Multimedia and Planning Integration: Natural Disaster Research Project

Currently, my students are working on a research project on natural disasters. This research is self-directed and student-centered. Students could select their topic between volcanoes, tornadoes, and earthquakes. I brought in a number of books and print resources to support their research, and also created this digital resource list for students to explore different sources to gather pertinent information for their reports. Students are conducting their research in groups and are taking notes using this graphic organizer. When they complete their notes, they will put together their information in a presentation format in this organizer that I adapted from Glogster EDU (original template here, screenshot below). This is an example Glogster template that the group studying volcanoes could use to present their information.

The purpose of this Glogster is to support students to capture the information they have gathered from their research into a visually-appealing and interactive format that other students can access. I chose this format because it is easy to use and modify and because it is visually appealing. Because the students are in three different groups studying different disasters, this culminating and image-rich final presentation of the material will serve both as a summative assessment for me to see how much of their research they understood and will support their abilities to integrate the wealth of information and data they have collected over the past few weeks into a format that is easy for all students to access and understand. Because I have English learners in my room, this template can easily be scaffolded for students with different levels of proficiency.