By: Melissa ThompsonSeptember 22, 2011

CEP 806

Ideas

When thinking of all the possibilities of what my 7th grade students should research on their computer I decided it would be good for them to research a science topic that is popular and highly talked about in today’s society. The topic I thought would be thought provoking to students and something they would be interested in is Energy.

Ideas

When I decided Energy would be a good topic for students to research and find on the computer I felt that I needed to narrow down the search for students since there are so many energy sources out there.

Students would be working with a partner they choose and will be assigned to research pros and cons of a specific energy.

The specific types of energies that were assigned to the students included… Solar Energy Wind Energy Nuclear Energy Water Energy Coal Natural Gas Oil

Goals for Students

My goals for students included…1 Researching sites on the internet with

a partner finding pros and cons of a specific type of energy that was assigned to them.

2 Students going to at least 5 websites relating to their topic.

3 Students determining, rating and explaining why they thought the 5 sites they chose were good or bad.

Goals for Students

1 While students found 5 sites and rated them on a survey sheet, they also needed to explain why they thought the various sites were good or bad.

2 After students filled out the survey sheet they needed to take screenshots of 3 sites they went to and email the screenshots to me.

3 In the email students needed to write an explanation of why they used these sites and determined if they were good, bad or helpful.

Predictions

Before students preformed the inquiry activity on the computers I predicted that they would have a hard time determining which sites they considered good or bad. I thought students would have a lot of questions about the topic, how to search the topic and find arguments both positive and negative about the energy source.

I predicted these outcomes due to seeing 7th grade students in the past struggle with finding appropriate sites. I have found that there is too much information on the web and students struggle with determining what is reliable and accurate.

Explanation

I figured students would have a lot of questions about how to research as they are so use to teachers providing them with everything they need. Another characteristic of middle school students is they pick and choose when they want to listen to the teacher and don’t always absorb the instructions. To my surprise, all my students did a very good job listening to me when I explained the activity and what they had to do and not too many questions were asked when students were searching sites on the internet.

Inquiry Plan

After I assigned the students their topic I also gave them a survey questionnaire to fill out describing every step they took in their research.

Inquiry Plan This was the survey sheet students had to fill out about the sites and information they found while researching the internet on Pros and Cons of Energy.

Examples

On the following pages are… Examples of a few students findings.

Questionnaire surveys.

Website screenshots.

Quotes of students’ reactions are also included.

Patterns of Data Group #1 Findings on Pros and Cons of Water Energy

Patterns of Data

“The first website was not so good because of lack of pictures, the article wasn't verified and the content was hard to understand.”

Group #1 Continued – Pros and Cons of Water Energy

Patterns of Data

“The second website was helpful because it had videos, diagrams, lots of information, and subtitles but it had too many ads.”

Group #1 Continued – Pros and Cons of Water Energy

Patterns of Data Group #2 – Pros and Cons of Oil Energy

Patterns of Data

“We think that ehow.com is an exceptionally great informational and helpful site about the pros and cons of oil energy.”

Group #2 Continued – Pros and Cons of Oil Energy

Patterns of Data Group #2 Continued – Pros and Cons of Oil Energy

“We think that nuclearpowerprocon.org is helpful because it gave lots of information although there were no pictures. One disadvantage of this site though, is that it has not been updated since 1988.”

Patterns of Data Group #3 – Pros and Cons of Coal Energy

Patterns of Data Group #3 – Pros and Cons of Coal Energy

Students in this group said the sites “was helpful because it was easy to use.”

Patterns of Data Group #4 – Pros and Cons of Solar Energy

Patterns of Data Group #4 continued – Pros and Cons of Solar Energy

Students in this groupsaid this was a good site because it had a lot of good informationabout solar energy.

Emergent Ideas

I was very impressed with the ability my students had on researching their topics. They far exceeded my expectations. I thought they would need more teacher direction and guidance. I thought I would be answering more questions and redirecting their research.

I feel these positive results were due to the thorough explanations I gave to students prior to the activity and the clear expectations that were set. Students were very engaged and excited about the lesson. This was an affective learning activity and I will plan more activities of this nature with my students.

Questions

Did the students pay attention to the citations?

Did the students notice the date the sites were put together?

Did the students questions the reliability of the website?

Were the students engaged and on task?

Student Responses

After conducting this research assignment in class with my students we discussed during the next class period what students found, liked or disliked about the websites they researched.

Student Responses

Some of the comments students contributed included…

Students rated good websites having… Large writing to read and understand Pictures and video tutorial Appropriate for students at the middle school

level

Students rated bad websites having… Not enough information Information being out of date Not having enough pictures, videos or graphs.

Conclusion

Middle school students are more able than I had anticipated in finding research on the web.

They were self directed learners and enthusiastic participants when it came to using the computer for learning and research.

Students were able to problem solve on their own and needed minimal adult guidance.

Conclusion

Overall, I was surprised by my findings from students conducting this online research. First and foremost, this inquiry project made me realize how middle school students think about searches on the internet. From the data provided in the presentation students found some good websites that helped them better understand pros and cons of energy sources and then found some sites that were not so good.