One of the bonuses of being the Curriculum Specialists is that when I need a “kid fix”, I have 63 schools from which to choose to visit. I recently had the opportunity to work with one of our CTE teachers in one of our Tech Centers. The principal contacted me because out tech centers do not have libraries or librarians. While the tech teachers have access to all the library resources, they don’t have the personnel to support them, so the request to help the Biotechnology class came to me. I jumped and offered to come and work with these students.
I emailed the teacher and asked for some information about what they will be researching and how might I help them with this process. This is to be an initial research into genetic engineering because later they will be working with proteins and creating their own. Using Google Classroom, I was able to help set up an Explore station for students to look for a topic about genetic engineering they had an interest in exploring further.
I started them in our online encyclopedia, Britannica School. Britannica allows teachers to create Resource Packs to set up its resources in a package for students to consume. Taking the terms the teacher provided, I set a resource pack for them to get some background information and use the Stop and Jot sheet from Guided Inquiry Design: A Framework for Inquiry in Your School.
Once students explored some background, we moved to Gale Cengage’s Science in Context:
Students continued to add to the Stop and Jot sheet for this database and their Student Resource in Context.
As students move forward with their research through the Identify and Gather stages, they will use the Inquiry Log to help them determine which of the articles to move forward and use for their research. Gale Cengage has an agreement with Google, so students can highlight and take notes right on the article, download load it into their Google Drive. They can share all their notes with their teacher and she can add comments as they go through all the stages in GID.
What was nice for me was to practice what I preach to my librarians, and it was really fun getting to interact with students again and talk to them about what they find interesting!
Other blog posts: 52guidedunquiry.edublogs.org/2016/07/25/; 52guidedunquiry.edublogs.org/2016/07/27/; 52guidedunquiry.edublogs.org/2016/07/29/
Lori Donovan is a National Board Certified Librarian and is the Instructional Specialist for Library Services for Chesterfield County Public Schools, VA. She holds a master’s degree in education with a specialty in school library media programs and a Graduate Professional Endorsement in Educational Leadership from Longwood University. She has published several articles in Library Media Connection and co-authored Power Researchers: Transforming Student Library Aides into Action Learners by Libraries Unlimited. She can be reached at lori_donovan@ccspnet.net or follow on Twitter @LoriDonovan14.
Completely spam free, opt out any time.
This form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
