“Mapping Students Minds” by Owen, A.
In my quest to discover what Intel had to offer me as a future teacher, I discovered elementary school students, as well as older students, can benefit from casual mapping in the classroom. It offers them the ability to take in a visual representation of cause-and-effect relationships. I viewed the demonstration from Intel’s website and saw how easily information in the dialogue boxes can be changed. This makes its use in casual mapping ideal for elementary students, but more complex relationships can be mapped as well, making it suitable for older and more sophisticated students. As the student’s thinking evolves, so can evidence and explanations. Ranking of evidence lets them see more clearly the relationship between cause and effect, plus they can obtain hands-on practice of adding and eliminating evidence. Then ranking the evidence allows them to evaluate their evidence and decide whether it is relevant. This process facilitates the exchange of ideas These are tools I wish teachers had when I was a child and in school. The author and others have proclaimed these tools have the power to encourage development of meta-cognitive skills (thinking about thinking). The program is quite easy to use and supports a number of different learning styles. The best part?…..it’s free!
“WISE” is a no-cost, on-line environment to help support students in science education. Part of the on-line environment is “TELS” which is a wonderful support arena for middle- and high school students: Not only does it support teaching standards in life science, physical science, and earth science for middle school, it also has the ability to satisfy the standards in biology, chemistry, and physics for high school. The Teacher’s PET (Portal and Educator’s Toolbox) keeps teachers in the loop and allows them to be active participants. Using features like project library, project editor (where they can customize project requirements), and management tools, they can view, assess, and provide feedback and support online.
1. How can “TELS” support students in the classroom?
In the program are several tools students can use to support their educational experience: There are activities and questions incorporated in the learning modules…i.e. if they are working on the theory of evolution a question could be…”What is variation?” Then an interactive…let’s create an experiment…what will happen? … Experiment…finally what happen? “Hints” are provided as they move through a lesson. These hints help keep the students focused. Notes allow students to reflect. Interactive visualization and simulations are built into the software.
2. How would I use the visual mapping in the classroom?
I would tend to use the suggestion from the website, whereby subjective topic lists “sparks” reasoning and dialogue between students. Also, picking controversial topics would stimulate students to engage in a dialogue. Here, the process is more important than correct answers. The authors state, “Students get the most out of this tool when working within groups of two.” I agree. Students have the opportunity to practice interpersonal skills and conflict resolution, and being in a team gives them practice in compromise.
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