Goals:
To practice KWL strategy for inquiry
(What I "Know," "what I Want" to learn," and what I "Learned")
To use communications technology to answer questions

Objectives:
Students will brainstorm what they know.
Students will ask questions about trains.
Students will research a kid-made invention.
Students will write a summary paragraph and develop questions for the inventors.

TUSD Core Curriculum:

Language Arts
Reading
Use reading comprehension strategies such as drawing conclusions, summarizing, making predictions, identifying cause and effect. (R-F3)
PO 1. make inferences based on the text
PO 2. restate information from a reading selection

Listening and Speaking
Students attend, understand and respond orally in a variety of situations. Prepare and deliver information by generating topics; identifying the audience; and organizing ideas, facts or opinions for a variety of speaking purposes such as giving directions, relating personal experiences, telling a story or presenting a report.

Science
Students understand and use the processes of scientific investigation and scientific ways of knowing. They are able to design, conduct, describe and evaluate these investigations. They are able to understand and apply concepts that unify scientific disciplines.

Determine when technology is useful and select and use the appropriate tools and technology resources to solve problems. (T6-E1)

1. Share Gramps Lester's train. Begin to fill in the "K" &endash; what do we know about trains?

2. Begin to fill in the "W" - what questions do we have about trains?

3. Identify the author/illustrator of The New Engine (Carlos Encinas) and read the book.

4. What happens when a new invention is created and used? How/where do inventors get their ideas?

5. Show a bullet train from Great Wonders of the World (Russell Ash). Show Web printout of a superconductor train.

6. How would you go about answering your questions?

Powell/Castillo

Bring superconductor from Dr. Bob at the UA. Observe the superconductor and record observations. Develop questions for Dr. Bob and email them. These students went on to conduct partner research on inventions: brainstorming/webbing, developing questions, note-making topic sentence writing, paragraph writing, and PowerPoint publication.

Reyes-Worman

7. Read the "Two-Door Mailbox" chapter from The Kids' Invention Book (Arlene Erlbach). As a whole class, make notes, write topic sentences, paragraphs, and questions for the inventors. Email questions.

Information Literacy Standards: #1, #3, #4, and #6.

Back to Virtual Collaboration: Curriculum-based Telecomputing in the K-12 Library/Classroom