Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Using Adobe Voice to Create Food Chain Videos

What I like about the iPad is the ability to work without connecting to the Internet.  This is especially true when you work with field study groups up in the wilderness.

At Outdoor School, 5th or 6th grade students spend 2-4 days experiencing the outdoors.  They get to sleep, eat, and learn up in the wilderness.  Part of their experience is rotating through hour long field study groups which could include learning about weather, creating survival shelters, or identifying plants.

In this hour long field study we start with a review of the food chain including producers, consumers, and decomposers.



The students then take an iPad on a scavenger hunt snapping photos of producers, consumers, and decomposers.  Since consumers don't stand and wait for a photo, we instruct them to take photos of evidence a consumer was here, like a nest or track.


After all the photos are taken, the students storyboard their movie choosing which photos to use and how to tell about the food chain they found.  We ask they include a scenery photo as the title slide and a selfie photo as their credits.



The finished product is created with Adobe Voice, usually 5-10 photos, a narration that tells the story, and background music provided by the app.



At the end of the hour we save the videos to the camera roll and repeat the study for the next set of students.  Then back in town we upload the videos to Youtube.  Here is an example from a group of 6th graders in North East Oregon and their food chain video.




NOTE: If you use Adobe Voice, be sure to login to the app while in wifi, then turn the iPad to Airplane mode.  As a backup iPad app we will use 30Hands in case Adobe Voice logs out.





Monday, February 9, 2015

Kahoot or Quizizz - Game Based Classroom Response Systems

These two free, device neutral, online resources are sure to bring high engagement and active participation into any classroom.  The idea is simple, students answer questions in a competitive atmosphere, there will be a winner.

For both Kahoot and Quizizz, the facilitator creates a series of questions to be answered by the participants.  Each question can have a time limit before the participant must select a response.  The quicker the participant chooses a response, the more points they earn providing their choice was correct.



Using Kahoot, the questions are asked to the participants one at a time.  Participants view the projected screen, answer a question by selecting the corresponding color on their device, points are awarded, and a new question is provided.  When finished, persons with the most points will be displayed.

Using Quizizz, the facilitator starts the activity at which time participants are given questions in a random order.  The participants read the questions on their device and answer them at their own pace.  Once all participants complete the activity, persons with the most points will be displayed.


Quizizz would be a great tool to use for an entire class, or as a center since it is student driven.  Kahoot is teacher driven providing time for discussion between each question being asked.

I've tried using both resources with groups of at least 40, and each time they worked fine.

Both Kahoot and Quizizz allows teachers to create their own questions, which can include images. When finished with the activity, the teacher can save the data describing how students answered each question. Teachers can explore through the many public assessments created and shared by others.

In either case, these opportunities provide a nice review experience or possibly a motivating pre-assessment experience.  Definitely stated, the experience will be fun, highly energetic, and competitive.



Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Jefferson Lab - Science Education Resources

There are several National Science Laboratories in the United States.  One of these, the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab), has a nice collection of  resources for middle school and high school science classrooms.

The Jefferson Lab Science Education site, iPad and chromebook friendly, contains resources for the teacher and student, including loads of games and videos, to assist with the physical science classrooms.  





Games can include Element Hangman


Or Speed Math Deluxe.



Watch videos from the Frostbite Theater where Joanna and Steve provide you with many liquid nitrogen experiments, as well as other scientific eye catching topics.  These videos are typically 1-4 minutes in length.





Another video series hosted at Jefferson Lab is Physics Out Loud containing 1-4 minute videos regarding many explanation of common words used in nuclear physics research.




If you are interested in hearing a 40 minute lecture from highly credible scientists, check out archived science lectures from as far back as the early 90's. Many interesting topics to choose from.


Again, a nice collection resources to help students learn and review physical science concepts.








Friday, December 19, 2014

HSTRY - Create Interactive Timelines



I’m always searching for new tools that allow for student creativity and critical thinking, particularly those that are device neutral with the only cost involved is time spent learning.  When new resources become accessible, I encourage teachers to implement them because often times the newness is enough motivation to get students highly engaged.  And with newness students embark on a learning quest figuring out how to use the resource enriching their critical thinking skills.

HSTRY seems to be spot on with these criteria as a tool to allow a person to put together a linear list of resources called a timeline.  Some timelines can be chronological by the calendar, while others may be viewed as different sections of a report.
 
Using the teacher login, they can create a class, then either manually add students or have students join via a class code.  The student will not need an email address, just a username and password.

One feature I look into from the student perspective is what they can view by searching public resources, which HSTRY calls timelines.  This is particularly valuable for elementary students in case they stumble upon high school curriculum inappropriate for their age level.  HSTRY only allows students to view their own timelines, or those provided to them from the teacher.  


The teacher can search timelines posted to the community, and with a click share with the class. Once a timeline is shared with the class, students will be able to comment on any item, and yes the teacher can moderate all comments.


Which brings me to cost.  To use HSTRY, it’s completely free.  There is a premium version which provides you with access to created content, for instance Timeline bundles about the American Revolution.

Timelines contain a series of blocks which may include a text block, an image block, a video block, a question block, or a “did you know” block.  The author is free to drag and drop the blocks freely to fit their intended linear path.  




Sharing of timelines is limited to the teacher sharing one they create or find to the students.  HSTRY is working on a feature where students can share timelines with their class, but are very hesitant at allowing students share timelines with the community.  Currently a student submits a timeline so only the teacher has view privileges.

A nice getting started task could be to have everyone create an “About Me” timeline.  Then use this tool to have students demonstrate understanding for many projects throughout the curriculum, like state reports, expedition reports, animal reports, book reviews, author biographies, science lab write ups, or even math concepts. 




Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Kids Discover Holiday Specials - Antarctica and Washington DC

Kids Discover has released many awesome iPad apps full of information on various subjects, and during this Holiday Season two of these apps are now free.  Hurry and download Antarctica and Washington DC before the price jumps back up, especially if you have a classroom set of iPads.

These apps provide great non-fictional reading opportunities for students as they will learn all about topics and issues surrounding both Antarctica and Washington DC, including people, animals, and the environment.


The app also provides an opportunity to view excellent photography along with many short video clips.


You can explore among several areas, play a few educational games, or take a quiz.



Download these apps soon and explore, I'm sure you'll learn much from exploring with these excellent apps from Kids Discover.



Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Science and iPads

Today's Agenda
Dec 4, 2013



Additional Resources:
Next Generation Science Standard App - Mastery Connect 
*  Flipboard App   Follow favorite blogs, magazine feeds, follow tweets from #ipaded, #edchat, #scichat 

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Food Chain Movies with iPod Touches

We took the tech to the wild....
Ipods and iPads are not just for classroom activities.  We recently spent time at Outdoor School (ODS) for a few of our school districts and found that with the right apps and fully charged batteries a field study session about the food chain can become a fun collaborative project. 

In the past we have done field study sessions with geocaching, photography and geolocations, panoramas, and mapping skills but as field study leaders we wanted to change it up a bit.  One of the best things about being in the "wild", we have nature to draw from, covering consumers, producers, and decomposers for our region of Oregon.  In the past, students had done paper/pencil scavenger hunts looking for the evidence of parts of the food chain.  We wanted to modify this project and require that the students process this information collaboratively in more than one way.  Our task for the students was to create a short food chain video which was to include a consumer, producer, decomposer, title, and credit photo.


Here's how it went.  After a brief group discussion (less than 10 minutes) on a review of the food chain, we set off in groups of 2 or 3 students with one iPod Touch  to take photos of evidence of each of the three parts of the food chain.  In 15 minutes we returned with photos of consumers, producers, and decomposers that can be found at camp, as well as a nice scenery shot for our title slide and a group shot for the credit slide. 

Once we returned to the lodge we had about 25 minutes leftGroups worked together to label their photos with Phonto and pull them in to 30 Hands to create and narrate their movie.    These were both brand new apps for the students.  In less than an hour, we had finished products, simple 10 to 20 second videos about the food chain at camp.  These were fun to upload and share with their teachers once we returned to the office.  I heard one classroom held a viewing party!

 

Friday, April 12, 2013

Create, Build, Explore, Problem Solve with Creatorverse

For all the future engineers in the classroom, Creatorverse is the app for them!  
This is the perfect app for exploring physics.  
From bouncing balls to creating creatures, the free version of Creatorverse has plenty to create a sandbox for students to explore the effects of gravity, friction, density, and much more.  I love the vocabulary and ability to adjust each object and view the results instantly make this an addicting app!  Upgrade to the advanced tool box for $4.99 and have access to rockets, magnets, and many more tools.  The wide range of possibilities and tools makes this an app that can move from primary through adult.   


Create contraptions! 
Play with the pull of gravity


Adjust characteristics of each object

Create Movable Images

Explore other shared creations to see the possibilities!
Pinball machines,  moving creatures, trigger mechanisms, input/output...
there is so much to explore!
 
The opportunities with this app are endless, critical thinking, creation, collaboration.... all in one great app! 
Tutorials on the different tools and more information on the app can be found at their website:  creatorverse.com.
 

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Maginification - There is an App for That

I've been caught without the proper tools too often during the past six months.  I'm becoming to dependent upon reading glasses, but don't take them with me everywhere, yet, so when I'm trying to read a menu at a restaurant I'm becoming very good at asking for the recommended dishes. 

One particular instance I was eating at a restaurant with friends and we thought, I have an iPhone, "there is an app for that".  After previewing four quick free maginifier apps later, it appears we have one that does the trick. 

You are thinking why not just use the camera on the iPhone.  That works, but it doesn't shine a continuous light.


Magnifier Glass with Light has the following functions:
  • a slider to zoom in and out up to 5.0
  • the use of continuous light shining on the subject
  • brightness control of your light from 10-100%
  • ability to take a still picture and save to camera roll
Students will enjoy getting magnified images from insects, leaves, fabric, and many other sorts of photos they think of.   Oh, and the teachers, you will have your reading glasses with you at all times.


Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Turn Your iPad into a Document Camera

I visited with a teacher last week, and her document camera isn't working well.  Not sure what was wrong with it, but the first thing that came to mind was "use your iPad".  This teacher already had been using her iPad that way.

Then later in the week I come across the app called Stage.  This free app is designed to turn your iPad into an interactive whiteboard or document camera.


You have the ability to annotate over the top of the iPad camera, live, without taking the picture.  Tools include a Pen, an eraser, several colors, and sticky notes.  The only tool missing is a highlighter pen.  The app is only a couple months old, so I'm hoping an update will provide enhancements.

If you are using Apple TV or Reflection, you don't need to be tethered to  your document camera, as Stage will let you take your document camera with you.

 A few possibilities include
  • annotating on top of a worksheet without importing the image into another app
  • annotating on top of student work
  • annotating on top of a student science lab experiment
  • annotating on top of math manipulatives constructed by a student
  • annotating on top of a student's art project 


Monday, October 29, 2012

Infuse Learning

Many of us are familiar with some type of learning response system, aka clickers.  For example there are the Active Expressions by Promethean, or the CPS system by eInstruction.  There are a couple of online choices as well like Polleverywhere and Socrative.


Infuse Learning caught our attention as a new online system to try out.  The reason we like it is because you have the ability to obtain drawings from participants.  You can also push images to participants.

The teacher must use a computer to facilitate an Infuse Learning session, while participants can be on any device connected to the Internet.  Using iPods and iPads allows for the easy to draw capability.

How engaging is it to have all students work through a math problem, then have them submit their work and share the responses.  Possibly as a quick check have students label the parts of an image, say cell structure, and send in their results.

Infuse Learning also allows you to download and save responded entries from participants.  Each drawing response is a separate page in a pdf file.  Thinking outside the box, you could have a class of elementary students create a quick picture book by submitting their drawing, then the saved responses are collected in one pdf file.

There are many other features with this online tool, as these are a couple of ideas that seem well suited for iDevices.  It's a resource well worth checking out.

Monday, June 4, 2012

Science Inquiry with iPod Sound

A post came across Snapguide titled "Amplify Your iPod's Sound Without a Speaker".  My curiosity had me try it out, and it works.  Then teacher mind set in, and what a good prelude to a science inquiry investigation for your students.

Possible questions to investigate:
  • What height of glass will produce the loudest amplification?
  • What width of glass will produce the loudest amplification?
  • What types of materials produce loudest amplification; glass container, plastic container, etc?
  • How will amplification vary where glass is placed?  On floor versus counter versus top of refridgerator?
  • How will amplification vary if glass is placed next to wall, window, or out in open?
  • How will amplification vary if glass is placed on different surfaces; carpet, counter, paper, etc?
  • Will items in glass have any effect on amplification?

And there are many more questions students will invent.  If you have students investigate these questions, what are your results?  And if you come up with additional question to investigate, what would they be?

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Creating Links on your Homescreen

One of the best features for an iPad are all the apps.  However, there are many more online resources to provide for students.

There are several strategies you can use to get links to students.  You may have created a web page with links, entered links into an Edmodo library, or saved links in a bookmarks folder on a computer.  Another strategy is to create a direct link to a website on your iPad.

To do this navigate to the website using Safari on your iPad.  Find the "share with" button and click "add to home screen". 



The iPad will supply a name for the link, which you can change, and an icon.  Now your webpage will act like an app, just tap it and go. 

Below are a bakers dozen websites as examples for iPads or iPods intended for student use. There are many many more choices, so please leave a comment if there is another good website you'd recommend.  And as a reminder, safari does not support flash so be sure your website is not dependent upon that technology. 

News Related Sites for Students
1. Tween Tribune - student news magazine
2. Youngzine - student news magazine
3. CNN student news - student channel from CNN
4. Channel One - student news channel

Science Related Sites for Students
5. National Geographic for Kids - collection of science related materials for students
6. Planet Archive - collection of images and videos from our planet, many good animal resources
7. Smithsonian Museums and Zoo - access to museums and zoos from Smithsonian

Reading and Research Related Sites for Students
8. Internet Public Library for Kids - free public library for students
9. Childrens Storybooks Online - younger students books online
10. Page by Page Books Online - young adult and adult books online

History Sites for Students
11. Lewis and Clark - example of a historical topic for Lewis and Clark
12. This Day in History - History Channel's "This Day in History"

Learning Response System for Students
13. Socrative Student Login - student access to join a socrative room, teacher access would be on teacher device

Friday, April 27, 2012

Apps for Preschool and Kindergarten

I was visiting with an adorable little special needs student the other day and spent the morning looking for  free apps that are simple, fun, and engaging..  Some of these are free only for a limited time so if you work with primary, now is the time to download!



Wee Sing & Learn ABC - **Free for a limited time**  4+ star rating
Read along, ABC Song, explore the ABCs, play along, or explore some animals.... all from the Wee Sing company.  No ads!






Squiggles! by Lazoo Worldwide    **Free**  4+ star rating
This app is a simple drawing app that has children practice their fine motor skills by creating different squiggles for pictures that come to life.  No ads, audio instructions, bright and colorful.  It also includes a storybook that can be read aloud to the child with interactive pictures.  In the "parent" zone it allows for teachers or parents to record themselves reading the book..... or better yet, have a sibling or older student do it!





Little Writer - Tracing Letters, Numbers, Words, and Shapes **Free** 4+ star rating
I love the layout and ease of this app.  The shapes and letters that they trace are large and easy to follow.   There are no ads, a reassuring voice that tells them what they have drawn or written.  Colors are bright and nice animation.





i Learn with Polo:  Seasons and Weather!  HD   **Free for a limited time** 4+ star rating
There are many versions of the iLearnwith apps with most costing about $0.99.  This one is a science educational apps designed for preschool and kinder aged children.  No ads, all audio instructions, allows for an adult to set up a monitoring account for progress as well.













Tuesday, March 20, 2012

An iPad Microscope?

What I like about the iPad or iPod Touch, is that the technology has so many options.  With the camera, one can convert the iPad into a small microscopic digital camera, for materials that total less than a ten dollar bill. Disclaimer, your iPad or iPod touch needs to be beyond 1st generation with a camera.  Check it out on this video from Hall Davidson.