Living With Dinosaurs
Designer: Jamie Donnelly
Using this program as a guide, students will explore Dinosaurs. As junior Paleontologists, their mission is to design an episode of Animal Planet that presents the difference between the prehistoric reptiles that lived in the Mesozoic Era. Their program should include how the creatures became extinct, the difference between meat eaters and plant eaters, their evolution, and if they could be one dinosaur which would they choose and why.
When setting my curricular goals for this module I concentrated on designing in opportunities for students to fine tune their primary computer skills while learning about the life of a dinosaur.
Target Population
- 4th - 5th grade students
Teaching Standards
This project touches on the fourth grade learning standards for both technology and science. The key standards addressed in this unit are:
- Technology Standards
- Understand and demonstrate ethical behavior in use and care of technology parts 1.4 - 1.6
- Demonstrate skill in using a variety of technologies parts 2.1 - 2.4 & 2.8
- Demonstrate the ability to choose appropriate technology tools to accomplish tasks parts 3.1 & 3.3
- Science Standards
- Science as inquiry parts 1.1, 1.2 & 1.4 - 1.6
- Life Science parts 3.1 & 3.2
Teaching & Learning Theory
- Three learning theory types were utilized in the design of this project.
- Behavioral - the product is programmed to ask the user specific questions relating to dinosaurs and provide immediately feedback
- Information Processing - online quizzes require students to demonstrate that they have organized, stored and processed information
- Constructivist - students will design an episode of Animal Planet
Products
- Teaching Tool (Director executable file -- will open in a separate window -- please turn your speakers on)
- Windows will ask you if you want to open or save the file locally. Please select open.
- Final presentation check sheet(pdf file - must have Adobe Acrobat reader to view the file. Click here to download the reader)
- Group evaluation form (pdf file. Download Acrobat Viewer )
- Student self evaluation form (pdf file. Download Acrobat Viewer )
- Weekly journal (pdf file. Download Acrobat Viewer )
Multimedia Design Tools
- Macromedia Director
- CD Library
- Clipart.com
- Macromedia Fireworks