A Bird’s Eye View of our 50 States
Stephanie Shady
Beaufort Elementary
3/21/02
Subjects included in this Lesson Plan: Social Studies, Math, Technology
Brief Description: In the process of learning facts about our 50 states, we noticed several states had the same bird, flower or tree. We chose to concentrate on the state bird. We also learned absolute location (latitude/longitude) of each state, as well as their relative
location (bordering states). This helped with our map skills. For fun we found their nickname and talked about how it applies to each state.Approximate time required: 1 to 2 weeks.
Standard Course of Study Goals and Objectives:
Technology:
1.2 Recognize that the Copyright Law protects what a person, group,
or company has created.
1.5 Identify telecommunications technologies used to locate
information.
2.1 Identify the technology tools used to collect, analyze, and
display data.
2.6 Identify the parts of a spreadsheet.
2.7 Enter and edit data in a prepared spreadsheet and observe the
results.
2.11 Use telecommunications to locate community information as a
group/class project.
3.3 Use a prepared spreadsheet to enter and graph data as a group
activity.
Math
4.01 Gather and organize data from surveys and classroom
experiments, including data collected over a period of time.
4.02 Display data on charts and graphs: picture, bar and line plots;
describe data using mode.
4.03 Construct graphs where symbols or scales represent multiple
units.
4.04 Read and interpret graphs and charts (bar, picture, circle,
line and line plots) as sources of information; identify main idea,
draw conclusions and make predictions.
Social Studies:
2.3 Assess similarities and differences among communities in
different times and in different places.
7.1 Identify and explain the importance of selected persons,
patriotic symbols, and public observances.
9.1 Know absolute and/or relative locations of the local and other
communities.
9.2 Understand the concept of place within the context of the local
community.
9.5 Distinguish the local region from other regions of which it is a
part.
Teacher's Lesson Goals/Objectives: The objective will be to learn locations on a map and information of the 50 states. The student will
use the Internet to find the absolute and relative location of the
states they picked (in a drawing), then locate them on the class map. They will
use also use the Internet to find state facts several items including the bird, tree, flower and nickname.
Students will learn the parts of the spreadsheet and interpret the
data.
Materials/Resources Needed:
- Computer Lab computers
- printer,
- maps,
- tally sheet,
- information sheet for the information about the states.
- Web site: http://www.50states.com
Pre Activities:
- Pick 3 states (or however you decide to divide the states)
- Talk about copyright information before students go to the
website.
- Go to website to locate information:
http://www.50states.com
- Find information needed for lesson (absolute and relative
location, bird, flower, tree, etc)
- The students will identify and tally the states that have the same
bird, flower, or tree, etc.
Activities:
- Review parts of a spreadsheet (entry bar, cell, row, column,
how each cell is named, and graph/chart)
- Go to AppleWorks.
- Choose “spreadsheet”,
- Click on "Cell A1".
- Enter your title of the graph (in the entry bar)
- In column A, enter the name of the birds
- In column B, enter the number of the amount of times that bird
is a state bird.
- Highlight the columns and rows where data is entered.
- Go the “make a graph” under “options”.
- Choose the bar graph and a small font size and see results.
- Print and display the graphs.
Closure: While finding the information necessary for our lesson...we have found we can locate this information and much more into a graphic organizer.
Assessment:
Observation: Student locate and record correct information needed for each state.
Checklist: Student tallies information correctly for
the spreadsheet. Student is able to name the parts of a spreadsheet.
Student reads and interprets graphs correctly. Student can locate
absolute and relative location of their state. |
