Brainstorm and Plan Treehouse Page Content

To brainstorm and plan your treehouse page content once you have decided on a topic you can create a brainstorming/planning web, record your ideas and progress in a list or chart or do both! Either way we recommend you designate space in a notebook or binder to record treehouse planning information. You may also want to create a document on your computer to keep track of information.

Create a Web

Brainstorm ideas, plan and record your progress in web. Create your brainstorming/planning web on paper or use a computer program that allows you to create web diagrams.

Example

This diagram created by a middle school student at Miles Exploratory Learning Center using Inspiration by Inspiration Software, Inc. Photo, Copyright 2005.

Instructions

1. Download a graphic organizer you can fill out the: Brainstorm and Plan Treehouse Web or draw a circle in the center of the page and write the topic of your treehouse in the circle (then move onto step #2). Note that if you download the graphic organizer you will need to add groups of organisms at the bottom of the page and questions, notes and comments on the back of the page.
2. Next, draw lines out from the center of the circle for the following categories (these categories reflect parts of a treehouse page):
• text
• images
• sounds
• movies
• references
• information on the internet (links)
• groups of organisms (e.g. relevant groups of organisms that you will attach your page to)
• questions (the questions that you want to explore or that you need to answer)
• notes (notes should be to guide your work, for example you might note that you need to look up a certain word in the dictionary)
• comments (this space is so others, like your teacher or group mates can add comments)
3. Brainstorm ideas for each section.
4. Gather information: As you find information, media, references, internet links etc., keep track of what you have gathered in the corresponding section of your brainstorming web, or create a second web for treehouse information.
   • Make sure to record
     • File names and copyright information for all of the media files you plan on using.
     • References for print materials.
     • The page name and URL (web address) for internet links.

Create a List or Chart

Brainstorm ideas, plan and record your progress in a list or chart.

Instructions

1. Download a graphic organizer you can fill out the: Brainstorm and Plan Treehouse List or write the following categories (leave plenty of space for each) in your notebook (these categories reflect parts of a treehouse page).
   • treehouse topic
   • text
   • images
   • sounds
   • movies
   • references
   • information on the internet (links)
   • groups of organisms (e.g. relevant groups of organisms that you will attach your page to)
   • questions (the questions that you want to explore or that you need to answer)
   • notes (notes should be to guide your work, for example you might note that you need to look up a certain word in the dictionary)
   • comments (this space is so others, like your teacher or group mates can add comments)
2. Brainstorm ideas for each category.
3. Gather Information: As you find information, media, references, internet links etc., keep track of what you have gathered in the corresponding section of your list or chart.
   • Make sure to record
   • File names and copyright information for all of the media files you plan on using.
   • References for print materials.
   • The page name and URL (web address) for internet links.