For my Investigating the Living World science class, we were asked to formulate a causal type of question about something we were curious about involving cells and their structures. After discussing our causal question with our discussion group we were to post it to the Ask a Scientist website at http://www.askascientist.org/askascientist/index.html.
The Ask a Scientist website is an excellent resource for questions related to biology and health and has other resources geared to students ranging from elementary age up to graduate level. The Ask a Scientist section allows you to ask a question in the hopes of getting a response. While the response time is not very fast, they do have archived questions that maybe similar to the one you have. This is what I found when exploring the website.
My initial question after reading about Notothenioids, fish with antifreeze proteins that allow them to live in arctic waters, was "How does a new species of animal just evolve? How do the cells differentiate so much as to create a new species?” I was curious about this question because the article asserted that 90 different species of Notothenioids have emerged from one single species millions of years ago (Matz, 2011).
Though my actual question has not yet been answered, I found that an answer to a question previously posted may help my understanding of how new species of animals just evolve. The key seems to lie in gene mutations that occur and get recorded into the DNA of the species and then replicated in new offspring. While this still seems complicated and abstract to me, it does make sense. I look forward to my actual question being answered to see if I am on the right track.
References:
Matz, M. (2011). Fish: Fresh, not frozen. Origins: Antarctica. Retrieved from http://www.exploratorium.edu/origins/antarctica/ideas/fish.html
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Evaluating Web 2.0 Presentation Tools
It's that time of year again and I am back to work and school. For my first blog entry, the assignment was to preview a couple of Web 2.0 presentation tools to evaluate for use in my course project but also for ease of use with and motivation for my young learners. I decided to play around with three different web-based tools. Because I have no experience with these types of programs I primarily chose tools with an included link for a tutorial or demonstration.
280 Slides
The first presentation tool I looked at was 280 Slides because it did have a tutorial. When playing with this, it was easy to use. However, I did not feel that it had any WOW factor. It was pretty straightforward. There were limited graphics and background choices which I did not feel to be very motivating. With this presentation tool, it was very easy to add graphics from the web into the slide show but it did not provide any options for transitioning from slide to slide or any cool text effects.
PreZentit
Based on how easy 280 Slides was to create, I decided to try out PreZentit even though it did not have a tutorial. The fact that it could be used collaboratively with more than one person working on the same project at a time and could be downloaded and shared without the need for an internet connection intrigued me (cooltoolsforschools, 2011). I would say it is a step ahead of 280 Slides. It definitely had more options. The background gallery was more extensive than the one available with 280 slides. It had the capability for some cool slide transition effects but was not as user friendly. I accidentally deleted the slides I created. However, it did have a handy undo command that reversed that error. But, it still did not have the WOW factor I was looking for.
Prezi
Just because our class resources for the week included a tutorial for Prezi, I did not want to make a quick decision that this was the tool I was going to use. However, after playing around with the tool briefly, it definitely has the WOW factor. There are so many cool effects that can be done in a Prezi presentation that I see this being a huge motivational factor for my young students. The presentations that can be created in this program have moved well beyond the typical slideshows possible through programs like PowerPoint and even 280 Slides and PreZentit. I know that I am going to have to really play and experiment with the Prezi tools but the outcome should be great and well worth the time.
On a side note, something else that really impressed me with Prezi was the upgraded membership/account available for teachers and students that allows for making content private, still at no cost. For even more options an EduPro license can be purchased at a very reasonable annual cost.
References:
Web 2.0: Cool Tools for Schools (2011). Retrieved from http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Presentation+Tools
280 Slides
The first presentation tool I looked at was 280 Slides because it did have a tutorial. When playing with this, it was easy to use. However, I did not feel that it had any WOW factor. It was pretty straightforward. There were limited graphics and background choices which I did not feel to be very motivating. With this presentation tool, it was very easy to add graphics from the web into the slide show but it did not provide any options for transitioning from slide to slide or any cool text effects.
PreZentit
Based on how easy 280 Slides was to create, I decided to try out PreZentit even though it did not have a tutorial. The fact that it could be used collaboratively with more than one person working on the same project at a time and could be downloaded and shared without the need for an internet connection intrigued me (cooltoolsforschools, 2011). I would say it is a step ahead of 280 Slides. It definitely had more options. The background gallery was more extensive than the one available with 280 slides. It had the capability for some cool slide transition effects but was not as user friendly. I accidentally deleted the slides I created. However, it did have a handy undo command that reversed that error. But, it still did not have the WOW factor I was looking for.
Prezi
Just because our class resources for the week included a tutorial for Prezi, I did not want to make a quick decision that this was the tool I was going to use. However, after playing around with the tool briefly, it definitely has the WOW factor. There are so many cool effects that can be done in a Prezi presentation that I see this being a huge motivational factor for my young students. The presentations that can be created in this program have moved well beyond the typical slideshows possible through programs like PowerPoint and even 280 Slides and PreZentit. I know that I am going to have to really play and experiment with the Prezi tools but the outcome should be great and well worth the time.
On a side note, something else that really impressed me with Prezi was the upgraded membership/account available for teachers and students that allows for making content private, still at no cost. For even more options an EduPro license can be purchased at a very reasonable annual cost.
References:
Web 2.0: Cool Tools for Schools (2011). Retrieved from http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Presentation+Tools
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)