MONTHLY MEGABITE February 2019
Google Expeditions: Kits Visit the Virginia Children’s Book Festival During the month of October, Longwood University has been hosting the annual Virginia Children’s Book Festival (VCBF), a non-profit organization committed to nurturing life-long readers.
Upcoming events
On its 5th anniversary, October 17-19, 2018, the Longwood cammiddle school students from vari-
Above: Student enjoys using Google Expedition to help experience the landing on the moon.
ous Virginia counties to celebrate
Tammy Hurt, to support the use of
books and their authors through
Google Expeditions (virtual real-
workshops and short programs.
ity) through a program collabora-
pus filled with elementary and
tion with author, Brian Floca, as he This year’s event provided an op-
shared his picture book, Moonshot,
portunity where ITTIP was asked
a book about the Apollo 11 flight
to partner with Prince Edward
to the moon.
educators, Barbara Rice and During the three sessions, Floca and Rice took turns between reading and talking about the book and its development and guiding students through virtual tours of some of the locations and artifacts discussed or researched during the book development. Approximately Above: Author, Brian Floca, begins his presentation on his book, Moonshot.
The mission of ITTIP is to transform teaching and learning in PK-12 classrooms through the use of technology by providing high-quality professional development for educators and engaging programs for students, in order to maximize their learning experiences and opportunities in a globally competitive workforce.
160 students got to enjoy Floca’s short program with the Google Expeditions experience led by Rice.
Feb 19 STEM with Girl Scouts, Chesterfield, VA Feb 20 SVRTC Meeting, Nottoway High School Mar 4,5 Offices Closed Mar 5 STEAM Night, Bonner Middle School, Danville, VA Mar 6 EdTechRVA, Richmond,VA Mar 16 GEM PD, Longwood University Mar 21 SVRTC Banquet, Longwood University Apr 17 SVRTC Meeting, Nottoway High School In This Issue Page 1 Google Expeditions Page 2 Book Study: GEM Page 3 VAST Page 3 STEM with Dash Page 3 EdTechRVA 2019 Page 4 STEM and CS in Dinwiddie
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February 2019 Megabite - Longwood University ITTIP
ITTIP is excited to offer an
there are spots for this opportunity.
March 8, 2019.
8-week, blended learning book
The current pool of pre-registrants
study to teachers in grades 4-8
is under review and final partici-
ITTIP recognizes this profes-
from SVRTC school divisions. The
pants will be notified no later than
sional development model to
book study opportunity was an-
be of high interest to teachers
nounced at an SVRTC meeting in
in southside Virginia and will
October and had an overwhelming
consider future programs with
response. The recruitment survey
this model. In the meantime,
was closed less than one-week
be on the lookout for other op-
later with almost three-times the
portunities through the ITTIP
amount of interested teachers as
and SVRTC networks. Above: Excerpt from the GEM solicitation.
Scratch 3.0 The time has come. The Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT) Scratch Team released Scratch 3.0 on January 2, 2019. The new launch brings dozens of new sprites, backgrounds and sounds to the online coding platform, as well as new extension libraries. Other new features include text to speech and translation options, updated tutorials, improved audio and image editing, in-line deletes, and video sensing. If you have never heard of or used Scratch 3.0 , head on over to the website to learn more! Scratch 3.0 could be just what you are looking for to engage your students in coding, storytelling, and more!
February 2019 Megabite - Longwood University ITTIP
Dr. Leach Presents at VAST PDI On Thursday, November 15, 2018,
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Dash Visits STEAM Class
that students can use to practice
Students in the STEAM Club at
Dr. Leach presented a pre-confer-
data analysis. But one of the re-
Longdale Elementary in Henri-
ence workshop session with Dr.
ally cool features about CODAP
co County had the opportunity
Virginia Lewis, Associate Profes-
is that students are able to input
to use Dash Robots, thanks to
sor of Mathematics Education, at
data that they collected or pull in
ITTIP. The hour-long ses-
the annual Virginia Association of
other data sets. This opens up the
sion held on January 17, 2019
Science Teachers (VAST) Profes-
uses for teachers, especially in the
was led by Dr. Leach and had
sional Development Institute in
science class, as they can easily
students attending from grades
Williamsburg, VA. The 1.5 hour
combine data sets from multiple
3-5. While the students had
session, Data Science: Integrat-
classes for analysis. It also al-
some exposure to using robots
ing Science, Math, and Workplace
lows for easy collaboration across
such as Code and Go Mouse
Skills, was presented to middle
subject areas, for instance, al-
and Ozobots, for most of them
school science teachers and fo-
lowing math teachers to use data
this was their first time using
cused on using CODAP for data
that students actually collected in
Dash and block coding.
analysis in the science classroom.
science class and provide relevant data sets for the students to work
With an hour for the session,
CODAP (Common Online Data
with as they are learning new con-
Dr. Leach started with an
Analysis Platform) is a free web-
cepts in math class.
introduction about robots and
based software developed by Con-
then moved into practice on
cord Consortium for data analysis,
giving clear directions with an
specifically for use in grades 6 -12. The software includes data sets
EdTECHRVA 2019 Conference Registration for EdTechRVA 2019 is open! What should you do next? You could: 1. Find more details on their conference page or go directly to the online registration and register! 2. Find them on Twitter for a chance to retweet their registration post for a chance to win a Tile!
(continued page 4) Left: Students work together to code Dash robot.
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February 2019 Megabite - Longwood University ITTIP
Dash Visits STEAM Class (cont.)
STEM and Computer Science at Dinwiddie Elementary STEM and computer science
unplugged activity with students
integrations are still underway
giving voice directions to guide
with Dinwiddie Elementary’s 4th
their teacher to throw away a piece grade classrooms in collaboration with ITTIP staff. While the initiaof paper. They quickly saw the importance of using specific, short tive focuses on computer science directions! Once Dash Robot was and STEM career awareness for introduced, the students worked
students, it is also important that
in pairs as they figured out the
a project outcome includes facili-
Puzzle Path activities provided
tating classroom and resources
in the Blockly app - taking turns
teachers to use and implement
being the robot handler and the
tools and lessons on their own to
coder. The students were then
build capacity for future teaching
given a challenge to code their
and learning.
Dash to introduce himself to the class using at least three differ-
Above: A student engages in dialog about a book with another classroom from North Carolina while a 4th grade teacher faciliates the discussion over Google Hangouts.
In October and November, 4th
ent features (i.e. voice, movement, graders participated in the Global Read Aloud. They read “A Boy sensors, etc.). Called Bat” at the same time as Apparently, the session was a great other children from around the world! As part of this global expesuccess as several students were heard telling their parents it was
rience, students took part in week-
“the best STEAM Club yet” and
ly online video discussions with a
“we need to buy a Dash Robot!”
classroom in North Carolina.
In December as part of the curriculum on planets, students participated in a live stream with an astronaut from the International Space Station (ISS) and then in January did a planet exploration with Google Expeditions. Learning experiences with ITTIP staff and 4th grade students will continue throughout the 2018-19 school year. Below: While students enjoyed the virtual reality on planets, so did principal, Mr. Roberts and ITRT, Pam Ferrell.
Above: Students showcase their coded robots to their peers.
Above: Students watch a live stream from an astronaut on the ISS. In this picture, the astronaut is showing students what water does in the ISS.