Project 3

For my project I decided to make an assignment for students to do using Digital Frog.
1. Go to www.digitalfrog.com and download the demo.
2. Open the demo, and click on ecology. Scroll over to the pictures to biodiversity and as you work your way through the headings, answer these questions.
a. What are some of the places where you can find frogs?
You can find them all over the world in deserts, forests, jungles, and even sub-arctic habitats
b. What is the scientific difference between a frog and a toad?
Frogs are all members of the order Anura, and toads are members of the anuran family Bufonidae. Frogs have strong back legs that allow them to jump well, but toads typically walk instead of jumping.
c. Click on the Bullfrog and the Northern Leopard frog, and listen to their calls. How are the calls different?
The bullfrog call sounds kind of like a very low donkey’s bray, while the leopard frog sounds like a creak that a door might make only lower.
d. Why would having different calls be beneficial?
Having a unique call would help the frogs find their own kind during mating season.

3. Scroll over the pictures to behavior.
a. What are some kinds of environmental stimuli that influence frog behavior?
Temperature, Hormones, day length
4. Click on the feeding picture, and as you click on each heading answer these questions.
a. What feeding strategy are adult frogs?
Carnivores
b. What sense do frogs use most for feeding
Vision
c. What two strategies do frogs use to obtain food?
Active hunting and passive sit-and-wait
d. What do frogs use to catch their food on land and how is this different from capturing prey in the water?
On land frogs use their sticky tongue to catch food and then drag it to their mouth, but in water they catch the food in their mouth.
e. Frogs’ tongues attach at the front of their mouth. Why would this be an important adaptation?
Front-attaching tongues allow frogs to flip out their tongues farther and faster than back-attaching tongues

We will be discussing these things as we examine frog adaptations next week.

Reflection: I think that this tool is very valuable because it not only allows you to examine the anatomy of the frog, but it also provides information that gives you a more complete picture about purpose of the frog dissection. I remember doing frog dissections, and wondering why they were doing them. I didn’t see what the dissection was supposed to be teaching us. Later I realized that the dissections we do are important to biology because it shows the students how we are related to animals and how animals are related to each other. We do dissections illustrate common ancestry because we share these systems with them. But we also do dissections to show how the animals have adapted and evolved to their specific environment. I feel like knowing more about the subject and what kind of selection has acted on that lineage gives a better picture of what we are trying to teach our students, and this program gives that better picture. I think that this technology is great in improving the breadth the education we give our students.

Last Post

I really have learned a lot from this class. I have been exposed to resources that I was entirely unaware that they existed, and I have bee required to use some technology that I had heard of but that I had never tried out. I used a webcam for the first time. I video chatted for the first time. (this is probably my favorite new technology that I learned. I use it to talk to my sister all the time now.) I used a blog for the first time. I learned how to make a website. I learned how to make a video. I learned about Google docs (my second favorite new technology). I learned about copyright. Just about everything that we covered in this class was something new or something I had never tried before.

I think that the technologies that I have learned about will help a lot with my teaching. For instance, knowing about copyright and free use will be very valuable for deciding what materials I can use. Also, simply knowing that there is more out there will encourage me to look for technology that can help me solve specific problems or teach specific concepts. In addition, what I have learned has helped me to be more open to trying new things out. I think that I will be more willing look for technological solutions when they are available. Also, I imagine that I will find ways to use the tools that I have mastered in this class for teaching.

I think that many of my questions have been answered, and many questions that I didn't even know that I had have also been answered. I have realized that there is a lot of technology out there that I don't know about, and so my chief question is what is the best way learn about new programs that come out or to continue finding addition tools to use?

Project 3 proposal

Target audience: Biology students
Technology: digital frog or Sciencematrix: cell structure and function
Learning activities: I will create an assignment for my students to complete, complete the assignment myself, and then post the assignment and the product on my blog.

Video Chat

I used google video chat to talk with my sister that lives in Arizona. Neither of us had used video chat before, so it was an interesting experience. We had a run time experimenting with pushing different buttons and seeing what happened. Once I accidently hung up on her because I was trying to see if the end button got rid of the text box for normal chat that was under my video chat. Whoops! We then had a lot of fun once we discovered how to make the screen big, because we took turns going back and forth between big and little! Whee!

I usually talk to my sister every week or so on the phone, so it was a lot of fun to be able to see her and talk to her. We practiced making faces at each other. There's just something more fulfilling about being able to talk to a person you can see rather than a voice. We really liked, and we've decided to video chat for our weekly calls instead of using the phone.

I really think that video chat could be useful in teaching. I imagine you could get a guest speaker a lot easier. Or maybe if you were sick, you could have someone with a computer video the lecture for you so you could participate in class, but be home sick. It could also be helpful for tutoring a student, or even parent teacher conferences, if a face to face meeting is too hard to arrange. I am pretty excited about this resource.

Fair use

I have to confess I am so grateful that fair use exists! It makes it so teachers can use awesome material to educate the next generation without having to spend tons of money! I would imagine that fair use is what lets BYU sell textbooks for classes here that are specially adapted for use in a particular class. For instance, my teaching students with disabilities textbook is abbreviated. Some chapters have been removed because we wouldn't be going over them during the course. It makes the textbooks smaller, and more easy to use. I have a feeling that BYU couldn't do that otherwise. And personally, I think that teaching is hard enough without having to worry that you'll have a lawsuit on your hands.