Making Meaning
Across the Curriculum
Using iPods, multimedia, and video streaming
technology to teach bioethics
Jeanne Halderson is an award-winning seventh grade teacher
at Long Fellow Middle School
in La Crosse, Wisconsin, who has
gained national notoriety because of
her inventive use of technology in
the classroom. She used video iPods
combined with Discovery Education’s
unitedstreaming digital library to help
teach a science and language arts unit
to her students.
Halderson’s broad idea was that
students would have access to unitedstreaming video material loaded
onto a video iPod. Thus, students
would have research material at their
fingertips and be in a position to take
greater responsibility for their own
learning. Her students researched a
biotechnology topic using the Internet
and video material loaded onto iPods
and developed a personal position on
a bioethics issue. Students produced a
two- to three-minute digital video using iMovie to post on the Internet or
present as a podcast using Quicktime.
The Unit: Ethics and Biotechnology
Part 1: Research
and Building an
Ethical Stance on
Biotechnology
Halderson teaches two
groups of students twice
a day. She teaches both
language arts and science,
so her unit on Ethics and Bio-
technology was ideal for teach-
ing across the curriculum. This
structure gives the students the
instructional continuity necessary for
them to learn difficult material.
At the beginning of Part 1, Halderson loaded onto each video iPod a
presentation explaining the lesson
to students, teacher notes, and unit-
© ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/LEOBLANCHETTE
edstreaming digital video material.
Carefully selected video topics included information on transgenics, gene
mapping, cloning, and nature versus
nurture—the subjects that students
were required to research.
Halderson also modeled a reading,
watching, and note-taking strategy for
her students using a simple note-taking
guide—a T-chart that was divided into
two columns. As students watched unitedstreaming video on the iPods, they
were able to place their notes into either
the pro or con side of the T-chart.
During Part 1 of the unit, Halderson’s students concentrated on getting the science and the facts correct.
Students used their time to write and
demonstrate what they knew. Halderson also had her students read The
Giver by Lois Lowry, a science fiction
story that dramatizes the moral issues
associated with cloning and bioethics. Halderson focused on the basic
science of genetics and covered some
probability and statistics ground as
well. She spent significant time poring
over students’ work and conducted
guided practices and discussions about
filling out the note-taking T-chart.
“In science class, we wrote persuasive essays. The old fashioned
kind with an introduction, body, and
conclusion,” Halderson said. “This is
where students displayed their knowledge of the nitty-gritty science facts,
and in language arts class, we did the
digital videos, which were a more
story-based and emotional approach
to persuasion.”
By Day 3, students were already researching their topics. By Day 5, both
the video iPod and Internet students
had taken sufficient notes to determine which specific controversy associated with bioethics they were most
interested in taking a position on. On
Day 5, Halderson facilitated a class
discussion and students shared their
ideas and feelings about biotechnology. The discussion helped students
clarify their positions.
Part 2: Student Digital
Video Productions
In Part 2 of the unit,
students had to write a
script for their video based
on their research and persuasive essay.
“I looked at each script at
least 5–20 times before they
were able to start their digital
story,” Halderson said. “They
would never be allowed to start
the digital process if they had incorrect information in any form. If I let
kids start editing with errors in science concepts, they will be reinforced.
I help students to clear up any misconceptions right there on the spot
before they have spent hours working
with an incorrect concept.”
Using iMovie, students produced a
short video that reflected their ethical
position on one of several bioethics
issues, such as human cloning. Much
of the video material was cut from the
unitedstreaming videos that Halderson had supplied them. Halderson was
keen that students should follow a coherent narrative structure. Generally,
students placed themselves in the first-person fictional narrative and read a
script they composed individually that
told a story of how genetic engineering
either could have benefited or did benefit their family (e.g., saved the life of a
sibling) or had dire consequences (e.g.,
the death of a family member). The
By Gordon Patrick Karim
