WELCOME TO A SMART PROJECT!

 The following project is currently under progress by Rhode Island teachers. Although in some activities, the teachers have borrowed and adapted ideas from other teachers and current programs and sources on the Internet, the work is their own. The activities are displayed here in their original form , unedited as they have submitted them. In most cases, these are ongoing projects. The names, school districts, and email addresses of the authors are included. Please feel free to contact the authors with any suggestions, comments, or even participation.Teaching and learning are cooperative efforts.

ANIMAL ADAPTATIONS TO VARIOUS ENVIRONMENTS

OVERVIEW:

The creators of this year long unit are a fourth grade teacher (Sandra Moyer) and the School Library Media Specialist (Seta Ohanian-Chateauneuf) from the Stadium Elementary School in Cranston, Rhode Island. As part of the fourth grade curriculum, the students have always begun the year by studying Animal Adaptations in Science. Then,as they proceeded through the year's Social Studies units on Grasslands, Polar Lands, Deserts and Rain Forests, one of the many things that they have learned about each area is how the animals are adapted to their environment. This year, we would like to add using the computer to the students' repertoire of research skills by including CD-ROMS, e-mail and Internet navigation.

As the students progress during the year, they will be required to be more independent and to be more sophisticated in their computer research skills. Thus, the earliest unit (Grasslands) has only a few bookmarks and the activities for information retrieval are quite simple since the teacher will demonstrate accessing the pertinent locations on the Internet. The units on the Polar Lands and the Deserts will gradually afford the students more opportunities for locating and accessing information in small groups. The last unit (Rain Forests) requires each student to independently find information through e-mail, on CD-Rom disks, and on various locations on the Internet and write a report on a specific animal's adaptations. In the final assessment, every student will be asked to demonstrate proficiency in using the Internet to access information and report on how three animals of their choice adapt to their environments.

The bookmarks that are listed under each environmental area have been carefully selected and previewed so that they are appropriate for specific activities and for a particular level of research skills using the computer. Those bookmarks at the end of the list under Additional Resources are more general in nature and may be used for the students' further research, particularly for children with advanced computer skills.

Because we feel that computers in school should provide students the opportunity to learn how to use a computer as well as to learn all their other subject matter better by using a computer, we have two main objectives:

  1. Content Objective:

    The students will apply the knowledge that they learned in their science unit on Animal Adaptations to all of the units on different environments (Grasslands, Polar Lands, Deserts and Rain Forests) that they will study in Social Studies during the year.

  2. Skill Objective:

    The students will learn to use the computer for research by practicing telecommunication skills (e-mail, internet navigation) and CD-ROM ROM usage.

Sample Activities

AUTHORS:

OTHER SMART PROJECTS

WHAT IS PROJECT S.M.A.R.T.?