Initially, upon reading the assignment for this blog post I thought that it was going to be much more difficult to find ways to use blogging in the science classroom than it seems to be. Having found the Extreme Biology Blog I'm beginning to think that this could be a very useful tool. Blogging about lab experiments that students have done can help them cement their understanding of the material. They can also practice their writing skills by taking their very technical and structured lab report and turning it into a discussion piece such as you would read in Popular Science which would again, illustrate and cement their understanding of the material, but also allow them to share their findings and knowledge with other students.
Taken in a different direction, blogging could be used as an experimental sounding board. Students could blog about things that they see and experience in their daily lives. From there students could offer up hypotheses, test them, and report back. For example, the observation that a rock and a feather fall at different speeds could offer up a theory (that is incorrect) that weight affects how fast something falls. The students could then experiment with different size and weight objects to try to prove or disprove that theory. With refinement and proper guidance, students would achieve a good understanding of the concepts of gravity and wind resistance, all done outside of the classroom.
So, to apply my own proposition, my initial hypothesis that it would be difficult to use blogging in the science classroom has been proven incorrect and I've arrived at the theory that the use of blogging in the science classroom can be a powerful tool for educating students.
Until next time...
Love the idea of Posting their hypothesis ... then following up with observations, reflections, and conclusions. The students Post would actually evolve throughout the course of the experiment ... which could literally be weeks or months. Thanks for adding 'links' to your favorite sites.
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