Welcome to my virtual museum!

Creating ICT tools in a pandemic situation

As you can imagine, COVID-19 has completely changed the way we teach inside the schools. Thus, projects are needing a change. In my particular case, I've designed a project in order to make a museum. However, it is not possible to 1) hang any materials at the school hall to show to the rest of the classes, 2) nor inviting families to our class. Therefore, I created a virtual museum through a presentation in Google Slides.

I think most of you are familiarised with this platform. Nevertheless, I'm giving you a try to briefly explain it. 

How does Google Slides work?

Google Slides enables you to work in an online "PowerPoint". In addition to creating electronic presentations (within a series of slides), you can work online with multiple partners at the same time! This an incredible advantage since it allows you to work checking others' development. In addition, that presentation can be shared with a link to whoever you want to. That is the reason why I've chosen this resource to work on this Science project. 

Before detailing that project, I want to share with you this video which perfectly summarises its functioning:

Why Google Slides?

As I was detailing above, Google Slides was chosen because it enables me to share the project with everyone. In this case, I wanted to share it with students' families in a different way. Consequently, pupils are even more motivated since this project is going to be seen by their relatives. 

Furthermore, it is a great way to collect the project in a different way. This source also enables students -or their families- to download the document in a PDF, JPG or PPT format. Therefore, they can keep their project forever. 

I designed several slides -including transitions and personalised pictures- to introduce the Museum. 

Furthermore, real museum pictures allow the teacher to introduce the topic in a meaningful way. 

In addition, students are conscious of this situation and the fact that they can not share physically their materials with other classmates. Therefore, they will be very excited since they have a way to share their project in a different way.

A museum was selected because it always gives information about a painting, plant or animal in a written, physical and auditory way. In other words, all the skills are gathered. Consequently, each student chose an animal to 1) research about it through a writing template (vertebrate or invertebrate, nutrition, respiration and physical characteristics), 2) to create it in Arts & Crafts, 3) to record its information to add it in the slide - as an audioguide format, and, lastly, 4) they have to present their animal in front of their peers. As a result, the slide looks like this:

This project was also extended to unit 4, regarding plants. Consequently, students will have to choose between three topics: parts of a plant, photosynthesis and parts of a flower. Unfortunately, this floor of the museum is not opened yet. However, I share with you some pictures (Spoiler alert! 👀).

 

I hope you like this idea and you find it useful for your classes 😊. I know that this terrible situation is not the most suitable one for teaching. However, teachers are thinking in the most creative way to find different choices, and make students learn in an engaging way. See you pretty soon!