Vancouver’s Science World Ads

image from: http://technabob.com/blog/

This week’s Fun Friday post is a link to the “Technabob Blog“, where Hazel Chua posted an image gallery of the many unique billboards Science World is using in its new advertising campaign.  How can this be used in an educational setting?  Well, you could have students research and expound upon the facts cited in each ad.  After showing the kids a few examples, I bet some of them would be more than happy to develop their own delightfully shocking ads – based on research, of course.  Or, if you live in the United States, you could just have them convert the metric measurement of snot into customary units – so it will make a bigger impact…

The Ark in Space

Flickr photo from Photomatt28, included in Ark in Space article on Burrowing Owls

The Ark in Space – A Compendium of Creatures is exactly that.  If you have any students who are researching animals, or who have any kind of passion for them, this is the site for them.  There are astounding photos and videos that will fascinate any nature lover.  The articles are short, and certainly not as comprehensive as other sites, but many of them are unique to this site.  For example, take a look at Synchronized Swimming in the Animal Kingdom, or Sea Slug Symphony for collections of stunning photographs that I doubt you will find anywhere else.  Or, browse the small collection of videos, and you will find Two Unlikely Friends at the Zoo, a touching video that might bring a tear to your eye.

Photographs or videos from The Ark in Space are a sure way to grab the attention of your students!

Inquiry Cycle

image from: Sonya Terborg

One of my favorite new blogs to follow is Sonya Terborg’s.  Every time I read a new post from her, I feel like we are kindred spirits.  Recently, she wrote an article called, “Teaching Without a Plan…What???” in which she addressed how we, as teachers, can approach being “the guide on the side”.  I think that her Inquiry Cycle poster, which you can download as a PDF from her site, will be a perfect resource for me as I guide my gifted students through Genius Hour this year.  I highly recommend reading her entire article, and to visit some of the other posts on Sonya’s site.

The Independent Project

I ran across the video for The Independent Project yesterday, and was immediately intrigued by the idea.  Some high school students basically created their own “school-within-a-school” in which they pursued their own interests.  One student developed the idea, and 8 students ended up participating in the pilot project.  This excerpt is taken from their “White Paper“, which details the process of developing The Independent Project, “His intent was to design a school in which students would be fully engaged in and passionate about what they were learning, would have the experience of truly mastering something, or developing expertise in something, and would be learning how to learn. He felt that the most important ingredient to a school like that would be that it was student-driven.”

This idea runs along the same lines as the Genius Hour, but is even more expansive, as this became the format for these eight students for their entire school day, every school day.  When you watch the video, you will see the impact this project had on a very diverse group of kids – which also reminds me of the philosophy of Universal Design for Learning.

The video, which you can also see at the project’s website, is 15 minutes long, but well worth watching.

Pecha Kucha

image credit: http://www.taft.co.nz/gardenfestnz/events/pechakucha.html

According the the above website, “PechaKucha is a presentation format for creative work originally devised in 2003 by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein-Dytham Architecture in Tokyo, Japan. The name derives from a Japanese term for the sound of conversation or chit-chat.”

I first heard about Pecha Kucha from some of my fellow G.T. teachers, and was fascinated by the concept – a presentation of 20 slides with 20 seconds for each slide.  At the time, I was already caught up with end-of-the-school-year projects, and did not have a spare moment to do more research.  This summer, I ran across this great blog post that gives 10 great suggestions for how to create an awesome Pecha Kucha.

I love the idea of giving this option to my students – particularly for their Genius Hour projects.  I also think this is a great way for teachers to introduce a new topic – or even review one.  Or, you can do what the professionals do, have a “Pecha Kucha Night” at which your student present their most inspirational slideshows.  If you can think of any other ideas for Pecha Kucha in the classroom, I would love to see your comments!

Teach with Tournaments

Teach with Tournaments is a curriculum written by Josh Hoekstra, and was recently featured in a blog entry by William Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education.  I highly recommend that you read William Bennett’s blog entry, as it gives a very good summary of the idea successfully used by Mr. Hoekstra with his U.S. History students.  I love the concept of having the students defend their “champion” by doing research, and I think that this might also be something that I could include next year as I attempt to “gamify” my classroom.  It could also fit in nicely with the Genius Hour idea.  In addition, I would suggest getting other classrooms involved through Skype or FaceTime, so that they could help determine the “Champions”, which might encourage the students to take their presentations to an even higher level (and discourage popularity contests).  Kudos to Mr. Hoekstra for such a creative idea!

Scrap It

“Scrap It” is an iOS app that you can get for any iDevice, and even in HD for the iPad.  I must admit that I had not thought about its educational value until one of my students decided to create a recent project that she did on Rosa Parks using this app on her mother’s iPad.  If you are looking for something that is a bit different than Powerpoint, Keynote, or Prezi, then “Scrap It” might be a good value for you at 99 cents.  Using the tools provided, the user can create a virtual scrapbook that can then be e-mailed, shared, or saved to the camera roll.  Since each page is saved as a .jpg, the images could even then me imported into some kind of slide presentation, such as the aforementioned Powerpoint, Keynote, or Prezi.  Or, you can use an iPad VGA adapter to hook it directly to your projector.

Below are some examples from my student’s presentation.

Genius Hour Update, Part I

A couple of months ago, I mentioned that I would be trying a “Genius Hour” with my 5th grade GT students.  You can read this post and this post to find out about the origins of this idea.  In the next few posts, I would like to share with you the results of this “pilot run”.

First – a little background.  I teach 13 5th grade Gifted and Talented students once a week from 8:45-1:30.  Many of these students have been in my GT class since Kindergarten, so they know me and the other students fairly well.  All of these factors might make it a bit easier for them to take risks than students in a regular classroom.

The Beginning

When I first introduced the idea of a “Genius Hour”, the students were excited, and eagerly brainstormed possible projects to work on.  This occurred independently and in groups.  My only caveats were: they had to learn something new during the process, it had to be appropriate for school, and they would have to present what they learned at the end.

After brainstorming and selecting topics, the students worked on planning their projects, then viewing some videos I had selected on internet safety and doing internet research.  Once they completed these preliminary requirements, they were permitted to plunge into their projects.

Before each hour started, I usually gave them a 5-10 minute “lesson” on various things, from possible Web 2.0 tools that might be useful to how they should plan their time.  After each hour, we had a debriefing about what did or did not work during the hour.

What I Did Right:  worked in a lot of brainstorming of possible topics, required students to watch videos on internet safety and research, gave them short lessons before each hour, elicited feedback after each session

What I Would Change:  I would probably change the planning sheet layout so that it inspires more creativity, and I would probably start this near the beginning of the year so that there is no “deadline” and students can work on a series of projects throughout the year

Join me again on Monday to find out more about our progress!

The Robot one of my Students Worked on During Genius Hour

A Google A Day

For a great internet research challenge, try “A Google A Day”.  At the bottom of the search page, there is a question for that day.  You are timed on how long it takes you to submit a correct answer.  You can get hints as well as tips for how to search for the solution.  If you are looking for a particular date, you can change the date in the URL in the address bar.  This would be a fun quick challenge for kids in a 1:1 classroom.  You could also do it at a station, and have students record how long it took them.  For further differentiation, assign students to create their own challenges.

instaGrok

I have been reading about instaGrok on various blogs for a month or two.  It is a search engine that “maps” your topic.  In addition, it suggests videos and creates quizzes for your topic.  There is even a toggle bar to change the level of complexity of the results.  While I agree that it is a unique way to search for information, my brief explorations of the site did not make me feel that it belonged on this blog.  Until yesterday.

A co-worker of mine, Kacie Germadnik, mentioned to me that she liked the “class” option in instaGrok, and had been using it with her gifted third graders for a research project.  Curious, I actually registered for the site (which is free). It was then that I was able to realize the full power of this tool.  As a teacher, you can create a class code.  This enables your students to also register on the site without needing e-mail addresses.

You don’t need to register to use instaGrok for research, but being logged in allows you to “pin” information to a note-taking journal that can then be printed or e-mailed.  This is an amazingly intuitive and user-friendly way to gather information about a topic on the internet.

And, if students are logged in under your class code, a teacher can keep track of their progress and search histories to make sure they are staying on the right track.  This can also be useful for collaboration.

Thanks to Mrs. Germadnik for encouraging me to take a deeper look at instaGrok!