Web Wonders: A Lesson Plan

I created a lesson plan that allows the students to explore how earthquakes, mountain building, volcanoes and sea floor spreading are associated with the movements of the earth's major plates. In the lesson plan I used an internet site to accompany Direct Instruction as well as group work. The site that was used is: http://www.learner.org/interactives/dynamicearth/drift2.html.
The lesson plan meets the Tennessee State Curriculum Standard 0707.7.6. Students will apply digital tools to gather, evaluate and assess information.

The idea surrounding this lesson to use Internet tools is a great one, although I see potential weaknesses of employing this strategy. Often times, it is very difficult to attain computer lab time in schools. In addition, many students do not have internet access at home which limits the amount of work they are able to complete outside of the classroom. Also, this specific lesson works best for science. I think that many strategies utilizing the web in a language arts classroom and mathematics classroom might be employed, however, real life examples for science might be most practical for this type of lesson.