| 5th grade students recently created Stop Motion movies based on their favorite social studies topics for the year. Students used the MacBook cart to create their first videos using iMovie with support from teachers and the Stop Motion website. Throughout the year, students used the National Geographic Global Issues curriculum to learn about how people |
impact the economy, society and the environment through the lenses of Migration, Habitat Preservation, Pollution, Water Resources and more. To summarize and synthesize their learning, students worked together to write a script, take 100+ photographs and then edit their movie. Students were engaged throughout the process and enjoyed watching everyone's videos.
0 Comments
throughout this hands-on project because of their interest in roller coasters. The simulation provided a lot of guidance so their roller coaster would work as intended.
Working in pairs, students scouted suitable locations in the virtual world, selected materials, and got to work. In addition to creating the bridge, the teams were required to document the process by taking screen shots of their creations, providing directional coordinates, and measuring the distance of the bridge span in meters. The students were also asked to reflect on challenges they faced and explain how they worked together to solve problems. Perhaps we will see a version of one of these bridges in the real world someday!
ASFG students met with their peers via Google Hangouts four times this year. Each meeting had a different student leader who facilitated the discussion to include as many students and viewpoints as possible. Students also shared with each other using a private Google+ community. They shared timelines of important events in their lives, pictures of school, and projects. This program motivates students because they have the opportunity to lead and engage with students in another part of the world.
Students uploaded their videos to a shared folder so their peers could have access. Finally, students compiled each other's videos into one, well-edited and thoughtful piece. As you can see in the video featured here, students were engaged in thinking about ways they can reduce their impact on the environment and enjoyed creating the videos.
Recently, 26 eighth grade students visited New York for the biggest middle school Model United Nations conference. Students prepared for the conference by collaborating on position papers using Google Docs. These position papers represented extensive research into their assigned country's views on different problems the global community faces today. Students were motivated to engage deeply with the culture and society of their country to learn how Jordan or Botswana would recommend solutions to problems from clean water to equal access to education. During the conference students were not allowed to use computers or technology for additional research, and instead needed to rely on their position papers, knowledge, and face-to-face communication to persuade other representatives to support their resolutions. Outside of the conference, this trip provided students experiences from a wide range of transportation, architectural and communication technologies during subway and ferry rides and visits to the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square and Rockefeller Plaza.
Students used a graphic organizer in a Google Doc to organize and revise their ideas. Then they used Keynote to create slides for a presentation. During their presentation, a classmate filmed them using PhotoBooth. After the presentation, the student who filmed,cAirDropped the video file to their classmate while the rest of the students emailed the presenter with their feedback on one thing they thought he/she did well and one thing he/she needs to do to improve. At the same time, the teacher shared and filled in a rubric on Google Docs with feedback and their grade.
The student who presented then went into the hallway to watch the video, read the emails from classmates and read the teacher’s feedback on the rubric. All students will write a reflection about what aspects of their presentation they were proud of, and they will set goals for what aspects they would like to improve for their next presentation. The reflection, as well as the video of their presentation will be posted in their Language Arts website portfolio, which students’ parents will be able to view.
and then created their videos individually. Most students used their YouTube account for the first time on this project so we discussed creating channel names which protect their identity and how to add music to videos following copyright laws.
Photos of students by Nelson Taylor Tablet photo by Xataka
Students in 7th grade math are beginning bimester two with a unit about scale and proportion. In order to introduce students to scale and engage them in the concept, we began with a scene from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Throughout the filming of the Harry Potter movies, the producers used a scale model of Hogwarts to create amazing scenes like this. Movies are just one example of how scale is used every day. After the introduction, students measured a geometric object and drew it on their paper. Next, they were assigned a scale factor. Students redrew the object with the new dimensions, and then they were ready to model both the original and the scaled object in Sketchup. Students submitted their models to a shared folder in Google Drive. Last, each student downloaded a peer's drawing and determined the scale factor. Students were engaged in designing their models in Sketchup and learning the basics of using a scale factor to enlarge or shrink an object. |
Categories
All
|