TPCK Assignment #1

Responses to Questions

Reflection

This is actually a subject I have thought alot about and have considered doing my action research project about. Mainly I want to investigate nontraditional ways to get high school students interested and involved in biology and chemistry and one major way to do this is going to be through encorporating technology into the classroom. I found a great site called MERLOT that encorporates all kinds of animations and other technology based teaching aids. I also found a great site a while back (that I can't locate the link to at this minute). It was a virtual lab bench where you have to weigh and mix chemicals to make reagents and do experiments. A great idea for a school with a small budget and a great way to increase the number of 'experiments' students get to do! However there's no substitute for hands on learning, so real-life actual experiments are still a must. Dissections can also be done online on animals students otherwise wouldn't be exposed to . . . more than just the typical frog. Then of course, there's always the increased communications possible with other classrooms across the country or even the world. This would facilitate cultural awareness, information and idea sharing, and expose students to situations or problems that might not arise in their area or in their school