Amazon
Career Tours
https://www.amazonfutureengineer.com/elementary-fc-tech-tour
The
first virtual field trip that I chose was the Amazon career center tour. I
originally chose this because it interested me that Amazon combined robotics
and engineering and showed the students a possible career path.
While
on the tour, I also discovered that the tour exposed students to a large amount
of vocabulary. The vocabulary is exposed to the children both orally and in
written format to help students process the words they are learning, and you
have the option to slow down or speed up the videos to meet your academic pace.
The program reminded students to take notes and I appreciated the reminder for
a strong study technique.
The
field trip was interactive and filled with both videos for the students to see
what happens at Amazon factories, and quizzes to check their understanding and
guessing. I was surprised to learn about how much technology is incorporated
into Amazon packing plants. It would be so cool to work in a place where robots
and people work together, and I believe children would find it entertaining as
well. I appreciate that it also notes the importance of employees work to make
the packing successful as well. The sounds used in the field trip made the
games exciting and fun for the students.
Kahoot
also allows teachers to monitor student progress and get involved as well. It
tracks their progress and understanding and even ranks the students as winners
if they answer correctly right away. Although the tour is recommended for K-5th
grade, I would use it with 3rd-5th grade students simply
due to the length (45 min) of screen time involved. If I used this field trip
with a future class, I would pair it
with a STEM lesson to help deepen understanding of the concepts we have talked
about- specifically lessons about hardware vs software. I would also consider
partnering the fieldtrip with a computer programming lesson.
Overall,
this field trip is one that children interested in science and technology could
learn a lot from. It exposes the students to a possible career path, and gives
them the opportunity to learn about the hard work that goes into packages
arriving at their house from Amazon.
Slime
in Space
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLWFcwzFetA&t=924s
The second field trip I chose was called Slime in Space
and it interested me because if there are two things that kids love- they are
slime and outer space. I knew if I showed a video like this to a class of
younger students it would be very academically engaging, and the length (15
min) is perfect for younger students with shorter attention spans.
My four-year-old son watched this field trip with me and
loved it. He asked me so many questions about space and why the experiments
went the way that they did. I think that in order to deepen understanding, this
would have to be partnered with lessons about outer space and how things work
in space without gravity. In the video,
you were able to see different reactions of slime in space, and they compared
it to reactions of slime on Earth.
This
lesson would have to be paired with our own slime making experiment to let the
kids have fun, and to encourage them to go home and show their parents what
they learned in school. Another thing that I would like to do with future
students when watching this field trip is to try some of the academic materials
provided on the site to pair with the learning- like the Bingo game and wait
for the students to get a blackout as they follow along with the video so they
have something to do with their hands (obviously for older students as they
have to be able to read the card).
This
field trip is a fun way for students to learn about gravity, space, and the
scientific method. It encouraged students to generate hypotheses about
potential outcomes based on their knowledge of a substance. It introduced a
large amount of space related vocabulary to the students they may not have
otherwise been exposed to, and it kept them academically engaged.
I
would definitely use this video in a future classroom to demonstrate the
effects of gravity or to describe how the scientific method works.
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