Interactive Tour of Ellis Island

(http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/tour/)
I used this resource during the IMB clinical. Scholastic has a variety of different
virtual field trips on their website for teachers to use. The interactive tour went
through the many different stages immigrants coming to the U.S. went through
between 1829 and 1954 at the Ellis Island Immigration Post. The tour includes audio
recordings of immigrants who came through the Ellis Island post as well as photos
and videos from that time. This allowed my students to go back in time to a place
that is much different today and experience what it was like to be an immigrant at
Ellis Island. The virtual field trip fit into the third grade standards 3.H.2.1 and
3.H.2.2.

Activity Before the Tour: The teacher and students will go through the virtual
field trip as a class. They will read the passages, listen to audio recordings and
videos, and will look through the photos on the tour. Students will be expected to
summarize each stop on the tour in one or two sentences.

Activity After the Tour:

Objective (Performance Conditions Criteria). Students will independently
create their own story jumper describing what it would be like if they were an
immigrant going through Ellis Island, describing each step in the immigration
process. Students will be expected to earn 8 out of 10 points .

Project Directions: Today we are going to go on a virtual field trip to Ellis

Island. I want you to each write down one or two sentences about each stop
on the tour. This will be important for the project you will be completing after
the tour. *Goes through tour* Now, I want each of you to log into
http://www.storyjumper.com. You will think about what it was like for
immigrants to go through each step of the immigration process. Write a story
about if you were an immigrant going through Ellis Island. Be sure to include
each of the 10 stops that you saw on the tour.
*I will go through my example book and show students how to use the
technology for their projects

Summary of Assessment: I will assess students primarily on the information they include on
each of the steps of the immigration process. They will receive two points for describing the stop
on each page. They will be encouraged to include all 10 stops of the tour. They will be expected
to earn 8 out of 10 points.

Story Jumper (https://www.storyjumper.com/book/index/39058976)

Virtual Tour of Washington D.C.
http://ahp.gatech.edu/dc_map.html
This resource could be used in a social studies lesson learning about government.
Students will go through the online tour and find out what major government
buildings are in D.C. They will also see important National Monuments.
Activity Before: Students will write down what national monuments they know are in
Washington D.C. and what government buildings are there. (ex: the White House).
They will get a list of different buildings they can choose from. They will choose one
building and go through that section of the tour. They will become an expert on
that specific building.
Activity After: Students will become experts on one building on the tour. They will
teach the class about that building while going through the tour in class.
Objective: Students will work in pairs to become an expert on a building in
Washington D.C. They will create a presentation of that building to share with the
class. Students will be expected to earn 8 out 10 points
Assessment: I will assess students on what they include in their presentation. They
should include the building name (1 point), when the building was built (1 point),
Why the building is important (1 point), Is it a monument or a building used in the
government (1 point), What is the building/monument named after (1 point), and 5
interesting facts about the building (1 point each=5 points)

360 Degree View of the 9/11 Memorial

https://www.911memorial.org/take-virtual-visit1
I would use this resource in the classroom on the anniversary of 9/11. Students can
view the memorial on the website and write a reflection on it.
Activity Before: We will talk about what happened on September 11 th, 2001 and how
that has changed our country.
Activity After: Students will view the memorial and take notes on what they notice.
They will then write a reflection about what they thought about the memorial
Objective: Students will learn about the events that occurred on September 11 th,
2001 and will write a reflection on the national memorial in New York City
Assessment: Students will be graded on the completion of the reflection. They will
be expected to write about what they noticed (5 points), Why they think this was
included on the memorial (5 points), and how it made them feel (5 points). The
writing should be 1-3 paragraphs long.
Lion Cam
https://nationalzoo.si.edu/webcams/lion-cam
This resource is on the national zoos website. They have a few different cams on
animals in their zoos. Students could use this to observe animal behavior and learn
about different organisms.
Activity Before: Talk to students about animal behaviors and why animals behave in
certain ways. Go over what a habitat is. Have students draw a picture of a lion and
write down what they know about lions.
Activity After: Students will observe a lion at the natural zoo and write in an
observation log what they notice the lion is doing. They will write why they think the
lion was behaving in that way.
Objective: Students will be able to write in an observation log and learn about
animal behavior. They will be expected to earn 4 out of 5 points
Assessment: Students will need to draw an image of the lion in its habitat (1 point),
write down two behaviors (2 points), and write down two reasons why they behave
that way (2 points)

Conclusion
Write responses addressing the following questions also in the Word document and
post these on your blog. Two sentence responses for each question is sufficient:
1) Are virtual field trips a viable resource for elementary school teachers? Why?
(Use background information links to help you)
Virtual field trips are a great resource for elementary school teachers. Because
elementary schools are often poorly funded, students might only be able to go on
one field trip a year. Virtual field trips provide the experiences these students might
be missing out on by not going on physical field trips. It also is highly engaging and
gives students a visual of what they are learning about.

3) What barriers must be addressed in order to effectively use virtual field trips in
an elementary school classroom?
The major barrier in virtual field trips is technology. Some schools dont have the
proper technology that could make the virtual field trip accessible.
4) How do the ideas for post-field trip products enhance the virtual field trip
experience?
The post-field trip projects expand on what students are learning from the virtual
field trip. If students only were shown the virtual field trip and never had to do
anything, there would be nothing to build on.