As we head into the long weekend, students had the opportunity to work with their extreme environment groups and once again practice the skill of partner paraphrasing. This time, student groups read student-selected paragraphs from books about life on Earth (including the oceans and Antarctica), as well as books with information about the Moon and the planets in our solar system. The books were rotated around the room every 10 minutes, providing students the opportunity to read all about the biotic and abiotic factors present on and off of Earth. After one student read a paragraph, the other group members paraphrased the reading, distilling the paragraph down to a key point that became the node on a concept map. Groups were challenged to create at least 10 nodes (for full credit) and then to connect related nodes with edges (similar to a network). At the end of class, students then wrote test questions based on information contained in their group’s concept map.
The Art of Science 