Science – Page 25 – iLearn Technology

GE Smart Grid Augmented Reality!

March 9, 2009March 9, 2009Kelly Tenkely8 Comments4015 views

What it is: Okay, sometimes I just have to share things because they are off the charts amazing. Augmented reality is something I was introduced to by my graphic artist husband. Until I found this GE Smart Grid site, I wasn’t able to share it with others and let students play with it. What is augmented reality? Basically you print off a sheet from the website that has a bold graphic on it. When you hold up this graphic to a web cam, a 3-D model is produced on screen, by moving the paper you can look at different views of the 3-D model, zoom in and out, and in some cases cause the model to react to other inputs (like blowing into the microphone). The GE Smart Grid Augmented Reality shows a digital hologram of smart grid technology in the form of wind turbines and solar energy.

How to integrate GE Smart Grid Augmented Reality into the classroom: I am introducing this site to my students as a discussion starter for where technology is going and brainstorming what augmented reality could be used for. The Smart Grid site can also be used when teaching students about alternative energy sources like wind turbines and solar energy. They can actually see 3-D models of each and interact with them. This would be a great introduction and attention grabber for an energy unit in science classes.

Tips: Augmented reality is still relatively new technology, it is starting to pop up in the advertising world and in baseball trading cards. Hopefully the education sector will jump on this technology, how amazing would it be to hold up a science worksheet to the computer and be able to see a 3-D model of a skeleton, or a beating heart?! (I’ll see if I can talk my husband into working on a few augmented reality education goodies). 🙂 Mac users, if you can’t get it to pick up your camera, ctrl + click on the popup window and choose the USB camera option. Enjoy!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using GE Smart Grid Augmented Reality in your classroom.

ActivInspire

March 5, 2009Kelly Tenkely3 Comments23412 views

What it is: ActivInspire is a new software from Promethean that is free! The free edition is a ‘personal’ license that can be used by anyone. The ActivInspire software works with ANY interactive whiteboard (SMART, Mimio, Wiimote Whiteboard, eBeam, etc.) and even for those of you who do not have an interactive whiteboard, use the software with just a computer and projector! The Promethean Planet website has thousands of lessons and resources that are free to access and can be used with ActivInspire to engage your students. ActivInspire has two launch options, the first is to launch in Primary function. In Primary, ActivInspire is very user friendly for primary elementary students. The second option is to launch in Studio with tools that are perfect for older students. ActivInspire works on Windows, Mac, and Linux based machines. Some of the goodies in ActivInspire include interactive protractors, rulers, clocks, grids, and more. New power tools include intelligent shapes and handwriting recognition. There are themed templates for fast and easy lesson building. ActivInspire supports flash files that can be embeded in Flipchart lessons. ActivInspire can open SMART and PowerPoint files, making it quick and easy to pick up any lesson and improve it.

How to integrate ActivInspire into the classroom: ActivInspire is software that can keep students engaged in any lesson in your curriculum. The software is incredibly intuitive and makes it easy to create amazing interactive lessons. The lessons (flipcharts) can be saved and shared among colleagues. Begin building a library of interactive lessons for your students. Be sure to visit Promethean Planet for thousands of ready made (FREE) flipcharts and activities to use with the ActivInspire software.

Tips: To see the possiblities of the ActivInspire software, take a look at Flipcharts created by the developers of ActivInspire. Promethean also has a great set of support tutorials that will have you up and running in no time!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using ActivInspire in your classroom.

Switcheroo Zoo

March 3, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment4559 views

What it is: Switcheroo Zoo is a site I learned about from Kevin Bibo on his outstanding blog Cal Teacher Blog. Switcheroo Zoo has fun interactive games and activities such as “Make New Animals” where students can create their own animal combinations, “Build an Online Habitat” where students choose animals and match them to the correct environment, “Switch Zoo Puzzles”, “Where do I Live” where students help return rescued animals to their homes, “Sound Match” where students match the animal song to the correct animal, “Meerkat Grab-a-Snack” where students help feed a Meerkat by catching food, and “Catch the Moment” where students take ‘pictures’ of wildlife. Switcheroo Zoo also has short films, sound clips, and photographs about animals for students to watch and listen to. Your students also have the opportunity to become a “Switch Zoo Guide” by completing the Switch Zoo Quest. Students play nine fun animal related games and activities to become a guide. When they finish, they will receive a Switch Zoo certificate of merit, a guide badge, and are added to the list of offical guides.

How to integrate Switcheroo Zoo into the classroom: Switcheroo Zoo is an awesome website for students to explore to learn more about animals and wildlife. This would be a great site to visit when studying animals and their habitats. There are three educational animal-themed games on the site that teach about animal characteristics and habitats. Switcheroo Zoo has an educational section that includes lesson plans for art, science, creative writing, and persuasive writing. In second grade at the school where I teach, students complete animal reports as an introduction to research. Switcheroo Zoo has on-site research with 142 animal profiles, a US endangered species map, and stories about unusual animal feats on a Zookeeper’s blog. This site is packed full of fun, useful activities, lessons, and resources! In a computer lab setting, students can research and play games individual. In the one or two classroom computer setting, students can visit Switcheroo Zoo as a science resource center. With the projector or an interactive whiteboard, complete the activities as a whole class or show the animal videos to your whole class.

Tips: This site does have some Google ads. I use these as an opportunity to teach my students how to spot ads on a website and discuss what the purpose of advertisements is.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Switcheroo Zoo in your classroom.

Fliggo

March 2, 2009Kelly Tenkely4 Comments2961 views

What it is: Ever wish you could create your own video sharing site? Fliggo is your answer. Create a video sharing site in under 5 minutes easily! Sharing student created videos on YouTube is not always an option in the school system. YouTube may be blocked, you may have concerns about other video content, or the related videos that are presented to your students may be inappropriate. Fliggo is the answer. You can create a video sharing site for your school complete with school logo. Fliggo gives you control over who can post videos, who can comment, and how videos are approved. Fliggo is simple enough to use with elementary students!

How to integrate Fliggo into the classroom: Fliggo is the perfect place to upload student created video. I have students turn every Keynote presentation into a video so that we can share it online. Students love sharing their work with the world. I get emails from parents, grandparents, and other family members about how excited they are to see what their kids are working on in school. This is an awesome way to showcase student work. Students can comment on other student work encouraging an authentic classroom community. Fliggo is easy enough for elementary students to upload their own videos if you choose to allow member uploaded video. In my classroom, students create commercials on a variety of topics. I like using commercials because students understand their purpose (to advertise), they are short, and they quickly get the point across. Students have created commercials in my classroom for a multiude of subjects and topics.

Tips: I love the idea of creating a school “YouTube” type site, your students and parents will love it too!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Fliggo in your classroom.

ARKive

February 25, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment4115 views

What it is: ARKive is an incredible website that I learned about from a tweet on Twitter (forgive me I was in the middle of class and didn’t keep track of who- thank you whoever you are!) ARKive tag line is “images of life on Earth”, but ARKive is so much more than just a collection of images, it has thousands of videos, images and facts about the world’s species. This is the digital version of Noah’s Ark! This is the most impressive animal and life website I have seen! I truly can’t say enough about this site, students of all ages will enjoy this one (I’m talking k-12 here!) ARKive has an education section of the site that is a free multi-media educational resources complete with downloadable, ready to use audio/visual modules on a wide range of science, geography, citizenship, and environmental based topics. ARKive also has some great games for students to play that are directly related to the lessons they learn while on the ARKive site. Games range from building a habitat to word searches and digital fridge poetry.

How to integrate ARKive into the classroom: ARKive’s ready made educational resources make it simple to integrate into your science, geography, or general classes. The resources are ready made PowerPoint presentations (which incidentally also open nicely in Keynote which we use). The resources bring learning to life with images, videos, facts, and some interactive pieces. This is what textbooks should be! ARKive’s ready made resources can be downloaded on classroom computers for use by small learning groups as a center, downloaded to a lab of computers for individual student exploration, or used with a projector and an interactive whiteboard for whole class learning and exploration. The ARKive site itself is a wonderful place for students to explore and learn more about animal species and life on Earth. This would be a great place for students to collect information, images, and video to create their own presentations. The games provided on the ARKive site are fun for students and teach them as they play. For example, students who are studying habitat can play the Design a Habitat game and gain an additional opportunity to interact with the concepts they are learning. Older students can dig into the facts provided on ARKive and learn about animal classification and species of the world. ARKive images could be used in the language arts classroom as a story starter or creative writing prompt.

Tips: This is truly an incredible site, I encourage you to take a look at it and use it with your class! (Click on the education link at the bottom of the site for the Resources and Games.)

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using ARKive in your classroom.

Jeopardy Labs

February 10, 2009Kelly Tenkely3 Comments5239 views

What it is: Jeopardy Labs is an awesome website that lets you build a Jeopardy game board without the use of Power Point! All that you have to do to start is enter a password so that others can’t edit your game. Then it is as simple as titling it, typing in categories and then entering questions and answers. This is really SO easy to use! You can also search through Jeopardy games created by others. You won’t be able to edit these but you may find a ready made game that fits your needs perfectly. Jeopardy Labs was created by Matt Johnson, an undergraduate at WSUV. Impressive!

How to integrate Jeopardy Labs into the classroom: Jeopardy Labs is a great way to review and practice class material in a fun, engaging way. Use Jeopardy Labs to help your kids study for a test, to review a unit, or just as a fun learning activity on a Friday afternoon. In the computer lab, I have used Jeopardy as a way to teach students how to perform searches. Students can Google the questions and the first team to find the correct answer wins the points.

Tips: Before you reinvent the wheel, browse through other Jeopardy games…someone may have already done the work for you!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Jeopardy Labs in your classroom.

How Toons

February 9, 2009February 9, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3326 views

What it is: How Toons is like an Instructables site for kids. Kids learn through cartoons and videos how things work and how to make things. This is kind of a How It’s Made website for kids. Topics include science, space, nature, events, and a how to section. The cartoons illustrate a concept and accompanying videos expand on the concept.

How to integrate How Toons into the classroom: How Toons is an excellent site to excite your students about science. Share a How Toons with your students and then explore the science behind it together. Use a How Toons as inspiration, after viewing How Toons, students can create their own cartoon on any topic being studied in class. How Toons are great for teaching kids how to follow step by step instructions and would also be useful for teaching them how to create their own instructions.

Tips: How Toons would be a fun RSS feed to subscribe to as a class!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using How Toons in your classroom.

Animal Games

January 27, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment5561 views

What it is: Animal Games is part of the Sheppard Software’s Kids corner. The site has games about animals that help them learn animal classification, the difference between herbivores and carnivores, the food chain, endangered animals, producers and consumers, animal diet, and animal characteristics. The games are fun and easy to play and teach some important animal science concepts.

How to integrate Animal Games into the classroom: These games are perfect for the kindergarten through second grade classroom. They teach the basics of the food chain, animal kingdom, and animal classification through an interactive game environment. These games would be appropriate for the one or two computer classroom as a science center, with a projector and whole class instruction, or in the computer lab setting.

Tips: This site does have some advertisements, use this opportunity to discuss ads with your students and help them spot the ads on each page (some advertisements look like a game).

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Animal Games in your classroom.

The Periodic Table of Videos

January 27, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3343 views

So today is going to be another whirl wind of posts day. I am cleaning out my Google Notebook saved sites, hopefully you will find one of these awesome resources helpful for your classroom!

What it is: If I had access to the Periodic Table of Videos when I was going through chemistry, my understanding would have exponentially increased! This site literally looks like a periodic table, when a student clicks on one of the elements, a video opens up that explains the element. So neat! The site was created by the University of Nottingham, who is continually updating the videos with the latest and greatest experiments and explanations. There is a section with extra videos, a collection of science bloopers that are entertaining.

How to integrate The Periodic Table of Videos into the classroom: The Periodic Table of Videos is a great way to introduce the elements to students. I remember spending hours memorizing the Periodic Table but never really understood the properties of the elements. This site will help your students get a grasp on exactly what the different elements do. This is also a great way to bring those elements into your room that aren’t practical or readily available. Use this with your chemistry classes in the computer lab setting or with a projector.

Tips: The Features section has some extra videos on topics such as experiments and noble gases.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using The Periodic Table of Videos in your classroom.

Science Museum: Launch Ball

January 16, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment4613 views

What it is: Here is another one I found thanks to @kjarrett. Science Museum features a game called Launch ball. Students are given a series of challenges to get a ball from one point to another through an obstacle course. The trick is they have to build the obstacle course so that the ball naturally flows to the goal after dropping into the play zone.

How to integrate Science Museum Launch Ball into the classroom: This is a great puzzle/game site to use with your students to get them to approach problems creatively and work through solutions with trial and error. The game is addicting and will have your students solving problems and thinking logically about how different objects interact with one another. I love using these mind benders with students, they are elated when they solve a puzzle! Each time students complete a level, they will learn fun science facts. After your students have all of the levels down, they can create their own obstacle courses for other students to solve.

Tips: This is a great game to introduce in science class. I also love using this site with students on indoor recess days!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Launch Ball in your classroom.