Objective(s)

Students will conduct research about their community through field trips, resource materials, and the Internet.

Students will communicate this research by corresponding through e-mail with students from another community and publishing their findings on a word processing document to be sent to their partner community and placed on an Internet site created by the teacher.

National Standards

Technology: use telecommunications efficiently and effectively to access remote information, communicate with others in support of direct and independent learning.

Language Arts: students will read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world.

Social Studies: (III) Describe ways that historical events have been influenced by, and have influenced, physical and human geographic factors in local, regional, national, and global settings.

Summary

In this unit, students will research information on their community and state. They will then share facts about their community with another community of students. They will share information via email and postings on their class web site.

Technology and/or Materials Needed

• Computers with Internet access
• Email account

Implementation Time Frame

Approximately ten 45-minute class period over the unit

Activities

You should locate another class in another community that would be interested in exchanging emails. There are some available web sites that can assist you in finding other interested teachers. These web sites include:

• Classroom Connectat email address meeting@classroom.com
• Global Projects
• Classroom Learning Network

Once a connection has been made, brainstorm with your students what they would like to say in an email to their corresponding class. Message should include information about the school and community. After a returned message is received, you should present information that needs to be further researched to present to the corresponding class. Students decide which area most interests them and then divide into small groups by area to conduct their research. The research areas include: history, climate, geography, economy, transporation, and entertainment.

Field trips should be planned to local historical sites and other local venues are planned so students can further investigate their research areas. Other reference materials could include phone books, Chamber of Commerce brochures, library books, and other print materials.

Students will also be taught how to how to search the Internet using search engines to find more related information.

During the research process, students will send email messages to their corresponding class sharing information and resources used during the process. Corrsponding students can also be used as peer editors.

Students will type their information in report format citing all of their resources. These documents may also be placed on the class web site.

Extensions of this project could include using a digital camera to take class pictures and pictures of the community to send and post on the web site.

Assessment

Students' research papers can be assessed for writing skills and language usage, historical content, and research processes.

Resources and Related Links

• Classroom Connect
• Global Projects
• Classroom Learning Network