For Parents…

Dear Parents,

This is the Blog Project Assignment. I don’t expect you to read through the entire blog – that is your student’s job. I encourage you to visit the Blog often. On the blog you’ll find articles written by the students, pictures of the students and even videos they create. The blog is a major grade. I recommend that you keep track of your student’s progress throughout the term. This project is meant to open the students up to the world around them and expose them to ideas far beyond their classroom walls. It should be a fun learning experience. However, as with any assignment, it only reaps rewards (both intrinsic and extrinsic) if a student completes the assigned work.

Sincerely yours,

Laura Nickerson

The purpose of the blog project is to:

• teach students how to evaluate sources of information on the Internet; in the beginning of the project i directly guide the students on their selection of credible sources, however, as the project progresses students will be expected to assist each other in the proper selection of credible sources as they gradually move toward the ability to do this on their own.
• teach students the proper usage of online resources ( the majority of the students regularly steal and plagiarize information they find on the Internet either knowingly or unknowingly); the purpose of the project is to help them understand the reason this is wrong and what they can do to avoid it.
• give students the opportunity to have their work read by thousands of people, both their peers and experts in t field ( and thus, improve the quality of their work, because they know others besides just their teacher will be reading it).
• give students the opportunity to discuss topics that they care about with their peers (from the entire school and world and not just limited to their class) and experts; the project is deliberately designed to allow the students to talk about affects of biology that they find interesting rather than forcing them to research a particular topic.
• give students the opportunity to discuss labs performed in class and topics discussed during class
• give students the opportunity to publish and discuss pictures, videos, and animation that help them learn the material discussed in class
• improve science literacy; the average American finds it difficulty or is unable to read a basic science article and understand its true meaning. This means that people are relying on non-scientists (politicians, news media, etc.) to get their science information and have no way of knowing if the information they are getting is accurate. As the student progress through he project, they will be required to rely more on first-hand sources and will continue to learn how to understand science papers.
• give students the opportunity to interact and discuss topics with practicing scientists
• give students the confidence to speak to scientist and an ability to build relationships with those scientists.
• give students opportunities they will not normally have in the traditional classroom setting.