How We Got to Now: a student created mini museum

In November, I wrote a post about the book/PBS documentary series “How We Got to Now” by Steven Johnson. If you haven’t read this book or watched the series, it is a must! Truly, this is one of those books that has stayed with me. I’m not the only one. Students from 1st-8th grade at Anastasis have become fascinated with Steven Johnson’s journey through the six innovations that made the modern world. The way that Steven weaves the story is remarkable. It reminds us just how interconnected the world is and that innovation doesn’t happen in isolation, but as a result of connection. This book, perhaps more than any we’ve read as a school, has reminded us of the beauty of inquiry. What happens when hunches collide and people pursue those hunches.

I love the way that Johnson explores innovation through these 6 lenses. Instead of offering up the typical “heroes” of invention, Johnson introduces students to concepts that span hundreds of years of invention and many of the unsung heroes. The six innovations include: glass, time, clean, light, sound, and cold. I’m telling you, the way that Johnson helps kids see connections in innovation and invention is brilliant! So much the way that inquiry works. :)

In my first post, I wrote about how our students had imagined these innovations as a series of dominoes. Each new discovery leads to the next. Much like dominoes creating a chain reaction. The students have spent the last months exploring each of the 6 innovations in-depth. In addition to the PBS series, they’ve spent time really digging into each innovation that led to the next.

How we got to now-Anastasis Academy

@dweissmo really took on this project with her students. The process wasn’t without it’s frustrations (for teacher and students) but the end result was absolutely incredible! Honestly, I couldn’t have imagined a better outcome than what I saw today when Deb’s class unveiled their mini museum. Before I get to that, let me lead you through the process of how this project came together.

First, Deb’s class watched each of the How We Got to Now @PBS documentary series. The students took notes (in Evernote, through sketchnotes, etc.) about each innovation. The class would also debrief after each video and talk about what surprised them, encouraged them about the invention process, the key players, and the timeline. @dweissmo is a master at leading these conversations. Her enthusiasm is infectious and the students caught her passion. Steven Johnson also has a way of presenting the unfolding of each innovation in a way that hooks your interests and keeps you marveling and making connections long after the video is over. After watching the documentary series, Deb put each of the six innovations up on her wall and asked students to write their names on a sticky note and choose which innovation that they were most excited to learn more about.

Students chose which innovation they wanted to do a more in-depth study of and would, ultimately, create dominoes based on.

For the dominoes, we snagged a bunch of the flat-rate shipping boxes from USPS. The students painted them different colors according to the innovation they were studying (a different color for each innovation). Next they took all of their notes and research and started creating their “dominoes” with information about that innovation. They quickly realized that there was SO much to say about each innovation, that it didn’t fit on their domino. The kids decided to create websites where they could add a little more in-depth information about the innovation. To make it easier for the museum audience, they connected the websites and webpages they built to QR codes for each domino. You guys, these are 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students!!! I’m so proud of them I could burst. They built their websites using Wix (a wonderful and amazing WYSIWYG editor). The QR codes were built using Google’s URL shortener which also happens to include a QR code. On the back of each domino, the kids affixed their QR codes. Some of the kids also created videos that were included on their website. (If you are interested in seeing these websites, all are linked here.)  All of this was done over the course of a few months as the kids continued on their inquiry journey of How We Express Ourselves, and How the World Works.

Then came the full moon. Any teacher will tell you that the full moon does something to children. Perfectly wonderful, reasonable children are suddenly unrecognizable and cannot make a decision or work together to save their lives. This is a real thing! This full moon coincided with class decisions about how to set up their museum. And much chaos ensued. Despite the full moon, the kids were able to come to a decision about how they would set up their museum for the rest of Team Anastasis and families to enjoy. For all of the trouble they had coming to a decision, they did a remarkable job in the end! They created a sort of maze/labyrinth to walk through with dominoes along the journey. They decided to organize the dominoes not by innovation, but instead as a timeline so that you could see the interconnectedness of innovation. They had a station set up with clips from the How We Got to Now PBS series, a station where kids/parents could download a QR code scanner and learn how to use it before going through the museum, the actual domino mini-museum, and a place to reflect on the museum afterward. It was incredible!!

What was truly inspiring was watching the other classes (and parents) journey through the museum. Kids of all ages were SO engaged and impressed with what Team Weissman had put on. They spent time sitting at each domino and learning more about the innovations. They asked questions. They told Team Weissman what a neat website they had built. They connected with each other and learned together. Seriously, I couldn’t have dreamed up a better scenario. As the 1st-3rd grade class was leaving, they stopped and asked some of Team Weissman, “could you show us how to do QR codes and websites for our Body Tracings?” This is what learning looks like!

After all their hard work, the kids sat down and reflected on what could have gone better. What they would like to do differently for their next museum. They congratulated each other for a job well done. They talked about how hard the project felt at times and how very proud of themselves they were when they persevered through the hard parts. They made plans for the next opportunity to share it.

And now for our next trick, Team Weissman is creating their own inventions…How We Get to Next! These are so brilliant, I can’t wait to share them!

If you are joining us for the 5sigma Education Conference (and I hope you are!!), you will get a first hand look at the How We Got to Now mini domino museum and hear from the students who created it.

 

 

 

Google Art Project: Virtual Art Museums

What it is: Google never stops amazing me, this time they are amazing me in the form of a partnership with art museums around the world.  Art Project is an incredible collaborative project that is powered by Google to bring art museums into your classroom.  Art Project lets students discover and view more than a thousand pieces of art online in incredible detail with Google street view technology.  Students can virtually move around the museum’s galleries, zooming closer on works of art and navigating through interactive floor plans where they can learn more about the museum and explore.  Artwork view lets students view the art at high-resolution, expanding the information panel lets students read more about the art, find more art by the same artist and watch related YouTube videos.  Students can act as curator and create their own artwork collection by saving specific views of the art and build a personal collection.  Comments can be added to each piece of art and share with families and friends.

How to integrate Google Art Project into the classroom: Google Art Project brings art museums from around the world into your classroom.  Take a virtual field trip to the museums using a projector-connected computer or interactive whiteboard.  Let students take turns acting as a museum tour guide by clicking on the extra information and reading it out loud for students while they look at the artwork. After the class tour of the museum, students can use classroom computers or a lab to create their own collections.  Students can comment on each piece of art and share the collection they curated with family and friends.

Use Google Art Project for a compare and contrast activity. Students can compare and contrast the type of artwork they see in the various art museums, compare and contrast styles of art, or compare and contrast the work of different artists or time periods.

Use the artwork as the base of a creative writing activity, students can choose a piece of art and write a story about the artist, or about what is happening in the work of art.

Need help demonstrating a technique? Art Project lets students view artwork in such detail that the techniques are easy to point out and describe.

Tips: Due to copyrights, some pieces of art will appear a bit blurry when students zoom in.  The majority of the pieces can be seen in very high levels of detail.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Google Art Project in your classroom.

Thanksgiving: Plimoth Plantation Virtual Field Trip

What it is: Scholastic has a wonderful site and interactive for students to investigate the first Thanksgiving.  Tomorrow, November 16th (2010), your class can participate in a Plimoth Plantation Virtual Field Trip.  In this 30 minute online field trip your students will get to meet a Pilgrim and a Wampanoag—straight from Plimoth Plantation.  This Virtual Field Trip brings the Plimoth Plantation Museum to your students. This is sure to be a fun trip where your students can experience the first Thanksgiving in a new way.  In addition to the field trip, your students will receive “letters” (emails) from the Pilgrims and Wampanoags making the experience even more memorable.   The site has the original interactive activities for your students to explore before or after the field trip.  Download the free classroom guide and sign up today!

How to integrate Thanksgiving: Plimoth Plantation Virtual Filed Trip to your curriculum: This virtual field trip is a fun way for your students to “experience” the first Thanksgiving.  Students will begin to understand what life was like for the Pilgrims and Wampanoags that first Thanksgiving and hear first hand what struggles they faced.   The virtual field trip brings the actors from the Plimoth Museum into your classroom.  Watch the field trip from your classroom using an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer or bring several classes together in a larger space like the library.  After the field trip, set up classroom computers with the rest of the Scholastic Thanksgiving activities. Here students can explore the Mayflower, learn about daily life of the pilgrims and the Wampanoags, and check out the first Thanksgiving feast.  Scholastic provides a wonderful teaching guide that will help you use this site to its fullest.

Tips: Here are some of my other tried and true favorite sites for Thanksgiving:

Black Dog’s Thanksgiving fun and games

Scholastic’s First Thanksgiving

Investigating the First Thanksgiving

Free Rice and see how we used it as a Thanksgiving activity here

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Thanksgiving: Plimoth Plantation Virtual Field Trip in your classroom!

Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery for Kids

What it is: This is the last of the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery sites, it is just as great as the others!  BM&AG for Kids is a fun site where students can learn more about Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, Victorians, World War 2, and the Art Gallery and Museum.  The site aims to give students a chronological understanding of these historical events, knowledge of the events, people, and changes in the past, organization and communication, and historical inquiry.  Each section has a collection of online related activities and printable activities.

Ancient Egypt- students can learn about ancient Egypt, explore a virtual Egyptian tomb, and explore real mummies.

Ancient Greece- students can learn about ancient Greece and design their own Greek pottery.

Roman Empire- students can learn about the Romans in Britain and dress a Roman soldier for battle.

Victorians- students can learn about the Victorians and explore a Victorian painting.

World War 2- students can learn about the war, assess a bomb damage report, and view pictures of Birmingham from World War 2.

Art Gallery- students can view paintings and learn about landscapes.

Museums- students can explore 6 museum activity zones where students can explore each museum.

How to integrate BM&AG for Kids into your curriculum: The BM&AG for Kids is a good site to incorporate into history lessons.  The site does an excellent job of helping students relate the different time periods above chronologically through an interactive timeline.  The online activities help students understand each time period, giving them activities that will help them make connections in their learning.  The BM&AG for Kids site is a good place to begin a study on a time period.  The site provides students with just enough information to whet their appetite for more.  Many of the activities offer basic information that could then be connected to primary sources.  For example, in the tomb exploration, students are asked to find items in a tomb.  In the activity, there is a basic explanation of each item.  A great extension would be to find primary sources and photographs of the actual items to share with students (or better yet, let them find the primary source!).  Students could then create their own “tomb” either online using online pictures and a creation platform like VoiceThread or Glogster, or an offline tomb with printed primary sources.

Tips: BM&AG for Kids was created for the Birmingham Museum and Art Collection.  They have several excellent websites that I will have reviewed.  To view all the Birmingham Museum sites, search “Museum” or “Birmingham Museum” in my search box above.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using BM&AG for Kids in your classroom!



BeMused- Museums and Art Galleries: Watch. Look. Do. Discuss

What it is: Bemused is another site from the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.  BeMused helps students be excited, aware, informed, amused, and involved in the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery.  Through videos and activities sections students can discover more about the museum and gallery.  Students can get involved by visiting the Your Say section or submitting their own artwork to the online Gallery.  Students can watch videos including an introduction to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and short poems created by kids inspired by the issues surrounding slavery and Olaudah Equiano’s life.  The online gallery holds beautiful artwork created by students.  Your students can create and submit their own artwork for the online gallery.  The activities section has interesting quizzes and activities about art, history and museums.  In one activity, students try to find the faces in famous works of art as quickly as possible.  The Your say section gives students an opportunity to talk about history, art, and museums.  Students can add to an existing topic or start their own topic for discussion.  Currently discussions include what would you like to see in an art gallery?; who is your favourite artist?; and Is graffiti art?

How to integrate BeMused into your curriculum: Bemused is a good place for students to be inspired by art and history.  This site encourages student interaction.  Students can join into forum discussions about art or history and even submit their own artwork to the online art gallery.  In the video section, students can watch a video of student created poems centered around history.  Use the video for classroom inspiration.  Your students can create and write their own poetry inspired by history.  If your students have visited many of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery sites, they may enjoy challenging themselves to the quizzes in the activities section of the site.

Tips: BeMused was created for the Birmingham Museum and Art Collection.  They have several excellent websites that I will be reviewing.

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


Bedazzled-Interactive Museum and Art Gallery Magazine

What it is: Bedazzled is another site from the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.  In this interactive magazine, students can discover more about style, fashion, and accessories from the past to the present.  Students will learn what clothes say about them (and what they say about people in the past), look at accessories throughout history, read an interview from a jewelry designer and learn how to make their own jewelry, learn about what fashion tells us about different cultures, view actual pieces of fashion and accessories from the museum, and learn about what jewelry was used for and represented in the past.

How to integrate Bedazzled into your curriculum: Do you have students (read: fashonistas) who are absolutely positive that they don’t like history?  Introduce them to a love of history with the Bedazzled interactive magazine.  Your students will be drawn in by the fun fashion magazine and will be intrigued by the way that fashion can be used to learn about history.  Allow your students to explore the pages at their own pace as a center activity on the classroom computer or in a lab setting where each student has a computer.  The magazine is an entertaining read but also packed full of history.  After your students read through the magazine, challenge them to choose an accessory, fashion item, or jewelry to learn more about.  Ask them to find out what was happening in the time period that the piece is worn and how the item can help them better understand the people of the time period.  Take it a step further by asking students to write a fictional short story about the person who wore the item using historical facts that they learned in their exploration.

This interactive magazine is a great way to show your students that history is more than a collection of dates and facts.  History is about stories, it is about people just like them.  Give your students that connection and the love for history will begin to blossom.  This site would have hooked me as a child!

Tips: Bedazzled was created for the Birmingham Museum and Art Collection.  They have several excellent websites that I will be reviewing.

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

Alien Adventures: Museum tour

What it is: Alien Adventures is another site from Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery.  The premise of the site is that an alien king has sent two aliens, Borg and Zunk, on a mission to find out about Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery.  Students join the aliens to discover information and activities about the collections there.  Students will learn how to create a masterpiece, find hidden messages in portraits, learn about landscapes, and learn about signs and symbols.  Students can also play history games like the curator collection game or the extraordinary Earth game.

How to integrate Alien Adventures into your curriculum: Alien Adventures is a fun way for students to explore a museum and learn more about art and history as they interact with fun activities and games.  I love how museums are creating such wonderful websites for students to explore and enjoy learning more about art and history.

Can’t swing a visit to an art gallery or museum this year?  Don’t let your students be deprived of the experience, visit the online offerings for the next best thing.  Allow your students to explore the Birmingham collection online with the help of some aliens and then, come back as a class to talk about what they saw and learned on their “trip” to the museum.  If you don’t have enough computers for each student, use a projector or interactive whiteboard to explore with the aliens as a class.

Tips: Alien Adventures was created for the Birmingham Museum and Art Collection.  They have several excellent websites that I will be reviewing.

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

The Pre-Raph Pack

What it is: The Pre-Raph Pack (don’t you love that name?) is a brilliant site about artists, the techniques they used, a timeline that spans 100 years, and a collection of images from the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.  First students discover the Pre-Raphites (that is artists who were before Raphael).  Students will learn about the influences, the different styles that emerged, the early and late style and the lasting influence that these artists have.  Students can learn more about the individual artists which are easily categorized and searched by last name.  Next, students can learn about the different painting techniques that were used from the wet-white technique to the use of bright and vivid colors.  The timeline lets students explore each time period of the almost 100 year Pre-Raphaelite movement.  Finally, students can see the collection of paintings themselves.  The collection is easily searchable by category.

How to integrate The Pre-Raph Pack into your curriculum: The Pre-Raph Pack is a comprehensive look at the Pre-Raphael art movement and the collection at Birmingham.  Students not only get a peek at the artists themselves, they learn the history, technique, and what the movement meant to art.

This is a well put together site for use in any art class, but the in-depth look at the artists and the history makes it a great site for any classroom.  Art is a medium that can absolutely hook a child on history. They begin to see that art has gone through evolutions and that it is deeply reflective of the times.  If you have a student who is struggling with history, introduce them to a little art history and see if you can’t help them make different connections with the stories.  I have said this many times before, but history was a hard subject for me.  I saw it only as a collection of dates, facts, places, and names that I couldn’t get to relate to each other.  It wasn’t until I met my husband and he started talking history, that I realized that history is all about story.  The Pre-Raph Pack is a site that can help your students begin to connect the pieces in history.

Use the paintings on this site as writing prompts, ask students to write about the story they think is happening in the painting.  The collection includes everything from history and medieval, to religion and myth, to portraits, literature, and landscapes.  Each of your students will be able to find a painting that speaks to them.

Tips: The Pre-Raph Pack was created for the Birmingham Museum and Art Collection.  They have several excellent websites that I will be reviewing.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using The Pre-Raph Pack in your classroom!

Mystery of the Poison Dart Frog

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What it is: The Mystery of the Poison Dart Frog comes from the North Carolina Museum of Art.  Students are introduced to three characters in an online picture book.  Zoey and Zeke are visiting their cousin Camilla who works as a curator at an art museum in Costa Rica.  Soon students are swept away in a mystery and adventure as they must use clues and match up the Costa Rica art pieces with the notecards that were written by the donors of the art.  Along the way students learn to read for information, and learn about art, science, history, and culture of Costa Rica.  

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How to integrate the Mystery of the Poison Dart Frog into the classroom: The Mystery of the Poison Dart Frog is a fun way for students to practice reading for information and practicing the inferring reading strategy.  As students work through the mystery, they will also be learning about art, science, history, and the culture of Costa Rica. This is a great activity for students to complete independently in a computer lab or 1-to-1 setting, it is a little long to be completed as a center activity.  If you teach younger students, or students who may not be able to read the story independently, read the story as a class or small group using a projector connected computer or interactive whiteboard.  Students can work together to solve the mystery using the available clues in the story.  Before students begin reading the story, they can build background knowledge by using the built in research guide.  Students can learn more about Costa Rica with an interactive map, learn about the works of art they will see in the story, and the different animals represented in the works of art.

The story can be read in either English or Spanish.  For older students learning Spanish as a foreign language, the activity could be completed in Spanish.  This would be a fun activity to test their skills of reading for understanding in the Spanish language.

Tips: For more great related links, click on the “more” drop down from the home page.  Happy solving!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Mystery of the Poison Dart Frog in your classroom.

National Geographic Maps: Tools for Adventure

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What it is: National Geographic Maps: Tools for Adventure is the best everything-map site I have seen.  The site was created by the Children’s museum of Indianapolis.  Maps are presented as the keys to adventure.  Students learn to use maps to find their way, share information, look at patterns, and solve problems.  There are six excellent interactive games for students to practice putting their math skills to use.  Students can explore a pyramid by guiding a robot to hieroglyphs, find sunken treasure, explore Mars, go on an adventure, see GIS in action, and visit Adventure Island.  I love the realistic feel of these games, as students explore and guide robots, they get a “live” video feed of where they are navigating.  On the National Geographic Maps: Tools for Adventures site, you will find information about the Indianapolis exhibit, how to use maps, related map links, and lesson plans.  This is one of those websites that my description just won’t do justice to, be sure to check it out!

How to integrate National Geographic Maps: Tools for Adventure into the classroom: This website is packed full of fantastic resources, games, and activities involving maps.  This is THE website to use when you are teaching students map reading skills.  As students navigate through the games, they will learn how to read a legend, practice following written directions, learn about different types of maps, practice giving directions, and problem solving.  The games provide an authentic way for students to learn how to use maps. Lessons in the “For Educators” section are wonderful and incorporate the online games.  National Geographic Maps: Tools for Adventure is ideal as a center on classroom computers or as an individual activity for the lab setting.  It could also be used as a whole class activity with an interactive whiteboard or projector, allow each student to take part in the navigation process at the board.

Tips: Be sure to check out the Related Links for more map adventures, games, and activities, you will find fun extras to build map skills.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using National Geographic Maps: Tools for Adventure in your classroom.