Teaching with Technology

 Teaching Space and Planets with Technology


Space Song

When facilitating this lesson on space and the planets, I found that using technology, such as videos with music, was extremely engaging to students. It served well as a good review and introduction to the lesson, which allowed for smooth transitioning into the main activity students would do. It also gave surface level information which the main activity would support and dive deeper into. It did help that the app we used is built in-browser, so it did not require any downloads or signing up, which can often cause confusion and frustration among students. This lesson that we facilitated did not leave our small group of students with many questions, especially with navigating what to do or for accomplishing tasks, but this could differ when teaching this lesson in an elementary school setting. 

I can definitely see myself using this exact lesson in teaching space in my own classroom. I could alter this lesson and use the app over a course of lessons by looking over each specific planet rather than making it a group project to research. The app can be crossed over into various grades as well by picking and choosing what information you would want students to focus on and learn about. The app also has content on other space topics, such as the universe, the sun, science technology, and geography on the Earth. An app like this is incredibly versatile and can be used for a multitude of various curriculum aside from the one that we focused on.


Comments

  1. Kira BerryOctober 10, 2024 at 12:09 PM

    The fact that the application did not require a paid subscription works to accessibility and equity which is great, especially in our economy! The lesson did go well, and there was no real need for adaptation outside of materials too which indicates great lesson planning. I do wish more time would have been allotted in order to facilitate the entire lesson plan as the final activity would have been so much more impressive.

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