Mostly, love Google.
Just used Google Maps (satellite view) to measure the lengths of sidewalks and open space around the museum. Why? Because I had to decide what scale to use for the distance between planets for my Out of this World camp in July.
Yay.
Showing posts with label camp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label camp. Show all posts
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Building Challenges - Curriculum Change
So, I'm getting rid of the "pick up the ball and put it on the table without touching it" challenge, and adding a full second day of Crickets. I haven't been getting as excited about Crickets as I should be - but maybe with this camp format will be better for it - more contact time to really get to play with the pieces and build on ideas to get them thinking creatively.
Or, it will bomb.
And I'm definitely going to do the solar ovens (or wind-powered cars if the sun doesn't cooperate) on Friday. I think it's fun to end with a "build your own snack" challenge. And it's a whole Renewable Energy is the Future concept to put on the last day.
I may still be short on projects - but I think I can make it work.
Or, it will bomb.
And I'm definitely going to do the solar ovens (or wind-powered cars if the sun doesn't cooperate) on Friday. I think it's fun to end with a "build your own snack" challenge. And it's a whole Renewable Energy is the Future concept to put on the last day.
I may still be short on projects - but I think I can make it work.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Building Challenges
Teaching a Spring Break camp next week (and working on the curriculum today .... shh! don't tell my boss!) and trying to figure out one more "Building Challenge" to add for the last day.
Here's what I have so far:
One idea is doing a Solar Ovens challenge, and having them test their ovens with s'mores (and thermometers, of course). I'm a bit worried, because it's March and the weather can be temperamental. But if we do the challenge early enough in the week and can adjust the test time for whenever we get enough sun, it could be fine.
The second idea is having a "finish it up" day at the end of the week, where they can just work on making their designs better.
But I'm still trolling for a third idea. Any suggestions?
Here's what I have so far:
- Building towers & roller coasters to address the "How Big can you Build it?" question.
- Building airplanes & parachutes as introduction to the challenge of "Can you save our pilot, Egg-bert, from certain destruction (when I drop him off the top of the 12' ladder)?" More commonly called an "Egg Drop" challenge.
- Using the RAFT bin (named after Resource Area for Teachers but we always tell the kids it means 'Random Assortment of Fun Things' since it's just full of any reusable random materials I can get my hands on) to solve the challenge of "Can you move the ball from Point A to Point B without touching it?" Similar to this idea from PBS Design Squad, but with a PAJMZ-style twist, of course.
- Using the Crickets software for a "Build a Robot and Animate It" challenge
One idea is doing a Solar Ovens challenge, and having them test their ovens with s'mores (and thermometers, of course). I'm a bit worried, because it's March and the weather can be temperamental. But if we do the challenge early enough in the week and can adjust the test time for whenever we get enough sun, it could be fine.
The second idea is having a "finish it up" day at the end of the week, where they can just work on making their designs better.
But I'm still trolling for a third idea. Any suggestions?
Monday, August 4, 2008
Play, Invent, Explore - Summary of Final Project
The last day of our Play, Invent, Explore (previous posts, Pico Crickets website) camp at ScienceWorks went really well. To assist in documenting the experience, we asked Dennis Dunleavy, Associate Professor of Communications at Southern Oregon University to come in and take some photos of the class (click here to see his blog, "The Big Picture").
(On a side note, thank you, SOU, for the loan of the laptops!)
Here are two of the kids in the class integrating their marble roller coasters with the Crickets software, and an example of the types of programs they were writing. In this one, the program requires a sound that is louder than "20" (on a scale of 0-100) to begin the program sequence. This represents the approximate volume of a ringing bell; therefore, when the marble rolls down the ramp and hits the bell, the bell rings, the requested sound plays and the light begins to flash randomly.
The campers just loved this project. It was a great integration of a physical, creative process with a technology & software component. In order for their project to be most successful, they had to solve the problems of how to make their structure strong, how to keep the ball rolling down their ramps, and finally, where and how to integrate the Crickets to create the 'chain reaction' that was the project's goal. For some of them, those first two steps were more than enough of a challenge and they limited their Crickets integration to just turning on a light or a sound before dropping the ball down the ramp. I still viewed this as a huge success. In five days, they learned to create their own program, and they used valuable skills of problem solving to find ways to roll a ball down a track, test it, fix it, improve it. Some of the other campers went well above and beyond what I had anticipated, created incredible programs, built highly impressive roller coasters, and learned much more than I expected.
On the whole, this was a great experience in what much of the education technology research discusses about how to make technology in the classroom an effective tool. Over and over we find evidence that "improvements in student learning occur when technology is paired with instructional strategies like project-based instruction, which actively involves students in intellectually complex work that demands higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills" (Les Foltos, "Technology and Academic Achievement", newhorizons.org, December 2002)
How this tool could be used in a classroom is a difficult question to answer, however. There aren't really any direct links to the reading, writing, math or science goals that most states describe in their content standards. But the value as a tool in developing skills in problem-solving, creative thinking, and information technology cannot be measured. This is where the problem for most educators comes in, I believe. That we see great tools, and can't relate them to the content we're required to teach. So we fall back into our patterns of only minimal technology involvement for most things. The challenge to us is: use these tools that generate interest and learning in students in a way that we never would have thought to teach our content before - and the achievements our students reach will be incredible.
(On a side note, thank you, SOU, for the loan of the laptops!)
Here are two of the kids in the class integrating their marble roller coasters with the Crickets software, and an example of the types of programs they were writing. In this one, the program requires a sound that is louder than "20" (on a scale of 0-100) to begin the program sequence. This represents the approximate volume of a ringing bell; therefore, when the marble rolls down the ramp and hits the bell, the bell rings, the requested sound plays and the light begins to flash randomly.
The campers just loved this project. It was a great integration of a physical, creative process with a technology & software component. In order for their project to be most successful, they had to solve the problems of how to make their structure strong, how to keep the ball rolling down their ramps, and finally, where and how to integrate the Crickets to create the 'chain reaction' that was the project's goal. For some of them, those first two steps were more than enough of a challenge and they limited their Crickets integration to just turning on a light or a sound before dropping the ball down the ramp. I still viewed this as a huge success. In five days, they learned to create their own program, and they used valuable skills of problem solving to find ways to roll a ball down a track, test it, fix it, improve it. Some of the other campers went well above and beyond what I had anticipated, created incredible programs, built highly impressive roller coasters, and learned much more than I expected.
On the whole, this was a great experience in what much of the education technology research discusses about how to make technology in the classroom an effective tool. Over and over we find evidence that "improvements in student learning occur when technology is paired with instructional strategies like project-based instruction, which actively involves students in intellectually complex work that demands higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills" (Les Foltos, "Technology and Academic Achievement", newhorizons.org, December 2002)
How this tool could be used in a classroom is a difficult question to answer, however. There aren't really any direct links to the reading, writing, math or science goals that most states describe in their content standards. But the value as a tool in developing skills in problem-solving, creative thinking, and information technology cannot be measured. This is where the problem for most educators comes in, I believe. That we see great tools, and can't relate them to the content we're required to teach. So we fall back into our patterns of only minimal technology involvement for most things. The challenge to us is: use these tools that generate interest and learning in students in a way that we never would have thought to teach our content before - and the achievements our students reach will be incredible.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Play, Invent, Explore - Day 4
A new set up for the classroom made a huge difference in how I was able to teach the computer portion today. They had more room to work and fewer cables and distractions in their work space. We also integrated some other technology into the class, by watching a video of a Rube Goldberg machine. We were discussing the similarities between chain reactions like those to a computer program.
Their assignment was to begin a two day project where they would spend most of their time building a chain reaction or marble ramp roller coaster (the patterns came from paperrollercoasters.com) and then add in details using the Crickets. Examples: when the marble rolls down the ramp, it hits a bell, the bell rings and the sound sensor will be triggered and turn on a light or play a song.
For the most part, they got really into building the roller coasters. It was a good change from the computer work for those who were less interested in the programming, but still teaches the same concepts (cause and effect, linear progression).
Tomorrow, we'll see how well the integration of the Crickets goes.
Their assignment was to begin a two day project where they would spend most of their time building a chain reaction or marble ramp roller coaster (the patterns came from paperrollercoasters.com) and then add in details using the Crickets. Examples: when the marble rolls down the ramp, it hits a bell, the bell rings and the sound sensor will be triggered and turn on a light or play a song.
For the most part, they got really into building the roller coasters. It was a good change from the computer work for those who were less interested in the programming, but still teaches the same concepts (cause and effect, linear progression).
Tomorrow, we'll see how well the integration of the Crickets goes.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Summer Camp - Play, Invent, Explore
We're 3/5ths of the way through our Play, Invent, Explore camp, and I'm still just making it up as I go. All of my camps follow the same general outline every day: some non-specific activity to get everyone into the room and excited about camp, 15-20 minutes talking about our plans/activities/the science behind what we'll be doing, activities for about an hour, snack, activities. This camp required a lot of talking the first 2 days in order for the students to learn some of the features of the software, and more "instructional" time then I really like for a camp. I tried to keep it limited, and make sure they had time to explore on their own, but I kept feeling the pull to show them (all, as a group) new pieces to the Cricket puzzle.
Background: This camp is for 8-10 year olds and is run at ScienceWorks. They're working on laptops on loan from Southern Oregon University. And some of the parents walked in, saw the computers, and expressed concern that they weren't too sure if their students were computer-literate enough.
Well, relax, your kid knows how to use the computer. They may not understand how to trouble-shoot all of it, but they are more than capable of learning to use (and create) programs with limited assistance and guidance.
Lesson summary - Monday:
We talked about computer programs, focusing on how the computer doesn't think, it just follows the instructions we give it. The kids each selected a computer, and together we created our first, very simple, program. We turned on a light. Then we changed the color. We added in a few other pieces, one at a time. Each time, I need to draw in their attention and walk them through the step of putting the pieces together to run a new program. The more pieces they had, the harder it became. We added the ability to repeat, to use "random" so the computer would pick the color or brightness, we added the touch button and "wait until - touch" to run pieces of the program. The more I showed them, the more they started to grasp the pattern of how it would work. We made it through light, touch, light sensor, random. Then they had about 15 minutes before the end of camp (3 hours went FAST), and I gave them free reign. Most of them discovered that the speaker worked the same as the light, so it was pretty loud when the parents came in to pick up students.
Lesson summary - Tuesday:
My goal for Tuesday was to show them the similarities between the way the light program pieces worked and the way the sound program pieces worked. First though, we did a verbal review. I drew a short program on the board, exactly the way it would look on their screens, and asked them to tell me what the computer would do if I ran the program. They were stumped for a minute. This was what I was afraid of. They had figured out how to change numbers, move pieces around, use the speaker, etc, but they still didn't understand how to 'read' the program. But we figured it out together. Then they did the speaker. They were given the challenge to use their computer to write part of a song, and then work in groups to play a song together. Most of them figured it out, some stumbled through it, all of them had fun. This is a lesson that would work in an hour or so. After snack, I had them build a Lego 'motion module' - called the "up and down". It was really the only one all of them could build using the materials in their kits. Some of them had time to add bouncy toys on the top of them, some only had time to run it once or twice (and had to have their programs written for them while they finished building the module).
Lesson summary - Wednesday:
My goal today was to have them combine their skills from the first two days into one large project. They were asked to build an animal to go in our 'zoo', an idea I borrowed from the Playful Invention and Exploration website, which has lots of good ideas for the Crickets. I anticipated it taking the first half of camp, and that after snack we'd be able to learn how to collect data (brightness, loudness) and graph it, so that they would understand how the numbers related to reality. Some of them were still finishing their animals and setting them up in the zoo when their parents arrived at 4.
I'm now very nervous about my plan for tomorrow and Friday. It might still work... or I might need to have an 'easier option' for the less agile. We'll see.
Background: This camp is for 8-10 year olds and is run at ScienceWorks. They're working on laptops on loan from Southern Oregon University. And some of the parents walked in, saw the computers, and expressed concern that they weren't too sure if their students were computer-literate enough.
Well, relax, your kid knows how to use the computer. They may not understand how to trouble-shoot all of it, but they are more than capable of learning to use (and create) programs with limited assistance and guidance.
Lesson summary - Monday:
We talked about computer programs, focusing on how the computer doesn't think, it just follows the instructions we give it. The kids each selected a computer, and together we created our first, very simple, program. We turned on a light. Then we changed the color. We added in a few other pieces, one at a time. Each time, I need to draw in their attention and walk them through the step of putting the pieces together to run a new program. The more pieces they had, the harder it became. We added the ability to repeat, to use "random" so the computer would pick the color or brightness, we added the touch button and "wait until - touch" to run pieces of the program. The more I showed them, the more they started to grasp the pattern of how it would work. We made it through light, touch, light sensor, random. Then they had about 15 minutes before the end of camp (3 hours went FAST), and I gave them free reign. Most of them discovered that the speaker worked the same as the light, so it was pretty loud when the parents came in to pick up students.
Lesson summary - Tuesday:
My goal for Tuesday was to show them the similarities between the way the light program pieces worked and the way the sound program pieces worked. First though, we did a verbal review. I drew a short program on the board, exactly the way it would look on their screens, and asked them to tell me what the computer would do if I ran the program. They were stumped for a minute. This was what I was afraid of. They had figured out how to change numbers, move pieces around, use the speaker, etc, but they still didn't understand how to 'read' the program. But we figured it out together. Then they did the speaker. They were given the challenge to use their computer to write part of a song, and then work in groups to play a song together. Most of them figured it out, some stumbled through it, all of them had fun. This is a lesson that would work in an hour or so. After snack, I had them build a Lego 'motion module' - called the "up and down". It was really the only one all of them could build using the materials in their kits. Some of them had time to add bouncy toys on the top of them, some only had time to run it once or twice (and had to have their programs written for them while they finished building the module).
Lesson summary - Wednesday:
My goal today was to have them combine their skills from the first two days into one large project. They were asked to build an animal to go in our 'zoo', an idea I borrowed from the Playful Invention and Exploration website, which has lots of good ideas for the Crickets. I anticipated it taking the first half of camp, and that after snack we'd be able to learn how to collect data (brightness, loudness) and graph it, so that they would understand how the numbers related to reality. Some of them were still finishing their animals and setting them up in the zoo when their parents arrived at 4.
I'm now very nervous about my plan for tomorrow and Friday. It might still work... or I might need to have an 'easier option' for the less agile. We'll see.
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