What is Globetracker’s Mission?
Globetracker’s Mission is a unique, engaging way for students in grades 2-6 to learn geography, map skills, and land forms through an episodic story. Each week, a new episode, in the format of a blog post, appears on the Globetracker’s Mission site. The “blog” is written by fictional teenagers Geo and Meri as they travel on a "secret “mission” for an unnamed government agency. They seek clues and travel under the supervision of their Uncle Globetracker, writing the “blog” as part of their requirements for missing high school work. Classes who follow the mission learn standards-based terms and concepts of geography as they respond to Geo and Meri’s think-aloud questions using maps, images, and links that Geo and Meri provide. Concepts include landforms, map skills, cultures, major landmarks, oceans, rivers, and more. For a full list of the standards addressed, click here. - Info from Globetracker site.
Globetracker is a more up-to-date version of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. And, it is free! Students were highly engaged from the get-go, given the problem based, technology centered challenge. Students were able to invetigate deeper with links and through their own explanation. The mission waas complemented by Google Earth files created by the writers/designers of the Globetracker mission themselves. This made the prblem more interactive and purposeful. Students could fly to the place the mission was taking place and explore not only the areas that Meri and Geo were at, but the surronding landscapes as well.
Operator error was at play in the success of this problem-based mission. I did not do an adequate enough job of allowing time for the misions or coming up with creative ways for students to learn together.
Also, given that we started way into the school year, I struggled with how to 'catch up' on th econtent and mission thus far. What I did to remedy that issue was I divided the weeks of the mission up and let students choose to report out on the mission. I shared the desitnation of each of the previous missions so students could potentially make choices based on interest level or background knowledge.
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| Robby sharing his Globetracker presentation |
Students created presentations, via Prezi. I chose for students to use Prezi this time so they would have another tool in their tool belt as we moved forward.
Unfortunately, when the presentations began, it was clear
Unfortunately, when the presentations began, it was clear
that students did not include the necessary criteria for us to get a sense of what was happening in their mission. We halted our work and students went back to the revising stage of their work.
The additional time, reflections, and revisions were successful. Students showed great improvement. This makes me stop and think about ‘checkmarks’
The additional time, reflections, and revisions were successful. Students showed great improvement. This makes me stop and think about ‘checkmarks’
along the way and whether or not the criteria or plan was clear in the first place.
All in all, I'm highly interested in taking on the 2011-2012 mission and predict we will have more success having started at the same time/place as the characters themselves.
I saw carry over of content and knowledge about the world into other aspects of our learning environment. Students referred to what they learned, wondered, believed, and knew in the context of other content. That leads me to believe, without collecting hard data, that this type of mission has value and a deeper level of understanding than your run of the mill geography program.
All in all, I'm highly interested in taking on the 2011-2012 mission and predict we will have more success having started at the same time/place as the characters themselves.
I saw carry over of content and knowledge about the world into other aspects of our learning environment. Students referred to what they learned, wondered, believed, and knew in the context of other content. That leads me to believe, without collecting hard data, that this type of mission has value and a deeper level of understanding than your run of the mill geography program.
