A Wee Post About Journey North

Image by ccmerino via FlickrMany of my colleagues at Diigo share marvelous bookmarks that relate to various hands-on and outdoor teaching categories, and Tami Brass shared a great resource,Group Recipes. She and I discussed other websites to help teachers in these hands-on subjects enter the Web2.0 world.

She mentioned other teachers interested in golf and another who is a voluteer in a nature center and intereseted in raptors who could be introduced to Web2.0. While I couldn't help out with the golfers, I realized one of my favorite science networks, Journey North would give the raptor afficionado as starting place to see the value of online learning networks.

Here is my introduction from Diigo:

Can't help with the golfers, but one the oldest and most respected wildlife migration and habitat study groups is Journey North.

They have an entire section of work with a variety of animals, including RAPTORS, whales, Monarch butterflies, and many others. Journey North organizers present cool science projects like the tulip growing, Mystery Classroom, etc for classes to join. A teacher can pick as few or as many of these project as they want to participate in.

While the Journey North project started as a way to study the Monarch butterfly migration in North America, it has gone global. Kids and teachers in classes all over the world participate in many of the activities like Mystery Classroom and Tulip Growing(phenology) experiments.

Counting's for the Birds: The Great Backyard Birdcount

For the Birds, for the Kids, for the Environment, for Research and for Fun.....let's all join people across North America from Friday, February 15th through Monday, February 18th, 2008 to count every bird we see. It's easy, it's fun, and it's very important!

How many times do you really have an opportunity to make an impact on learning from your own backdoor? Not often before, but now you can.

Click on this link: Great Backyard Bird Count.
Read and follow the simple steps, and you can sign up to help count the birds in our backyard (or any other place, like a park, lake or farm). Even though you can download the forms and mail them in, you are encouraged to complete the easy to use online data forms. Wherever you call home is the place where you can count birds, for as little as fifteen minutes or as long as you would like.

Share this wonderful lifelong learning opportunity with everyone. This project will encourage and improve community interactions with the schools, so think about ways to involve teachers and students with the rest of the commmunity. Try it! You'll like it!

Integrated Curricula and PBL opportunity

• Want to integrate your curricula?
• Want to start a simple PBL opportunity?
• Want exciting, educational afterschool PBL extensions?
• Want your PBL experience to be successful?
  

Leni Dolan, a colleague at the TappedIn campus, and an experienced teacher-leader, can collaborate with you to meet these goals with Postcard Geography. Leni creates and moderates online projects, including Westward Ho!
Teachers can sign up to participate in the 2007-2008 Postcard Geography project anytime before September 23, 2007. While there is no cost to register, your school would need to invest in the postage necessary to send the class postcard packet, but that is a nominal expense.

I believe that Postcard Geography will provide any teacher an excellent opportunity to make the greatest impact for student learning and achievement through PBL. The Postcard Geography project is a part of the Cyberbee group and is recognized as a Blue Web'n Site. The project is respectful of teachers' need to protect the privacy of students, so the only information you place in the project database is your name, address, and the number of students that will join you in the Postcard Geography project.

Leni explains the design and process of the Postcard Geography project in an easily understood format. I believe teachers appreciate her attention to detail, especially the resource guidance she provides to help you determine where this PBL will fit with your students, curricula and classes.

The Postcard Geography project is arranged into three age categories: Elementary, Middle, and High school levels. If you are a middle or high school teacher looking for a educational service project, your older students could work with younger students in afterschool programs or as helpers for elementary teachers working with the Postcard Geography project.

Leni's directions are simple, yet effective. Here is a sample instruction from the Postcard Geography website:
"The teacher blog provides a place for participants to share ideas and ask questions. The discussion blog also allows the project moderator to inform participants of address changes and other developments as the project progresses. While you may not wish to post messages, we expect everyone to read them. Active use of the discussion blog is crucial to accomplishing the goal of the project – making sure ALL participants receive postcards!"

If you want your students to participate in an effective, educational, and fun PBL, join the Postcard Geography project.