Just another TRU EDDL Sites site
 
Week Two – OER Scavenger Hunt

Week Two – OER Scavenger Hunt

Subject: Social Studies
Course: Grade 7 Socials- History of the Ancient World
Particular Skill: compare and contrast Ancient Persian religious practices with those of Greece, China or Rome
Resources Found:
Images of Ahura Mazda, Bodhisattvas and Greek and Roman gods through https://www.dreamstime.com/ and http://www.imageafter.com

Lesson on Pythagorus and the religious beliefs of his followers through CK12

Thoughts and reflections:

It isn’t always easy to find high quality images that are open for educators to use, so I was pleased to see how many were available through the two sites I looked at that were relevant to teaching about ancient history and the origin of religions. I thought that dreamstime.com was particular good at finding high quality images that would be worthwhile to support student learning about say “Ahura Mazda.” The ones through imageafter.com were often less high quality, and the search engine produced fewer results on average. With these sites there is some wading through images to find ones that are actually “free” as some require you to purchase a license. That being said, on a free trial, I was able to download several really excellent images of statues and religious practices that would be helpful in explaining ancient Persian and Chinese religious beliefs.

CK-12 is a site I have used for finding resources for teaching math and science, and I was curious to see if it would be as effective for teaching history. It was not, but mostly because the number of lessons and resources with a history focus is so much less robust. I did find an interesting resource on Pythagorus that I felt would be useful for discussing the origin of a set of religious beliefs attributed to that mathematician, and some links to videos that I might use part of as part of my lesson. I would definitely want to take some of the text, and the links to the videos and edit it for brevity as well as re-arrange it to make it more applicable to this context, but I think it would be a helpful, useful tool.

 

Subject: Social Studies
Course: Grade 7 Socials- History of the Ancient World
Curricular Outcome: Understand the anthropological origins of humans and the influence of the rise of agricultural on increasingly complex societies.
Particular Skill: Explain the advantages and disadvantages of an agricultural way of life.
Resources Found: Big History Project
Thoughts and reflections:
Students could watch the videos on human evolution, migration and “collective learning” together and discuss behavioural adaptations that helped humans have success. There are a number of interactive quizzes, images, maps, and timelines that speak directly to the anthropological origins of humans, the challenges and benefits of both nomadic hunter gatherer  and agricultural ways of living, and the increasing complexity in human society which agriculture allowed. The videos, the images, and the interactive elements are all very well done, and of high quality.
I really liked this resource, and can see myself using it in class as is. I can also see myself using pieces, say of the videos, and creating my own sets of questions to go along with them, using a tool like Edpuzzle. 

One comment

  1. Hi Paul! This is my first time seeing EdPuzzle. I was excited at the prospect of a software that creates custom puzzles 😉 But from what I can see, it is a tool that creates videos with embedded quizzes? Do you receive feedback on the student answers or are they more formative assessments? We have an embedded function in our Learning Management system and I find video quizzes are great for students! It motivates them to fully watch the video and engages them actively with the content. I could see it as a great addition to the resources you suggested.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.