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The objective of post-field followup activities is for your youth to analyze, write about, and share their field experiences using tools such as Google Earth and the Oregon Explorers Moodle page (greater functionality to support post-field followup will be added to Oregon Explorer in time). These post-field activities can fulfill a wide range of Oregon Department of Education content standards, including science, geography (social sciences), mathematics, English language arts, and others.
Here are sample post-field activities you can do that relate to the ACCF site.
- Google Earth and related Google activities. Google Earth is a free mapping application that allows your youth to document their fieldwork and share it with others as a Google Earth (kmz) file. The activities are entirely free, and only require installation of Google Earth, online access, and in some cases below a (free) Google account. Here are some possible activities:
- Upload field GPS points and tracks to Google Earth. GPS offers lots of great opportunities to share your field explorations; ACCF can assist you in using GPS. With GPS you can collect in the field points (e.g., to locate where you took a digital picture or where you made a field discovery) or what are called tracks (breadcrumbs showing e.g. a hike route or the boundaries of a certain vegetation type). Transferring this GPS data to Google Earth is as easy as plugging the GPS into your computer and firing up Google Earth! Here are some simple instructions in the use of GPS as as well as how to download to Google Earth. All points in Google Earth are called placemarks.
- Upload field pictures to Google's Picasa. Picasa offers the ability for Google account holders to store and share web-based photo albums. You can also link selected photos directly to placemarks in Google Earth; clues are on the GPS instruction sheet. (Note: you can also geolocate photos or other points in Picasa and Google Earth by simply pointing to the location on the map. This is a good option if your students took a GPS reading and located the reading on the gridded map of ACCF.)
- Upload field data to Google Docs, then develop graphs to share online. Google Docs is a free way for those with Google accounts to store and share documents, spreadsheets, and other files. A Google Sheet (spreadsheet) allows users to enter, analyze, and graph data, then share these data online with others.
- Oregon Explorers Moodle site. The Oregon Explorers Moodle page, sponsored by the Oregon Virtual School District, supports K-12 teachers with lots of resources and online activities your youth can do. Existing resources can be found on the Teachers Page, or you may request your own page for your class; take a look at the sample Oregon Explorers page for ideas. Moodle training is available via our twice-annual Oregon Explorers workshops. For further background on Moodle, see the Moodle.org site. Here's how Moodle complements the Google Earth mapping activites above:
- Want to share a Google Earth file showing narrated points and tracks from a field exploration? You can readily upload Google Earth kmz files to Oregon Explorers to share your experience with other youth.
- Want to share a link to a Picasa album or Google Sheet? You can also readily do this on Oregon Explorers Moodle.
- Want your youth to write about their experiences in the field? Moodle offers a suite of writing tools for forum discussion as well as submission of assignment documents. It also offers a wiki for students to author online content to share with others. This is just the start; Moodle offers a glossary exercise for students to contribute definitions of vocabulary words, a real-time chat utility so your students can communicate with other students about their experience, and more.
- Want to followup with a quiz? Moodle offers lots of assessment tools, including online quizzes in multiple formats.
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