specific website for Earth science teaching



Teachers indicate a certain grade of satisfaction about the different learning

objects:



The web site started to be online in the second part of the last school year,

thus less than half of the teachers managed to use the materials in their

classroom.

But most of them said they will do in the future.



A section of the questionnaire is about the general structure of the website:




The website is easy to use.

The website structure is clear.



The website extends teachers’ teaching materials,

adding information to the school book.


The web site makes them feel more self confident

Teachers say that they would have more teaching units and they would suggest the use of the web site to their colleagues.


To sum up

The first set of data are encouraging for going on and uploading new Units.

A comment left by a teacher.



• Engage as many teacher as possible

• Register their feedback

• Improve the existing units

• Upload more teaching units

• Collect and elaborate the final evaluation

And now?


Thank you

for your attention!


14.45 lancellotti

Education

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