Abstract

This is a project based learning activity for Grade Nine that uses outcomes from Unit A in Science and COM1015 in Career Technology Studies.   Students are asked to solve the problem of “how can I be an effective voice for an endangered animal?”  Using various problem solving strategies such as creating sub goals, working backwards, brute force trial and error, reasoning and questioning students will explore how to create an effective social media campaign to save an endangered animal.  Students will pick an animal from Alberta that they want to become the voice for.  The goal of this project is to create awareness for your endangered animal. The group that has the largest social network will be the winner of the social media campaign. Students will need to be creative with how they decide to portray their animal and create a personality for their animal. I hope this project engage the students to explore the world of social networking as they will be using blog posts, tweets, posts or videos to share their ideas and thoughts with the world.  I hope students will gain 21^st Century skills such as communicating, editing, customizing content, collaborating with others and responsible use in an online environment.

Rational: Be My Voice - Part 1 (2:59 mins)

Rational: Be My Voice - Part 2 (4:51 mins)

The Background

The Grade Nine’s are a class size of 20 students. For our class we have access to the computer labs with full access to various social media sites. The class has already completed a lesson on privacy and the internet.  We have discussed the issues with sharing personal information online and who has access to our information. We have also completed a lesson on copyright to give the students a better understanding of copyright laws. What can they post on their social media site? How can they reference and give credit to the author?  We have also spent a class on creating Gmail accounts so everyone in the class has their own personal Gmail account that is made with a fake name. These fake names are to protect the privacy of the students. I do not want them sharing personal information for this project. The students have also received permission from their parents to participate in this activity. A letter was sent home to the parents to explain the goals of this assignment.

Letter to Parents

Dear Parent / Guardian,

I am writing to give you some details about our social media project in Science class. Students will be asked to create a social media campaign for an endangered animal from Alberta.  Students will be using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Blogger.  I am hoping that working with these social network tools will give students another way to communicate and enhance their educational experience. 

I have created a Facebook group page and with this page I will send reminders, include links and allow for questions and discussions related to our class project.  I have informed students that our Facebook group will be a positive environment for all students.  Therefore, proper use of the site is important.  I have allowed students to comment on this Group Page so we can have several online class dialogues, however, I expect all comments to be respectful and courteous.

I request that you assist your son or daughter to set their Facebook page so that it cannot be viewed by others without being accepted as a friend.  Students will not be allowed to view my personal Facebook and I will not access their page.   This is to protect both the student and the teacher.  We will spend class time talking about internet safety and how to set privacy settings.    Please feel free to join our Facebook group to have access to assignment details and due dates.

Please sign at the bottom and return this slip to me by October 1, 2012.

I give my son/daughter permission to use Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, YouTube for Miss. Wilson’s Social Media Assignment.

Name: ________________________ Signature: _____________________________ Date: _________

Sincerely,

Miss. Wilson

Gr. 9 CTS Teacher

Essential Question

How can I be an effective voice for an endangered animal?



• What can I do to make my animal interesting to the public?
• How can I share facts & details about my animal?
• What is the best way to reach as many people as possible?
• Why should people care about my animal?
• What are the issues surrounding my animal?
• Why is it endangered?
• What does my animal do for society?
• How can I get people to like my animal?

 Why use Social Networking Sites: Facebook, Twitter, Blogger?

• All 3 of these sites are free for students to sign up on. The students just need an email account.
• All 3 sites are easy to navigate and the interface is really easy to understand.
• All 3 sites have many tutorials available to help students if they are unfamiliar how to use an aspect of the site.
• I have not used Twitter before so it gave me a chance to also learn a new social media site. It was good practise for me to create my own account for my animal and attempt to complete aspects of the assignments that I want the students to complete.
• Facebook allows students to create a personalize profile, post information on their wall, connect with other “friends” and like groups. Facebook also allows for some privacy settings so students can adjust the security settings on their page.
• Twitter & Blogger & Facebook can all be linked together to help increase your networks and I was curious to try that out. This was something new for me to learn how to link these sites together.
• These sites allow the students to collaborate with each other and the public.
• I think many students will already be familiar with these social networking sites so they will know how to use them.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/?sk=welcome#!/carrie.woodlands?sk=wall    Carrie Woodlands

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/followers   Carrie Woodlands @woodcaribou

Blogger: http://woodlandcaribou.blogspot.ca/  “Thoughts from a Woodland Caribou”

How to Tackle the Problem

 

Understanding the problem	·         What animals are endangered in Alberta? ·         What are the issues that cause these animals to be endangered? ·         How can people help to save these animals? ·         How can I be voice for this endangered animal? ·         How can I create a personality for this endangered animal? ·         How can I make people interested or care about this animal? ·         How can I create the largest social network for my animal? ·         How can we create awareness for the issues that endangered animals have? o   E-newsletters o   Tweets o   Facebook status updates o   Videos o   Blog postings ·         How can I speak for an endangered animal? o   Explain the issues such as loss of habitat, climate change, and human activities. o   Educate others about what they can do to promote change or what they can do to help. ·         What are aspects that are important for students to solve these problems? o   Students must complete research about endangered animals in Alberta. o   Social media platforms must be easy to use & free to sign up. o   Pick popular social media tools that students are already familiar with. o   Social Media tool can reach as many people as possible. o   Students can be creative when using tools. o   Students must create followers & friends to be able to network with others. o   Students must have an email account to set up their social media tools. o   Students must have access to internet & computers. o   Students will need time to build these networks and create regular posts, tweets, entries. o   Students need an understanding of privacy issues & copyright issues when working online.
Researching the problem	·         Animals at risk: http://albertawilderness.ca/issues/wildlife/species-at-risk ·         Create a Fake Facebook page: http://www.teachone2one.com/teaching-with-technology/facebook-templatefor-education/ ·         A 6 minute video about social media: http://youtu.be/5mid8p4A6Eg ·         Using Twitter in the classroom: ·         http://suite101.com/article/12-expert-twitter-tips-for-the-classroom-a139534 ·         A video explaining social media by comparing it to ice cream: http://www.commoncraft.com/video/social-media ·         A video explaining social networking: http://www.commoncraft.com/video/social-networking ·         A video explaining Twitter: http://www.commoncraft.com/video/twitter ·         A video explaining how blogs work: http://www.commoncraft.com/video/blogs
Formulating strategies	·         Trail & Error – What kind of post, tweet or entry creates an interest with other people? How can I improve my post to get better results? Does a video rank higher than a comment? How can I get people to like my page or follow my tweets? ·         Working Backwards – Look at the end result to understand what the perfect solution looks like. Then then work backwards with baby steps to create the end result. ·         Brainstorming – list all the possible ideas of how to be a voice for animals. ·         Content Knowledge – learn more information about various social media tools and gain more knowledge about how to utilize them. Then use your content knowledge to increase your social networks. ·         Questioning – asking if you are on the right path? Is what I am doing working? Could I do it better? How can I improve my results? ·         Elaboration – Expand on the details of the problem to get a new perspective. Maybe you will find a new solution by gathering more in-depth knowledge about the problem.
Execution	·         Ask good questions. ·         Analysis and evaluation of results. ·         Reflect on learning. ·         Create profiles on social media sites and then start updating them. ·         Make connections with others and try to grow these connections to spread the message to as many people as possible. ·         Practise – what works as a tweet and gets re-tweeted. What doesn’t work? What interests other people and motivates them to care?
Finding alternatives	·         Being open to other ideas and new points of view.
Choosing the solution	·         Pick the best option.
Assessment verification	·         Feedback from my peers and instructor. ·         Re-evaluate
Communication	·         Communicate my lesson plans on my blog.

Problem Solving Strategies

Students will need to use various problem solving strategies to tackle these assignments.  The following is a list of some examples of how students might use these strategies:

“ Create sub-goals: This project might seem overwhelming to students so I have attempted to break the problem down into smaller problems.  These are sub-goals that if reached will lead to the final goal and solve the problem.

“ Working Backward:  I also expect the students will want to work backwards. They will want to see the end result. That is why I have created exemplars of various parts of this project as I want the students to see what the end result looks like. It is up to the student to decide how to get to the end and to ultimately solve the problem.

“ Brute Force – Trial & Error: The students will have to just try various attempts at increasing their social networks as there are no formulas to explain how to connect with the most people on social media sites. Some attempts will work and others will fail. It is through this process of attempting various techniques that the students will get close to the end goal.

“ Reasoning:  Some students might use reasoning as they might already be familiar with social networking sites. They might be able to use inductive reasoning to make educated guesses at how to create the largest social network. Since they have already used these social media tools and have already observed what works and what doesn’t work to create a viral message. 

“ Questioning: Students will need to question their methods to evaluate their results. How can they improve and get more contacts? What is working? What needs to be improved? What can I learn from others?

“ Content Knowledge:  Learn more information about various social media tools and gain more knowledge about how to utilize them. Then use your content knowledge to increase your social networks. The more you know about the problem and the tools to solve the problem the easier it will be.

“ Brainstorming: Students might start by listing all the possible ideas that they have. Try to focus on the quantity of ideas not the quality of the ideas. Once you have a large list of ideas you can decide on the quality of the ideas and pick the best one.

“ Model-Building: Students will be creating Facebook, Twitter, Blogger & Youtube accounts to create awareness for their endangered animal. These tools could be seen as a type of model building because students might see patterns and similarities in using these different programs. As students create a base model of social networking they might find new innovative ways to tackle the problem.

Activation Matrix

Dimension of Problem	Attributes of the Tool (Rationale for Technology)	Problem Solving Strategies
How can I protect my student’s privacy?	Facebook: Control settings on who has access to posts. Limit access to friends only. Students will be using fake names & animal pictures on their social media sites to protect their own identity.	Ask an expert: Get directions from the teacher. Share tutorials with the students about how to set the privacy on Facebook.
What social media tools can be used to increase social networks?	Twitter: follow others and they might follow you. Facebook: become friends with others and their friends might want to be your friend. Blogger: write interesting entries and people might follow your blog.	Trial & Error: Keep trying new things to see what works. Evaluate: Analyse the results to determine what works best.
How to decide what social media tools to select?	Social media platforms must be easy to use & free for students to sign up. I also wanted to pick tools that students are already familiar with. It will be easier for the students if they already know how to navigate on these sites.	Working Backwards: I know that the end goal looks like so I it is easy for me to see the steps to follow to get the results that I want.
How can I create a personality for this endangered animal?	Twitter, Facebook and Blogger all allow students to create unique profiles and upload images. Students to personalize their pages to give their animal a personality.  These sites also allow the student to update status messages that will give followers a feel for their personality.	Content Knowledge: I have used all of these tools so I have content knowledge about how these sites work. I am confident these sites will allow for creativity.
How can the students create awareness for the issues that endangered animals have?	Twitter, Facebook and Blogger all allow students to create their own: §  E-newsletters §  Tweets §  Facebook status updates §  Videos §  Blog postings	Content Knowledge: I have used all of these tools. I already have a level of content knowledge about how to utilize these tools.  I have content knowledge about how these tools work and I will share my knowledge with the students.

Gr. 9 Science Outcomes for Unit A: Biological Diversity

Initiating and Planning

Performing and Recording

Analyzing and Interpreting

Communication and Teamwork

GLOS:

1. Investigate and examine diversity within and among species, the importance of diversity and the various environments in which species live.

o   This will be explored when students research endangered species in Alberta.

2. Examine the nature of reproductive processes and their role in transmitting species characteristics

3. Identify impacts of human action on species survival and variations within species.

o   Discussion about Richard and his invention to save lions.

o   This will be explored when students research what issues endangered species are facing.

SLOS:

1.   Investigate biological diversity within and among species, including humans

2.   Define community, population, habitat and niche and relate them to diversity within and among species.

o   Students will create a wordle.com world could with these definitions and post this on the blog.

3.   Recognize that species are dependent on others and their environment

o   Students will comment on how their endangered animal is dependent on their environment. Can be listed as FB post, Blog entry or Tweet.

4.   Examine how inherited traits influence diversity and survival within and among species

o   Students will include information about what adaptations and traits their endangered animal has and why it makes them unique.

5.   identify and distinguish between examples of natural and artificial selection

o   Students will include information about what adaptations and traits their endangered animal has and why it makes them unique.

6.   Investigate human impact on diversity

o   Students will learn about Richard in Kenya and his invention to stop lions from attacking his cattle.

o   Students will research and comment on how human impact affects their endangered animal. Can be listed as FB post, Blog entry or Tweet.

7.   Examine ongoing changes in biological diversity through loss of habitat and the extinction of species.

o   Students will comment on the impact of their animal going extinct.  Will it matter? Who will be affected? How can it be prevented? Can be listed as FB post, Blog entry or Tweet.

o   Students will look at ranchers in Texas that are raising endangered and extinct animals from Africa in order to allow trophy hunters to kill them.  Is this a form of conservation?

8.   Examine local and global strategies for minimizing loss of species

o   Students to write a blog post about their feelings about zoo breeding programs? Is that an effective way to save their endangered animal? Do they support this idea? What are people saying about zoos? Does everyone support breeding animals in captivity?

o   Are the Texas ranchers an out of the box way to protect animals?

Grade 9 CTS Outcomes for COM1015: Media

GLOS:

1.   Identify copyright restrictions and permissions and put them into practice

o   Students will learn about copyright laws and use these rules when creating their profiles, posts, entries or tweets.

2.   Prepare and deliver a presentation using media of choice.

o   Students will create a variety of short presentations on Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and YouTube.

SLOS:

1.   Create a design with a message and display the message, ensuring that the: layout is suitable; image or audio is appropriate; message is clear.

o   Students will be creating multiple messages and displaying them to the public on Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and YouTube.

2.   Critique and evaluate own work and the work of others based on appropriateness and effectiveness of assignment(s) with respect to: how well the assignment met the objectives; how the elements and principles of design help facilitate good composition in his or her work; the technical and creative aspects of the work; e.g., quality, uniqueness, areas of concern/difficult; meeting school and community standards; appropriate language, the use of tools and equipment.

o   Students will self and peer evaluate their final project. Were they successful to create followers and interest in their animal?

Grade 9 ICT outcomes

C.1 - Students will access, use and communicate information from a variety of technologies. C.2 - Students will seek alternative viewpoints, using information technologies.
C.3 - Students will critically assess information accessed through the use of a variety of technologies.
C.4 - Students will use organizational processes and tools to manage inquiry.
C.5 - Students will use technology to aid collaboration during inquiry.
C.6 - Students will use technology to investigate and/or solve problems.
C.7 - Students will use electronic research techniques to construct personal knowledge and meaning.
F.1 - Students will demonstrate an understanding of the nature of technology.
F.2 - Students will understand the role of technology as it applies to self, work and society.
F.3 - Students will demonstrate a moral and ethical approach to the use of technology.