4th-Grade student Researching a Maine Animal

During this latest round of technology integration, I was lucky to work with the 4th-grade staff and students while they researched an animal from Robinson Woods. After students selected their animals we worked together to utilize our kid-friendly search engine, Safe Search Kids. Students learned about the presence and necessity of ads, and how to avoid them. They also learned how to find quality websites and utilize keywords in their searches. Students took notes by hand or using the iPad split-screen feature and Google Docs.

Special attention was paid to citing our resources. Students learned why this is important and the dangers of plagiarism.  Classroom teachers taught lessons specifically about note-taking. Students also learned how to save photos and cite the resource the photo was coming from. We talked about using empathy to understand how it would feel if someone "took" your photo without giving you credit. 

Finally, once all research was complete, and photos were found, students created a non-fiction book using the app Book Creator. Students were able to design every aspect of the book including several non-fiction text features such as a table of contents, captions, a glossary, and more.