How can Science, Math, or Engineering be used in a new way to make the world a better place?

Grade: 12

Students: Dan Keliher, Connor Fallon, and Sam Beaulieu
Teacher: Roberto Borda

Subject: Math

Project Name: How can science, math, or engineering be used in a new way to make the world a better place? (Sponsored by S.W. Cole Engineering)

Resources: Are You Ready to Dig in to Science?

Dig Into Science is a contest open to students in New Hampshire and Maine in grades one through 12. To enter, students must submit a two-minute video that answers this question: How can science, math or engineering be used in a new way to make the world a better place? Creativity counts; the video can feature one teacher and up to five students, but don't let that limit you. As long as you are not using copyrighted music or doing anything illegal in your video, the sky's the limit!

Science Exploration Recorded on our iPad

Grade: Third Grade

Teacher: Todd Abbott

Subject: Recording Science Exploration with our iPad

Project Description:

We created "rocks" using Epsom salts and container lids. Our panel of scientists will tell you more about that:

Quite impressive, aren't they?  Photos were brought to you by our Class Photographer Paige. Now we know how easy it is to make "How-To" videos using Explain Everything on the iPad!

Global Collaboration Presentation

Grades: 11 and 12

Teacher: Amy Sanders

Subject: Social Studies

Project Name: The Arab Spring Project

Resources: Global Collaboration

Wes Fryer recently updated an audio file about visiting Amy Sanders' session on Global Collaboration during our Playing With Media Staff Development Day on March 16, 2012

This is an audio recording of Amy Sanders’ presentation, “Global Collaboration” at the March 16, 2012, professional development day at Yarmouth High School in Yarmouth, Maine. Amy teaches several high school social studies courses, including Arab Studies (in fall 2011) and Asian Studies in spring 2012. The official session description was: "Rapidly advancing technologies and globalization trends increasingly connect us to communities throughout the world. As educators, how can we prepare students for a world of growing cultural interaction and diversity? This session will share two collaborative projects undertaken this year and explore how each of these projects gave students an opportunity to: investigate the world, including research on significant global issues, recognize and respond to perspectives different from their own, communicate ideas effectively with diverse audiences, develop and practice new skills, show initiative and work creatively. We’ll share the challenges and successes of these projects, and invite discussion of other collaborative projects." 

Blogging Around the World 12/12/12

Grade: Third Grade

Teacher: Nicole Colfer

Subject: Student Blogging Day

Project Description:

Starting from an invitation by a teacher in Louisiana student bloggers from all over the world have joined together to list 12 of their FAVORITE things on 12.12.12! Also, it's 12:12pm Eastern Standard Time when we started this blog post! Here are our favorite things:

1. Favorite Video Games: Sky Landers, Super Mario Brothers, Up, Pac-Man, Angry Birds, FIFIA Cup 13, Derby, Indiana Jones 2, Star Wars, Just Dance Kids 2, Red Redemption, Lord of the Rings, Sponge Bob, Earth Movers.

2. Favorite Foods: sushi, chicken, shish kabob, chinese, chili,calzones, pancakes, waffles, plums, mahi-mahi, pizza, lobster, meatball soup, hot dogs, candy, raspberry, cheeseburgers

3. Favorite Places to Visit: Martha's Vineyard, New York, England, Sugarloaf, Canelli's, Florida, Shawnee Peak, Yarmouth Elementary School, Vermont, Boston, Washington, Monkey-See-Monkey-Do, Lego Land, Disney World, Italy, Crayola Factory, Alabama.

4. Best School Activities: Math, Lunch, Library, Music, Computer Lab, Gym, Recess, Writing, Reading, Art, Science.

5. Favorite Books: Mustard, Wings of Fire, Zoo Break, Because of Winn-Dixie, Socks, Captain Underpants, The Earth Dragon Awakes, Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Stella Bats, Baily School Kids series, Super Diaper Baby, Harry Potter, Warrior series, Matilda, Jack and Annie, Mallory, Goosebumps, Bad Kitty series.

6. Favorite Things: kittens, cats, dogs, family, video games, sports, stuffed dog and animals, Crossfit Beacon, hockey, making comic books, basketball, making snowflakes, blankie, rocks, swimming, biking, soccer.

7. Favorite Movies: Because of Winn Dixie, Star Wars, Finding Nemo, Top Gun, Scooby Doo, Harry Potter, WillyWonka and the Chocolate Factory, Ralph S. Mouse, Indiana Jones, The Princess Bride, Avengers, Wreck It Ralph, Animal Planet.

8. Favorite Heroes: Underdog, Percy Jackson, Batman, HonSolo, Spiderman, Kit Fisto, Captain Underpants, Luke Skywalker, Hulk, Iron Man, Superman, Black Widow.

9. Favorite Villains: Lord Voldamort, Joker, Hacker, Wicked, Darth Maul, Darth Vader, Dr. Octopus, Goo-Man, Lizard Man, Boba Fett, the Penguin, Zurg, Dirty Bubble.

10. What to do with $12, 000,000?:  shopping spree, toys, motorcycle, buy a castle, snowmobile, limo with a hot tub in it, Ferri, iPad and iPhone, give it to charity, food, anything technology, buy one of everything, put it in the bank to get interest.

11. Favorite Christmas Present: ipod touch, iphone 5, ipad mini, littlest pet shops, high heel boots, keyboard, dirt bike, legos, candy maker, how to build a tree house book, DS 3, violin, gaming chair, Wii, Macbook Pro Laptop, play mobile set, Butterscotch the horse, and a pony.

12. We wish everyone a very Happy Holiday!!!!!  

(See the post and comments at: http://mrscolfersclass.blogspot.com/2012/12/blogging-around-world-on-121212.html)

Mrs. Colfer's Crew

Nexus 7s in Fourth Grade Classroom

Grade: Fourth Grade
Teacher: Kate Parkin
Subject: Pilot 1:1 Nexus 7s grant
Project Description:

The Nexus 7s arrived in Maine on Friday afternoon and we were able to give them to students just three days later. Kate Parkin (4th grade teacher) and Cathy Wolinsky spent time preparing for the devices, exploring apps, becoming familiar with various resources like Edutecher and Android4Schools and thinking about how to bring this to the students in the most productive way. Some weekend work went into charging, updating and preparing the tablets with each student's Yarmouth Google account. We were pleased to find that there is a Content Filtering Setting that should modify any suggested apps and materials to keep them appropriate for students.

As teachers, Kate and Cathy planned for the physical realities of having the new set of devices in her classroom. Consistent with our district practice with student 1:1 laptops we ordered cases to protect the tablets. At the time we ordered they were $6.95 each and they have the added feature of putting the device to sleep or waking it on opening. We set up 4 bins in the classroom with plug strips nearby. The strips only allow 3 plugs at a time so we will be rotating overnight charging.

Once we did the planning and getting the room ready it was time to rollout the tablets. We invited parents, our building principal, Alice Barr (integrator at Yarmouth High School) and a college student who has helped us move ahead with technology since we was a student at YES. We planned an hour and a half at the end of the school day for the rollout. We started by giving each student a label to decorate so that s/he could easily identify her/his own tablet in the bins. We affixed the labels to the cases with plastic book spine labels to help them last through the year.


The slideshow above shows a set of photos from the preparation, through the labeling, to unboxing the Nexus 7s, changing the wallpaper and widgets on the devices. Once the students had done some personalizing and exploring the screens available Kate used the document camera to project her Nexus 7 onto the screen and showed students how to download and install a set of apps that we had previewed. We looked for an assortment of apps that allowed students to create simple projects, take notes and practice math facts as a start. In the slideshow you can see the students working from this list of apps.

Apps to download:

Skitch

Evernote

Free Rice

50 States

Google Drive

PopMath Lite

NASA

Space Images

Math Workout

Sudoku Plus

Math Maniac

Countries of the World

Note Everything

SimpleMind Free

Kitchen Timer

Camera Launcher

ListNote Speech to Text

This video gives a quick glimpse of the classroom once the students are exploring apps:

Many thanks to all who helped with this successful rollout and especially to Mark Wagner and the EdTechTeam for donating the devices to our school. An additional post about the arrival of the Nexus 7's is posted on Kate Parkin's classroom blog.