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Science Scrapbook A WebQuest for
9th Grade (Integrated Science)
Designed by
Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits This lesson was developed as part
of the a quarter project for Integrated and Earth Science Students from
the Moffat County High School Science Department. It has been used
for a number of years and has been very successful. In this lesson,
students are to collect and read 16 to 20 science related articles
and write complete, reflective summaries on each. Upon completion students
will construct a scrapbook and turn it in the their instructor for part
of their first quarter grade.
The Task This lesson is anchored in ninth grade Integrated Science and tenth
grade Earth Science curriculum as well as social studies. This particular
lesson can basically be done at any grade level where current events are
an important part of the curriculum. Students would not need any
prior knowledge about current scientific events to begin this project,
but do need to know where to look for current event resources (i.e., newspapers,
magazines, scientific journals, Internet, etc...). This project could
easily be adaptive to the Global Studies, US History, American Government,
Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Geography curriculum. Also, this project
could be easily done at nearly at age levels. In addition, students
will be asked to become critical thinkers while making inferences of the
world around them as they become informed about the world around them.
By creating a scrapbook the students will to observe, categorize, and compare
the events that are taking place within the realm of science.
Curriculum Standards Colorado Model Content Standards Science 1. Students understand the processes of scientific investigation and
design, conduct, communicate about and evaluate such investigations.
Moffat County High School Curriculum Standards General Science Objectives (Grades 9-12) Included in all of the following
classes: Integrated, Earth, Biology, Electricity, Chemistry and Physics.
The Process Each student is to find and research articles about current science processes and events in recent magazines, newspapers, or the Internet, cut them out and place them in a scrapbook. The article should be taped or fastened neatly in the scrapbook to a sheet of paper (NO NOTEBOOK PAPER!!!). Each article will need to have its source and the date it was printed below the article as well as a brief summarization of the major points of the article. Each summarization should also include some of your feelings about the article. This summarization should be at least 2 to 3 paragraphs long. Students will be graded upon the following criteria. Each article is
worth 5 points, therefore to get an “A” you will need to have at least
19 good, acceptable articles with complete reflective summarizations. 20
articles for an A+, 19 for an A, 18 for a B+, 17 for a B, 16 for a C+,
15 for a C, 14 for a D, and 13 articles for a D-. Any less than 13
articles will result in a failing grade. Partial credit may be assessed
but usually it will be all or nothing. For those people who like
to wait until the last minute to start this scrapbook, BEWARE that this
assignment can not be done in one or two nights. To be done before
the due date you should average about TWO articles per week. In addition,
points may be added or subtracted for the appearance and organization of
the scrapbook as a whole, and extra credit may be earned if the project
is completed early.
Variations The following ideas are variations that you may or may not want to include within the scope of this project; 1. To extend the scrapbook collection you may want to include it as an ongoing project for the whole year. Maybe one article per week. 2. You may want the articles to be more specialized in a particular realm of science or social studies (i.e., for a chemistry class articles must only apply to chemical processes and principles). 3. If time allows you may want to have an assigned day within the computer lab so that the students can construct a Table of Contents or type their summaries. 4. A computer lab can also make this project become an electronic scrapbook
where students can create their own with computer drawing, and graphics
program.
Interdisciplinary Connection This project could easily be adaptive to the Global Studies, US History, American Government, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Geography curriculum. Also, this project could be easily done at nearly at age levels. It is our hope that we can later link this project, as well as others to the school web site that allows students with very limited English to still complete this project. Due to limited speaking and understanding of English we would like to link this page to another page of helpful terms and vocabulary as to help with the understanding of this project. Resources Needed 1. Criteria Page to be handed out to each student during the first week
of the quarter.
Web Site Usage: ABC News www.abcnews.com
Evaluation Students will have eight weeks to complete the project. For each complete and accurate article the student will receive five points per article. A maximum of 20 articles can be collected at five points a piece for a total score of 100 points. Extra credit points can be awarded based upon early completion as long as the student has 20 articles. For each article under 20 then five points will be deducted from their final score. Conclusion We have now done this particular project during the 1st quarter for each of the past ten years. Every year I tend to add a new wrinkle to project so that students have to do one more step in their thinking processes. We believe that it is a worthy lesson in that it allows the student to control the data (in this case the article research) he or she collects. No two people are doing exactly the same project, yet the end results (scrapbook and summaries) will look the same, although their collection of articles should be completely different. Also, this allows my students to see a viable connection between the science and how it affects their everyday lives.
Credits & References We would like to thank the following individuals that have used this
project in the past few years to help students better understand the scientific
method and how it applies to everyday events.
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