The cover of my newest Popular Science announces the 5th annual Inventions of the Year. As I read through some of the ideas, I wonder why I didn’t think of them! The inventions, including a handheld bedbug sniffer, armored stun gloves, and prenatal disease-detecting pens, were mostly developed in peoples’ homes and school laboratories. About half of the featured inventions were created by students, again leading me to wonder how we can inspire students to develop a lifelong drive to create and innovate.
If necessity is the mother of invention, then invention must be the mother of entrepreneurship. If students don’t have the ability to create a product or idea, they won’t have anything to produce, patent, market, and sell. Joann is featuring entrepreneurship resources this week, and I have chosen resources to develop skills for inventing and innovating. We don’t want our students to become smart little drones who are really good at filling in bubbles with number 2 pencils. (Can you tell we are in the middle of standardized testing at our school?) Ensuring the students have the required knowledge is necessary, but we want them to use that knowledge to become the innovators and entrepreneurs who can change the world.
I wrote a blog post on the topic of inventions last August, which can be found here. I still love George Margolin’s idea that all kids are born inventors. We need to find a way to foster kids’ spirit of innovation so they continue to be inventors throughout their lives. I feel like this is an area that we often glaze over due to a lack of time. The following activities will challenge kids’ creativity and give them practice inventing and creating. (Shh…don’t tell your students, though, because they might think you are just letting them have fun.)
One of the hardest part of including something “extra” like inventing or entrepreneurship in students’ education is figuring out how to fit it into subjects that are already jammed with standards to be met. In my search of The Gateway to 21st Century Skills, I found teaching resources for inventing that could find a place in classrooms of all different subject areas. Don’t forget that if you find an activity you like, you can use the Standards Suggestion Tool at the bottom of the description. This will help you determine where the activity fits within your state standards so you can find the best place for that activity in your curriculum.
Here is an resource to get your students thinking about making something new from something old. The activity, “Is It a Thingamajig or Thingamabob?” challenges students to create something new from junk. You can expand this simple idea to create a “creation station” in your classroom, where students are encouraged to come and tinker when they are “bored.” There are plenty of similar creative activity ideas on the Gateway to help get the creative juices flowing at your school, and we will continue to discuss encouraging creativity in future posts.
Once students have an idea and a prototype of a creation or invention, they will need to know how to test it. “Testing 1,2,3” shows students how to test an invention using one of my all-time favorite activities, the egg drop experiment. I like this activity because students come up with so many solutions to one problem.
You can challenge students to solve other simple problems that relate to units in all different subjects. Adding a hands-on component could make the unit more exciting. Check out the following examples for cross-curricular ideas.
If you are working with music or studying the science of sound, a fun creative project for your students is designing their own musical instruments. I did this in middle school, and I loved it. You can take pictures of their final products to display in “The Virtual Museum of Music Inventions.” My soda bottle flutes could have really taken off if I could have shared them like that! In a physical science or physics class, you might want to try the “Inventions Using Simple Machines Project” or the online Levers and Pulleys Rube Goldberg machine building activity.
Inventions and innovations have played a huge role throughout history. The Library of Congress has a fun online game for students to learn about some of these inventions. Try playing the game “What in the World Is That? Ingenious Inventions Throughout History.” I played the game, and trying to figure out what these unusual inventions were was a fun challenge. Make the activity even more meaningful by having each student find and research one unusual invention to create your own game. When you get to the Library of Congress site, click on activities tab at the top, and “What in the World is That” is the last activity listed.
Encouraging our students’ creativity will help improve their problem solving abilities. We want our students to grow up and be able to solve problems, fix things that need fixing, and ultimately make our world a better place to live. I hope the resources above will help you increase the amount of creative activities available to your students.
~Peggy's Corner - 5/19/2011~
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Monday, May 23, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Physics is Phun! Studying Energy in Your Classroom
Our discussion of Leonardo da Vinci last week started a great dialog about how to create well-rounded students who are willing and motivated to learn in all different subject areas. I think Kelly Tenkely stated it perfectly in her blog, Dreams of Education, “True learners are multidimensional, they are passionately curious about the world around them.” As we shift gears this week to discuss physics resources, we want to be sure the resources we present are in line with this goal of creating passionate, curious learners throughout the grades. The NEED Project fits the bill with their physics resources that look at the subject of energy through many different lenses, including language arts, drama, music, and math.
What do you remember most about your high school physics class? Do you have painful memories of endless equation memorization and pencil-and-paper problem solving, or did you have a teacher that took a more hands-on approach? Now that many of us are in our teacher’s shoes, we are in charge of creating classes that will equip students with the skills they will need to be inquisitive problem solvers throughout their lives. We want students to look back upon our classes with fond memories as they move forward in life with the kind of curiosity that led Leonardo da Vinci to make some amazing discoveries.
Most students won’t come to your class with a natural curiosity about every subject they need to learn. Often, they are not really interested in subjects they can’t connect to the “real world.” It is up to you to inspire this inquisitiveness with activities that challenge them to question things happening in the world around them. This type of curiosity isn’t only required in upper-level science classes. It needs to be fostered from the early grades on.
Where would physics activities fit into your classroom? Students are constantly exposed to the topic of alternate energy sources, energy conservation, and petroleum dependence in the media, so studying energy can be a great way to introduce physics to even the youngest students. For an example of how to do this, look at The NEED Project’s “Energy on Stage,” a set of energy plays you can use with primary and secondary students. These plays are a creative outlet for students and they bring the topics and ideas of energy and its many different sources to students in a unique way. The NEED Project also created an activity called “Transportation Fuels Rock Performances,” where students write and perform rock songs about alternate transportation fuels. Who knows…maybe you’ll find the next American Idol! I especially liked these two resources since they bring some of the fine arts into the classroom that many of our students are missing with cutbacks in programs like music and drama.
The NEED Project also has some groups of activities that can be implemented over a series of lessons. “Fossil Fuels to Products” presents petroleum and natural gas energy sources from their exploration to their final products using hands-on activities with ties to social studies, language arts, and technology. “Wind For Schools” brings in the discussion of alternate energy sources and lets students use actual data from wind turbines, a great real world experience for students and teachers.
These are just four examples that show the diversity of resources you can find on the Project NEED website (www.need.org). I spoke with one physics teacher who is on the Teacher Advisory Board for the project, and she had lots of wonderful things to say about the project and their quality activities. She told me that the NEED Project has been around for 30 years and continues to improve and design activities and curriculum related to energy. Their Teacher Advisory Board heavily influences the project. The activities are designed for teachers, which makes them a great fit for The Gateway to 21st Century Skills.
The NEED Project is hosting summer workshops, including their national workshop in Denver in July. If you apply for this, sponsors could support your participation. If you look at their website, you might even find a workshop closer to home. You can keep track of their events on their Facebook Page as well. (http://www.facebook.com/NEEDProject)
Whether you are a new or seasoned teacher, it is easy to feel alone, especially when you are struggling to present a new topic in a fun and exciting way. Finding new activities like these might be just the support you need to unlock curiosity in some of your hard to reach students and students that display the type of curiosity of da Vinci. Whenever you are looking for new resources to use, be sure to search The Gateway. We will continue the conversation on our Facebook and Twitter pages, so be sure to join us there.
~Peggy's Corner - 2/10/2011~
What do you remember most about your high school physics class? Do you have painful memories of endless equation memorization and pencil-and-paper problem solving, or did you have a teacher that took a more hands-on approach? Now that many of us are in our teacher’s shoes, we are in charge of creating classes that will equip students with the skills they will need to be inquisitive problem solvers throughout their lives. We want students to look back upon our classes with fond memories as they move forward in life with the kind of curiosity that led Leonardo da Vinci to make some amazing discoveries.
Most students won’t come to your class with a natural curiosity about every subject they need to learn. Often, they are not really interested in subjects they can’t connect to the “real world.” It is up to you to inspire this inquisitiveness with activities that challenge them to question things happening in the world around them. This type of curiosity isn’t only required in upper-level science classes. It needs to be fostered from the early grades on.
Where would physics activities fit into your classroom? Students are constantly exposed to the topic of alternate energy sources, energy conservation, and petroleum dependence in the media, so studying energy can be a great way to introduce physics to even the youngest students. For an example of how to do this, look at The NEED Project’s “Energy on Stage,” a set of energy plays you can use with primary and secondary students. These plays are a creative outlet for students and they bring the topics and ideas of energy and its many different sources to students in a unique way. The NEED Project also created an activity called “Transportation Fuels Rock Performances,” where students write and perform rock songs about alternate transportation fuels. Who knows…maybe you’ll find the next American Idol! I especially liked these two resources since they bring some of the fine arts into the classroom that many of our students are missing with cutbacks in programs like music and drama.
The NEED Project also has some groups of activities that can be implemented over a series of lessons. “Fossil Fuels to Products” presents petroleum and natural gas energy sources from their exploration to their final products using hands-on activities with ties to social studies, language arts, and technology. “Wind For Schools” brings in the discussion of alternate energy sources and lets students use actual data from wind turbines, a great real world experience for students and teachers.
These are just four examples that show the diversity of resources you can find on the Project NEED website (www.need.org). I spoke with one physics teacher who is on the Teacher Advisory Board for the project, and she had lots of wonderful things to say about the project and their quality activities. She told me that the NEED Project has been around for 30 years and continues to improve and design activities and curriculum related to energy. Their Teacher Advisory Board heavily influences the project. The activities are designed for teachers, which makes them a great fit for The Gateway to 21st Century Skills.
The NEED Project is hosting summer workshops, including their national workshop in Denver in July. If you apply for this, sponsors could support your participation. If you look at their website, you might even find a workshop closer to home. You can keep track of their events on their Facebook Page as well. (http://www.facebook.com/NEEDProject)
Whether you are a new or seasoned teacher, it is easy to feel alone, especially when you are struggling to present a new topic in a fun and exciting way. Finding new activities like these might be just the support you need to unlock curiosity in some of your hard to reach students and students that display the type of curiosity of da Vinci. Whenever you are looking for new resources to use, be sure to search The Gateway. We will continue the conversation on our Facebook and Twitter pages, so be sure to join us there.
~Peggy's Corner - 2/10/2011~
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Off Key: Using Music in the Classroom
I love to read success stories like the one Joann shared about the new music teacher at her school. It’s wonderful to see a music teacher step out of their comfort zone to bring the love of music to students, but what about schools like the ones in my town that don’t have a music program at all? How far does a regular classroom teacher have to step out of their comfort zone to successfully bring some kind of music education into an already-crowded curriculum?
There’s nothing like walking into a kindergarten class and hearing the kids sing “My Uncle’s Ukelele” with abandon. You don’t know that one? I bet you learned songs about phonics, weather, and everything in between when you were in the primary grades, too. Primary teachers often have a special gift of being silly and singing with their students. In these younger grades, students really appreciate the silliness as they jump and dance to the tunes, getting out some energy and learning at the same time. As students get older, there is less time available for music with so much class time needed to prepare for tests and meet the standards required for each grade. With some creativity, you might be surprised at the small amount of time it will take you to integrate music into your lessons. Music may help your students prepare those tests and meet those standards instead of just taking up valuable class time.
Sensory triggers like sights, sounds, and smells can prompt emotions in students that help them remember facts and scientific processes in a fun way. Maybe you are not the type to sing or play an instrument in front of your class. Luckily, kids seem to appreciate our efforts even when our tone or pich is less than perfect! Thanks to the internet, you are not on your own. Even the least musically-inclined teachers can help their students learn with the help of songs, videos, and activities available for free on the internet.
I grew up with the educational videos of Schoolhouse Rock (Do you remember Conjunction Junction and How a Bill Becomes Law?) You can find lyrics to all of the old Schoolhouse Rock videos along with links to the music videos on YouTube. These videos might seem outdated, but I have to admit that I spent a little more time than I probably should have spent watching them. (It was in the name of research!) These videos have catchy tunes and are a fun and memorable way to introduce concepts to your class. The lessons they teach range from math to social studies to science. If you are looking for more contemporary videos, try They Might Be Giants. Their videos from “Here Comes Science” are very well done, and could be right at home in elementary to high school classrooms. If you search YouTube, you can find videos from their collection. A couple of my personal favorites are the biology song called “Bloodmobile” and chemistry song titled “The Elements.”Check them out…you won’t be sorry, and you might even learn something new!
Adding educational songs like these is one way to integrate music into your curriculum. There are other simple things you can do, even if you aren’t a music expert. History and Social Studies teachers may want to start a unit with popular songs from a particular era. Maybe you can play a different song each day to set the mood as students are coming into your class. Instead of assigning a report at the end of a unit, your students can demonstrate their knowledge by writing new lyrics to a popular song. One teacher challenged her class to make musical instruments from recycled materials for a class competition. This activity challenges students’ creativity as it helps them gain a better understanding of music and how instruments work. Another teacher used music and movement at the beginning of every morning to get her students’ wiggles out for the day. For more ideas about music integration search the hashtags #musedchat #musiced on Twitter.
Sing it loud and sing it proud! Let’s show our students that music can be a part of many different subjects in our lives this week. I will be using the music video “Solid, Liquid, Gas” with an experiment for sure, but if I sing along, I can’t guarantee it will be on key. At least we’ll be having fun!
~Peggy's Corner - 11/4/2010~
There’s nothing like walking into a kindergarten class and hearing the kids sing “My Uncle’s Ukelele” with abandon. You don’t know that one? I bet you learned songs about phonics, weather, and everything in between when you were in the primary grades, too. Primary teachers often have a special gift of being silly and singing with their students. In these younger grades, students really appreciate the silliness as they jump and dance to the tunes, getting out some energy and learning at the same time. As students get older, there is less time available for music with so much class time needed to prepare for tests and meet the standards required for each grade. With some creativity, you might be surprised at the small amount of time it will take you to integrate music into your lessons. Music may help your students prepare those tests and meet those standards instead of just taking up valuable class time.
Sensory triggers like sights, sounds, and smells can prompt emotions in students that help them remember facts and scientific processes in a fun way. Maybe you are not the type to sing or play an instrument in front of your class. Luckily, kids seem to appreciate our efforts even when our tone or pich is less than perfect! Thanks to the internet, you are not on your own. Even the least musically-inclined teachers can help their students learn with the help of songs, videos, and activities available for free on the internet.
I grew up with the educational videos of Schoolhouse Rock (Do you remember Conjunction Junction and How a Bill Becomes Law?) You can find lyrics to all of the old Schoolhouse Rock videos along with links to the music videos on YouTube. These videos might seem outdated, but I have to admit that I spent a little more time than I probably should have spent watching them. (It was in the name of research!) These videos have catchy tunes and are a fun and memorable way to introduce concepts to your class. The lessons they teach range from math to social studies to science. If you are looking for more contemporary videos, try They Might Be Giants. Their videos from “Here Comes Science” are very well done, and could be right at home in elementary to high school classrooms. If you search YouTube, you can find videos from their collection. A couple of my personal favorites are the biology song called “Bloodmobile” and chemistry song titled “The Elements.”Check them out…you won’t be sorry, and you might even learn something new!
Adding educational songs like these is one way to integrate music into your curriculum. There are other simple things you can do, even if you aren’t a music expert. History and Social Studies teachers may want to start a unit with popular songs from a particular era. Maybe you can play a different song each day to set the mood as students are coming into your class. Instead of assigning a report at the end of a unit, your students can demonstrate their knowledge by writing new lyrics to a popular song. One teacher challenged her class to make musical instruments from recycled materials for a class competition. This activity challenges students’ creativity as it helps them gain a better understanding of music and how instruments work. Another teacher used music and movement at the beginning of every morning to get her students’ wiggles out for the day. For more ideas about music integration search the hashtags #musedchat #musiced on Twitter.
Sing it loud and sing it proud! Let’s show our students that music can be a part of many different subjects in our lives this week. I will be using the music video “Solid, Liquid, Gas” with an experiment for sure, but if I sing along, I can’t guarantee it will be on key. At least we’ll be having fun!
~Peggy's Corner - 11/4/2010~
Musical (Comfort) Chairs
Helping out in the classroom the other day, I was surprised to hear the students clamoring to go to music class. Previously, the kids had always grumbled about music class, their complaints mainly revolving around the “babyish” songs that they had to sing, like “I’m a Little Teapot” and “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Admittedly, I had kind of felt their pain; by the third grade, nobody wants to be linked to music that is associated with the preschool set.
The students’ change of heart was apparently ushered in along with a new music teacher. Their former teacher decided to retire a few weeks into the new school year, and her replacement – another seasoned teacher – has approached her music classes in a completely different way. She’s updated many of the songs that they sing, and also sprinkles her lessons with interesting musical theory and music history tidbits that are much more palatable to the kids this time around. She brings into class odd assortments of items on which to drum (with students counting beats), and other props such as balls and instruments from around the world.
To my mind, both music teachers were, and are, good teachers. In this age of instant gratification, with students reared on video games, cell phones, and on-demand this and that, it’s an increasing challenge for teachers to capture and hold students’ attention sufficiently during instruction. The former music teacher taught the way she’d been teaching for years, and probably the way she was trained to teach. Her methods were solid for many students over the years, some of whom continue to excel at music in college and beyond. Her replacement, who is about the same age, has decided to periodically push herself out of her comfort zone and modifies her instructional style to keep her methods fresh. Her effect has been immediate, not just in resurrecting the students’ interest in music, but also in their accelerated comprehension and mastery of the content.
We all know that school districts’ budgets are tight, and the importance of music education is often underestimated by some parents and financial stakeholders. Much research underscores the correlation between music and math skills: for example, students learn to count beats and figure out the length of notes by using multiplication and division. Music education also helps to develop higher thinking skills, as students think about complex musical patterns, and how their individual parts fit into a musical whole, or how they can augment various sounds, tones, and intonations to create variations on a musical piece. With art and music education always inching closer to the chopping block in many districts, it’s imperative for educators to periodically reassess their instructional methods. What works? What doesn’t? When does student attention seem to flag? What kinds of props, instructional delivery methods, and activities might be used to help convey the material in an effective, yet engaging, way? How willing are you as an educator to step out of your comfort zone?
This week my picks focus on music education resources from SoundTree, a company that produces turn-key learning systems for education that integrate music and technology. During the week, I’ll be featuring a host of additional music resources from SoundTree and other entities on our Facebook and Twitter pages, so please be sure to check them out.
“This Week in Music” Podcast
Subject: Music
Grade: 6-12
In this activity, students create short podcasts that highlight events such as birthdays, events, and other important dates from music history. Each podcast will be posted online for downloading. Students are required to compose a theme for their podcast episode, create a script, and may include listening examples (MIDI files, MP3 clips, etc.) to enhance their project.
Film Scoring in the Music Classroom: Duck and Cover
Subject: Music
Grade: 7-12
The students will compose music for a short segment of Duck and Cover – a movie from the 1950s on preparing for nuclear war – though the students will not know what it is about. Students will write a script and music to accompany the film clip.
Enhancing the Understanding of Singing a Round in the Early Elementary Grades
Subjects: Music
Grade: K-6
In order to sing and understand the concept of a round, the students will use the “piano roll” visual of a sequencer to “see” and practice singing their individual part as it relates to the other parts in the round.
~Joann's Picks - 11/4/2010~
The students’ change of heart was apparently ushered in along with a new music teacher. Their former teacher decided to retire a few weeks into the new school year, and her replacement – another seasoned teacher – has approached her music classes in a completely different way. She’s updated many of the songs that they sing, and also sprinkles her lessons with interesting musical theory and music history tidbits that are much more palatable to the kids this time around. She brings into class odd assortments of items on which to drum (with students counting beats), and other props such as balls and instruments from around the world.
To my mind, both music teachers were, and are, good teachers. In this age of instant gratification, with students reared on video games, cell phones, and on-demand this and that, it’s an increasing challenge for teachers to capture and hold students’ attention sufficiently during instruction. The former music teacher taught the way she’d been teaching for years, and probably the way she was trained to teach. Her methods were solid for many students over the years, some of whom continue to excel at music in college and beyond. Her replacement, who is about the same age, has decided to periodically push herself out of her comfort zone and modifies her instructional style to keep her methods fresh. Her effect has been immediate, not just in resurrecting the students’ interest in music, but also in their accelerated comprehension and mastery of the content.
We all know that school districts’ budgets are tight, and the importance of music education is often underestimated by some parents and financial stakeholders. Much research underscores the correlation between music and math skills: for example, students learn to count beats and figure out the length of notes by using multiplication and division. Music education also helps to develop higher thinking skills, as students think about complex musical patterns, and how their individual parts fit into a musical whole, or how they can augment various sounds, tones, and intonations to create variations on a musical piece. With art and music education always inching closer to the chopping block in many districts, it’s imperative for educators to periodically reassess their instructional methods. What works? What doesn’t? When does student attention seem to flag? What kinds of props, instructional delivery methods, and activities might be used to help convey the material in an effective, yet engaging, way? How willing are you as an educator to step out of your comfort zone?
This week my picks focus on music education resources from SoundTree, a company that produces turn-key learning systems for education that integrate music and technology. During the week, I’ll be featuring a host of additional music resources from SoundTree and other entities on our Facebook and Twitter pages, so please be sure to check them out.
“This Week in Music” Podcast
Subject: Music
Grade: 6-12
In this activity, students create short podcasts that highlight events such as birthdays, events, and other important dates from music history. Each podcast will be posted online for downloading. Students are required to compose a theme for their podcast episode, create a script, and may include listening examples (MIDI files, MP3 clips, etc.) to enhance their project.
Film Scoring in the Music Classroom: Duck and Cover
Subject: Music
Grade: 7-12
The students will compose music for a short segment of Duck and Cover – a movie from the 1950s on preparing for nuclear war – though the students will not know what it is about. Students will write a script and music to accompany the film clip.
Enhancing the Understanding of Singing a Round in the Early Elementary Grades
Subjects: Music
Grade: K-6
In order to sing and understand the concept of a round, the students will use the “piano roll” visual of a sequencer to “see” and practice singing their individual part as it relates to the other parts in the round.
~Joann's Picks - 11/4/2010~
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