20% Project Reflection

Rationale:

Concept: My project has lots of potential for professional growth. I am modeling for my students how biologists (and scientists) make observations and question the world around them. I am doing this by taking photographs of local flora and fauna while on hikes in northern San Diego. Then, I research the identity of unknown species, using my PLN and internet resources. This project will teach me more about the local environment and ecology issues, which will help enrich my classes as a biology teacher. I will also have the opportunity to expand this project to my students, as extra credit. I brainstormed with several of my peers in Team Hooke It, as well as other colleagues (and my master teacher). Tony Mertz has a similar project, and we collaborate a lot on how to approach this project.

• Collaborate: I have collaborated with Tony in Team Hooke It. I have also consulted with friends who are local environmentalists, working on chaparral preservation projects in San Diego County. I have posted regularly on my blog (about every other week), EdModo, and #csusmedu on Twitter. My goal is to post weekly on my blog and go on more hikes (once a week).
  
  
• Research: I research every specimen I find, using multiple resources that I have bookmarked on Diigo and Symbaloo. I also always Google new resources in my research. I embed these references in each post on my blog. I also post relevant findings that might apply to education in a broader sense, to Twitter, EdModo, and my PLN. I am always adding to my Diigo 20% list and Symbaloo list as I find more useful sites to help me with my local ecology project.
  
  
• Blog/Reflect: I’ve been posting about once a week but I would like to consistently post 1-2x/week. I have a long list of hikes I want to explore in San Digeo. Now that it’s spring, I have no excuses. My blog contains several embedded links to relevant resources and references, as applicable. I post my findings regularly to my blog, my team on EdModo, Twitter, Symbaloo, and Diigo; however, I need to add links of my peers from my Group to my blog. I post extensive, reflective blog posts following each hike. However, I would like to utilize more WebTools to more vividly capture experiences from the hikes. For instance, I can add videos (especially audio of the frogs croaking in the creeks right now). I can also add a Video, or TedTalk, which I can present to the class.
  
  
• Share: I am sharing my blog posts and research with my peers on EdModo, Twitter, as well as my peers and team. I plan on sharing my project results with the class at the end of the semester, as well as recording a 3-5 minute TED talk.
  
  
  Link to my self-assessment rubric in Google Docs