IPT 287 El Ed Technology Practicum ProjectBy: Shannon Rupp

Water CentersLearning Objectives:Standard 3: Students will develop an

understanding of their environment. Objective 2Investigate water and interactions with water.

Observe and measure characteristics of water as a solid and liquid.

Compare objects that float and sink in water. Measure and predict the motion of objects in

water. Describe how plants and people need, use, and

receive water.

Water CentersTechnology Application

At one of the centers, I used a laptop and a temperature probe to allow the students to explore. They were required to first learn how to read a thermometer. Then, they needed to record the temperature of room temperature water and ice cold water using the probe. Afterwards, they were allowed to play and experiment with the probes. They loved doing this short little activity!

Water Centers

Students have just completed the worksheet and are now measuring the different water temperatures.

Water Centers

WaterCenters

Students trying to warm up the thermometer to make different letters of the alphabet!

Water Center Reflection I felt like this particular center went very well!

The students understood the directions and enjoyed learning about temperature. I think they especially enjoyed the fact that they got to use technology. I did have to go and set up the laptop each time, but it worked out okay. Next time I would try to have volunteers at every station. I was very busy rotating from station to station to help. There were a couple stations in particular that I had to go to every single rotation to answer questions or to set it up again.

Water Center Tech ReflectionThe four principles of technology integration are: student use of technology,

technology use is essential, focus on learning task, and added value. The students were in small groups of four as they went to each center. They were actively involved in the learning process and actually got to use the probes. I think they would have liked their own, but I was glad that they were in groups because they got to talk about it with each other. I think this is important. Technology definitely added to the lesson here. It helped make learning more real and it helped the students to apply what they were learning to real life. It also helped the students become more engaged in what they were doing. Learning was fun and ALL students participated…and were even sad when they had to leave. The technology went right along with the learning objective. It helped to really enforce what they were learning. It helped the students to learn more about water and some characteristics of water. The students also did not have to learn how to use the technology. I set the computer to go and they were able to play with the probe to learn how to measure things and to think about certain characteristics of water. I wasn’t too keen on having them push buttons on the laptop because they were A) first graders and B) there was water! Notice I even had a towel over the laptop in case someone spilt, which did happen! In this instance, technology definitely made the activity easier to do. It wasn’t even harder for me to set up. My life and planning were easier because of my use of technology. If I had not had the technology, I would have had to find some other way to measure certain characteristics of water. Perhaps I would have needed to bring in thermometers. Perhaps I could have used pictures. With technology the children learned more than what they would have without it.