PREPARING TO USE SOFTWARE AND THE INTERNET IN THE K-12 SCIENCE CLASSROOM

The National Science Education Standards and state science and environment/ecology standards require that K-12 teachers are versed in and use technology. Once a teacher has decided to use software or the Internet to enhance instruction, the challenge is in selecting and incorporating the appropriate software and sites. A teacher should choose carefully so that student understanding and retention is activated and maximized and a deep knowledge base is developed leading to inquiry-based learning experiences. Learning should be sequential, progressing from basic to more complex. Not only should content be a goal of incorporating software and Internet, but process skills should also be developed.

To effectively incorporate software into a lesson, a teacher must plan in specific areas: overview and objectives of the lesson, technology connection, assessment, and materials and other resources. Because of the time involved, the teacher must ask whether use of software is truly a part of the learning process or has been implemented for technology's sake only. There are basically three degrees to which the Internet can be integrated into a science lesson. The simplest is to use data from the Internet relative to your topic. A more involved use occurs when activities are developed that correlate with specific Internet sites. At the highest degree, the study of a particular topic can be almost exclusively Internet-based. A teacher must follow guidelines to make the incorporation of the Internet educationally sound: 1.) Determine goals and student outcomes. 2.) Choose curricular area to be reinforced. 3.) Decide on learning activities for each part of the curriculum. 4.) Decide what learning activities could be supported with the Internet. Once these steps have been completed, it is time to search the Internet for sites that are best suited for your curricular needs. Choosing an Internet site that is appropriate not only for your purpose but also for the developmental and reading level of your students is essential. Guidelines and correlated rubrics were developed to evaluate both software and Internet sites for science lessons. Guidelines, examples of both rubrics, and lessons incorporating software and the Internet will be illustrated.