energy – Page 2 – iLearn Technology

Goldburger To Go: Rube Goldberg Machines

May 14, 2010May 14, 2010Kelly Tenkely7 Comments9124 views

What it is: I am always finding fun activities on PBS kids site, today I ran across Goldburger to Go! Rube Goldberg designed machines that made simple, every day, tasks into complicated activities with the help of his contraptions (think Wallace and Gromit). The students task is to design a machine that will help serve lunch. The machine isn’t working properly and students must discover which pieces of the machine need a little tweaking. As students complete the machine, they can test it out and get hints and clues about could be keeping the machine from working.

How to integrate Goldberger To Go: Rube Goldberg Machines into the classroom: Students are fascinated with machines that work together to perform tasks. Goldburger to Go is a fun way to challenge your students to think about cause and effect and to consider how all the working parts operate together. The puzzle game is a good way to get your students thinking about and discussing different types of energy. Use this website with the whole class using an interactive whiteboard and discuss the types of energy as they occur. Walk your students through the scientific process as they hypothesize what is going to happen and experiment with adjusting the machine accordingly. The website also lends itself nicely to studying different kinds of simple machines. The built in hints help guide stumped students in their thinking. Goldburger to Go would make a fun center activity or even to play individually in a computer lab setting. This is one of those thinking games that my students could spend hours playing.

Tips: Students can create and build their own real-life Goldberg machines with fun activities and suggestions found here.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Goldburger to Go: Rube Goldberg Machines in your classroom.

Ollie’s World

April 8, 2010Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3296 views

What it is: Earth Day is April 22nd, Ollie’s World is a fantastic place to begin the celebration early. Here students will learn about the 4 R’s: reduce, reuse, recycle, rethink as they apply to the 5 action issues of waste, water, energy, air, and biodiversity. The site is packed full of games, puzzles, information and projects. Students can create web pages using a free (downloadable) version of WebEasy. The information section has kid-friendly reading about the 4 R’s and 5 action issues. In Ollie’s clubhouse, students can play games and work on puzzles. Students can also watch the Mis-adventures of Ollie, 3 animated videos about Ollie and his friends, dealing with issues of sustainability (currently there is only 1 video available). In the movie section, students can watch short flash movies about important environmental issues. This site is loaded with information, games, and video.

How to integrate Ollie’s World into the classroom: Ollie’s World is a nice introduction for students learning about their ecological footprint. Starting out in info, students can read about the 4 R’s and how they apply to the 5 action issues. Students can watch videos and play games that reinforce the lessons they are learning. You can use the videos as discussion starters in your classroom. Download WebEasy to your classroom computers where students can build a webpage about their new learning.

Tips: Check out the educators section of Ollie’s World for professional development opportunities, lesson ideas, and project instructions.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Ollie’s World in your classroom.

The Greens

April 21, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment8990 views

What it is: Earth Day is tomorrow! The Greens is a great site to get your students thinking about the earth and going green. The Greens is a collection of 10 short flash movies that teach students important concepts for taking care of our planet. Episodes touch on topics such as: paper use, recycling, composting, conservation, consumption, pollution, and energy. The goal of The Greens is to instill environmental ethic in students. Teachers can download a Greens activity guide (pdf form). Students can use the carbon calculator to calculate their carbon footprint.

How to integrate The Greens into the classroom: This is an awesome site to generate conversation on Earth Day (or any day!). The Greens episodes are short enough to use several in class and can be used as discussion and idea starters for students. Watch the videos in class and discuss ways that students can be greener at school and home. Download the activity guide for some great extension activities. Set up a “green” center in your classroom where students can watch an episode and write down ideas of implementation in their own lives. Share these ideas at the end of the day.

Tips: The video episodes require a Flash Player (this is a free download if you don’t already have one).

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using The Greens in your classroom.

Physics Games

March 17, 2009March 17, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2629 views

What it is: Physics Games is a collection of fun online physics based games. There are 57 physics inspired games in the collection that can be played on the website or embedded on a classroom website, blog, or wiki. These games are great for any age, younger students will learn through exploration, trial, and error while older students will be able to understand the physics concepts behind the games.

How to integrate Physics Games into the classroom: Physics Games is a great interactive site to use in the science classroom. It encourages students to start exploring concepts such as energy, force, velocity, gravity, etc. Younger students can interact with the games successfully even without the background knowledge. Each of the games encourages trial and error learning. Older students can play games and write about the physics concepts that the game introduces and explore the ‘accuracy’ of the game to display the physics concept. If you have a class website, blog, or wiki, these games would be fun to embed in your site for easy access.

Tips: I learned about Physics Games from a Tweet and blog post by Mr. Byrne who writes Free Technology for Teachers.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Physics Games in your classroom.

GE Smart Grid Augmented Reality!

March 9, 2009March 9, 2009Kelly Tenkely8 Comments3208 views

What it is: Okay, sometimes I just have to share things because they are off the charts amazing. Augmented reality is something I was introduced to by my graphic artist husband. Until I found this GE Smart Grid site, I wasn’t able to share it with others and let students play with it. What is augmented reality? Basically you print off a sheet from the website that has a bold graphic on it. When you hold up this graphic to a web cam, a 3-D model is produced on screen, by moving the paper you can look at different views of the 3-D model, zoom in and out, and in some cases cause the model to react to other inputs (like blowing into the microphone). The GE Smart Grid Augmented Reality shows a digital hologram of smart grid technology in the form of wind turbines and solar energy.

How to integrate GE Smart Grid Augmented Reality into the classroom: I am introducing this site to my students as a discussion starter for where technology is going and brainstorming what augmented reality could be used for. The Smart Grid site can also be used when teaching students about alternative energy sources like wind turbines and solar energy. They can actually see 3-D models of each and interact with them. This would be a great introduction and attention grabber for an energy unit in science classes.

Tips: Augmented reality is still relatively new technology, it is starting to pop up in the advertising world and in baseball trading cards. Hopefully the education sector will jump on this technology, how amazing would it be to hold up a science worksheet to the computer and be able to see a 3-D model of a skeleton, or a beating heart?! (I’ll see if I can talk my husband into working on a few augmented reality education goodies). 🙂 Mac users, if you can’t get it to pick up your camera, ctrl + click on the popup window and choose the USB camera option. Enjoy!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using GE Smart Grid Augmented Reality in your classroom.

Kinetic City

November 12, 2007Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2761 views

What it is: The Kinetic City Super Crew needs students help to save their virtual world of Vearth from the science-distorting computer virus, Deep Delete. Students work together to perform engaging science activities and then download their data to the Super Crew to help repair their world. Kinetic City provides students in grades 3-5 a fun interactive way to learn standards based science. There are 100 fun science based activities to participate in. These activities can be done through physical experiments, internet research, interactive science games on Kinetic City, art projects, and physical activities. The complete Kinetic City experience was intended for use as an after school program, starting a Kinetic City club cost money but use of the online materials and games is free.

How to integrate Kinetic City into the classroom: Since Kinetic City activities are all standards based, they should fit right into your third through fifth grade curriculum. The interactive games, experiments and activities are wonderful to use as an extension of current classroom activities. Game and activity topics include gravity, the human body, human body systems, learning, animal adaptation and classification, power and energy, and more.

Tips: Visit the Kinetic City educator page for more information on starting a club and for print out guides for using the site.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Kinetic City in your
classroom.