STEM+Grant

Student chosen work evidenced by daily entries in a Science Notebook or Wiki.

Questions more important than answers. Student Agency Through Technology http://www.edutopia.org/blog/high-possibility-classrooms-tech-enhanced-learning-jane-hunter

Digital Assistant and Digital Media in the Resource Classroom

Multimedia Capture and Connected Learning

Students will use the easy to use, built-in, features of Kindle tablets to access information and create digital media. Kindle tablets are special purpose devices designed and integrated to do these tasks. Students will be supplementing regular classroom activities and products, here and there, for short periods of time with Internet access, digital media, and connected learning. Kindle tablets will be used daily to quickly digitally document learning, and supplement textbook reading, rather than produce the products of learning like one would do with paper or a laptop. This documentation will consist of photographs, sound files, and video. This digital documentation and the tablets' ability to access protected web pages will be used to add an element of protected connected-learning to the classroom.

With Kindle tablets the students will:
 * Access current nonfiction articles to supplement textbook reading
 * Use the [|www.newsela.com] site to read articles written at five different levels
 * Use the built in text to speech feature to access articles above their reading level
 * Use the build in dictionary and search capabilities for better understanding
 * Create digital media to communicate at levels higher than they can write
 * Create digital snap-shots of current activities done and products produced
 * Put digital snap-shots of their work on protected web pages for connected learning purposes
 * Supplement the products of current activities with digital media
 * Share and peer teach using digital media, protected web pages, and presentations
 * Access nonfiction articles for interdisciplinary learning purposes
 * Collaborate to produce digital media with each other and maybe with Team Dynamo
 * Use scaffolding activities to write about the __content__ in the digital media they create.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/digital-portfolios-art-of-reflection-beth-holland?utm_content=blog&utm_campaign=reflection-digital-portfolios&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow&utm_term=link



Design Thinking: Much of today’s education system guides students toward finding the correct answers to fill-in-the blanks on standardized tests, as this kind of instruction facilitates streamlined assessments to measure success or failure. Design Thinking provides a powerful alternative to this model by challenging students to find answers to complex and difficult problems that have multiple viable solutions,and by fostering students’ ability to act as change agents. http://cranes8thgrade.pbworks.com/f/DestinationImaginationFiresWithin.pdf