Tag: 1:1 Math

Pixel Press Floors

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One evening, before the end of our school year, I had been on a hunt to experiment more with augmented reality (AR) with my students. One of my favorite blogs to visit for that is, Two Guys and Some iPads. Brad and Drew are very well know for their 2 Guys Show, which you can watch at anytime from their archive on their blog, but also for their use of Augmented Reality.

So, while browsing their blog I came across their latest post that caught my eye on Pixel Press Floors. See the article HERE.

Now, I’ve tried to be the cool teacher and introduce video games into my classroom, what student doesn’t love an excuse to play games? We participated in the Hour of Code, we also used Lunacraft for math review in our classroom, but Pixel Press Floors is truly unique. Students can actually draw their own game out, on a downloadable grid sheet, using the specific codes given in their Sketch Guide. From there, students can then take an image of their grid and it will turn into a virtual world that they have created. Students can test their game out and even edit it from within the app.

I highly encourage trying this, it was by far one of the favorite projects that I received feedback on.

How can you use it in your classroom? The ideas below are not all original ideas, just blog posts I have stumbled upon while researching.

– Math Review – area, perimeter (See Lakewood Digital Literacy blog for more ideas)
– Research & Survey – What makes an engaging video game? Graph results and explain.
– Compare and Contrast – analyze various games to provide peer feedback
– Creative writing – create a comic based on your designed game (Porchester Junior School) 

Of course, the project couldn’t be complete without a little friendly competition game-off. My students wanted to finish the year with an elimination challenge, competing in teams against one another as we reflected the iPads onto my Mac.

Here is how I introduced the App to my students.
1. This was being used as an end of the year math center, so mid week as students were getting closer to starting, I went over the directions. How-to videos and the Sketch Guide were left for their curiosity in our math Blendspace course.
2. Students had an organizer to complete reviewing 3 or 4 games that were already created in the Pixel Press Floors Arcade. Students rated the game, and included pros and cons for ideas they would use. They also received a story map to incorporate their game into creative writing later on. We talked about how games have a storyline and a purpose like our books.
3. Once their organizer was uploaded to Schoology and approved, they were able to begin sketching their plan on the grid paper with the use of their guide.
4. Uploaded their game when finished and began receiving peer review.
5. Ideally if we didn’t run out of time, I was going to use the idea from above for the students to create a comic based around their character and the story line they created.

I encourage you to check the app out while it is free. It is available on both the iPad and now the iPhone! Happy creating! Visit the App Store to check it out!
   


Lunacraft in Math

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Well, I’m embarrassed with my absence from blogging for the last month. Between testing and catching the flying germs in the classroom, I unfortunately haven’t had time to write.

I remember being an educator that flipped out when I suddenly found my students downloading Minecraft on the computer. I didn’t understand the game and I felt as if it was taking the students away from my instruction and digital tools. After almost four years, I finally decided to look into it. I needed something to excite my students and get them hooked in math.

After checking into costs on Minecraft for a 1:1 iPad classroom, unfortunately it was something we weren’t able to play out. I began searching for Minecraft-like apps and came across Lunacraft, an app for mining and constructing but in SPACE!

I sought out advice from my students about the project and what app they would prefer, but they quickly jumped on Lunacraft! The hardest part was doing the self-paced lesson first, because they just wanted to start building.

The idea behind this project, was a review on area, perimeter and volume. Being in 5th grade, they should have this memorized by now, but reviewing that and customary unit conversions has been a hard task.

While students are creating their own space town in Lunacraft, they have to construct 3 various types of buildings. For each building, they need to calculate the perimeter, volume and area. Now the tricky part for the kids…. 1 block in Lunacraft is equal to 1M. Since we are using customary, they have to convert that 1M block to 3Ft. So overall, they are reviewing customary measurements of length, conversions and calculating perimeter, area and volume. Not to mention, the creativity that is coming through. One student is trying to replicate the United Center in space!

Restaurant Design

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Practicing area, perimeter and map skills can get quite tiresome with the traditional drill and practice on paper. One thing that I have challenged myself to do more in math this year is to really focus on applying math to real world situations. When doing so, I believe it makes the experience in my classroom much more valuable.

The original idea for this project came from a project that I saw posted by “Room 205” on Proteacher.net. There were bits and pieces of the original project that I used, but I did modify it to fit the needs of my students.

Students were presented with a hook, to get them excited about the project. I probably could have just stated they were going to design a restaurant and they would have been just as happy.

Directions were given to students and then to make the experience more valuable, we dug through the internet for vacant buildings in our local city. We selected a building with dimensions that we agreed upon and away the students went with the first phase of their project. I say “phase” because rather than making this one large project due on a certain date, it is much easier for my students to chunk the project and turn in for mini deadlines. This way they just have to piece it together in the final.

Here is a breakdown of the individual phases:
Phase 1 – survey the community and collect data on restaurant theme ideas, graph and analyze
Phase 2 – measure out a floor plan based on the dimensions, work with the art teacher to design a digital logo to go with the name of your restaurant
Phase 3 –  Make your floor plan digital and add in dimensions of various rooms
Phase 4 – Adding in table and furniture measurements
Phase 5 – Use Room Planner “Free” on the iPad to build the restaurant into a 3D model. Students can decorate the inside.
Phase 6 – students complete final presentations and design a menu that fits their theme

Each phase lasted approximately 1 week, as it was also built into the other activities that were taking place with our weekly iTunes U math rotations.

Overall, the students had a great time with this project and immediately asked if we could do another one identical to it. I love seeing my students excited to learn! Next year, I would love to move the level up this project up by connecting with professionals in the area to seek advice in designing or possibly even visit a vacant site.

Padlet

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I apologize for the incredibly late post. Between report cards and gearing up for winter break, I really do look up to those that can blog on a regular basis.

One website I have been meaning to write a review on is Padlet. I originally found this website while browsing an educational blog by, Mr. G. Online. After discovering an idea for the Think 3D app on the iPad, Mr. G. also was discussing his integration of Padlet as an ongoing management tool in the classroom. So….. I decided to check it out.

I have used Padlet twice in the class thus far, both for math instruction. It is a really cool website to host a math talk on, where it will allow everyone to contribute to a post at once. The nice thing about the discussion is that you can even post pictures.

If you go to Padlet and create an account, you can start your very own collection of walls. For this specific example, I assigned my students a “Volume at Home” activity. They had to find a prism at home that they could snap a picture of with their iPads. Then, they used Skitch to label the dimensions of the figure.

Once the students came prepared to school, we took our images and posted to Padlet for our math talk. Students then selected an image to calculate the volume of. This is a great, quick and fun way to incorporate math from home and have everyone contribute at once. Imagine using this for literally any discussion in your classroom. Your students won’t need an account to participate, just share the QR code, link or embed it into another website for them to see. Enjoy!

Apple TV Morning Announcements

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One thing I have found quite happy with the installation of the Apple TV in the classroom, is using a photo stream to project morning announcements. One of our technology directors informed me a principal in our district was using this method to deliver her announcements in the hallway. I had honestly never experimented with photo streams to much, but thought I would give it a go. Well… I absolutely love it and so do my students.

I have started a photo stream for each day of the week. Most of my announcements stay the same, just the morning tasks may change. In that case, a new picture is added when needed. Here is how I do it….

1. Use Keynote or another presentation program to create as many slides as you would need for your announcements. Mine are pretty basic…. one welcome slide, one morning routine slide, one morning work direction slide.

2. Then, export the slides as images and save them into iPhoto.

3. Create the album and give it a name…example: Tuesday Announcements

4. Share it with your photo stream and you are ready to go on the Apple TV as long as your iCloud account is connected and shared between the devices.

I just love the themes that you can pick for the steam and most of all, my students love listening to music. It has really engaged them and made our mornings more productive!