Introduction
Our school is going to be having a parents night in a few weeks. For it we will be making Internet time capsules by creating web pages. A time capsule is a way of communicating with the future. The idea is to put stuff in the capsule that is interesting to us and that we thing would give people in the future a good of how we are at this time. So, we will be breaking up into teams of three and each team will be responsible for making a time capsule. Each time capsule will have three parts, International, national and state events or news. The criteria for this will be up to you the students to decide, my only requirement is that the capsules not contain things that will be easily remembered in history books, such as major wars ie. Iraq, government and their policies ie. presidents, NAFTA.
Decisions Time
For this project you will be looking at news reports from around the world and possible from your home town. News can be a tricky thing, there is always two sides to every story, and the one with the most power and money will usually get their side heard. Because of this it is virtually impossible to to learn everything about an incident, or know who was truly at fault. Keep this in mind when every you read or see anything in the news while looking for articles for your project.
In this first meeting a couple of important decisions need to be made.
In this first meeting a couple of important decisions need to be made.
- First thing that needs to be decided is what will the theme of your capsule be this can be anything from art to zoology, what ever interests you. I recommend finding a common interest, so that the whole team will be interested in what the project
- Second determine what the criteria for your articles will be, things like when the events occurred, what makes it important, who your audience is and would they find the information interesting. The important thing about developing the criteria is to determine what you consider would be a good representation of what is going on in the world, but is often forgotten in the history books. Once the criteria has been determined write them down and give a copy to the the teacher for approval.
- Third you will need to decide who is going to be looking up information an the international, national, and state levels. I would also like to suggest that you do not have to do you own nation or state, try another country and one of its states.
Once all of this has been determine then each student will need to check out their part for suggestions and more specific directions.
International
The search for international news will be both hard and easy. Since there is so much going on in the world, and beings such a big place there will naturally be a lot of news and events to choose from. The hard part will be narrowing it down to what is most relevant with your criteria, and theme.
You will be required to find 3 or more stories that happened around the world, try to find pictures that will go with the articles because you will me making summaries of the news articles to use as captions. When all of your project members have their 3 pieces then it will be time for you and them to get together again to choose how many of your articles will be used for the time capsule, with at least one from each person being used.
To help you in your search to news and events here are three news agencies to start you off. You are not limited to just these three, you are welcome to us anything that is from a reputable news agency. Since most of these sites change their stories daily be sure to copy down the URL so that you can find the articles again at a later date.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/world// -
A world news page meant for young teens but has limited stories. To find more stories there is a button at the top of the page in tiny type that says MAIN ONLINE NEWSHOUR clicking on it will get you to a page that has way to many stories. To sort through those on the homepage's tool bar you can search the for news stories by region, or by subject. I recommend using subject.
http://www.thestar.com/news/world -A Canadian news agency that has a lot of news from around the world. The web site has a large number of stories, but it also has a website search in the top right corner.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/ - A well renowned and fairly unbiased news agency from England.
You will be required to find 3 or more stories that happened around the world, try to find pictures that will go with the articles because you will me making summaries of the news articles to use as captions. When all of your project members have their 3 pieces then it will be time for you and them to get together again to choose how many of your articles will be used for the time capsule, with at least one from each person being used.
To help you in your search to news and events here are three news agencies to start you off. You are not limited to just these three, you are welcome to us anything that is from a reputable news agency. Since most of these sites change their stories daily be sure to copy down the URL so that you can find the articles again at a later date.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/world// -
A world news page meant for young teens but has limited stories. To find more stories there is a button at the top of the page in tiny type that says MAIN ONLINE NEWSHOUR clicking on it will get you to a page that has way to many stories. To sort through those on the homepage's tool bar you can search the for news stories by region, or by subject. I recommend using subject.
http://www.thestar.com/news/world -A Canadian news agency that has a lot of news from around the world. The web site has a large number of stories, but it also has a website search in the top right corner.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/ - A well renowned and fairly unbiased news agency from England.
National
National news agency often report news that could also be considered international news such as when reporting on wars that we are in, or when reporting on government policies that are about foreign relations. You will have to weed through that type of information to find specifically national news.
You will be required to find 3 or more stories that happened around the nation, try to find pictures that will go with the articles because you will me making summaries of the news articles to use as captions. When all of your project members have their 3 pieces then it will be time for you and them to get together again to choose how many of your articles will be used for the time capsule, with at least one from each person being used.
To help you in your search to news and events here are three news agencies to start you off. You are not limited to just these three, you are welcome to us anything that is from a reputable news agency.Since most of these sites change their stories daily be sure to copy down the URL so that you can find the articles agai
n at a later date.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/ - the online version of a daily news show on PBS stations. Clicking on REGION and selecting NORTH AMERICA will bring up more news stories,that mostly happened in the U.S.
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/teachers/wr/0,27955,080314,00.html- an weekly online news magazine geared towards kids has a limited number of articles. Clicking on the PAST STORIES button in the upper left hand corner you will get a greater selection of stories.
http://www.usnews.com/sections/news/index.html- The online version of the monthly news magazine. The homepage has a breaking news section towards the bottom of the page, in order to get more news stories, go back the the top of the page and on the left top corner there is a blue box that if you select on NATION, then more stories will appear.
State, Local
State and/or local news is easier to feel a connection for since we can see it happen in our lives. It may sometimes seem like similar stuff doesn't happen in other places because it is not reported on the national, or international news reports.
You will be required to find 3 or more stories that happened around the state, try to find pictures that will go with the articles because you will me making summaries of the news articles to use as captions. When all of your project members have their 3 pieces then it will be time for you and them to get together again to choose how many of your articles will be used for the time capsule, with at least one from each person being used.
To help you in your search to news and events here are three news agencies to start you off. You are not limited to just these three, you are welcome to us anything that is from a reputable news agency. Since most of these sites change their stories daily be sure to copy down the URL so that you can find the articles again at a later date.
http://www.registerguard.com/RG/Home/index.csp -
To see the find the most relivent articles for you topic you could use the search feature that is in the top right corner, or click on the CITY/REGIONAL button from the menu on the left.
http://www.mailtribune.com/ -
This is a Southern Oregon newspaper that has news from all over the region. There are three ways to access their articles the easiest is to scan through the front page for stories. Second, like many other sites they have a keyword search, and lastly you could use the drop down menus from the NEWS and COMMUNITY tabs.
You will be required to find 3 or more stories that happened around the state, try to find pictures that will go with the articles because you will me making summaries of the news articles to use as captions. When all of your project members have their 3 pieces then it will be time for you and them to get together again to choose how many of your articles will be used for the time capsule, with at least one from each person being used.
To help you in your search to news and events here are three news agencies to start you off. You are not limited to just these three, you are welcome to us anything that is from a reputable news agency. Since most of these sites change their stories daily be sure to copy down the URL so that you can find the articles again at a later date.
http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/ - In order find all of the days headlines find the TODAY'S NEWS section and click on the ALL TODAY'S HEADLINES, there is also a keyword search just under the Forums tab.
http://www.registerguard.com/RG/Home/index.csp -
To see the find the most relivent articles for you topic you could use the search feature that is in the top right corner, or click on the CITY/REGIONAL button from the menu on the left.
http://www.mailtribune.com/ -
This is a Southern Oregon newspaper that has news from all over the region. There are three ways to access their articles the easiest is to scan through the front page for stories. Second, like many other sites they have a keyword search, and lastly you could use the drop down menus from the NEWS and COMMUNITY tabs. More Decisions
Now that everyone has their stories it is time to show them to the rest of the team for final selection. Remember you can use as many articles as you want, there must be at least one article from each of the three parts though. The selected articles will need to be summarized to one paragraph if not already. The articles and accompanying pictures will also need to be referenced using the following format.
Authors last name, first name initial. (date of article). article title. web site name. date article was retrieved, URL.
Example:
Shmoe, J. (2003, June 11). My boring life. Normal world. Retrieved August 9, 2003, from http://www.nworld.net
With all of the hard work done it is know time to layout how you will want the web page displayed. You can also add other elements to the page to add interest for instance you can add a list of popular musician, movies that where just released,or popular TV shows. What else do you think should be in a Time Capsule?
When finished with the lay out plans go to the teacher and have him or her show you how to make a web page.
When the project is completed answer the following questions individually and had it in.
Authors last name, first name initial. (date of article). article title. web site name. date article was retrieved, URL.
Example:
Shmoe, J. (2003, June 11). My boring life. Normal world. Retrieved August 9, 2003, from http://www.nworld.net
With all of the hard work done it is know time to layout how you will want the web page displayed. You can also add other elements to the page to add interest for instance you can add a list of popular musician, movies that where just released,or popular TV shows. What else do you think should be in a Time Capsule?
When finished with the lay out plans go to the teacher and have him or her show you how to make a web page.
When the project is completed answer the following questions individually and had it in.
- What did you find fun about the project?
- What didn't you like about the project?
- Do you feel that you contributed equally to the project?
- Was the work equally shared?
Teachers Guide
This project is intended for children in the 6th or 7th grades but can be adopted to most any age group.
In order to get the most out of this project the students should already know how to do simple navigation on the internet. They should also be able to read and article or paper and be able to pick out the main points summarize it.
The amount of computer time really necessary should be about an hour a week since most of what they will be doing is actually off of the computer.
The goals of the project are to make the children more aware of what is going on in the world around them. They will learn what to look for when doing research on the internet through scaffolding. They will also develop skills in presentation,decision making and teamwork.
Potential grading rubric:
In order to get the most out of this project the students should already know how to do simple navigation on the internet. They should also be able to read and article or paper and be able to pick out the main points summarize it.
The amount of computer time really necessary should be about an hour a week since most of what they will be doing is actually off of the computer.
The goals of the project are to make the children more aware of what is going on in the world around them. They will learn what to look for when doing research on the internet through scaffolding. They will also develop skills in presentation,decision making and teamwork.
Potential grading rubric:
1 point | 2 points | 3 points | 4 points | |
Criteria for news stories | -No reasoning | -Poor reasoning | -Good reasoning | -Well stated qualifications -Solid reasoning |
News story choice | -Pictures and captions are irrelevant | -Pictures and captions are mostly irrelevant, but some are. | -Pictures and captions are mostly relevant, but some are not. | -Meets all criteria -Pictures and captions are relevant |
presentation quality | -Frequent errors in grammar and spelling | -In frequent errors in spelling or grammar | -A few errors in spelling or grammar | -Well laid out & organized -No spelling and grammar |
Team work | -Non- collaborative | -Non- collaborative | -Collaborated with members | -Got along w/ team -Collaborated with members |
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