| Resource type | Theme | Title | Teaser | Grade Level | Name | Comments |
Post date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Learning activities | Biodiversity, Ecosystem health, Ecosystems, Invasive species, Scientific inquiry | Biodiversity Jenga | Pair up Bill Nye the Science Guy and Jenga to engage students with the concept of biodiversity, and to underscore the importance of maintaining healthy, diverse ecosystems. Students remove native species from an ecosystem, and add non-native or invasive species. They see and understand how these actions may ultimately compromise the health and stability of an ecosystem. | Middle school (grades 6-8) | vitalteach | 0 | 2009-11-04 |
| Learning activities | Scientific inquiry | Size Matters | Students hone critical measurement skills, and learn to quickly estimate size using their own body parts. These measurement and estimation skills will come in handy when students try to determine whether or not they find the native or invasive species they will look for at their study site during their Vital Signs investigation. | Middle school (grades 6-8) | vitalteach | 0 | 2009-11-04 |
| Instructional models, Learning activities | Scientific inquiry | Vital Signs Science Notebook | Scientists operate in an inquiry environment. They observe, ask questions, make predictions, record observations, analyze data, make and defend claims, and share their conclusions with the larger community. Similarly, students will carry out their investigations as though they are professional scientists. An online Science Notebook (available to registered participants on the Vital Signs website) helps students organize, document, and reflect on their investigation. It guides students through each stage of the inquiry process as they seek answers to their research questions. |
Middle school (grades 6-8) High school (grades 9-12) |
vitalteach | 0 | 2009-11-04 |
| Learning activities | Scientific inquiry | Prove it | Students practice using words and photos to craft solid evidence statements. Students make statements about things that they believe to be true, and things that they believe to be not true. They practice supporting these claims with written and photo evidence. The activity moves students from simple everyday statements to more complicated statements about species. Skills built during this activity will ultimately help students convince the Vital Signs community that they found or did not find the species they will look for during their investigation. | Middle school (grades 6-8) | vitalteach | 0 | 2009-11-04 |
| Learning activities | Scientific inquiry | Heeeere Banana! | Students conduct this simple investigation with familiar materials to get in the groove of looking carefully for something, making a claim that they found it or did not find it, and supporting that claim with solid, bullet proof evidence. Students plan and carry out a short, sweet investigation to determine whether or not a “species" is in an “ecosystem" or not. They figure out for themselves the importance of careful observations skills. | Middle school (grades 6-8) | vitalteach | 0 | 2009-11-04 |
| Learning activities | Biodiversity, Scientific inquiry | Looking Closely | Students practice looking closely at a leaf, flower, leg, wing, shell, etc. to really hone their observation skills and see the pieces and parts they wouldn’t otherwise see. Species observation skills gained during this detailed drawing activity will help students tell different species apart when they do their own Vital Signs investigation. This activity may be done as individuals or as a team. | Middle school (grades 6-8) | vitalteach | 0 | 2009-11-04 |
| Learning activities | Scientific inquiry | Organize to Analyze | Organizing data before students start the analysis process is a critical and often overlooked step. Students use the Vital Signs Sort & Export table to find the data they need (their own, that of their classmates, and data from their comparison site). They use Venn Diagrams and T-charts to organize data before trying to make sense of it. | Middle school (grades 6-8) | vitalteach | 0 | 2009-11-04 |
| Learning activities | Scientific inquiry | Persuade and Motivate | This lesson guides students' creation of an action project. Persuasive writing may be something that students are unfamiliar with or unpracticed at, but they all have personal experiences to draw from where they tried to get someone to do something they wanted them to do. This writing guide will help them formulate the perfect persuasive, motivational message. Students then design, create, and publish their own media projects to convey their message to their audience. | Middle school (grades 6-8) | vitalteach | 0 | 2009-11-04 |
| Learning activities | Scientific inquiry | Devour or Savor | Students are challenged to slow themselves down to make careful observations about what they see, smell, hear, and taste. Self awareness gained and observation skills built during this activity will be invaluable during fieldwork as students must slow down in order to closely observe species and habitat at their study site. | Middle school (grades 6-8) | vitalteach | 1 | 2009-11-04 |
| Field work resources, Learning activities | Scientific inquiry | Vital Signs Quality Assurance & Peer Review | Before observations are published to the Vital Signs website and made public, data must undergo a Quality Assurance Check and an optional Peer Review. The Quality Check is a first step in the online review process to ensure that the data entry form is complete, and jives with the Vital Signs site policy. Peer Review is a process the scientific community uses to critique and validate scientists’ work before it is published. A combined Quality Check and Peer Review is the very best way to make sure that a data collector's very best work is available for the Vital Signs community to use. | Middle school (grades 6-8) | vitalteach | 0 | 2009-11-04 |
