My freshman have been learning about speed, velocity and displacement. I’ve also been trying help them brush up on their unit conversion skills. It’s tough because you run out of real-life examples. I can only do so many labs with toy cars.
To drive home the lesson, I had students use Google Maps to map out different bus routes in our area. Students were paired up and assigned a route. With help from our local transit system’s website, each pair had to:
map out the route with a line (this gave them the route’s distance)
find the average time needed for the bus to make a complete loop
calculate the average speed of the bus
display the results on the map
Students with extra time could earn more points if they placed a pin at each stop and entered the arrival times in each stop’s description. They could also calculate the average speed from stop-to-stop.
The project was a success and the students seemed to enjoy it. The class was a full of discussions about things like: which bus goes by which landmark or which bus is always late. One group even brought in a paper map to use as a guide. It was fun to watch the students work.
All the maps were shared using the embed tags and students could see all the routes on one big map. The project made my lesson plan for the following week much simpler since I now established an example that everyone had an understanding of.
Like almost everyone these days, I get lots of email. My work inbox is overstuffed with internal memos, notes from parents and spam.
I like to sort my messages by color coding them based on a few parameters. For example, I make all messages that are sent only to me green. Messages from the principal are colored red.
We have one teacher in my build who is a traveling teacher. She sets her inbox to display messages in the color that represents the school from which they were sent. So all messages from East High are red and all messages from West High are orange.
To set this up in Outlook go to the Tools menu choose Organize and then select the “Using Colors” section, hit the “Turn on” button next to “Show messages sent only to me in Red.”
Below is a step-by-step video to help you get started:
For more flexibility, click “Automatic Formatting” in the upper right corner.
A few weeks back, on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, I saw David Schwartz discuss The Living Room Candidate– a website that archives presidential campaign television commercials. The site has ads going back to 1952. They even have lesson plans in their ‘For Teachers’ section.
The site can provide a great history lesson. Many of the commercials showcase the issues that were on voters’ minds at the time. I think there are a lot of possibilities for this site’s use in the classroom.
Perhaps an assignment where students are asked to act as the candidate and make their own commercials could be created. That’s just one idea; I’m sure you have many more. If so, share them in the comments section below.
You don’t have to use them all, but I think every teacher should become familiar with the technologies on this list.
Many things, such as RSS feeds, Skype and wikis, are powerful tools that will save you time and allow you to do remarkable things in the classroom.
Knowing about these technologies may also help you learn more about your students. Some items on this list, like iTunes, instant messaging and social networks, are becoming a part of every student’s entertainment and social life.
Audacity: a free and easy to use audio recording and editing program
blog: they started as online diaries, but blogs have become an easy way to create websites
Firefox: an Internet browser that is better than the one that comes preinstalled on your computer
Extensions: little applications that make Firefox do just about whatever you want
Creative Commons: licenses that provide a variety of protections and freedoms for artists, authors, and educators
Google Earth: this is a map on steroids, it allows you to fly around a virtual Earth; download it and check out the Grand Canyon
IM: instant messaging allows you to chat with a group of people; it’s like real-time email
iTunes: buy music and movies, download podcasts using iTunes; iPod owners need this program to put files on their device
iPod: the most popular portable media player; this is a pocket entertainment system
mp3: a file type that is used for audio; mp3 files can be relatively small in size because the technology removes the frequencies of sound that we don’t need
PDF: the most common way to share documents online that are usually printed; typically used for things like manuals, prospectuses, newsletters and forms
podcast: an audio or video program that is set up to be downloaded automatically to your computer on a regular basis
RSS (News Feed): a way to allow websites to deliver their new content to your computer without you having to visit each site
Skype: this program allows you to talk to anyone in the world for free; it also does chat and video conferencing
social network: when you’re online this label refers to websites that have create an easy way for you to share your favorite pictures, websites, music, recipes and much more with others; MySpace and Facebook are two of the most popular social networks
TiVo: like ‘Kleenex’ for facial tissue, the word ‘TiVo’ refers to the technology that allows you to save your TV shows to a hard drive so you can watch them on demand; TiVo is just one brand of digital video recorders or DVRs
Wi-Fi: this allows you to connect to the Internet wirelessly; laptops come standard with this technology but other devices with Wi-Fi, such as printers, are popping up more and more
wiki: a website technology made famous by Wikipedia; wikis allow users to edit the content of a webpage; a great way to work collaboratively on projects
Of course, I don’t claim that this list is exclusive. I’m sure I’ve missed a few. I welcome you to make suggestions in the comments.
On Wednesday, October 3rd, PBS will premiere its new weekly series- WIRED Science. The first episode will feature:
…an Internet botnet attack of Estonia’s banks and newspapers; WIRED Science reports on cardiac surgery performed by a “RoboDoc”; Adam Rogers explores the disappearance of home chemistry sets; and Ziya Tong delves into technology that is helping children with Asperger’s Syndrome by translating facial expressions into emotions.
The fun doesn’t end in your TV, their website also promises:
Between fatherhood and teaching science, Dale Basler is
an independent consultant, podcaster and web page designer who specializes in work for
institutions and organizations in education.
My freshman have been learning about speed, velocity and displacement. I’ve also been trying help them brush up on their unit conversion skills. It’s tough because you run out of real-life examples. I can only do so many labs with toy cars.
Students with extra time could earn more points if they placed a pin at each stop and entered the arrival times in each stop’s description. They could also calculate the average speed from stop-to-stop.
You don’t have to use them all, but I think every teacher should become familiar with the technologies on this list.
What do you get when you combine a 
