Biome Research Project

Last week in our science class we began our study of the six major biomes in the world.  In the past I have had students work with each other to study one of the biomes in a small group.  Each group would research different aspects of their biome and then the group would work together to create a poster to share what they learned about their biome.  This year since we are a 1:1 school with each student having their own Chromebook I wanted to try to take this assignment to the next level in terms of technology and collaboration.

Each group was still responsible for finding the same information for their project as in the past:

• The name of their biome
• A labeled map showing the location of their biome
• Any landforms in their biome
• A description of the climate in their biome
• At least ten animals that live in their biome
• At least ten plants that live in their biome

However, instead of having the groups create a poster using poster board I decided to have them create a Screencast of their group presenting a Google Presentation that they had created.  Each group decided how to divide up the work of doing the research and then they shared a Google Slide presentation and each student created their own slides within the presentation.  Once they were finished with the presentation they went to a quiet place in the school and recorded their screencast using the Screencastify extension.   Once the students turned in their screencasts I shared them with the rest of the class so we could view each group's screencast video.

The students really enjoyed this project and came up with some creative ways to share what they learned about their biome.  I could see us doing this again in the future with other projects.  I also plan to have students demonstrate their understanding of a topic, such as how to work a math problem, by creating a screencast and sharing it with me.