TIS and That V O L U M E
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Special STEM Edition We are proud to present this special STEM edi on of your TIS newsle er! While we specialize in all things technology, we designed this issue to emphasize some of the things that go hand-in-hand with the rising need for technology in preparing students for a successful future: Science, INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Statewide STEM Events
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Tech up your Science Fair!
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Apps for your 2 science classroom On-screen vs. Hands-on
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Technology and Co-Teaching
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Piper: A Toolbox for Engineers
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Minecraft and MicrosoftEDU
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Math Tools You Can Use!
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Image labeled for reuse: Wikipedia Commons
Engineering, Math and the educa onal technology that brings them all together! This issue is packed with ar cles, resources, and ps to keep your students engaged in hands-on experiments, data collec on, engineering tools and projects, and ways to bring interac ve math into your classroom!
Statewide STEM Events and Activities West Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair Students in Grades 9-12 April 1 - 2, 2016 Fairmont State University Campus h p://goo.gl/OH2ZXM
WVSU 4-H Aerospace and Robo cs Club Students in Grades K-12 Ongoing Monthly Mee ngs WVSU’s Aerospace Educa on Lab, Ins tute, WV Paul Henderson , henderpm@wvstateu.edu
WVU Forensic Science Summer Camp Students in Grades 6-12 June 20-24, 2016 WVU Campus in Morgantown, WV h p://goo.gl/uBAjha
Mountaineer STEM Camp Rising 7th, 8th, and 9th Grade Students June 24-30, 2016 WVU Campus in Morgantown, WV
h p://goo.gl/RxDSwy
SCIENCE Take your science classroom to the next level!
APPS FOR YOUR CLASS
TECH UP YOUR SCIENCE FAIR! A school science fair is the perfect venue for combining print and digital media. Tech up that cardboard display with these simple ideas. Incorporate a device into your display for live online polls. Collect real data or further your research by asking questions for your next experiment!
REAL WORLD INTERACTIVE
Project Noah Get excited about exploring nature. Record and share “spottings,” complete missions, and receive patches!
Physics Toolbox is a suite of apps that use your device’s built in sensors to collect data. Apps include an accelerometer, Why display only the end result of a barometer, thermometer, project? Use a time-lapse video app light sensor, like Framelapse or Lapseit to visually gyroscope, display your data as you collect it! and sound meter! Use QR codes to enrich your display with digital media like websites, video, and more! (Have a device with a QR reader ready for the judges!)
VIRTUAL REALITY
VIDEO (Great for all content areas!)
Elements 4D tur ns your device into a 3D viewer! Point your device at an element block to see it come alive in 3D or combine blocks to see chemical reactions! Anatomy 4D turns your classroom into a virtual anatomy lab. Point your device at printed targets to view 3D body systems, organs and more!
EDPuzzle Upload and crop videos to show only the part you want. Insert quiz questions and audio comments to keep students engaged. Video Editing Apps Tired of giving lab demos or directions only to have students ask tons of questions? Video apps like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker record and share your lab demos so students can watch or rewatch!
ON-SCREEN VS. HANDS-ON The advantages and pitfalls of virtual learning Students in science classrooms all over the world are benefitting from new opportunities to explore the world around them using virtual learning tools. They can interact with virtual environments and carry out experiments that would otherwise be impossible because of lack of funding, time, or safety concerns. However, as educators, we need to ask ourselves: When is virtual learning helpful, and when would students benefit more from a hands-on learning experience? Though virtual science has many benefits, it can rob students of the chance to activate non-visual sensory learning skills that make information more memorable. In an article published by the University of Chicago, a researcher in the field of hands-on learning says, “In many situations, when we allow our bodies to become part of the learning process, we understand better.”* When students in 7th and 8th grade were asked which they prefer, they almost unanimously responded that hands-on learning is more fun and more memorable. Brooklyn, a 7th grade student, says “I think hands-on is more fun, and I know when I’m having fun, I learn better. It also creates a better environment in the classroom, so people actually like coming to class.” Lastly, students engaged in hands-on lessons get to exercise fine-motor skills, which have suffered as children interact more with digital devices and less with their physical environment. Last year, an educator from NASA IV & V in Clarksburg, WV visited my classroom to do a lesson on rockets and he told me that in just his 10 years of experience, he’s seen a troubling decline student’s ability to work with their hands. Because virtual learning is usually less expensive, less messy, and less time consuming, it can be easy for teachers to give in to the temptation to substitute simulations for hands-on lessons, but research and the students themselves show that in many cases, students benefit from using their hands to set-up, carry out, and yes, sometimes mess up their very own hands-on labs. *Ingmire, J. (29 April, 2015). UChicago News. University of Chicago. Retrieved from h4p://news.uchicago.edu/ar cle/2015/04/29/learning-doing-helps-students -perform-be4er-science.
TECHNOLOGY USING TECHNOLOGY IN THE CO-TAUGHT ENVIRONMENT
Many times I have attended seminars and trainings where the presenter introduces resources and gives their promotion. We write it down but it is easily forgettable because it wasn’t tried or viewed during the presentation. I recently attended a co-teaching seminar provided through RESA 7 by Anne Beninghof. She included many teaching strategies and activities to make an effective co-teaching environment. She used many of the strategies throughout her seminar rather than directly telling us about it. As a TIS candidate I Image labeled for reuse from https://www.jisc.ac.uk/ noticed the variety of technology resources she used. Throughout her presentation she walked around with an iPad strapped around her hand and would progress her show by using the iPad. She was also able to write on her show. Doceri is an app that connects your tablet thr ough Wi-Fi to the presentation laptop. It allows an overlay on the presentation, websites, pdfs or many other active applications open. You can then write and add commentary notes without having to be at the board. It allows the teacher to monitor the room while managing the presentation. If you are looking for apps to have students share their screen by Wi-Fi, Reflector and Air Server were mentioned. After the seminar I spoke with our TIS and she knew of teachers that purchased these two apps but they were blocked by the county. She did not know of anyone trying Doceri so I am looking into it for my classroom. I would suggest checking any restrictions with your school TIS or county technology contact before paying for the app. A classroom management tool I brought back with me was the digital timer. I have egg timers and have used them frequently, but when projected through the presentation it allowed all students to know the timeline and decide how to manage their time. Mrs. Beninghof used the app Timer by Ten but, being the cheapskate I am, I typed "free timer" in Google. A timer pops up at the top of the search queue and can be customized into dynamite, a rocket, an egg timer and a variety of other options. I choose to use this now because I can switch it up for interest in the classroom. Students with learning disabilities and possibly non-identified students benefit from a time management tool. I would also suggest stopping the timer at smaller intervals to tell students what level of completion they should be for the task. Another tool Anne Beninghof demonstrated was a random selector app. Many times students with disabilities become used to being the one that don’t know it and try to blend into the background. Chwazi has 3-4 students place a finger on the tablet screen, the app senses how many participants are available and randomly chooses one. This would prompt students to pay attention because they would never know when the app is going to choose them. It also eliminates the struggle of the student thinking you are picking on them by calling on them to answer a question. If you are a co-teacher, the general educator or special educator, and have a chance to go see Anne Beninghof present, I would highly recommend it. She gives a multitude of resources and demonstrates their effectiveness during her presentation. You can witness it being taught and decide if it is for you right there, rather than writing it down and forgetting it later.
ENGINEERING Piper: A Toolbox for Budding Engineers Crowd-funded through KickStarter, Piper: A Toolbox for Budding Engineers combines multiple facets of technology and engineering with Minecraft to bring about an experience like no other. Students of all ages can engage in hands-on hardware experiences from building the computer system to interchanging hardware pieces that interact with the gameplay. Once the machines are built, students then get the opportunity to boot preloaded Minecraft software which includes multiple levels that require the students to manipulate the hardware, wires, plugs, switches, etc., to continue through the levels. Piper presents more than just another opportunity for Minecraft in the classroom. It’s a one-of-a-kind approach to incorporate hardware and software experiences with open-ended opportunities for creativity and critical thinking skills. Piper is also built to provide you and your students the opportunity to create your own custom levels and modifications, which means you as a teacher can develop your own levels to challenge your students, and then the students can gain programming experiences that they can share with their classmates! Each Piper Toolbox is tagged at $269.99. For that amount, you get a case, 7” “It is the perfect blend of LCD screen, Raspberry Pi 2 with acrylic stand preloaded with Minecraft software and the virtual and physical interactive levels, a powerbank, a USB mouse, an 8GB Micro-SD card to save progress world.” – Maureen Fan, VP and store files, all electronics you need (wires, buttons, lights, switches, breadboards, and of Games at Zynga more!) and a Piper Screwdriver! Experts describe Piper as “the perfect blend of the virtual and physical world.” – Maureen Fan, VP of Games at Zynga. In the education world, teachers and principals are raving over this technology. Jan Robertson, STEM Coordinator for Mount Diablo Schools says “What I really love is we give the kids the box and they see all the pieces, and they realize they have to figure it out themselves. And they become really engaged in a deep way. They start plugging and unplugging cables, testing things, and learning about the process as they do this. It allows kids to be freethinking and just to play with an intentional purpose.”
MINECRAFTEDU AND MICROSOFT Try it for FREE this summer! Big news has rolled out once again from Microsoft. With their initiative to promote education, Microsoft has successfully completed the purchase of MinecraftEDU with a vision to bring Minecraft into more classrooms around the globe. MinecraftEDU will soon become Minecraft Education Edition, with more interactive features for classrooms and teachers. Best of all you can try it for free, Summer 2016! And those who are already customers of MinecraftEDU? They get Minecraft Education Edition free for the first full year. Why Minecraft in Education? Already thousands of classrooms in over 40 countries are participating in MinecraftEDU. Minecraft, which is already known for high engagement and student interest, is transforming and redefining our opportunities as educators to provide resources for our students to take an active role in their education. Minecraft is being used to teach and reinforce everything in education from traditional academics like science, math, social studies, reading, and writing to subjects like art, programming, music, and poetry to, of course, engineering. The very nature of Minecraft allows for open-ended possibilities, creativity, innovation, and discovery. The uses for Minecraft are only limited by the imagination, and even then there are plenty of lesson plans available in both MinecraftEDU and Minecraft Education Edition. Other features built in that will help you integrate the program into your own class include teacher forums, Minecraft Mentors, and workshops. If you haven’t already looked into MinecraftEDU, read more at minecraftedu.com, and stay updated with Microsoft’s updates for Minecraft Education Edition at education.minecraft.net. You can follow the Join the Minecraft community and discover discussions on Twitter with #Minecraft and #BETT2016. what you can dream up!
MATHEMATICS Math Tools You Can Use! Reflex Math This program is a web based, fluency program to support addition, subtraction, multiplication and division fluency. The administrator can choose the difficulty level. When enrolled, students go through a general assessment to assess their keyboarding skills and basic math skills. The program them recommends a starting point. Students practice math fact fluency through games and earn points to use toward the program store. They can build an avatar and a tree house as they build their skills. The site offers a 30-day trial but occasionally offers a one-year grant for 30 students under one teacher. Khan Academy I don’t know about you but many times I feel like I repeat information and it isn’t clicking. As a teacher of students with learning disabilities I have had to make many resources available for students in the event I can’t explain it well enough or they forget by the time they get home. This website compiles instructional videos that can be accessed for free. Teachers can also create student accounts that monitor each achievement and completion of units. Cyberchase Creating interest in math can be difficult. Cyberchase creates real-world situations to solve math puzzles. It is a great way to introduce a concept. All of these and many others can be accessed through http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/ where you can search the standards. Choose a grade and the standards, and a list of PBS resources are provided. Mathematics Assessment Project This resource provides complete unit plans for the math classroom. The lessons are intended to teach students through project-based instruction and group learning. There are also College and Career Readiness tests to practice with students.
Meet the Contributors Trixie Devine teaches the
Coding, App, and Game Design program at Taylor County Technical Center in GraGon, WV. In addi on to teaching, and TIS, she has founded WV League of Learners, a digital literacy and digital ci zenship club. You can visit her club's website at wvleagueoflearners.org to learn more!
Rebecca Herko teaches 5th – 8th grade special education classes in Preston County.
Emily McCourt is a Technology and Curriculum Specialist at Western Greenbrier Middle School, which serves about 300 students in Greenbrier Co. This is her first year out of the classroom after 3 years teaching 8th grade science. She is very excited to be assisting the teachers and students at WGMS with new Chromebooks this