Students Take a Roman Holiday with VR Apps

Students in Alicen Morley's history classes recently had opportunities to take unforgettable field trips to locations like the Palace of Versaille in Paris, France, the Parthenon in Greece, and the Colosseum in Rome. These trips were made possible by the power of virtual reality.

Ms. Morley's class is equipped with a set of Google Cardboard viewers -- headsets students can use for viewing and interacting with virtual reality environments on their smartphones. Through apps like Viewmaster (yes, the same company that made those classic red stereoscopic toys you played with as a kid!) and Google Expeditions, students are able to explore 360-degree 3D images and videos. The Viewmaster app provides self-guided tours for students, while the Google Expeditions app makes the experience collaborative by connecting a teacher tour guide to a class full of students.

Ms. Morley wanted her students to engage in an immersive experience with the places they read about and discussed in class. They learned about the ornate rococo style and excesses of the courts of Louis the XIV and Louis the XV of France, and then they got to see the palace firsthand with Google Expeditions. Other classes learned about government and religion in ancient Greece and then saw how those influences affected art and architecture when they visited the Parthenon through Viewmaster's Destinations app.

Once students were familiar with how Google Expeditions works, they were ready to become the tour guides themselves. Working in partners, students took turns leading an expedition to ancient Rome to point out significant landmarks and points of interest. Students learned to think critically about what they were seeing so that they could make inferences about what the structures could tell them about the society they were studying.

Google Expeditions has possibilities for applications in many different subjects. Students can visit underwater ocean habitats, travel to the moon, or even explore the human heart through virtual reality. It's exciting to think where Boone's students will head next!

Story Street: BHS Students Share True Life Stories in New Podcast

Advanced Composition students at Boone High School have stories to tell. For a recent assignment asking them to write a personal narrative or character sketch, these students shared snapshots in writing of important moments or people in their lives and focused on developing those moments thoroughly with specific, sensory details. The end goal for each student author was to create a clear picture in the minds of his or her audience and to convey a sense of significance about the event or person in their story.

For inspiration, students listened to an episode from NPR’s Snap Judgment podcast and noted observations of the author’s writing style. They also picked up on aspects of the spoken performance of his story, noting how the author used vocal inflection and music to manipulate the mood.

After writing their stories, students used an app called Soundtrap to record themselves reading aloud. Then, following the model of the example they listened to, they turned to choosing music they could add to the recording to enhance their story’s mood. Some students used music loops available within the Soundtrap app while others browsed the internet for their music options. They exercised digital citizenship skills as they learned to search for music labeled by artists for reuse through Creative Commons licenses.

Once the music fit with the words, students created mp3 files of their recorded stories. The final recordings were uploaded to Soundcloud. Like YouTube, Soundcloud allows users to upload their own content to share with the world, except the site focuses on audio rather than video. The result is a brand new podcast called Story Street (be sure to subscribe!). The first episode featuring stories from seniors Jenna Kirby, Michael Foley, and Sarah Schrupp is provided here for your listening enjoyment.

Family Fun with Green Screens

Franklin Elementary School families enjoyed an evening of sports-themed literacy activities this week during Family Literacy Night: World Series of Reading. One station at the event was a sports photo booth. Students and their families chose props and posed in front of a green screen. Using a green screen app, Boone High student helpers added a background to make each scene complete. 

Pull Toy Parade

In the 8th grade STEM class, students have been learning about different mechanisms.  They were tasked with creating a pull toy that incorporated at least one of the mechanisms.  That mechanism needed to cause another movement to occur.  The students created some amazing pull toys.

BMS Student Tech Team

The middle school has recently started a student tech team.  The tech team will be assisting students and teachers with troubleshooting issues, classroom use of chromebooks and other technology based projects.

Library Makerspace Days

Boone elementary students practiced creative problem solving and critical thinking during library time in May. Students were given a STEM engineering challenge related to a story that was read to them at the library this year. 

Kindergarteners read the story Not in This House and used recycled and consumable materials to design and build a "critter catcher." 

Pickles Please was read to first graders. Then students used legos to invent a device that could be useful in a pickle factory.

Second graders enjoyed the story Axle Annie and the Speed Grump and used legos to design a device that could help keep children safe on a school bus. 

Third graders enjoyed the story The Otherwordly Adventures of Tyler Washburn: The New Kid  and used Goldie-Blox and K'nex building toys to invent a creative device.

What To Do When You're Sent To Your Room was read to fourth graders. Then students used Rokenbok building blocks to design and build a device that would help someone if they were stuck in their bedroom.

Students used the Seesaw app with ipads to capture photos, audio reflections, and videos of their creations. These were shared with peers on the school blog. 

These fun activities were a fun way to celebrate a year of enjoying great stories in the library as well as practicing technology literacy, design thinking, and engineering skills.

Algebraic Angry Birds

Students in Lindsey Hyman's Algebra I class recently had the chance to extend their thinking about the components of quadratics by creating their own levels for the popular and addictive game Angry Birds. They worked to find the correct quadratic equation for the trajectory of their bird that would allow it to knock out its enemy and miss any obstacles in the way. The students built their levels using Google Drawings and then used gMath in Google Docs to show their understanding of quadratics. Mrs. Hyman also snapped pictures of calculations students performed with pencil and paper to document their thought processes.

Mrs. Hyman says the assignment "had them using the three different forms of quadratics including standard, vertex, and factored form and converting between the forms, which allowed for feedback to check if the students were on the right track. We used Desmos a lot to check if they were on the right track as well." 

Angry birds blank (1) from Jill Thieben