Science – Page 11 – iLearn Technology

Solar System Scope: See the solar system in 3D

April 20, 2011April 20, 2011Kelly Tenkely3 Comments4091 views

What it is: Well, yesterday set me off on a space kick. Today I spent time with the Solar System Scope site, talk about a COOL way to view the solar system! Solar System Scope (SSS) is a 3D real-time look at celestial positions with planets and constellations in the night sky. Students can adjust planet and moon settings, star and constellation settings, earth observatory settings and time settings. View the solar system from a heliocentric, geocentric or panoramic view.

How to integrate Solar System Scope into the classroom: Who would have guessed the day would come when we could take our students on a realistic field trip through space? That is exactly what the Solar System Scope makes possible. For young students, it would be fun to plan a class space mission. Prepare your students as astronauts, load into your classroom spaceship (which may just be chairs and desks specially configured for the day) and prepare for launch. “Fly” through the universe and solar system using an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer. This is almost like having a planetarium right in your classroom. Pretty cool!

Of course after traveling through space as a class, students will want to explore more on their own. They can do this at a classroom computer center or individually in a computer lab setting.

Older students can get more in-depth using the built-in distance meter to measure the distance between planets. Each star reveals information about how many light years away it is from earth. Students can adjust the settings to learn more about constellations. Time and date can be adjusted to view the solar system on a given day. When students click the play button, they will see a 3D animation of the solar system based on the view they chose. Very neat!

In addition to using Solar System Scope for science, use it as a launching point for a creative writing activity. Students can write a fictional story about their travels through space, or even pretend to colonize a planet using factual information about the struggles they would have to overcome.

This site is a great one to use in connection with the NASA 50th Anniversary site I shared yesterday!

Tips: Solar System Scope isn’t finished yet, they are still working on some cool features. Be sure to watch for a planetary journey for kids complete with an animated talking guide named Zyx, desktop clocks that show all planet positions at the moment, a space-flight simulator screen saver (perfect for the interactive whiteboard!) and a space forum.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Solar System Scope in your classroom!

NASA’s 50th Anniversary Flash Feature-best website ever!

April 19, 2011Kelly Tenkely3 Comments4052 views

Have I mentioned lately that I have the most AWESOME readers? No? Well it is true, you all are awesome and you keep me going even when I am running on low. Thank you for that! I’m currently working on starting a school (actually 3) in the next 2 years. This is proving to be an exciting and, oh yeah, exhausting task. Then I get encouraging emails and site suggestions from you all and it puts some major pep back in my step. Thank you! This website is one such recommendation. You know you are a true geek when getting a cool website in your inbox revives you 🙂 Thank you Ryan!

What it is: NASA’s 50th Anniversary Flash feature is a website that is absolutely not to be missed. Seriously, it won’t even hurt my feelings if you skip reading my post and just head right on over to dig in and check it out yourselves! This interactive timeline highlights each decade in our space program from 1950 to 2000. Until we get time travel sorted out, this is a pretty good substitute! The site encourages exploration and discovery as students move decade by decade through the site. I love that this site goes so far beyond just space exploration. While students explore, they will hear music representing each decade, see animations, listen to virtual radio broadcasts of actual news headlines (including NASA news and other news from the decade), original video, listen to speeches of the decade and even launch rockets. I can’t tell you how happy it made me to hear Johnny Cash mixed in as I was playing on this site (in the upper left corner of the site you will be able to change songs on the jukebox, record, tape, CD or mp3 player). First thing I heard when I clicked on the 80’s “Tonight on Dallas find out who shot J.R.”. *LOVE THIS SITE!* This blog post took me about 2 hours because I got sucked right into exploring and playing. The site reminds me of Epcot’s Tomorrow Land, complete with robot guide. This is what online learning should look like, when I close my eyes and dream, this is the experience I imagine for kids. Can you imagine if there was a site like this for history? How cool would that be?!

How to integrate NASA’s 50th Anniversary Flash Feature into the classroom: This is one of those sites that you could let kids loose on just for exploration. Without any guidance from you they will learn plenty! Ideally kids would explore this site in partners or on their own in a one to one computer lab setting. If each student has a computer, headphones will be a necessity. If individual exploration just isn’t in the cards, visit the site as a class with an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computers. Invite students up to the computer (whiteboard) to take turns guiding the class. The site has plenty of interactive content to give each student a chance at the computer (whiteboard). Unless you have a good chunk of time dedicated to the site, this is one that I would stretch out over a week. Each day students can explore a new decade.

The space exploration component of this site is amazing and could keep everyone plenty busy with learning. With older students, discuss what the music of the decade reveals about that time in history. What does the music tell them about people, community, values, events of the day? Take it one step further and ask students to dig into other historical events in each decade, discussing their impact on space exploration, culture and where we are today. One thing that I missed out on in history was all of the stories that make it so rich. For me, history was reduced to names, dates and places. Give your students the opportunity to put themselves into history and learn about how the events influenced each other.

NASA’s 50th Anniversary Flash Feature would be a great one to use in connection with We Choose the Moon. If your students are like mine, they can’t get enough of this stuff! Obviously I can’t get enough of it either. Full disclosure, I have always loved space exploration. When I was a kid I spent many summers at Black Rock Desert at LDRS (Large Dangerous Rockets) with my dad. My dad built wooden model rockets- first wooden rocket on record to break sound barrier! In answer to your next question: yes, I have always been a complete and total nerd. 😛

Tips: What? Your still here? Go on, visit the site! (channeling my inner Ferris Bueller today).

Please leave a comment and share how you are using NASA’s 50th Anniversary Flash Feature thesauruses in your classroom!

NOVA: Design a Parachute

April 14, 2011Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2707 views

What it is: NOVA from PBS has an excellent interactive called Design a Parachute. In this activity, students take on the role of head engineer in charge of designing the Mars Explorer Rover parachute. The goal is to design a chute that will get the Mars Explorer Rover to the surface of Mars safely. The interactive challenges students to consider trade-offs in parachute stability, strength and volume as they design the perfect chute. As students begin the activity, they are briefed on system requirements that must be met. Students are also asked to consider cost as they design their parachute. Finally students design and test their chute.

How to integrate the NOVA Design a Parachute interactive into the classroom: In this activity, students assume the role of engineer as they design a parachute that will slow the Mars Explorer Rover as it lands on the surface of Mars. I like the authentic feel of this activity, students are led through the thinking process of an engineer as they consider all of the requirements the chute must meet before they begin designing.

Approach this interactive as a class using an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer. As a class, get “briefed” on the requirements for the parachute design. Discuss how these requirements may impact the parachute design. Treat this like an actual briefing and encourage discussion (all ages like to pretend!). Before students access the interactive, ask them to sketch their thoughts about parachute design. This lets them think through the design apart from the pre-determined categories presented in the interactive.

Students can design and test their parachutes individually in a one to one computer lab setting or take turns designing and testing in a computer center lab on classroom computers.

Debrief after the interactive to discuss the parameters that were the most successful and what students learned about volume, drag, strength and stability.

Extend this activity by creating a mock-up of the parachute they designed online. Find a high place on the playground or in the building where students can test these parachutes. What did they have to adjust for an Earth bound parachute?

Tips: The NOVA page has a great introduction paragraph about how engineers approach a problem. Be sure to read it with your students! Encourage students to learn more about the Mars Explorer Rover before designing the chute. It may adjust their thinking!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using NOVA Design a Parachute in your classroom!

Solar Car Racing: Try Engineering

April 13, 2011Kelly Tenkely6 Comments2641 views

What it is: Solar Car Racing is a great game and challenge from Try Engineering. On the Solar Car Racing games students will virtually design and race a solar car. Students begin by choosing the components for their car that will optimize the performance. Next they test out their car in a desert and on a racetrack environment to find out how it performs. Students can observe the performance and then modify their design based on feedback and race again.

How to integrate the Solar Car Racing game into the classroom: Try Engineering has some really fantastic interactive games for students. I like Solar Car Racing because it goes beyond just building and testing, and encourages students to learn from their mistakes to modify their design. Too often games created for students have a defined end point that doesn’t encourage students to continue tinkering and experimenting. Solar Car Racing would make a good “experiment” center on classroom computers. Students can stop by the “lab” area as they are learning about solar energy to test out the principles they are learning.

Ideally, students would each have access to the site. This would allow each student to create and test a solar car design. Let students discuss observations of what designs work best and why. Students can “sell” their solar car design to each other. Expand this activity by asking students to create a sales brochure for their solar car. Students can include researched information about solar cars, tout unique elements of their design and practice persuasive writing and design.

If students don’t have access to their own computers, make this a class activity using a projector-connected computer or interactive whiteboard. Give each student the opportunity to tweak and test the design, discussing adjustments and possible outcomes as a class.

If you have the resources, perfect the solar car design using the Solar Car Racing game and follow-up by creating an actual working model size version.

Tips: Be sure to check out the fantastic list of related links at the bottom of the Try Engineering Solar Car Racing page.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Solar Car Racing in your classroom!

WICKED Science Interactives

April 6, 2011Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2718 views

What it is: I found WICKED Science interactive through a tweet from my friend @kathleen_morris. WICKED Science interactives help students understand the earth- what it looks like, what it is made of, and how it works. Students can explore the earth’s surface, examine features of the earth’s crust, explore the rock cycle, discover what the earth is made of in a lab, learn about heat and pressure, and look at different descriptions of the earth.

How to integrate the WICKED Science Interactives into the classroom: I like that these interactives invite students to explore and question. They don’t offer all of the answers and lead students mindlessly through a predetermined solution, but instead give students just enough information to ask more questions. Students observe and interact with the activities and have opportunities to think and problem solve their way to learning. For this reason, WICKED interactives would make a great introductory learning activity. Students can begin inquiring about the earth during the interactive and follow-up by digging into the concepts deeper elsewhere. These interactives would be great for whole class use on a projector-connected computer or interactive whiteboard or for small-group/partner use on classroom computers. Each interactive gives students more information about the earth and invites further investigation.

Tips: WICKED Science Interactives requires the Shockwave plugin to view the interactives. The plugin can be downloaded from the site if needed.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using the WICKED Science Interactives in your classroom!

Students Rebuild: Paper Cranes for Japan

March 30, 2011Kelly Tenkely7 Comments2460 views

What it is: As news of Japan’s tsunami and earthquake(s) continues to roll in, students may be feeling overwhelmed by the devastation of it all. Following natural disaster current events can give students (and adults) a real sense of helplessness. As adults, we often ease this by donating money or time. What do students do to make an impact? Today I learned of a truly wonderful site called Students Rebuild from a tweet from my friend @MZimmer557. Students Rebuild is a site that helps students around the world connect, learn, and take action on critical global issues. There are a few projects that students can get involved in currently:

1. Haiti- building stronger, permanent schools in Haiti. This is a call to action for middle and high school students to rebuild strong, permanent schools in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. Students and educators create a team to raise money. Any money raised is matched dollar-for-dollar up to $2,500 per team.

2. Japan-folding cranes to support rebuilding in Sendai. This is a way for young students to take action. “Through a simple, powerful gesture of making and mailing in a paper crane, students worldwide are promoting hope, healing, and triggering dollars for reconstruction ($2 for each crane received).”

Students Rebuild gives students the opportunity to connect to a global community, learn about the challenges of a natural disaster, and do something real to make a difference.

In addition to the Rebuild challenges, educators can use Student Rebuild to connect students with others around the world. The site helps build that global learning community Interactive video conferencing encourages two-way dialogue and emotional connections. Webcasts between Haiti and multiple schools around the world engage, and inspire. (Learn more on the “Educators” page)

How to integrate Students Rebuild into the classroom: Register your class to take part in one of the Students Rebuild activities. The newest way to take part is through the Paper Cranes for Japan project. Students Rebuild partnered with DoSomething.org to give students worldwide a way to support their Japanese peers. Start by watching the video of how to make paper cranes on the Students Rebuild website. Take a photo and upload it with a message to the Paper Cranes for Japan Facebook Page. Mail the finished paper cranes to Students Rebuild to turn those cranes into dollars for reconstruction and an art installation. This would be a great project to take on as a class. Don’t stop there, encourage your students to make more paper cranes. They can have a paper crane party, or encourage their families to join in on the paper crane creation. Download the one-page flier to send home with students.

Using Students Rebuild projects in your classroom is a great way to teach students about our global community, empathy, current events, and give students a way to make a difference.

Tips: Be sure to check out the comprehensive toolkit on the Students Rebuild site. In the toolkit you will find photos, videos, posters, fact sheets, logos, media coverage, and fundraising tips.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Students Rebuild in your classroom!

Digital Book about Energy

March 23, 2011March 23, 2011Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2599 views

What it is: IKT FOR LAGET out of Norway has created a fantastic ebook all about Energy. This is more than just a book that happens to be online (I know we have all seen those!), this is an interactive book that is great for ALL of your learners. In addition to the text and bold images in the book, there is an audio feature on every page that will read the text to students. Click on the video icon to watch a related video. Students can even download related images from some of the films for use in their own projects where they reflect or construct their own understanding. Additional resources and links are provided within the book for teachers, parents, and students. All of the additional content “enlarges the book” into something really useful for learning and exploring. This is a big step in the right direction for ebooks– no more trying to pass off a PDF as a digital ebook, this is the real deal.

How to integrate the Digital Energy Book into the classroom: If you study energy in your science curriculum this ebook is a super resource and addition to your classroom library. Set up the ebook on classroom computers during independent reading time for some non-fiction reading material. The ebook is great for all levels of readers, confident readers can read the book independently while struggling readers may want to read along with the audio. Use the ebook as a “big book” using an interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer to read about energy as a class.

Tips: Right now the digital book uses Flash and is only available on a Mac or PC. Work is being done to bring the ebook to the iDevices!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using the Digital Energy Book in your classroom!

Sophia: learning made social

March 18, 2011March 18, 2011Kelly Tenkely3 Comments2897 views

What it is: Sophia is a site that I have been playing around with for the past few months in their invitation only, beta space. Now that the beta has been released to everyone, I’m excited to share it! Sophia is a platform that connects teachers, learners, experts, and parents. This is an academic community that supports and enriches the traditional classroom. Sophia is a social network of sorts that connects everyone in meaningful ways so that knowledge, help, instruction, standards-aligned content, and experts are available for learners everywhere. As an educator, Sophia will help you to share your knowledge and make it available to anyone, anywhere. Sophia can help students by offering them support in areas of weakness, opportunities for deeper learning, and the ability to follow areas of interest that aren’t being met in the classroom. Currently the Sophia subjects include the arts, business, English/language arts, learning strategies, mathematics, science, and social studies. Each of those subject contain several sub categories as well. Packets of learning can contain text documents, slide shows, videos, and useful links. In addition the packets are rated by users as to how academically sound the resource is. Individual users of Sophia get scores based on how well they contribute to the community.

How to integrate Sophia into the classroom: As a teacher, Sophia can be used to supplement instruction, for blended learning opportunities, for “flip” learning (remember that Fisch flip I mentioned earlier in the week?), and for private personal learning networks (PLN). Students can use Sophia for additional classroom support, homework help, to participate in study groups, and to help others in their learning. Use Sophia to facilitate study groups between students, to create an online learning community for your team to create and share resources, and to create groups that include other classrooms for collaborative learning opportunities.

Tips: Sophia is best for middle, high school, and college right now. I hope that they will scale this down for elementary students as well!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Sophia in your classroom!

Fakebook and Twister- Create custom social media pages for learning

March 14, 2011Kelly Tenkely8 Comments9162 views

What it is: I don’t know if you all noticed, but I have been on a serious social media kick lately. 🙂 There is just SO much for students to learn from the social media sphere. Last week (or was it the week before?) I shared that I had created a Facebook Template that could be used with students for creating a fake Facebook profile. Since then I have come across Fakebook created by teacher, @russeltarr. I have one word: Brilliant. Seriously this is the BEST Fakebook tool I have seen. It is simple to use. Just click and type. The profile pictures get pulled automatically based on the name that students type in. Especially good for literary and historical characters! The focus here really is on the learning that it enables, there are NO advertisements (unlike Myfakewall which I have deemed unusable because of all of the ads).

The other fake social networking tool I want to feature is called Twister. This is a fake Twitter wall that students can create just by filling in a few key bits of information like a username, the real name (this is what the photo pulls from), a status update, and a date. When students click submit, they have their very own fictional status update. Very cool!

These tools are fantastic for the classroom because they don’t rely on actual social network sites (which are often blocked by filters), they are not limited by age to use them, and they provide a fun way for students to reflect on learning. So neat!

How to integrate Fakebook and Twister into the classroom: These two teacher created tools are fantastic. They produce results that look like the real deal and were obviously created by teachers who understand that the focus should be learning and not the tool (or advertisements surrounding the tool). These fake profile/status creators are a wonderful way for students to learn about historical and literary figures in a manner that they can personally connect to. Students can create profiles or updates from the perspective of historical figures, literary characters, government, artists, composers, etc. Students can also use these tools to help them develop characters for their own writing.

Take a page out of the Grammaropolis book and have students personify things they are learning about like parts of speech. Students can create a profile for each part of speech. How about creating a profile page for math functions like Number Gossip does? Students could even practice dialogue in a foreign language using either tool.

Teaching your students netiquette? Let students create two versions of a Fakebook page, one with appropriate online interaction and another that “breaks the rules” to compare/contrast.

The Twister site only lets you create one status update at a time. This makes it really nice for memorializing famous or favorite quotes. These would be fun to print out and display on a bulletin board.

Tips: Students can save or print out their Fakebook page. To save, they will create a password and need to write down the unique URL for their page to access it at a later date.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Fakebook and Twister in your classroom!

Little Bird Tales

February 25, 2011Kelly Tenkely6 Comments4145 views

What it is: I am late on this post, but it is too good to skip a mention! Little Bird Tales is a new way to digital story tell with primary students. With Little Bird Tales, students can upload their own artwork, record their voice, add text and email their finished creations to family and friends. Sign up on Little Bird Tales requires an email address for verification purposes. This can be a parent or teacher email address (the site is geared for 3 to 14-year-old children so a student address is not necessary). Little Bird Tales includes a built-in art pad where students can create pictures online. They also have the option to upload photographs and images they have created offline. Each page give students a place to add a picture, text and voice recording. Finished books can be saved and accessed online or sent via email.

How to integrate Little Bird Tales into the classroom: Little Bird Tales is a brilliant option for digital storytelling in the primary classroom. I love that it includes both online and offline student creations, as well as student voice recordings. Students can use Little Bird Tales for creative writing and imaginative stories, as a way to reflect on learning, or as a keepsake for parents. Students can take pictures of science experiments and create a digital science journal detailing the experiment with text and student voice reflections included.

Use Little Bird Tales to create whole class stories where each student contributes a page. This type of book can be made over a few weeks using classroom computers as a writing center. This would be a fun way to create an A to Z type book of learning, reflections by students after a unit, a 100 day book, fact vs. opinion book, an interactive glossary, a class book of poems, a phonics book, or a class book about a field trip that students took. The finished product can be shared with parents and families easily through an email. For a back to school night activity, take a picture of each student to add to a class book and record students sharing what their favorite part of the school day is. This same idea could be used in preparation for parent-teacher conferences. Students can upload pictures of their best school work, record thoughts about why they are proud of the work they did, and add reflections in the text field. These can be shared as a starting point for conferences, at the end of the conference, parents have a keepsake.

Because of the voice recording capabilities, Little Bird Tales, would be a great way for students to practice a foreign language. They can illustrate a word or phrase accompanied by the audio. Classes could work together to create a “living” digital glossary.

Do you have a planned absence coming? Why not create a digital story that your substitute can share with students? Upload pictures that support learning, text, and your voice.

Tips: If you have parent email addresses in Google, Yahoo, or Outlook, they can be directly imported into Little Bird Tales as contacts.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Little Bird Tales in your classroom!