EDUC525 Technology Trailblazers DESIGN Elements Document

Richelle Colucci-Nunn

Intention Outline
Project Title: Around the World with my Classmates
General Goal: Students will appreciate the diversity of cultures represented in their classroom (and
the world) through an exploration of their own and their classmates' ancestral regions.
Specific Outcomes:
1. Students will use online and primary sources such as family or community members to research
the following topics for their ancestral region:
Geography
Physical characteristics (e.g. typical landforms, climate, natural resources)
Human characteristics (e.g. population, religions, languages, arts and culture, politics/form of
government, currency, economy)
History (e.g. settlement, conflicts and cooperation)
2. Students will synthesize their research to determine which information will provide their audience
with a true sense of the geography, physical characteristics, human characteristics, and history of
their region.
3. Students will gain experience working with multimedia tools to create an interesting and
informational PowerPoint presentation on their region.
4. Students will develop collaborative skills working with team members on this project.
Audience
Each group's regional presentation will be combined with the other groups' presentations in one
class multimedia project which will be published on VoiceThread. The third grade students will
compare and contrast world cultures through viewing the class presentation and will evaluate each
others' work. Other classes in the school and family members will have access to the presentation as
well, and have an opportunity to comment.
Content Outline
1. Engagement and Review of Online Resources (including student DECIDE phase tasks)
a) Teacher will introduce project, including instructional goals/outcomes and group assignment
based on ancestral region.
b) Teacher will lead students through a KWL Knowledge Chart for the four topics (geography,
physical characteristics, human characteristics, and history) to be addressed in this project.
c) Teacher will lead students through a smart board exploration of the two internet resources
available to them for this project (including navigating with hyperlinks), using the United
States as an example.
www.mapsofworld.com
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/map/?ar_a=1
d) To scaffold their independent research, students from each group will take turns at the smart
board locating their region on both websites and finding a few facts about their region.

EDUC525 Technology Trailblazers DESIGN Elements Document

Richelle Colucci-Nunn

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e) The teacher will guide the class through the development of a rubric to be used to assess
their performance on this project, using the instructional goals/outcomes as a starting point.
The class will agree on a final version of the rubric.
f) Students will complete the Multiple Intelligence Self-survey and teacher will review the
relationship between the intelligences and the roles for this project.
g) Groups will meet to:
Decide roles based on interest and results of their Multiple Intelligence Self-survey.
Brainstorm how to conduct their research and what they might want to include in their
project, including how they might want to approach their fun facts (student-choice)
topic. Groups will complete the BrainStorm worksheet for each of the four topics.
Independent Online Research (DECIDE phase)
a) Each day, students will research one of the four topics and take notes on index cards.
b) The fifth day of research will be a student choice day of research in which students are free
to explore other aspects of their region for inclusion in their project as regional trivia.
Independent family or community research (DECIDE phase)
a) Students will interview family or community members for elaboration on any of the
information they found during their online research. Students may choose to record these
interviews for inclusion in the final project.
b) Students will reflect on the DECIDE phase in their project journal.
Group planning (DESIGN phase)
a) The teacher will lead students through the PowerPoint presentation template they will use to
create their part of the class project and provide training/support as needed.
b) Students will complete the following worksheets as a group:
Intention Outline
Flowchart (after completing the Medusa's Market flowchart exercise) to organize the
research they had recorded on index cards)
Planning Sheet (Titles will be pre-filled with the four topics and Trivia)
Presentation Storyboard (and write a script if including an audio narrative in their
VoiceThread presentation).
Project Checklist
c) Students will reflect on the DESIGN phase in their project journal.
DEVELOP phase
a) Students will choose and develop multimedia elements to incorporate into their slide show.
b) Students will create their regional presentation within the class presentation using
GoogleShare.
c) When all groups are finished, the teacher will upload the class presentation to VoiceThread
and groups will add an audio narrative if they have chosen to do so.
d) Students will reflect on the DEVELOP phase in their project journal.
EVALUATE phase
a) Groups will debug their presentation.
b) Groups will complete the Project Checklist (as a final review) and publish their final
presentation on VoiceThread.
c) Students will view the other groups' presentations and complete a content assessment

EDUC525 Technology Trailblazers DESIGN Elements Document

Richelle Colucci-Nunn
worksheet to check for understanding of the geography, physical characteristics, human
characteristics, and history of the other regions.
d) In their regional groups, students will evaluate other group's presentations using the rubric.
e) Students will write a journal entry reflecting on the entire experience, including a reflection
on the most interesting things they learned.