Tag: field trip

Apple Field Trips

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What it is:  The Apple Store is offering field trips to k-12 students and schools!  Students can create something amazing on their field trip to the Apple store, or bring in a finished project that they have created and turn the store into a theater to share their work.  Parents, teachers, and friends can attend the event to celebrate student achievement.  Each event can accommodate up to 25 students.  A field trip lasts one hour but more time can be scheduled on an individual basis.  Right now, schools can request up to 3 date options for a field trip at a time.  When you schedule a field trip, Apple takes care of invitations to send home with students, and assigns a contact person to plan the field trip for your school.  Additionally, the teacher who sets up the event receives one year of complementary One to One membership.  Every participating student receives a special Apple t-shirt.  

 

How to integrate an Apple Field Trip into the classroom:   If you have access to Apple computers at your school the create and share field trip option is for you.  Students can work on a project (multimedia is probably best) and use the Apple Field Trip as a place to showcase and share their accomplishments.  If you don’t have access to an Apple lab or don’t have regular access to computers at all, use the field trip as a time for your students to learn and create using the computer.  This is a really amazing FREE opportunity, be sure to take advantage of this offer from Apple!

 

Tips: Right now field trips are only being offered through November 21st. Even if you can’t fit in a field trip before the deadline, be sure to let Apple know what a fabulous idea these field trips are and encourage them to offer future field trip options.

 

Leave a comment and tell us how your Apple Field Trip went.

Crayon Physics

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What it is: Crayon Physics is a freeware puzzle game. The object of the game is to guide a ball to a star. Students do not have direct control of the ball, but interact with it by drawing shapes with the mouse to get the ball to roll from one platform to another. Any object that students draw reacts as it would if it were subject to gravity. There are some great physics lessons to be taught with this game! Crayon Physics is a Windows only download right now…(I know, bummer for those of us who are Mac users! Not to worry, I have found a Mac version that I will be posting tomorrow.)

How to integrate Crayon Physics into the classroom: Allow students to interact with Crayon Physics to learn about principles of gravity, energy, force, velocity, etc. The game is very entertaining and even mildly addictive. Your students will love learning physics with Crayon Physics. It will bring your class and all those formulas to life for your students.

Tips: Take a look at the video above for a good look at Crayon Physics in action.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Crayon Physics in your classroom.

Science Buddies

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What it is: This is one of those websites that makes me wish I was still a student! Science Buddies is revolutionizing the science fair project by helping kids discover their secret science passions. Students fill out a survey/questionnaire and based on their answers, Science Buddies gives them some topics that might be of interest to that student. Students can select the topic that most resonates with them and see a collection of related science fair project ideas and experiments. Very neat!

How to integrate Science Buddies into your curriculum: This is an awesome site that will help students discover that they do indeed like science. The questionnaire is the perfect way to help your students discover the science topics that will hold their interest. Use science buddies at the beginning of the school year to discover what your students science interests are…this may help direct your science studies for the year! Students can use Science Buddies to help them prepare for a school or class science fair.

Tips: Make sure to visit the teacher section of Science Buddies for some great downloads. Print out scientific method posters, guides on how to run a successful science fair and much more. This really is a must visit site!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Science Buddies in your classroom.

Virtual Author Series

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What it is: Simon and Schuster Publishing is offering a new unique experience to schools, a virtual author series. The electronic author visit brings bestselling and award-winning authors and makes them easily accessible to students and teachers. S&S creates a website specifically for each author visit that provides teachers with background information that will help prepare students for the author visit and provides interactive material that relates to the subject discussed in the author’s book. The program also includes a series of classroom activities and curriculum binders. The live web broadcast is the culmination of the virtual author experience. The 45 minute segment will include a presentation from the author, a reading from the book, and a question and answer session in which the author answers questions from the students.

How to integrate Virtual Author Series into the classroom: Bring popular author Andrew Clements (Frindle) into your classroom by signing up at the My Visit website http://www.bsu.edu/myvisit/ You need to sign up your class ASAP if you would like to participate in the first in the Virtual Author Series which takes place on March 18th. This is an outstanding opportunity for classrooms, libraries, and schools. Bring reading to life for your students with a virtual author visit. If you, like me, are on spring break during the first author in the Virtual Author Series be sure to check back for future Virtual Author events.

Tips: Check back for future Virtual Authors. The next Virtual Author will be D.J. MacHale (PENDRAGON) on April 29, 2008. This is an awesome way to bridge literacy and technology!

Please leave a comment and tell us how the Virtual Author Series went in your class. Specifically, I want to hear all about it since I won’t be able to participate!

Ad Decoder

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What it is: Ad Decoder is a web game created by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention. The game teaches students how to decode advertisements to learn the difference between real and ideal as well as some of the tactics that advertisers use to get them to buy a product. Students flip through a virtual magazine full of advertisements and try to decode the messages the ad sends off. When students scroll over the message the true message pops up.

How to integrate Ad Decoder into the classroom: Ad Decoder is a great tool to use with students to promote a positive self image and character development. It helps them recognize advertisements and the true messages they send. It can also be used to teach students how to spot ads both on the web and in magazines. (Those advertisers are getting so sneaky…ads are starting to get really good at blending in with the good stuff!) Use the online Ad Decoder tool and as an extension activity, have the students go through other magazines and “decode” the messages in the advertisements. This should spark some very interesting discussion!

Tips: The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has some other quality student activities including food and nutrition, physical activity, safety, and more. Check out the other quality activities and games on the site!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Ad Decoder in your classroom.

Nobel Prize

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What it is: NobelPrize.org is a site dedicated to teaching about the Nobel Prize since 1901. The site offers a wealth of great information as well as some fun, interactive educational games. The games and simulations are based on Nobel Prize winners and ideas. Games include: physics, literature, chemistry, nuclear weapons, medicine, and economics.

How to integrate Nobel Prize into the classroom: The Nobel Prize website is a wonderful launching off point for teaching students about what the prize is and as a place to learn about past winners and how they have impacted society. The games show the practical purpose of the prize and what it means to our world. The subject matter of the site is definitely for older students. Students will appreciate learning about the Noble Prize with the interaction of the games on the site.

Tips: Fill out the teacher’s qustionairre and give NobelPrize.org feedback about the site and how you are using it in your classroom.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Nobel Prize in your classroom.

Be Funky

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What it is: Be Funky is a web 2.0 application that lets students take any picture and transform it into a cartoon or a sketch.

How to integrate Be Funky into the classroom: Use Be Funky in conjunction with other tools such a Bubblr (see post from the 16th) or software like Comic Life (check out iLearn Technology store for Comic Life). Since Be Funky changes a regular photograph into a cartoon, you can create cartoon comic strips in class. Transform field trip pictures into cartoons and invite students to create a comic strip retell about the field trip. Students can be the star of their own comic strips where they create a comic autobiography. Take pictures during a science experiment and create a comic strip with the scientific process of the experiment.

Tips: Be Funky requires you to have an account (this is free but asks for an email address). If you plan on having your students transform the pictures into cartoons you may think about creating one class account for students to use. I wanted to download the cartoon picture to my computer so that I could use them in Comic Life. This is not an option that Be Funky offers so I created my cartoon and then took a screen capture of the cartoon to save it as an image to my computer.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Be Funky in your classroom.

Bubblr!

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What it is: Bubblr! is a tool to create comic strips using photos from flickr.com. You can use others public images or images from your own flickr.com account.

How to integrate Bubblr! into the classroom: Bubblr! would be a wonderful site to use after a class field trip. Have a parent (or yourself) take pictures during the field trip. Create a flickr (www.flickr.com) account for your class. Upload the photos to the flickr account for use in the Bubblr! project. Students can create comic strips with the field trip pictures documenting the learning experience in a fun way. Bubblr! would also be fun to use for character education. Take picture of different scenarios (for example, a student taking a toy away from another student). Upload these pictures to Flickr and have students use Bubblr! to show what the different characters might be thinking and possible solutions to the problem. Bubblr! could also be used to help create a word wall…find pictures that represent words and add the word to the comic. Print out and create a Bubblr! word wall. Pictures can be found by keyword (tags) or by user. When students are finished with their comic strips they have the option of sending them via email, printing, or posting on a blog.

Tips: Since Flickr and Bubblr! are online applications, be sure that you have permission to post student pictures on either site.

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

Kinetic City

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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.

I Was Wondering

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What it is: I Was Wondering is a site geared toward getting girls interested in science and technology. Although this site is geared toward girls, the site has some fun games and activities that boys will enjoy too. I Was Wondering features 10 women scientists, a time travel time line, and science games. Games include astroscope where students can explore the universe in a scavenger hunt (this is really neat!), gorilla quest where students can “track” and learn about gorillas, and make a robot where students can create their own robot and then learn about robots that real scientists have created.

How to integrate I Was Wondering into the classroom: I Was Wondering would be an excellent site to use during a solar system unit. The scavenger hunt gives students a sense of what the universe looks like while making them familiar with vocabulary. Set the site up as a center during science class or bring your students on a space “field trip” to the computer lab. Students could explore the gorilla quest to learn about gorillas. This would be a fun way for students to learn research skills. Students could use the 10 women scientists or time travel time line to learn more about famous scientists and their contributions. All are very student friendly.

Tips: Visit the teacher section and click on “Using the Science Labs”. Science labs are activities based on one of the ten scientists. These are really great extension activities for your science classroom. Again, this site is geared toward girls but is a great addition to any science class…boys included!