iPads and Carts

If you have read the paper in the past couple of weeks, you would have read that the school district purchased 1,000 iPads to be used with students K-12.  Carts were also purchased to house the iPads in groups of 30.

A couple of carts have been finished and available for teachers to use with their students.  The students have an amazing knack for picking up on new technology devices right away.  Very little instruction is needed to get them going on the iPads!

Below is my Northside iPad deployment crew hard at work:)  They were an excellent help in unwrapping chargers and cords.  Thanks guys!

The iPad setup and deployment is taking awhile, but is actually going quickly.  We should be done putting everything together sometime next week.

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2nd Grade Ocean Projects

I’m amazed at how far the second grade students have come since the beginning of the year.  As we draw near the end of the school year, their typing and navigation skills are much stronger, and more time is spent working on projects rather than repeating program skills.  They have done a FANTASTIC job!  Below is a student example of a Pages document that they have been working on.  They combined the content that they have learned from class in relation to ocean animals, and combined their computer skills to create a finished product telling about their favorite ocean animals.  Please click on the photo for a larger view.

Below is an add-on to this post.  This was a great creative version of the oceans project!

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LabQuest – Motion Detectors

In preparation for some upcoming science experiments, the 5th grade learned about the LabQuest motion detectors this week.  The two main goals of this group activity were to learn how to use it as well as how it actually works.

It works much like the echolocation process of a bat.  The motion detector sends out audible sound pulses, which bounce back from objects in its path.  The sound pulses are sent back to the motion detector and registered as data in the LabQuest.  Variables such as speed of the object, as well as distance away provide different results on the LabQuest screen.

The students learned how to interpret the data through trial and error.  This is really cool technology, and the kids were excited to use it.  They did a great job!

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Google Earth – Sky Mode

The third grade students have spent the past couple of weeks exploring different aspects of Google Earth.  They have learned how to locate places, take tours, customize layers, etc.  This week, they took a look at the Sky Mode in Google Earth.  Sky Mode allows them to see objects in the sky and get information about them.  Some objects are accompanied by pictures, others by video.  They can even zoom in to see nebulae and other galaxies!  They really seemed to enjoy this aspect of Google Earth.

Constellations

North America Nebula

Sculptor Galaxy

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Shady Visitors

I had some pretty suspicious visitors in my classroom one day.  Hmmmm.  I wonder who they are, and what do they want?

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Amazing!

Kids amaze me on a daily basis in their technology, learning, and creative skills.  I try to incorporate a lot of creativity into the projects that they do.  It exercises the mind in a different way.  I’m always impressed with the artistic skills that some kids have, perhaps out of jealously:)  Below are some amazing drawings created by some very talented students on their own free time.    The drawings were created in the Pages program.  They have worked on these 5 minutes here, and 7 minutes there whenever they finish the required tasks for computer class.  I hope you appreciate and enjoy these incredible drawings.

The first two drawings are originals from RaeLynn, who submitted another drawing for the post here.

For more art student work from the programs we have been using in class, please click here.

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Reminder for Mrs. Gentry’s Class

This is a reminder to Mrs. Gentry’s 4th grade class at Millikin that your GarageBand music is ready for you to download!  On the right-hand side of the screen, find the Pages category at the top.  Click on Downloads.  Find your name in the list and click on it.  Your computer should ask you if you want to save it.  Ask your parents for help if you are not sure how to save it.  Once it is saved, find the file on your computer and double click on it.  It will open in the music player (iTunes, Windows Media) that you have on your computer.  Good luck and good job with the music!  The music will be on here until Sunday.

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Reminder for Miss Robbins’ Class

This is a reminder to Miss Robbins’ 4th grade class at Millikin that your GarageBand music is ready for you to download!  On the right-hand side of the screen, find the Pages category at the top.  Click on Downloads.  Find your name in the list and click on it.  Your computer should ask you if you want to save it.  Ask your parents for help if you are not sure how to save it.  Once it is saved, find the file on your computer and double click on it.  It will open in the music player (iTunes, Windows Media) that you have on your computer.  Good luck and good job with the music!  The music will be on here until Sunday.


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Young Trackers

Today I got to go outside with three inquisitive young animal trackers.  Mrs. Rickman had these kids read a book on animal tracks, so I was invited to take them out along the creek to do some animal tracking!  Of course, I felt the need to involve some technology, so I brought along the Vernier LabQuest and GPS sensor.  I also brought along my iPhone to use a GPS app called Trail Guru.  Basically, we tracked ourselves as we wandered from the school, to the creek, and back to the school.  I’m still investigating how accurate the Vernier GPS really is.  I have used Trail Guru extensively, so I wanted to run a side-by-side comparison.  I did complete a post on the Vernier GPS sensor here if you would like to see what it looks like and read the preliminary tests.

Our Fearless Trackers

We had a beautiful day to go tracking.  We headed out of the school and worked our way down the tree line to the creek.  We found plenty of tracks along the way.  The first set of tracks that we found were coyote tracks!  Below the kids are following the fairly straight trot of the coyote.

Below is my faithful GPS tracker using the Vernier LabQuest with the GPS sensor attached to his hood.  I have found that it is important to keep the sensor away from the main unit so that there isn’t any electrical interference between the two.

We found several different animal tracks.  The kids learned about tracking terms such as gait, track, print, and stride.  They also learned how to tell if the animal was hopping, running, or walking.  In our short little hike, we found the tracks of coyote, deer, squirrels, cottontail rabbits, and rodents.

Below the kids are using waterproof tracking cards from North Woods Guides.  They are fantastic identifying tools for young trackers.  If they drop them in the snow, they will be just fine.  They are also quite durable and will not easily get bent.

Every time we found a track, they were down on their knees checking their cards.  Another thing they learned about using the cards was to count the number of toes on all four feet.  Some mammals have four toes on their front feet, and five on their hind feet.

Squirrel Track

Rodent Tracks show evidence that they were eating and harvesting seeds from this plant.

A tiny set of rodent tracks

Our GPS pilot “Radar” held firm to his job!

Once the kids got tired, we hiked back up to the school, got our snow gear off, and uploaded our GPS data from the LabQuest and the iPhone onto the computer.  The comparisons were interesting, yet not surprising to me.  Below is the map showing our path using Trail Guru on the iPhone.  It tracked the path we went exactly from the school, down to the tree line, along the creek, back down the creek, into the neighboring field (with permission), and back to the school.  It worked great!

However, the Vernier LabQuest GPS sensor had some issues.  Spiking occurred in two areas on the map, indicating some interference of some kind.  It also did not register our path from the school to the tree line.  It did register our path from the tree line back to the school though.  I noticed that both spikes occurred when we were around really tall trees.  Perhaps the trees had caused the interference.

At this point, I can only conclude that the Vernier GPS sensor should only be used in open areas if maximum reliability is to be found.  The iPhone GPS did an excellent job at tracking us, but in dense woods, I have had problems with that as well on past hikes.  More than likely, I wasn’t near one of the AT&T towers when I was using it.  I guess the only way to beat that is to actually learn the “ancient” art of map and compass reading.  All in all, we had a fabulous hike, found some great tracks, and wore down the kids’ energy levels.  Parents, you can thank me later:))

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5th Graders, Logger Lite, and Data Analysis

The 5th grade students have been doing a follow up assignment using data that they collected.  For the data collection, the students did several different types of exercises and used the LabQuest temperature probes to measure body temperature before the exercise and after.  Once the data was collected, it was transferred from the LabQuests to the lab machines.  Logger Lite is a wonderful analysis software that comes with the LabQuest units.  It is basic enough for younger students to comprehend, yet advanced enough for the older students.  When working with large amounts of data, students can use tools to help find the mean and mode temperatures of each run.  They can also view all runs in a multi-lined line graph.

In the students’ data analysis, they are looking at gender differences in the temperatures before and after exercise to see if one gender heats up or cools off faster.  In looking at the data, I think they will be surprised with some hidden findings.  Below is a sample of student data collected.

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