Planning / Following the Basic Treehouse Guidelines

Brainstorming

The initial idea to make a Treehouse about weeds came on a day when Rylan's roommate was working in their yard, which was full of weeds. Rylan realized that Arizona was in the middle of one of its rainy seasons and guessed there was a connection between the amount of rainfall and the sudden growth of so many weeds.

Rylan grabbed his digital camera and as he snapped photos the ideas for the page started to flow. Rylan thought it would be interesting to learn more about weeds and present this learning process in a Treehouse.

Basic Treehouse Learning Process Guidelines: Brainstorming and Planning

• Students create a treehouse plan or a brainstorm web.
• Brainstorm web or treehouse plan shows that student(s) planned ahead for each section of their treehouse.
• If students are partnering, web shows plans for each partners involvement

Learning Independently and Solving Technology Problems

When Rylan had questions about how to use the Tree of Life Treehouse Editor for making web pages, the web site's support materials were useful. For example, the help topics for learning how to write HTML (computer code) helped him to learn some of the basics of that code. Learning this code is optional, however, given that the online Treehouse tools give builders the power to create these web page features without learning HTML.

Basic Treehouse Learning Process Guidelines: Learning Independently and Solving Technology Problems

• Student reads directions and help topics, and uses support materials to work independently.
• If something goes wrong student can figure out something else to work on.
• Student asks questions that demonstrate that they have tried to figure things out on their own first before asking for help.