Sixth Grade Integrates Science and Multimedia: The Future is Wild
Posted April 4, 2012
Through an integrated multimedia and science project titled “The Future Is Wild,” our sixth grade students synthesized knowledge from year-long studies (including ecology, evolution, and geology) to create an organism of the future and discuss its context. Central to the learning in the project is the idea that all adaptations result from environmental pressures.
Our students imagined future creatures, based on biological realities that are seen in life today and patterns that have appeared over time, such as the ability to fly, which has evolved separately in birds, bats, and insects.
"This helps our students understand what life might be like in the future," said teacher Rich Seymour.
By integrating technology and media, our students made their creatures appear real through skilled usage of the computer program Photoshop to create the illusion that these evolved organisms really exist. Students brought the imaginary futuristic creatures “to life” by putting them into context, an appropriate and realistic background they researched and selected.
