Posted by David Wetzel
Wolfram
What is Wolfram Alpha? It is a supercomputing brain. It provides calculates and provides comprehensive answers to most any science or math question. Unlike other search sources, you and your students can ask questions in plain language or various forms of abbreviated notation.
Contrary to popular belief, Wolfram Alpha is not a search engine. Unlike popular search engines, which simply retrieve documents based on keyword searches, Wolfram computes answers based on known models of human knowledge. It provides answers which are complete with data and algorithms, representing real-world knowledge.
Teaching Strategies: Researching Facts and Information
Science and math teaching strategies with Wolfram begin with allowing students to search for information about specific facts and information. The following examples provide support for stimulating critical thinking using a digital lens.
Science
One example – physical property:
Another example – comparing a Grizzly Bear, Black Bear, and Polar Bear:
Math
One example – cylinder:
Another example – Quadratic Equation:
Interactive Activities: K-12 Science and Math Resources
The Wolfram Demonstrations Project (Education Portal) is a resource of thousands of ready-to-use models for your classroom. These demonstrations use dynamic computation to bring to life concepts in mathematics and science. They are designed to let your students visualize concepts. These models can be projected and run using a screen or interactive whiteboard. For students to interact with the models, the free Mathematica Player program needs to be downloaded on the computer they are using.
The following images provide a view of science and math resources by grade level.
Using Widgets: Mini-Apps for Specific Queries
One useful feature of Wolfram Alpha is their widgets. These widgets can be added to your teaching blog, class wiki, or interactive lesson when using an interactive white board. You can build your own or use pre-made widgets for both science and math. The following is an example widget – Earthquakes Today (GMT) which shows the location of all earth quakes during the last 24 hours based on a selectable magnitude range.
There is great potential for Wolfram Alpha in science and math classes. This online technological tool adds a new dimension to researching for information and not just finding information on the web. This search tool is that it is also available for the iPod Touch through iTunes.
Posted by David Wetzel
Flip Camera
The Flip camera is great for all types of projects in science and math – at any grade level. Flip cameras are small handheld video cameras that can record 30 or 60 minutes worth of video. They connect to a computer with a USB plug that “flips” out from the side of the camera.
The benefits of these cameras include another means for assessing students understanding of concepts beyond worksheets and tests. Besides a teacher’s record, the videos provide a digital record for parents and administrators to show a student’s successes or areas which need improvement.
Teaching Strategies: Integration within Lessons and Projects
The following five creative strategies provide a catalyst for integrating flip cameras in science and math. These techniques also offer an alternative digital assessment of students’ prior knowledge and experiences, understanding of concepts, and ability to make connections between concepts.
Digital Twist on a Book Report - create a video cast of a trade book to explain the concept or concepts embedded within the book. This technique offers another strategy for determining a student’s true understanding of concepts and embedded misconceptions.
Concept Challenge – make a digital visual representation of a specific science or math concept. It also is a means to discover students’ misconceptions related to the concept.
- Science example – create a video to analyze motion of a roller coaster
- Math example – estimation of how fast a roller coaster travels compared with actual measurement
Digital Demonstrations – flip camera videos are uploaded to VoiceThread and used to share “how to’s” and seek student comments on the” how to.”
- Science example – students demonstrate how they conducted a science experiment, along with sharing their findings and conclusions
- Math example – students demonstrate how to solve specific math problems or explain a math concept
Concepts Without Walls - record observations of events or phenomena related to specific concepts taught in class. You can also slow the video down using QuickTime Player to provide the ability to analyze and demonstrate facts related to the concept being presented.
- Science example – a lightning strike to demonstrate different types of lightning and their paths
- Math example – linear patterns everyday objects found within a neighborhood or community
Digital Story Telling – students use flip cameras to record artifacts related to a project based learning activity such as interviews with experts and data collection techniques.
- Math example – students record all the problem solving steps they used in completing a tessellations project.
Educational Benefits: Flip Cameras in the Classroom
Benefits for using a Flip Camera in the classroom include being a creative outlet for students. Students can express themselves by creating projects, ads, movies, trailers, virtual field trips, and many more video projects for class.
These cameras also encourage collaboration among students as they share their ideas and solutions to a wide range of science and math problems. The cameras are supportive with helping ESL students learn new words, ideas, and more related to science and math.
There are so many ways a flip camera can be integrated into classroom learning activities, because of their portability and ease of use from recording to downloading.
Posted by David Wetzel
When we teach science and math we are helping our students develop a framework for understanding the world in which they live. When their framework only consists of canned knowledge contained within textbooks, we are not preparing them for the 21st Century world outside the textbook.
Bringing digital media into the classroom moves teaching beyond the textbook and makes connections to the world in which our students actually live. When presented digital media within the contexts of problem solving or project based learning situations, our students will view how the information within their textbooks actually applies to them.
Online Tools: Digital Media Resources
Incorporating the right digital media is one the most effective means for engaging students’ and helping them understand a difficult concept or improve their long-term retention of knowledge.
So what online tools provide digital media needed to engage our students in problem solving and problem based learning situations in science and math?
- The Futures Channel – produces and distributes free high quality multimedia content which teachers can use to enliven curriculum and engage their students in real life experiences. The videos produced by The Futures Channel help students answer the age-old question, “When am I ever going to use this?”
- Flickr – is a photo-sharing site which provides free access to thousands of digital images. Examples of images which can be used in science and math include: Marine Life and Geometry. You can also build your own collection for use with students. You can have students submit digital images of specific concepts or take your own and post them on Flickr for student use. You can also create a collection from the resources on the site. An additional advantage of using this service is that you can limit access to classroom collections to avoid potential problems with student and the web.
- Teacher Tube – provides digital videos and photos organized on tags and channels – High School, Middle School, Elementary, Science, and Math. They are downloadable and you can use the entire video or just clips from a video for a lesson or activity.
Digital Media Resources: Student and Teacher Created
The following are some of the digital media resources you can use with your students – both online and in the classroom.
- Vimeo – allows you and your students to post videos created in or outside the classroom related to science and math content.
- VoiceThread - allows you and your students to add audio, video, and text as part of conversations concerning science or math content.
- Apple iMovie - plug in virtually any digital camcorder and iMovie starts importing your video for editing and presentation.
- Animoto - provides an array of tools for creating videos in your classroom.
- Podcasting – student or teacher created podcasts provide a good digital medium for student expression of concepts, projects, and related themes.
Teaching Strategies
To encourage students to become active viewers of the media you share during problem solving or problem based learning situations, try the following strategies.
- Show a short video clip and ask them “What can you do with this?” For example – try this 16 oz timer video to make connections with problem solving and critical thinking in science and math.
- Show students a digital image related to a specific concept and ask them to consider whether the image has been manipulated in any manner – fosters critical thinking.
- Stop videos at key points to encourage more discussion.
These strategies build students’ digital media-literacy skills, along with their understanding of the science and math content.
Digital Media follows the old adage “A picture is worth a thousand words!” when it comes to science and math. The use of visuals is ideal for helping students construct background knowledge for developing a better understanding of science and math concepts.
