"Write" or Wrong Science Essay

Created by Sue Heindel, York County Vo-Tech School, York PA

Grade level: GED (9-12)

Goal: Students will research a specific topic and create an essay using a word processor

Objective: Students will locate and document information regarding a specific topic assigned to them. They will incorporate the information into an essay. The essay will be created using word processing software.

Materials:

· Science reference books

· Paper and pencil

· Computer with word processor

· Disk for each student

· Printer

Procedures: Each student will research the assigned Science topic. They will write a descriptive essay about their topic using the computer. After they have spell checked and grammar checked their essay, they will save it. When the essay has been checked and approved, the students will remove "interesting" words and replace them with numbers 1 through 20. Each student will use CUT, COPY, and PASTE commands to move the words to another page. The student will add 20 additional words to the word list that will be the "wrong" words. The students will then print the essay with the numbers replacing the words and the page with the list of 40 words. The papers will be given to another student to solve. The other student must note which correct word corresponds to each number in the essay. There will be 20 words left over.

Evaluation: After the lesson, students will have practice using word processing software. They will have researched and written an essay on a specific Science topic, and created a word test for another student.

Instructor notes:

· Remind students that they should neither try to confuse, nor make it too simple to locate the correct words.

· Some Science topics that could be assigned are:

· What is Biology?

· What is Chemistry?

· Explain why Clouds look the way they do.

· What is life like in the oceans?

· Why don’t trees grow on high mountains?

· Who were ancient astronomers?

· What is El Nino? How does it effect our weather?