Day 175 Toy Dissection Workshop- An E-Workshop Presented by ScienceNorth

A month ago a student came to the library here at Portageview Public School, looking for information about a specific rock as she was gathering research for an inquiry in grade four on Rocks and Minerals.    

Together we composed a tweet and sent an email to Science North/ Dynamic Earth in Sudbury.  

A quick reply was received.  The response from Science North led me to wonder if they would be interested in connecting with the students at Portage View to discuss and answer additional questions about rocks and minerals. Through email, they explained that they didn’t yet have an e-workshop for rocks and minerals but that they did have one for Gears and Pulleys. A phone call was set up between the two grade four teachers at our school and Melanie Smith a scientist from Science North to discuss this opportunity.  

Through this communication, we learned that the Gears and Pulleys workshop not only was available but was also free at this time as it was being subsidized.  We were very excited to hear about this program and set in motion the steps necessary to take part in this program.  A date was arranged, materials were sent and arrived from Science North and a check to ensure that the online conferencing we would use for our meeting (Zoom) would work.  We were now ready to go!

In April, the grade four students arrived in the library with their ipads ready to take part in this online workshop.  Scientist Melanie from Science North facilitated the program from her office in Sudbury.  

The grade four students used ipads throughout the workshop to document their learning and then used Book Creator to create a finished product to share their learning.  We have been asked to share some of these with Science North.  

Below is a video of one of the recounts created by a group of students:

This experience was an excellent opportunity for the students at Portage View to participate in hands-on learning, connect with a real scientist and ask questions to an expert in the field!

submitted by Jacquie Raycraft, Teacher Librarian

Day 32 - I am a Scientist!

Playing at Midland Secondary School, I had the opportunity to discover the impact technology enabled learning can have on vocabulary development. Having taught science, I know that one barrier to students continuing to study science in the senior grades is the language component. Studying sciences, specifically biology, requires a lot of new language learning in addition to scientific concepts.

In Lisa Coughlin's grade 9 science class I got to see students recording videos of their peers describing ecosystems they had created. They also recorded video of microscopic living things in pond water through the microscope lens. From here they used the video and images with a classification key to identify them. As one group of students found something they could identify you could hear "I AM A SCIENTIST" from across the room.

Students posted videos and images to their e-Portfolios where they can be viewed by the teacher as well. None of these specific activities were graded, but Lisa used this information to determine next steps in her instruction. They also facilitated conversations with students about their progress and next steps.

What I noticed while walking around and chatting with students was their vocabulary. If they didn't have the words, they went looking for them. All this conversation, explaining their understanding and using technology to document their learning has led to a significant improvement in their vocabulary use.

Thank you Lisa for inviting me into your classroom and for sharing your learning with me!

Day 19: Coding and Holograms at Tosorontio

'Mr.Mac's' Grade 5/6 class was ready and raring to go this morning. I've never seen a more enthusiastic class first thing in the morning! Spheros and Ollies were awaiting some coding.

As a die hard Hour of Code class, they only needed a brief introduction to the 'Tickle' app and they were off. 

The Challenge: Code your robot to drive the taped line on the floor.

A variety of lines from a simple straight line (not so simple!) to squares, triangles and irregular polygons were pre taped to the classroom floor so that students had choice through parallel tasks. After successfully completing one line design, students were encouraged to tape their own design. 

The perseverance that they exhibited was note worthy, in that students did not just hop around from task to task when they were 'close enough', but stayed with a task and completed countless iterations to keep making it more and more precise. Amazing!!! The inherent problem solving and collaboration strategies involved in coding the bots to execute a specific task, was a joy to observe. Below, a group of girls debates angles and rotation direction, speed and time, in order to code the turn of a corner.

As Mr. MacAlpine and I were chatting about consolidation strategies, we self reflected on the task itself and discussed how even more powerful this activity could be if the students used the iPads (which they were using anyway) to take screen shots, videos and pictures all along the way to document their learning journey. They could then use an app like Adobe Voice to 'journal' about their task and post to a class or personal blog! I love the ideas that evolve out of self-reflective discussions amongst educators as to "how else could we do this?". Such powerful new learning almost always ensues! 

Deb Shackell came by to help our class code today and started brainstorming ideas on how to use Sphero in phys-Ed...Amazing & coming to a gym near you soon!

The next picture beautifully illustrates how learning never stops...EVERY student put up their hand when asked by Mr.Mac if they were going to ask for a Sphero for Christmas ;)

Next stop... grade 7/8!

Do holograms exist? Are they only "movie magic"? This class isn't quite sure, but they're willing to give it a try! Find the full slide deck for this activity @ bit.ly/STEAMholograms

First steps, create a net for a frustum with given dimensions for the trapezoid faces. (Thanks to Jay Speijer for teaching me that math lingo!) Tough! 

Mrs. Hodgin's class showed perseverance and learned that the sharing of good ideas is always better. Some people had a hard time with people 'stealing their ideas', but were soon turned around when I reminded them that, 'if your idea is good enough that someone else wants to use it...then that's a compliment. It means that they think it's awesome!'

It was also great to see the support of the school admin, as the VP and principal both came to share in the learning with us.

Next steps after lunch and recess... Turning the nets into acetate 3D figures...and making holograms!

Stay tuned!!!

After a whirlwind of trial and error we tested our devices to many ooo's and aaaahhh's. A dark space was required so we all piled into the boys changeroom and turned out the lights. Don't tell the principal ;)

3:20 came far too soon! We consolidated our learning and ended the day with more questions. Would other shapes work? Other sizes? Can we get it to stand up by itself? Is there something special about the video or can we make our own?

Needless to say, The kids are excited to try and make their own hologram videos using the 'explain everything' app tomorrow. Maybe we'll throw in some green screening or glow in the dark objects. I can't wait to see how they turn out!

Thank you to Tosorontio School today, who were all so welcoming in letting me come and play with them today!

Jamila Monahan