Portfolio
This is where you'll find a collection of work, forming my portfolio for Assessment Task 2, EDED20491.
Sections include:
Sections include:
- Pedagogy Map
- Digital Curation
- Learning Sequence
- Learning Narrative
- Professional Networking and Learning
Professional Networking and Learning
Networking in a professional environment is always a good experience and is an important skill to develop. This has certainly proven to be true for this unit. Through the use of discussion forums and published posts on blogs and websites, the unit has presented many different opportunities for me to engage with other pre-service teachers. This was not only highly encouraged, but enabled via the creation of a wiki and relevant forums for us to use. I found the wiki especially useful as a database to find the websites of other students. Through this networking, I have made progress toward establishing proficiency in the AITSL graduate teacher standards, in particular:
- 6.2: Engage in professional learning and improve practice; and
- 7.4: Engage with professional teaching networks and broader communities.
Whilst there was little interaction on my personal Scoop.it account, I discovered not only some great learning resources but really good insights as well. Seeing what others have found and hearing their unique ideas has been very helpful in building my own resources and learning as an educator. Following other Scoop.it users, in particular those from similar learning areas to myself, allows me to keep up-to-date with them and see what they consider to be relevant and exciting. This professional networking brings like-minded educators together. Engaging in sharing and collecting resources builds my professional network and satisfies the AITSL requirements.
I did not link my Scoop.it to twitter or Facebook, as I have personal accounts already and I think it would be too difficult to manage dual accounts. Having said that, I can certainly see the benefit as it allows you to expand your reach to create a much wider PLN. When I started this assignment I thought Scoop.it would be something I sign up for to meet the requirements and then not use it again. However after engaging with it over these past few weeks, I've come find it very useful. Explaining it to others I might compare it to Instagram or Pinterest for educators, which in a way it is. Searching through the vast and varied content on Scoop.it, I've discovered articles that seem like they should be newsworthy yet have previously gone unnoticed by me. If it weren't for Scoop.it there's so much I never would have discovered, so I think I'll definitely keep using it, not only to further grow my PLN but because the resources are legitimately interesting and it makes relevant content easier to find.
Further to Scoop.it, my engagement in forum discussions and commenting on other's blogs and websites demonstrates development of the AITSL standards. This involvement has helped me improve my practice as I am inspired by what others have done. Seeing the work of others is always interesting to gain different perspectives, and also to encourage me to do more and broaden my own perspective. I can only hope that when others view my work and engage with me that they feel the same way. Please visit my blog and Scoop.it, both accessible from the "About" page on this weebly.
I did not link my Scoop.it to twitter or Facebook, as I have personal accounts already and I think it would be too difficult to manage dual accounts. Having said that, I can certainly see the benefit as it allows you to expand your reach to create a much wider PLN. When I started this assignment I thought Scoop.it would be something I sign up for to meet the requirements and then not use it again. However after engaging with it over these past few weeks, I've come find it very useful. Explaining it to others I might compare it to Instagram or Pinterest for educators, which in a way it is. Searching through the vast and varied content on Scoop.it, I've discovered articles that seem like they should be newsworthy yet have previously gone unnoticed by me. If it weren't for Scoop.it there's so much I never would have discovered, so I think I'll definitely keep using it, not only to further grow my PLN but because the resources are legitimately interesting and it makes relevant content easier to find.
Further to Scoop.it, my engagement in forum discussions and commenting on other's blogs and websites demonstrates development of the AITSL standards. This involvement has helped me improve my practice as I am inspired by what others have done. Seeing the work of others is always interesting to gain different perspectives, and also to encourage me to do more and broaden my own perspective. I can only hope that when others view my work and engage with me that they feel the same way. Please visit my blog and Scoop.it, both accessible from the "About" page on this weebly.
Learning Narrative
My name is Katelyn and I am a Year 10 student in Mr Gehrke's science class. I have Asperger's syndrome which for me means I can feel awkward in certain social environments. I enjoy science, technology, video games, and Star Wars. I would like to study science and technology at university and work on researching innovative technologies.
This term we are learning about habitats and the environment, and Mr Gehrke has asked a small selection of students to write a reflection on what we do during the term. I volunteered because it helps to reinforce what I learn in class and helps me focus. He said the learning will be in roughly three stages, so my narrative will follow those stages.
Stage 1
To make the topic interesting for us, Mr Gehrke said we will be using Pokemon Go for our assessment. I already play the game with some of my friends so I'm really excited to see how it will help us learn. I started playing the game as it helps me to interact with others and spend more time outside. I think this will be a great way to be active while we learn.
In the first lesson we learnt about different types of habitats and discussed which one we can find around where we live and at the school. I live in an estate with a nature reserve so there's forest land and waterways all around me. Even my backyard is like the bush. The school is right next to a big river and it has a catchment area which gets a bit swampy. Across the road is a power station and some small industrial buildings. We're nowhere near the beach though so there's no examples of coastal habitats, which is a shame since I love the beach. It'd be cool if we had some snow environments too but it never gets cold enough here.
The buildings weren't always there and it used to be more bush land. Whilst the buildings were being built there were often birds nesting in the frames. I think I remember seeing a kookaburra with a snake one time. There's still a couple of birds around but not as many as there used to be. Before the land was developed there were even hares running around there. In my estate especially there's lots of animals: deer, wallabies and ducks. When we first moved in there used to be foxes but I haven't seen them for a few years now. There's a lot more houses than there used to be. Some people's yards around me are have long, dead grass and trees look dead too. That's surely a fire hazard, maybe it should be reported to the council?
In class during the first lesson we discussed that everyone lives in a variety of areas and they all have different habitats around them. It's very interesting. We've also watched some snippets from some of David Attenborough's shows to highlight interesting habitats around the world and the different species that live there. I always love watching his shows.
When Mr Gehrke introduced the idea of using Pokemon Go, he asked us to work in small groups and create a mind-map of what we knew about Pokemon and try to link it to the real world. We used a cool app on the school laptops called MindManager. It's like a virtual canvas where you can write all of your ideas. Similar to writing on butchers paper, but a lot more fun, and easier to share and collaborate with others. All of the groups presented their mind-map, then we merged all of the key ideas into a single class mind-map. Mr Gehrke uploaded it to a wiki which we can all access without student login details. He said we can add to it throughout the term whenever want if we have relevant ideas. My group's mind-map was really good because I already know a lot about Pokemon. Even before Pokemon Go came out, I used to watch the TV show and I have a couple of the cards too. I even have an emulator at home on my computer which lets me play all of the different Pokemon GameBoy games. My favourite Pokemon is Squirtle because I think turtles are really cool and he's pretty cute. It would likely be found in a water-based habitat, like a lake or near the ocean, because Squirtle is a water-type Pokemon. This makes sense when comparing it to a real turtle. The way Squirtle evolves is really interesting, but its final form, Blastoise, is more like a tortoise. Mr Gehrke taught us about metamorphosis, which I think is a better description of how Pokemon change. Interestingly, the Pokemon, Caterpie, is a caterpillar and its "evolutions" are the different stages that a caterpillar would naturally go through during metamorphosis.
At the end of term we have to do a presentation on our findings. I'm not sure what it will involve specifically, but I've decided to use Prezi for mine. That should be fun.
Stage 2
We were given details on how to use Pokemon Go for this topic and we could do it by ourselves or in groups. There's another student in my class who I get a long with quite well and I am comfortable being around so I decided to go with her. My mum thought that was smart, as she didn't like the idea of me doing this work by myself. Pokemon always tells you to not trespass and be mindful of your surroundings, but Mr Gehrke explicitly went through that with us as well. There's a church near the school. I guess he doesn't want us to get in trouble if we all start running around there then blaming him for it. I think I might stick with my neighbourhood anyway; it's pretty good for Pokemon.
My friend and I try to go out three times each week to hunt Pokemon for our assignment. Her mum has a Fitbit which she borrows so we can track exactly how far we go and how our speed varies during our walks. We generally catch around 20 Pokemon during our 1 hour walk. I've noticed that we often get them at the same spots each time, though the specific Pokemon we catch are sometimes different. There's one spot, however, where there is always a Jigglypuff. It's like a nesting place of some sort. After each walk, we entered data into a spreadsheet, including which Pokemon we caught, what time we caught it, its gender, and its type. We also download the information from the Fitbit. We haven't analysed it too much yet, but I've always wondered how accurate Pokemon Go is at tracking distance - it seems to underestimate a bit.
We've started researching different Pokemon types and relating them to real natural resources on Earth. Most of them make sense, e.g. fire is strong against grass, and water is strong against ground (I guess because it turns to mud). Some don't really make sense, scientifically speaking, e.g. rock being strong against ice (though rock is also strong against bug, which works - that's how I squash bugs in real life).
I've been adding to the mind-map a bit too. Some Pokemon that I thought seemed like random creations I learnt are actually based on real animals, just not very common ones. I'm learning that it's more realistic than it first appears, though there's plenty of things created for the game that don't follow science at all (fairy Pokemon and sentient magnets??).
Stage 3
We've caught a lot of Pokemon now and Mr Gehrke said to not catch any more and work on putting out presentations together. I think I'll keep playing though like I did before this term anyway. It's a lot of fun and I'm going really well. There's a person that I often bump into down at the park who plays too. He's a little younger, but very friendly, and he doesn't seem to mind that I'm a bit weird at times.
My Prezi is going to be a large map of my area, and I'm going to use the locations of where we caught Pokemon as points to zoom in on and present information and data. I've compiled all of my data and shared it with the file Mr Gehrke made to collect all of our data into a single database. He mentioned we will be using it to inform the Silph Road community. I've heard about them on Reddit, but I normally don't use it when I play Pokemon as I prefer to find them by myself. I can see how it would be a useful resource though, especially for people visiting new places. They can see where good spots might be and whether there are any specific nests of Pokemon around.
I have lots of different photos from all of the Pokemon we caught. Most are Pidgey and Sentret, but there's some pretty interesting ones too like Stantler and Pineco. We used the augmented reality function to try to make the photos funny and interesting, e.g. making it look like the Pokemon were sitting on us or attacking us, or just sitting in trees. I was right with my guess that Pokemon Go's GPS tracker wasn't 100% accurate. We walked more or less the exact same route each time, which the Fitbit showed to be 4.8km. If we only walked, Pokemon Go usually showed around 4.5km, but if we ran any sections it decreased to anywhere between 3.5-4.2km. I think this is because of how often it sends an update location request, so it assumes a straight line between the last point it registered at and the next point. Therefore if you walk slowly and in a straight line it will get it pretty right, but the more you turn, the more it has to interpolate between points, and the faster you go, the more it can miss between updates.
I've made quite a few different graphs to show how common the Pokemon I caught are, male and female populations for each species, whether the time of days affects what Pokemon will be around, and which Pokemon prefer different areas. I even made a graph comparing the different move types available for the same Pokemon. It will be interesting to see what other students have discovered in their areas.
I chose to analyse the Pokemon, Magikarp, for the last bit of my assessment. There aren't many around where I live, but if I can find one it's usually near the small creek that runs through the estate. One of the ones I did find was shiny, which is super rare. Magikarp is a fairly realistic Pokemon. It represents a fish, specifically a goldfish or carp, and is water type which makes sense. Its moves include splash and struggle, which reminds me of what fish do when they are out of water, just flopping around. It wears a crown which is cool in the game, but can't really be linked to science. Magikarp's evolution isn't scientific at all though. Gyarados is like a big dragon/serpent thing, which reminds me of Chinese mythical creatures more than anything else. Its moves make sense given what it looks like, but it's hardly realistic. I redefined how Margikarp evolves, firstly by including a first stage resembling fish eggs, then removing Gyarados and making it evolve into a larger carp type fish, but it changes gender at this stage too. Most Pokemon have an assigned gender which doesn't change (or no gender at all). But I know fish are hermaphrodites and change gender at a certain age, or depending on whether there's a female in the school or not. So by making all Magikarp males, and their evolved form a female, this is more representative of what happens in nature. The females are often bigger and have different colour patterns so I based my design on that idea. Some fish also become poisonous as they get older or change genders too, so I included poison typing in my evolved form and gave it moves that simulate how fish might use barbs in defence or to kill prey.
Using Pokemon Go to learn has not only been fun, but also really interesting. It's often hard to find different animals in a local environment, so this has allowed us to run a simulation, whilst still being active outdoors. I'm happy with my findings and I've learnt a lot too, not just about Pokemon but about real animals and real habitats. I can't want to show everyone my presentation and see what others have found too.
This term we are learning about habitats and the environment, and Mr Gehrke has asked a small selection of students to write a reflection on what we do during the term. I volunteered because it helps to reinforce what I learn in class and helps me focus. He said the learning will be in roughly three stages, so my narrative will follow those stages.
Stage 1
To make the topic interesting for us, Mr Gehrke said we will be using Pokemon Go for our assessment. I already play the game with some of my friends so I'm really excited to see how it will help us learn. I started playing the game as it helps me to interact with others and spend more time outside. I think this will be a great way to be active while we learn.
In the first lesson we learnt about different types of habitats and discussed which one we can find around where we live and at the school. I live in an estate with a nature reserve so there's forest land and waterways all around me. Even my backyard is like the bush. The school is right next to a big river and it has a catchment area which gets a bit swampy. Across the road is a power station and some small industrial buildings. We're nowhere near the beach though so there's no examples of coastal habitats, which is a shame since I love the beach. It'd be cool if we had some snow environments too but it never gets cold enough here.
The buildings weren't always there and it used to be more bush land. Whilst the buildings were being built there were often birds nesting in the frames. I think I remember seeing a kookaburra with a snake one time. There's still a couple of birds around but not as many as there used to be. Before the land was developed there were even hares running around there. In my estate especially there's lots of animals: deer, wallabies and ducks. When we first moved in there used to be foxes but I haven't seen them for a few years now. There's a lot more houses than there used to be. Some people's yards around me are have long, dead grass and trees look dead too. That's surely a fire hazard, maybe it should be reported to the council?
In class during the first lesson we discussed that everyone lives in a variety of areas and they all have different habitats around them. It's very interesting. We've also watched some snippets from some of David Attenborough's shows to highlight interesting habitats around the world and the different species that live there. I always love watching his shows.
When Mr Gehrke introduced the idea of using Pokemon Go, he asked us to work in small groups and create a mind-map of what we knew about Pokemon and try to link it to the real world. We used a cool app on the school laptops called MindManager. It's like a virtual canvas where you can write all of your ideas. Similar to writing on butchers paper, but a lot more fun, and easier to share and collaborate with others. All of the groups presented their mind-map, then we merged all of the key ideas into a single class mind-map. Mr Gehrke uploaded it to a wiki which we can all access without student login details. He said we can add to it throughout the term whenever want if we have relevant ideas. My group's mind-map was really good because I already know a lot about Pokemon. Even before Pokemon Go came out, I used to watch the TV show and I have a couple of the cards too. I even have an emulator at home on my computer which lets me play all of the different Pokemon GameBoy games. My favourite Pokemon is Squirtle because I think turtles are really cool and he's pretty cute. It would likely be found in a water-based habitat, like a lake or near the ocean, because Squirtle is a water-type Pokemon. This makes sense when comparing it to a real turtle. The way Squirtle evolves is really interesting, but its final form, Blastoise, is more like a tortoise. Mr Gehrke taught us about metamorphosis, which I think is a better description of how Pokemon change. Interestingly, the Pokemon, Caterpie, is a caterpillar and its "evolutions" are the different stages that a caterpillar would naturally go through during metamorphosis.
At the end of term we have to do a presentation on our findings. I'm not sure what it will involve specifically, but I've decided to use Prezi for mine. That should be fun.
Stage 2
We were given details on how to use Pokemon Go for this topic and we could do it by ourselves or in groups. There's another student in my class who I get a long with quite well and I am comfortable being around so I decided to go with her. My mum thought that was smart, as she didn't like the idea of me doing this work by myself. Pokemon always tells you to not trespass and be mindful of your surroundings, but Mr Gehrke explicitly went through that with us as well. There's a church near the school. I guess he doesn't want us to get in trouble if we all start running around there then blaming him for it. I think I might stick with my neighbourhood anyway; it's pretty good for Pokemon.
My friend and I try to go out three times each week to hunt Pokemon for our assignment. Her mum has a Fitbit which she borrows so we can track exactly how far we go and how our speed varies during our walks. We generally catch around 20 Pokemon during our 1 hour walk. I've noticed that we often get them at the same spots each time, though the specific Pokemon we catch are sometimes different. There's one spot, however, where there is always a Jigglypuff. It's like a nesting place of some sort. After each walk, we entered data into a spreadsheet, including which Pokemon we caught, what time we caught it, its gender, and its type. We also download the information from the Fitbit. We haven't analysed it too much yet, but I've always wondered how accurate Pokemon Go is at tracking distance - it seems to underestimate a bit.
We've started researching different Pokemon types and relating them to real natural resources on Earth. Most of them make sense, e.g. fire is strong against grass, and water is strong against ground (I guess because it turns to mud). Some don't really make sense, scientifically speaking, e.g. rock being strong against ice (though rock is also strong against bug, which works - that's how I squash bugs in real life).
I've been adding to the mind-map a bit too. Some Pokemon that I thought seemed like random creations I learnt are actually based on real animals, just not very common ones. I'm learning that it's more realistic than it first appears, though there's plenty of things created for the game that don't follow science at all (fairy Pokemon and sentient magnets??).
Stage 3
We've caught a lot of Pokemon now and Mr Gehrke said to not catch any more and work on putting out presentations together. I think I'll keep playing though like I did before this term anyway. It's a lot of fun and I'm going really well. There's a person that I often bump into down at the park who plays too. He's a little younger, but very friendly, and he doesn't seem to mind that I'm a bit weird at times.
My Prezi is going to be a large map of my area, and I'm going to use the locations of where we caught Pokemon as points to zoom in on and present information and data. I've compiled all of my data and shared it with the file Mr Gehrke made to collect all of our data into a single database. He mentioned we will be using it to inform the Silph Road community. I've heard about them on Reddit, but I normally don't use it when I play Pokemon as I prefer to find them by myself. I can see how it would be a useful resource though, especially for people visiting new places. They can see where good spots might be and whether there are any specific nests of Pokemon around.
I have lots of different photos from all of the Pokemon we caught. Most are Pidgey and Sentret, but there's some pretty interesting ones too like Stantler and Pineco. We used the augmented reality function to try to make the photos funny and interesting, e.g. making it look like the Pokemon were sitting on us or attacking us, or just sitting in trees. I was right with my guess that Pokemon Go's GPS tracker wasn't 100% accurate. We walked more or less the exact same route each time, which the Fitbit showed to be 4.8km. If we only walked, Pokemon Go usually showed around 4.5km, but if we ran any sections it decreased to anywhere between 3.5-4.2km. I think this is because of how often it sends an update location request, so it assumes a straight line between the last point it registered at and the next point. Therefore if you walk slowly and in a straight line it will get it pretty right, but the more you turn, the more it has to interpolate between points, and the faster you go, the more it can miss between updates.
I've made quite a few different graphs to show how common the Pokemon I caught are, male and female populations for each species, whether the time of days affects what Pokemon will be around, and which Pokemon prefer different areas. I even made a graph comparing the different move types available for the same Pokemon. It will be interesting to see what other students have discovered in their areas.
I chose to analyse the Pokemon, Magikarp, for the last bit of my assessment. There aren't many around where I live, but if I can find one it's usually near the small creek that runs through the estate. One of the ones I did find was shiny, which is super rare. Magikarp is a fairly realistic Pokemon. It represents a fish, specifically a goldfish or carp, and is water type which makes sense. Its moves include splash and struggle, which reminds me of what fish do when they are out of water, just flopping around. It wears a crown which is cool in the game, but can't really be linked to science. Magikarp's evolution isn't scientific at all though. Gyarados is like a big dragon/serpent thing, which reminds me of Chinese mythical creatures more than anything else. Its moves make sense given what it looks like, but it's hardly realistic. I redefined how Margikarp evolves, firstly by including a first stage resembling fish eggs, then removing Gyarados and making it evolve into a larger carp type fish, but it changes gender at this stage too. Most Pokemon have an assigned gender which doesn't change (or no gender at all). But I know fish are hermaphrodites and change gender at a certain age, or depending on whether there's a female in the school or not. So by making all Magikarp males, and their evolved form a female, this is more representative of what happens in nature. The females are often bigger and have different colour patterns so I based my design on that idea. Some fish also become poisonous as they get older or change genders too, so I included poison typing in my evolved form and gave it moves that simulate how fish might use barbs in defence or to kill prey.
Using Pokemon Go to learn has not only been fun, but also really interesting. It's often hard to find different animals in a local environment, so this has allowed us to run a simulation, whilst still being active outdoors. I'm happy with my findings and I've learnt a lot too, not just about Pokemon but about real animals and real habitats. I can't want to show everyone my presentation and see what others have found too.
Learning Sequence Design
This learning sequence has been designed around the ideas discussed in my curator's insight on the use of Pokemon Go in education. The sequence is part of a unit of work for the Australian Curriculum: Year 10 Science. Pokemon Go will be used to investigate animal populations in different habitats, the science of evolution and metamorphosis, how natural resources interact with each other, and data analysis. The sequence and associated unit of work focus on the biological sciences and Earth & space sciences sub-strands, and can be modified to suit other learning areas such as Geography, Mathematics, and HPE. Throughout the unit students are reminded of online safety protocols and appropriate ethical considerations.
Stage 1 - Learning about different habitats, the life they attract, and how humans affect them.
This stage introduces important background information on habitats, ecosystems, adaptation and evolution from a biology and Earth sciences perspective.
Students engage in group discussion identifying different environments around the school grounds and their homes. What changes have they noticed over the years: has there been industrial or building development; have gardens been created and maintained; have buildings and gardens been left run-down and overgrown; what are the nearest sources of water; are there potential fire hazards; do they attract or repel certain animal life, etc.
Students are taught how animals and plants are good at adapting to new environments and conditions, and explore the history of evolution in animals. Documentaries such as David Attenborough's Planet Earth series for BBC will be watched during this time. Following this, students are introduced to Pokemon GO. They form small groups to create a mind-map of what they already know about Pokemon and how it draws parallels with real life using MindJet's MindManager software. The mind-maps are to be collated into a class document displayed on a wiki which will grow throughout the unit. Key ideas include relations between Pokemon and real animals and plants, where you would likely find them, what "types" exist (e.g. water, fire, grass, electric), and knowledge of any "evolved" forms. Based on what students know about evolution, how similar is this to what occurs in Pokemon?
Individually, students make notes about their neighbourhood environment which will be the starting point for Stage 2. Students choose a presentation medium they will use for Stage 2, such as a Weebly website, Prezi, video presentation, etc.
Capabilities addressed:
Literacy
Critical and Creative Thinking
Personal and Social Capability
ICT Capability
Ethical Understanding
Stage 2 - Pokemon in the wild, population analysis, and the science of "types".
This stage will use the Pokemon Go app to observe and analyse different habitats, collect data, and investigate the science of the Pokemon world. Students are to be considerate not to trespass on private property, and to behave appropriately when visiting public locations such as places of worship, shopping centres, or libraries.
Students work either individually or in small groups (3 students maximum) using the Pokemon Go app - only 1 account per group. Each group/student will be based in a single area around one of the student's homes or the school grounds. Students explore their area catching as many Pokemon as possible during a 1 hour session, for at least 2 days but no more than 3 days per week. For each Pokemon, students record its Combat Power (CP), time of day it was encountered (or if it fled), whether it is male or female, and use the augmented reality feature to capture a photo of the Pokemon where it is inhabiting. The data should be collected in a spreadsheet application such as Excel or Google Sheets. If in groups, data needs to be able to be shared, e.g. using cloud storage (Dropbox/Sharepoint), or online document editing (OneDrive/Google).
The exact start and finish time of of the explorations is to be recorded. Students are to use an independent GPS tracker (e.g. Fitbit, a secondary phone app, external GPS unit) to track their distance travelled and speed. This data will be compared to the internal GPS tracker used in Pokemon Go to determine its general accuracy as well as the effects of speed (for example, the app has a limiter so it knows when you are in a car and won't record distance travelled above a certain speed).
Students research the different Pokemon "types" and record the types (and combinations) for all the Pokemon they have caught. Students make connections between type strengths and weaknesses to interactions between real life resources, e.g water is effective against fire, but will conduct electricity; grass will absorb water, but bugs eat grass. Students are only to consider natural types, and are to ignore super-natural or non-natural types (e.g. fairy, psychic, dragon).
Ideas and discoveries are to be added regularly to the wiki created in Stage 1.
Capabilities Addressed
Literacy
Numeracy
Personal and Social Capability
ICT Capability
Intercultural Understanding
Stage 3 - Drawing conclusions on findings, and presenting discoveries and data.
In this stage, students are finalising their data collection from the game and are working on developing their presentations.
Students start to gather all of their data together and generate relevant graphs including how many of each Pokemon were found in total and in each different habitat, and the ratio of males to females. Raw data will also be shared with a classroom database which will be compared with student data. This will show how populations vary between neighbourhoods and smaller locations, compared to the larger community encompassing all the locations. Students will use this to inform the community on the Silph Road Global Atlas (a global online community for Pokemon Go trainers to communicate where Pokemon can be found).
Part of the presentation includes a map which will highlight the different habitats within the student's area, identify where Pokemon were found including any "nests", and where the students' explored. This will include photos from Pokemon Go's augmented reality function, mapped walks from the secondary GPS tracker and any other relevant information from the students choosing (e.g. description of the different habitats). The students will also use the data they have collected in relevant graphs. Students in groups will use all the same data, though the presentation of it will be an individual effort.
The other main part of the presentation is the result of an analysis of the features of a Pokemon. Students have two options for this: they may select a Pokemon from those they caught, or design their own. The analysis should include the suitability of the type, what animal or plant best represents it in the real world, the suitability of its common habitat, how its moves relate to real defence mechanisms or hunting methods, and the Pokemon's evolutionary stages. The student then modifies the Pokemon using scientific justification to make it more realistic. If the student chose to design their own Pokemon, this will be justified in the same manner. This part of the assessment is individual. Students are reminded about copyright and licensing when uses images found online, and online safety when publishing information and engaging with online communities.
Capabilities Addressed:
Literacy
Numeracy
Critical and Creative Thinking
Personal and Social Capability
ICT Capability
Intercultural Understanding
Ethical Understanding
ICTs Used in Learning Sequence.
Stage 1 - Learning about different habitats, the life they attract, and how humans affect them.
This stage introduces important background information on habitats, ecosystems, adaptation and evolution from a biology and Earth sciences perspective.
Students engage in group discussion identifying different environments around the school grounds and their homes. What changes have they noticed over the years: has there been industrial or building development; have gardens been created and maintained; have buildings and gardens been left run-down and overgrown; what are the nearest sources of water; are there potential fire hazards; do they attract or repel certain animal life, etc.
Students are taught how animals and plants are good at adapting to new environments and conditions, and explore the history of evolution in animals. Documentaries such as David Attenborough's Planet Earth series for BBC will be watched during this time. Following this, students are introduced to Pokemon GO. They form small groups to create a mind-map of what they already know about Pokemon and how it draws parallels with real life using MindJet's MindManager software. The mind-maps are to be collated into a class document displayed on a wiki which will grow throughout the unit. Key ideas include relations between Pokemon and real animals and plants, where you would likely find them, what "types" exist (e.g. water, fire, grass, electric), and knowledge of any "evolved" forms. Based on what students know about evolution, how similar is this to what occurs in Pokemon?
Individually, students make notes about their neighbourhood environment which will be the starting point for Stage 2. Students choose a presentation medium they will use for Stage 2, such as a Weebly website, Prezi, video presentation, etc.
Capabilities addressed:
Literacy
Critical and Creative Thinking
Personal and Social Capability
ICT Capability
Ethical Understanding
Stage 2 - Pokemon in the wild, population analysis, and the science of "types".
This stage will use the Pokemon Go app to observe and analyse different habitats, collect data, and investigate the science of the Pokemon world. Students are to be considerate not to trespass on private property, and to behave appropriately when visiting public locations such as places of worship, shopping centres, or libraries.
Students work either individually or in small groups (3 students maximum) using the Pokemon Go app - only 1 account per group. Each group/student will be based in a single area around one of the student's homes or the school grounds. Students explore their area catching as many Pokemon as possible during a 1 hour session, for at least 2 days but no more than 3 days per week. For each Pokemon, students record its Combat Power (CP), time of day it was encountered (or if it fled), whether it is male or female, and use the augmented reality feature to capture a photo of the Pokemon where it is inhabiting. The data should be collected in a spreadsheet application such as Excel or Google Sheets. If in groups, data needs to be able to be shared, e.g. using cloud storage (Dropbox/Sharepoint), or online document editing (OneDrive/Google).
The exact start and finish time of of the explorations is to be recorded. Students are to use an independent GPS tracker (e.g. Fitbit, a secondary phone app, external GPS unit) to track their distance travelled and speed. This data will be compared to the internal GPS tracker used in Pokemon Go to determine its general accuracy as well as the effects of speed (for example, the app has a limiter so it knows when you are in a car and won't record distance travelled above a certain speed).
Students research the different Pokemon "types" and record the types (and combinations) for all the Pokemon they have caught. Students make connections between type strengths and weaknesses to interactions between real life resources, e.g water is effective against fire, but will conduct electricity; grass will absorb water, but bugs eat grass. Students are only to consider natural types, and are to ignore super-natural or non-natural types (e.g. fairy, psychic, dragon).
Ideas and discoveries are to be added regularly to the wiki created in Stage 1.
Capabilities Addressed
Literacy
Numeracy
Personal and Social Capability
ICT Capability
Intercultural Understanding
Stage 3 - Drawing conclusions on findings, and presenting discoveries and data.
In this stage, students are finalising their data collection from the game and are working on developing their presentations.
Students start to gather all of their data together and generate relevant graphs including how many of each Pokemon were found in total and in each different habitat, and the ratio of males to females. Raw data will also be shared with a classroom database which will be compared with student data. This will show how populations vary between neighbourhoods and smaller locations, compared to the larger community encompassing all the locations. Students will use this to inform the community on the Silph Road Global Atlas (a global online community for Pokemon Go trainers to communicate where Pokemon can be found).
Part of the presentation includes a map which will highlight the different habitats within the student's area, identify where Pokemon were found including any "nests", and where the students' explored. This will include photos from Pokemon Go's augmented reality function, mapped walks from the secondary GPS tracker and any other relevant information from the students choosing (e.g. description of the different habitats). The students will also use the data they have collected in relevant graphs. Students in groups will use all the same data, though the presentation of it will be an individual effort.
The other main part of the presentation is the result of an analysis of the features of a Pokemon. Students have two options for this: they may select a Pokemon from those they caught, or design their own. The analysis should include the suitability of the type, what animal or plant best represents it in the real world, the suitability of its common habitat, how its moves relate to real defence mechanisms or hunting methods, and the Pokemon's evolutionary stages. The student then modifies the Pokemon using scientific justification to make it more realistic. If the student chose to design their own Pokemon, this will be justified in the same manner. This part of the assessment is individual. Students are reminded about copyright and licensing when uses images found online, and online safety when publishing information and engaging with online communities.
Capabilities Addressed:
Literacy
Numeracy
Critical and Creative Thinking
Personal and Social Capability
ICT Capability
Intercultural Understanding
Ethical Understanding
ICTs Used in Learning Sequence.
Digital Curation
Please see my chosen Scoop.it below which is inspiration for my learning sequence. More of my digital curation can be found via the link on my homepage. Pokemon Go combines multiple technologies into the app, including GPS tracking, augmented reality, photo-capture, data collection, and game mechanics. Individually they can all be useful in a classroom environment, and together they create an engaging learning experience and expose students to different ICT capabilities.
My learning sequence will be focused on using Pokemon Go specifically in the science learning area, aimed at the Australian Curriculum for Year 10. My curator's insight details some examples of how it can be used in a science context and general education as well. My learning sequences will also be designed to be inclusive of students with learning difficulties and demonstrate how Pokemon Go can assist them.