Inquiry Unit (u12299.xml)

How can we develop a TeleNature/OpenKey activity for use in our Life on the Prairie projects?

Ann Bishop (abishop@uiuc.edu) (ready to use)

Coauthors

Bryan Heidorn (pheidorn@uiuc.edu)
Lesley Deem (l-deem@life.uiuc.edu)
Aparna Raghunathan (raghunat@students.uiuc.edu)
Brent Palmer (bopalmer@uiuc.edu)

ASK Partner Projects

Prairie

Subject Areas

Science, Botany

Grade Levels

Preschool, Kinder, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, Vocational, Undergraduate, Graduate, Continuing, Informal

Unit Keywords

OpenKey, TeleNature, BIBE, botany, species pages

Rationale of the Unit

This unit presents background information on the TeleNature projects led by Bryan Heidorn and Lesley Deem. It provides links to their existing websites and other related resources. It also presents a few ideas for how educators in the Life on the Prairie project can develop lesson plans and learning activities for their own settings that involve telebotany, such as the creation of online field guide entries. Please add your comments at the end of this unit, noting what possible curriculum ideas you find most appealing. We will use your comments to plan a hands-on OpenKey session as part of the Life on the Prairie workshop on July 7-8.


	INVESTIGATE	Go to Top

Background and Resources

BACKGROUND --

The School Flora and Fauna Project is building an online field guide of plants and animals created by teachers and students who are participating in our program. The ultimate goal is to have descriptions of all plants and animals in every area of the country. These descriptions are put into a database that is searchable on the web from anywhere in the world. 0f course we invite you to come up with creative uses for this information.

You can use the searching function to identity plants and animals. The process of observing plants identifying them, finding more information about them in books on on the web and then creating online descriptions is an interesting addition to the curriculum. At the same time, students can have the satisfaction of knowing they are contributing to the OpenKey project.

READINGS
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_5/heidorn/

WEB SITES -- sites for exploration and interaction.
http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~openkey
http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~telenature
http://www.biobrowser.org
School Flora Home: http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~openkey/teachers/schoolflora.html
Online Field Guide: http://www3.isrl.uiuc.edu/~openkey/cgi-bin/field_guide.cgi

RESOURCES AND SUPPLEMENT MATERIALS
The following sites are some of sources you can use for getting good plant information for your Plant Descriptions.
http://dmoz.org/Science/Biology/Flora_and_Fauna/
http://plantfacts.osu.edu/
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/
http://hua.huh.harvard.edu/fna/
http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/~kenr/prairieplants.html
http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~openkey/shared/Definitions_of_Characters.htm
http://woodyplants.nres.uiuc.edu/

Example of online fieldguide entry for slippery elm:
http://classrm06.lis.uiuc.edu/~bopalmer/openkey/xmltemplate/slipperyelmw.htm


	CREATE	Go to Top

Activities and Open-ended problems

Try the Online Field Guide!
http://www3.isrl.uiuc.edu/~openkey/cgi-bin/field_guide.cgi
The basic steps are outlined in this word document.

lessons/activites educators can do, using your telebotany resources. For example:

-identify plants in your schoolyard or nearby park
-create an online fieldguide entry
-learn about bioinformatics as an important aspect of the biological sciences
-discover the importance of plants and their representation in our society. compare fieldguide entry and natural science illustrators drawing. what do you think motivated the creation of each? how does each appeal to you?

IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES -- activities and discussions within synchronous classes

LAB ACTIVITIES -- work to do in labs or other special settings

ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE OF CLASS / INDEPENDENT WORK

OPEN-ENDED PROBLEMS -- creative extensions


	DISCUSS	Go to Top

Dialogues, Discussions, and Presentations

FACE-TO-FACE DIALOGUES

GROUP DIALOGUES

ON-LINE DIALOGUES

IN-CLASS DISCUSSIONS

PRESENTATIONS


	REFLECT	Go to Top

Assessment, Related Questions, and Story of the Unit

ASSESSMENT

RELATED QUESTIONS

STORY OF THE UNIT -- How did it go?

RESPONSES FROM OTHERS (teachers)

Uploaded Files:
openkeybrief.ppt
fieldguideho2.doc

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