The Sensational SquareTale

​Focus: Personalisation - Customisation
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Introduction

In this project the main focus is on personalisation, more specifically customisation, in an authentic situation.

​The students are asked to make use of their senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting. They are going to engage their 5 senses in exploring one square meter of the beach.

To aid and support the learning they are going to use their mobile devices to capture impressions in the form of images, audio and videos - capture three of the sense forms - and to record their impressions of smell and touch.

Having gathered this data the students should be inspired to construct their own artefact of learning as a poem, a simulation, a diagram, a video, a presentation or a diorama of the environment [or another form of their own devising].

Objectives of this scenario:

  • To get personally involved with the environment they are investigating.
  • To record their observations (a vital aspect of early science learning)
  • To choose the most effective app to record their experiences.
  • To create an artefact such as a poem, story, videoed piece of drama, collages using Book Creator (or another app).

Description of the learning scenario

The students collected data, using their senses, about the organisms they were exploring and the seashore / beach in their chosen "one square meter". As well as using the device to collect, record their data they also used the classification chart to look-up some of the species that inhabited their "one square meter". 

Impact of the learning scenario on students

Students get inspired by using all their senses in the environment to connect to nature in this beautiful place. Students are enagaged by this visit, and the collection of data on their devices, to think more deeply about the seashore and the organisms that live there.  
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​Free Apps Paid Apps
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  • iPads
  • mobile phones
  • PCs / MacBooks
  • Quadrats (0.5m x 0.5m)
  • String
  • Microphones for the iPad
  • Classification charts ( to identify plants and animals) which were uploaded into the iPads before the activity.
​Students using their senses to collect data

How could this scenario be extended?

  • By using a range of sensors to gather a wider range of data
  • By extending the range of science areas to be investigated​
  • By students using quadrants to investigate sea-shore organisms in one square meter.
  • Storing their data in spreadsheets to aid data collection​
Students involved in this scenario

Anja Mogelvang (Metis High School Bergen, Norway); Ripetta Buter (Reviuslyceum, The Netherlands); Sarah Hem Iverson (Western Norway University, Bergen, Norway) Alice Flores (CalStateteach, USA); Ralph Gerner (Rennbuckel-Realschule Karlsruhe, Germany);  Julia Fruehauf, Rennbuckel-Realschule Karlsruhe, Germany 
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