Tech Club members got a taste of stop-motion video today. We downloaded the FREE app Stop Motion Studio. I brought in some animal figures and set up three "studios", each with an iPad and white backdrop. The kids figured out how to work the app within seconds and off they went! Stop motion is great digital way to tell a story.
As much as we tried to tell them how important it was to hold the camera in one spot they seemed to keep picking it up. Here is some of the finished products. Not bad for the first time!
Over the past few weeks not only have these kids grown in their understanding and use of technology, but they have really been able to practice speaking, listening, and collaboration skills to Learn, Create, and Innovate with one another.
We leave you with an encore performance from our Movie Ladies...
Oh! And we had brownies (see last week's blog post). I may have accidently started eating one before I took the pic.
This tech club was just a mix of some things we have been learning these past few weeks. We did a little making, designing, playing, and creating. All verbs I LOVE to hear in education! Making: Griffin gets the Thinker award this week. He took home the materials from the Bristlebot activity last week and came back Tuesday with a working product. I am proud of his perseverance and determination!
Design: For the design focus this week, we work with the design cycle. The kids were asked to design brownies using a modified IB design cycle. Click here for the directions and hand out. The kids were given each a box of brownies and asked to complete the investigate,plan, and design portion of the cycle. Their homework this week is to go home and create the brownies, and then evaluate how they turned out.
Play:
The kids had some free time today just to play. Many of them picked games to play on the computers, some of the kids had fun playing with the iPads and...
"A bristlebot is an extremely simple form of walking robot. It is one of the simplest of all mobile robots, both in its function and its construction. As a result of this ease of construction, they have become popular projects at the school science fair level."
Today in technology club we attempted to make britslebots. The kids were given the materials they needed: the head of a toothbrush, double sided tape, a watch battery, and a micro vibrating motor. We showed them a picture example and the model bristlebot I had made. I explained that I was not extremely successful and had tried a few different configurations with the battery and motor and I tried a few different toothbrush styles. My challenge to them was to be scientists and use the skill of inquiry to see if they could get there bristlebot to move forward on a flat surface. The kids took right to the task of making these "simple robots".
As the kids dove in, Mr. Jackson helped cut and strip motor wires while I passed out more tape. "I NEED MORE TAPE!". Some of the kids quickly got the motors to run off the battery. Mr. Jackson and I then helped kids troubleshoot how to get the battery and motor attached to the toothbrush.
Most of the kids could get the bristlebot built, it was getting it to move forward on a flat surface that was causing trouble. Here is what a bristlebot is suppose to do:
Ours looked more like this:
Mr. Jackson and I continued to encourage the kids with questions and possible correctives and asked them to go back to the drawing board, like a scientist or inventor would do. But, here is what we found interesting. Many of the students, when not successful the first or second time got very frustrated. Some wanted to give up, some just wanted us to give them the answer (even though we did not have an answer), some got mad but went back to the drawing board. We had a few successful bristlebots, I few kids that wanted to take the materials home to keep trying (parents send me a picture or video if they get them to go) and a few who still think we are crazy.
As a parent and an educator, what I learned most today is how important it is for us to teach our children that failure is ok. That some of our best learning comes out of failure, just because you failed the first time does not mean that you can not be successful. As adults, we need to model failure and the problem-solving skills we use to make our failure a success.
Learning is messy, and messy is ok.
P.S. We will keep trying but If someone out there could give us some hints as to what we were doing wrong...that would be great.
Week four of tech club, time is flying by! This week our topic was Online Safety and how to stay safe when visiting a website. The lesson focused on understanding how being safe online is similar to staying safe in real life, how to recognize sites that are appropriate for them to visit, and to ask an adult when they are unsure. Listed below are some great resources for both kids and parents to learn more about online safety:
BrainPop Jr.: Free interactive video and activities.
Common Sense Media: Answers many important questions about keeping your children safe online. Many great teaching resources for teachers also.
Kids.gov: Online safety videos and games on a variety of topics for kids, parents, and teachers.
The students continued to work on their blogs this week. Because this is my first time using Kidblog we are still working out a few of the kinks but the kids have been very patient with the process and this week were able to post a response to the question I posed. The students then learned how to publish a new post on their own blog. I asked them to write about what they did on their snow day. Our next step will be to learn how to respond appropriately to a classmate on a post they have published.
What kinds of information should I keep to myself when I use the Internet?
Here are some great articles on the benefits of student blogging:
Look closely to see the math the kids need to be able to do in order for the line of code to work correctly. It is fun to watch the kids collaborate and help each other to solve a coding problem. They also get excited to share with each other what they have made.
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