What is Project Groundhog?
Project Groundhog is a project designed to introduce young learners to
the possibilities of telecommunications technology through a meaningful,
curriculum based inquiry. It is supported by STEM~Net, and
is available to students and teachers throughout the world!
Project Groundhog engages students in exploring whether or not the
groundhog is an accurate weather predictor. For the six weeks following
Groundhog Day, February 2nd, students monitor and record the daily
temperature and sky conditions. Students also record how often school
was closed due to weather. The information collected is shared weekly
with the participating schools via email and the Project Groundhog
website.
Project Groundhog
has a direct curriculum focus. It allows teachers to
cover specific objectives in science, math, social studies, and Language
Arts. It allows for the introduction of basic statistical analysis,
graphing and charting.
Throughout the
course of Project Groundhog you may participate in many
more online activities depending on your time, and your students. Some
schools choose to make Project Groundhog the entire curriculum focus for
their students, others simply collect
and share their data. Some schools track all the participating schools, others only one or two. Many schools have had the local media take an interest in the project and have newspaper articles to prove it.
If you are interested in participating in Project Groundhog,
please register online using the Register link off the main page.
Many teacers participate in Project Groundhog without the
children having access to the online computer. The teacher can download
the information and share it with the class. The student's data and other
responses can be composed by the students and uploaded by the teacher.
Like most good online projects, 90% of the learning in Project Groundhog
takes place offline. This approach does require a little more of a
committment of time and energy on behalf of the teacher. If this is the
situation you are in, it is nice to try to allow the children at least
one chance to see how the online side of the project works.
If you decide to participate in Project Groundhog, the following
resources are available Online Project
Guide. |