I recently discovered an amazing website that gives access to tons of information through interactive activities and prompts. In my exploring of this website, I discovered a wonderful post pertaining to the water cycle.
This information contained in the smartnotebook was very accurate. I found the information to be very age oriented and created on a level that was considerate of all children's learning styles. This obviously contributed to the overall goal of the lesson being met.
In addition, not only did this lesson give children a chance to ponder on vocabulary terms such as evaporation, condensation, precipitation, etc. It also in turn stated terms and then gave a visual demonstrate of the term and an example.
The use of this program was very easy and created around the concept of student interaction. There were slides available for the students to come to the board and write, move, label and demonstrate different concepts based on their knowledge, which I find much more beneficial than completing a worksheet.
There were portions of this slideshow that allowed for children to even give examples and not examples and how to decipher between the two in relation to the water cycle. A game was even presented that allowed the children to roll a die and the number the die landed of depicted what vocabulary term the student would have. The student would then give a brief explanation as to how their vocabulary term was associated with the water cycle. I love this idea. Not only having the children interact with the material, but with each other is an excellent idea.
This lesson as a whole was amazing. The interaction with the technology that the children would receive through this, is exceptional. The content and materials found within this lesson is accurate and very interactive. The entire concept of the water cycle can be slightly difficult, however through this material. The students are given the opportunity to explore the water cycle in several different ways, all of which would give the students a lasting and effective understanding of the concept.
The only portion of this lesson I would possibly change would be the closure. There was to true sense of closure found the the ending of the presentation. As a future educator, I am well aware of just how important it is to close a lesson with students in order for them fully grasp and conceal a concept. However, I really did enjoy this lesson regardless and would definitely recommend this site and particular presentation to any teacher introducing the water cycle.
The smart board is an excellent tool that helps to capture students attention with new and exciting technology. Something like the water cycle can be made either very interesting or very boring to learn depending on the method used to teach it. Something like the lesson you described could really help capture the students attention. I am excited about using smart boards in the classroom.
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