sarah r_inquiry project 1

8/14/2019 Sarah R_Inquiry Project 1

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33rdrd Grade AnimalGrade AnimalReportReport

Sarah RickettsSarah Ricketts



• My 3rd grade class is required to create an animalreport. Part of the assignment is to use severaldifferent sources for information. One source willbe required to be the internet.

• This allows me to research how they use theinternet. Additionally, I will be able to see if itwas used correctly and effectively.

• My team gave me some great websites for thestudents to use that allowed them to accessinformation that was at their comprehension leveleasily, and quickly.

Introduction



Predictions

• I had an assumption that my students wouldsimply copy and paste the information they found.Also, my assumption was that they would writedown the first thing they found relating to theirassigned animals.

• Working on this assumption lead me to believethat their information would not be accurate. Notonly that, but they would also be plagiarizing.

Many educators today recognize the importance ofonline data sources for all sorts of research and

writing projects - Bertram C. Bruce



Meaning

• After witnessing this, it allowed me to find

an effective way for my students togather the correct information.Additionally, it also forces me to monitortheir research very closely to ensure therequired information is being obtainedproperly.

• I will be able to use and modify thisexercise in future classes to check foraccuracy.



Questionnaire• I chose questions specific to this assignment forthe students to answer.

• The questionnaire was anonymous and

confidential, so they could feel secure aboutanswering honestly without fear of repercussions.• I asked specifically if they thought it was wrong

to copy and paste information and the vastmajority said yes! That was uplifting to see!



Patterns• In my classroom I noticed one pattern more often then

others. This pattern was that my students all appeared tohappen across the same 2-3 websites as their fellowclassmates.

• Each child was allowed to choose an animal they had someconnection to. Additionally, each student had to chose adifferent animal then his or her fellow classmates. Thisallowed all of us to learn about 27 different animals.

• They all comprehended that they had to write down theirinformation and reword it to make it their own. This was apleasant surprise.



Team experiences• All the students were very excited to workon their projects since I had providedthem with the ability to choose what theywould write about. While my class choseanimals, a fellow team mate’s class choseto write about serial killers.

• A majority of my team was doing surveysas I had chosen to do.



Data• The questionnaire served as a tool for me to begin

observing the students in their environment.

• I closely monitored their progress as they searched theinternet for more information about their specific animal.• Once the data they collected was found online, they wrote

in their notebooks and then later retyped these notes toensure they were using their own words.

• The information they collected online was useful and

relevant to the information they were searching for.• Researching their animal on the internet was a good idea. It

was done quickly, and allowed us plenty of time to completethe project since we hardly had to make any trips to thelibrary for additional research material.

The World Wide Web offers information and data from allover the world. Because so much information is available, andbecause that information can appear to be fairly

“anonymous”, it is necessary to develop skills to evaluate what you find. – Johns Hopkins University



Students work• Plagiarism is…• “the people who came over on the boats,

we eat turkey now”

• “Stealing others work”• “copying and pasting”• “a really long word”• “bad, I don’t know why but its bad”• “wrong”



Information Collected• This questionnaire included numerous questionsabout collecting information from the internetfor the animal inquiry project.

• Some examples include:– Where do you search for information on the internet?– What information can you find on the internet?– Is copying and pasting information from the internet a

good idea?

– Is everything on the internet true?– What is plagiarism, and how do you avoid it?



Emergent Ideas• When this was first assigned I thought it would be agigantic waste of time. Why would we need to look so deepinto this?

• After this assignment I feel ridiculous! How could I as aneducator just allow my students to venture on to theinternet assuming they knew how to properly research. Priorto this I had always wondered why my students papers wereso far off base!

• Now I know why! They didn’t know how to properly use theinternet and research what they were looking for correctly!

Anyone who is engaged in teaching people to read andwrite would be justified in questioning the relevance of

the cyberworld to their concerns. – Bertram Bruce



Internet Information• One of the points I have learned from thisexercise is that many grade schoolstudents do not have the necessary skills

to effectively research a topic using theinternet.• A question that I now have is why are

there so few sites that organizeinformation by age groups so that children

may do research at their age appropriatelevel?



Change• Before this assignment I thought that theinternet was just a faster way to collectinformation. I now realize that if not usedproperly the internet can be the worst place togather information!

• So much of what you may find is misinformation.Unfortunately, kids don’t know what's true andwhat's not. This usually will only confuse them as

they might read so much conflicting information.



Reflection• This was a wonderful, eye openingexperience. I thoroughly enjoyed beingable to take an active role and look into

what my students were researching ratherthan just telling them to do it and hand intheir paper. I was amazed to see that theypoured a lot of time and effort into their

projects as they researched the necessaryinformation quickly and accurately.

sarah r_inquiry project 1

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