Creating Your Own Blog for APES!

La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica 2012

APES Blog Assignment

Each of you will be creating a Current Events Blog for APES when we are together in the computer lab.

1. Go to Google, go to more and then even more. Scroll down to Blogger and select.

2. Sign in using your Google account.

3. Select a blog title - Please use the following format:

a. Period APES Last Initial First name (mine would be 4 APES P Elizabeth). You may have a more creative subtitle, but this will help me to follow your blog.

b. Address: apes first letter of last name followed by first name (mine would be apespelizabeth). If that address is not available, let me know and we will adjust.

c. Select your template. Don’t worry; you can change this at any time.

4. You now have a blog, but need to change some settings.

a. Select settings (it is on the left side near the bottom)

b. For privacy: select NO for blog listings and search engines

c. Under permissions, Blog Readers select Only these readers and type in my email address which is eplatt@smithtown.k12.ny.us. Please make sure that I am listed as a viewer and not an additional author of your blog.

d. Save your changes.

e. Go to Posts and comments (on the left side near the bottom).

f. For Comment Location, leave as embedded.

g. Comment Moderation select Always. This allows you to review any comments before they go online.

Now you are ready!

The first step in this process is to find a current event of interest and one that you want to share. Does this fit in the APES curriculum? In order to be sure, you will be identifying which chapter it relates to in your textbook. The only chapter off limits is Chapter 1 – this obviously covers everything.

Select new post and put the quarter and the post number (your first one will be Q1-1) in the title.

The following items must be included in each post:

1. Title of Article with a hyperlink to the ORIGINAL article. Type in the title, highlight it and select hyperlink from the options above the post. Paste in the url.

2. A picture/diagram/photograph that relates to the article. You will first need to find a picture, then upload by selecting the photo tab above (it says insert photo). You can use a photo from your computer with a url.

3. Record your textbook chapter # and title that this article relates to.

4. Determine if the article deals with global, national, regional or local environmental issues.

5. Summarize the article in your own words.

6. State your opinion about this issue and explain.

7. Select one vocabulary word from the article and define it. This does not have to be a science word; it can be any word that you are not familiar with. If you know them all, then select one that you think others may have trouble with.

Make sure to hit publish! View your post to make sure that your hyperlink has worked and that your picture is up and the right size. You can adjust this if you want to at this point.
Eight articles are required per quarter. These will be averaged in as a test grade for the quarter. You may submit a maximum of two per week, so be sure to keep up! You must have four by progress report time and all eight before the end of each quarter.