The Virtual High School and TERC are
collaborating to develop an online, full-year Earth & space science course.
This video will provide teachers and school leaders
with a brief yet detailed look
at the instructional approach in lesson design of this new curriculum.
We are excited to work with TERC on this  brand new course that
speaks to the three dimensions of the next generation science standards.
Specifically engaging students in
science practices in order to develop an
appreciation for crosscutting concepts
and explore disciplinary core ideas.
In the next few minutes I'll provide you
with the general look at the overall
structure of the course
as well as a deeper look at some of the
exciting activities students will engage in
during a typical week. This course is delivered in the Desire2Learn platform.
When students and teachers enter
the course they arrive at this home page.
This is a dynamic area that serves to
introduce students to the modules and
topics each week,
provide updates and important reminders,
and highlight related news and current
events throughout the course.
Within the course there are multiple
areas for students to collaborate
including the discussions and blogs and wikis areas,
as well as areas to submit private work,
including the Dropbox and quizzes areas.
All of the lessons and activities in the
course are found in the lessons area.
The Earth & Space Science course is
structured into 11 modules,
each three weeks long. Each module covers a unifying theme and
includes a range interactive case
studies, investigations, readings,
visuals,  discussions, and projects.
This demonstration will focus on the
atmosphere severe storms module.
Essential questions drive teaching
and learning in each module.
In this severe storms module, students
dive into severe weather with
investigations in Hurricanes,
then consider cloud formation and
thunderstorms, as well as the factors
that lead to the progression of severe
storms like hurricanes and tornadoes.
Lessons are clearly organized each
week and presented in an overview document.
The overview contains a brief
introduction, learning objectives, and an
overview table that lists all of the
assignments with a brief description of
each to serve as a checklist for
students.
There is a variety of lesson types each
week,
as well as consistency in the naming a
lessons so students can become familiar
with expectations for each type of lesson, and better manage their time
each week.
Each lesson has clear instructions for a
single activity.
Students must complete a challenge as a
summative assessment at the end of each
module.
Every module has a challenge that
requires students to use the skills and
resources that they aquire
throughout the unit to produce a product
or participate in a science effort.
In this case students are choosing a
hurricane to document, providing description of the formation, path
size, landfall, and impact as well as
necessary preparation and recovery efforts.
Students need to understand how and
where to get the data they need, how to
interpret and analyze that data in
meaningful ways,
and finally how to communicate this
information to the general public.
They work on this challenge throughout
the three weeks of this module.
Throughout the curriculum
there's a strong focus on investigation
with an emphasis on data-driven
activities using a variety of datasets,
online tools, hands-on lab activities, and
interactives.
This severe storms module is wrapped
around a study of two historical hurricanes;
Katrina and Sandy.
To start off, students watch footage of each hurricaine and are asked to
generate and share questions that they
have based on what they observe.
They then go on to examine and compare the tracks of the two hurricanes
and make additional observations as they compare the paths.
Investigations are the heart of each week where students are asked to use the same
tools that scientists use to access
and collect data and interpret that data. In
the first weeks of this module
the students choose a hurricane to study
and then find an image of their storm on the NASA Earth Observatory database.
They then go to the Noaa historical
hurricanes track site to access data on
wind speed,
barometric pressure, landfall,
classification,
and damage reports.
They share this data in a class wiki and then are asked to make comparisons between their
hurricane and a classmates hurricane.
They also use this data for their severe
storms challenge.
Other lessons ask students to take the
knowledge from previous lessons and weeks,
and apply it for a specific purpose
often times using interactives.
In this case students are asked to aim a
hurricane
to recreate the path of hurricanes Sandy
and Katrina based on the position
of windnotes and high and low pressure
systems, and then explain how these factors
affected landfall. Throughout each
module students
continue to explore and observed data
using various tools.
In this case students learn how to
create digital data maps using GIS.
They access and import hurricane track
data into a GIS tool to overlay the data on a map.
and then visualize and analyze data.
Clear instructions and exemplars are
provided throughout lessons like this
to clarify helpfully guide students to use
these tools.
In this lesson students learn about
remote sensed images and the data they
can provide on severe storms.
They use ImageJ
to analyze remotely sensed satelite imagery from NASA's Earth Observatory.
Using the same image that they
obtained in the previous week
they measure the diameter and area of
hurricanes Katrina and Sandy,
and then examine and compare the winds for each storm. Students actively contribute
to rich discussions every week.
Each week in this course starts off with
a discussion where students are asked to
share their thoughts on a particular
topic in response to their peers
throughout the week.
This is an example where students first
build a model of a tornado,
and observe the behavior of that model. They are then asked to compare their model to an image of a tornado
and share their observations as they
consider the accuracy and limitations
limitations of models. While there's no formal
textbook for this course the curriculum
contains content support
that engages students in a variety of ways.
With opportunities for students to check
their understanding as they progress through the week in a series of brief
formative assessments. Focused lessons
are designed to introduce key concepts
without the use the textbook and are found throughout each module.
Carefully positioned each week to allow students to
question and investigate first,
then explore. Often students are asked to
watch a short video or animation.
In this case they are asked to watch PBS
Novaa video clip, The Making of a Cloud.
These lessons are designed with
practice questions and students can check
their understanding
of key concepts before they are asked to apply
these concepts in later assignments.
Understanding of these key concepts is tested
more formally
through formative quiz assessments throughout the module as well.
The course provides students with as
many opportunities as possible to
participate in active research projects
like citizen science.
In this unit once students have had a chance to explore and investigate
the key pieces and data
on hurricanes, they are asked to help
classify satellite images by accurately
answering key questions
to estimate the maximum surface wind
speed of tropical cyclones
contributing data to a tropical cyclone database.
This provides students the opportunity
to actively contribute to the ongoing
research
of the larger scientific community. As students
acquire new knowledge and skills they are
constantly asked to reflect through personal journaling as well as
the various collaborative activities. In
this particular module, students share
out their challenge projects in the
severe storm symposium and participate
in a peer review process that mimics
the science poster session at a scientific
conference. At the end of each module
students work to assimilate the
content that they've acquired over three
weeks to address essential questions
providing evidence for their claims.
As you can see through this brief
tour the severe storms module, the
curriculum in the course is designed to
engage students to explore
content in a variety of ways
using rich multimedia, tools, and
data sets
allowing students to develop key science
skills, gain twenty first century
competencies,
participate in valid scientific research
efforts, and make learning fun.
For additional information on this
course please contact The Virtual High School.
