Biology
Evolutionary (e.g. investigating how species adapt and change both in space and time)
The teacher wants students to answer this question:
What is the distribution of banded snail in the local environment and how can this be explained?
The teacher modifies GeoSciTeach so that this question appears in the question box. The app is changed so that the students will be able to take photographs of the snails and use the overlay function with pictures of typical banding patterns. Each photograph will be tagged to its specific location, which will appear on Google maps, in time building up a distribution map of the snails. The teacher also wants the students to collect environmental data relating to the colour of vegetation so selects this in the customisable section. The teacher also adds a prompt to ask the students to type in some notes about any dead snails or empty/broke snail shells they find. These data can then be related to the individual snails that are observed and used to explain their variation. The teacher also adds in a QR link to a university professor talking about the genetics of banded snails to help the students to start thinking about the underlying explanations of what they have observed.
Chemistry
Molecular shapes (e.g. using layering ideas to understand the shape of molecules and their interactions in chemical reactions in space and time). The teacher wants students to think more carefully about the interactions that take place between molecules during a chemical reaction.
Examine and record information about what is happening to moelcules inside the flask.
The teacher modifies GeoSciTeach so that the question box asks the students to examine and record information about what is happening inside a conical flask during an acid-base reaction using titration. The app has been modified to allow the students to collect information on colour, pH and temperature changes in the solution. The teacher is also keen that the students are able to visual the molecular interaction as the experiment proceeds and thinks that this use of geospatial layer skills will help the student develop a better understanding of what is actually taking place inside the flask. To do this, the teacher uses the camera overlay tool to allow the students to ‘look’ into the solution and chose which overlay they think best describes what the molecules are doing (for example, does the flask contain reactants and products at equilibrium?). The students then link these overlays to the data they are recording. The teacher also inputs prompts into the app to encourage the students to record their ideas on the notes page.
GeoSciTeach 