Educational Technology and Design Page 1 of 5 Searching for Unit Examples & Resources Spring 2010 Searching for Unit Examples & Resources I) Thematic Unit Review 1) Go to the Thematic Unit to briefly share the content. 2) Explain how they need sample Thematic Units II) Searching Des Moines and Iowa Core Curriculum 1) During the next couple of weeks, you will learn more about creating a thematic unit of instruction and how to write instructional goals & objectives. You will be asked to create an interdisciplinary thematic unit for a hypothetical class of your choice. The Iowa Core Curriculum and/or Des Moines curriculum will help you identify age appropriate outcomes that should serve as the basis for planning the content (topics of study) within your own thematic unit. 2) Follow the links to Iowa Core or DM curricula from the Thematic Unit assignment description page in eLearning. 3) Think about a grade level and general subject area (math, science, language arts, etc.) that you would enjoy teaching. 4) Consult the Iowa Core or DM curricula to determine what topics, activities, and learning outcomes are appropriate for the age level you selected. 5) List some possible themes that might serve as the basis for 3–4 lessons comprising these topics and outcomes. 6) Once youʼve identified a theme, explore the outcomes listed in other subject areas within the Iowa Core or DMcurriculum to search for related topics that will make your thematic unit interdisciplinary (relating to more than one subject area). III) Searching 1) Open New Tab and then open Google a) Enter your topic and the words, thematic unit. Search. Note # of hits. 2) Advanced Search a) Open Advanced Search ⇒ “with all of the words” = topic (Word Search) ⇒ “with the exact phrase” = thematic unit (Phrase Search) ⇒ Review rest of the categories ⇒ Click “+ Date, usage rights . . . “to show additional options ⇒ Review options down to SafeSearch. ⇒ Search. Note # of hits. (Show diff of hits w/SafeSearch on and off) Included in this outline… 1) Thematic Unit Review 2) Searching Curricula 3) Google – Advanced Search 4) Metasearch Engines 5) Additional Google tools 6) Searching for Video 7) UNISTAR 8) AEA 267 9) Curriculum connections 10) Unit example sites 11) Identifying Thematic UnitEducational Technology and Design Page 2 of 5 Searching for Unit Examples & Resources Spring 2010 b) Tag this on delicious.com ⇒ Enter UNIETD tag and other descriptive tags ⇒ unietd yourspecifictopic gradelevel… c) Search for your Thematic Units *****STUDENT WORK TIME******* ⇒ Provide students 5 minutes to search and save addresses to del.icio.us ⇒ Discuss and debrief the strategies that they used. d) Delicious Tag Search ⇒ Use Search tool in upper right corner to search “my bookmarks” for unietd ⇒ Use Search tool to search “Everybodyʼs bookmarks”. IV) Metasearch Engines (Google, Yahoo, Msn search, Ask and more combined results) 1) Introduce Dogpile.com – This is a metasearch engine that accesses 4 major search engines. 2) Open www.findtarget.com (another metasearch engine) a) Point out the different search engines in the pull down menu. (12 search engines) b) Search for “thematic unit” weather c) After Searching Notice Narrow Your Search and Expand Your Search options (right column) V) Additional Google Tools 1) Google for Educators – Review offerings www.google.com/educators 2) Tag it Notice Classroom Activities link; Follow: Tools for your classroom link; (Left Column) a) Geo Education – click to find Google Maps. b) Google Maps (notice “teacher speaks out” area at the bottom of the page.) ⇒ Travel (a) Click Getting Started Guide, then play the Google Maps Tour video (2:00) next page. (i) Note other videos (i.e., Create your own map) for later viewing. (b) Get Directions (e.g. Cedar Falls, IA - St. Louis, MO) (i) Click “1. Visit maps.google.com” to begin. (ii) Click Get Directions and add cities. Click Get Direction button. (iii) Note the distance and estimated travel time (car vs. walking) (iv) Click and drag the route to go through Ottumwa. (c) Geographic Landscape (i) Select “Satellite”Educational Technology and Design Page 3 of 5 Searching for Unit Examples & Resources Spring 2010 (ii) Note the Geographic Landscape. (e.g. Find the Mississippi) (d) Click other options to show different views (Terrain, Street View, etc.) ⇒ Finding Locations (works also for international search) (a) Enter desired location (e.g. White House) into “Search Maps” box. (b) Magnify to the 4th notch on sliding magnifier (Cmd/Ctrl – or +) (c) Select “Satellite” to see digital images of the chosen location (d) Click My Maps – explore the featured content (YouTube/Picassa) (e) Letʼs go international (e.g., Eiffel Tower) c) Google Book Search ⇒ Return to www.google.com/educators/tools.html ⇒ Select Tools for your classroom and then Book Search & Book Search again. ⇒ Enter topic into search box and search. (i.e., Martin Luther King, Jr.) ⇒ Review the list. Note Preview Avail rating. Note Add to my library ⇒ Select a book and browse. (Choose one labeled “Preview”) ⇒ In left column, select Find this book in a library. (List of local libraries with this book will appear.) UNI zip code: 50614 d) Google Blog Search http://blogsearch.google.com/ ⇒ Enter topic and search (Thematic unit topic (i.e., weather) AND “thematic unit”) ⇒ Note the Search Blogs and Search the Web buttons e) Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com/ ⇒ Enter topic and search (Thematic unit topic (i.e., weather) AND “thematic unit”) ⇒ Returns academic resources: (a) Media format – book, pdf, html, citation, (b) Cited by – indicates how many other resources cited this in their reference list. (c) Related Articles – articles that relate to this specific resource. (d) Web Search – will search the Web based upon this resource. (e) Library Search – find a local library that owns this resource. (f) Show “Advanced Scholar Search” option. (Note the Date option) VI) Searching for Video 1) YouTube Video Searching a) YouTube www.youtube.com ⇒ Type phrase or word in the search box (i.e., “weather” or “Google Search Tips”) ⇒ Review “Sort by:” optionEducational Technology and Design Page 4 of 5 Searching for Unit Examples &