This week I will answer some of the most common questions about 3D printing I get asked as a Maker Educator by administrators and classroom teachers. Last summer, I published a similar guide for the Home #Makerspace!
Continue reading “#MakerEd in the Classroom: Exploring #3DPrinting FAQs & Resources”
The textbook is now digital but students still encounter it as they always have: wisdom to be received, perhaps highlighted, annotated, and memorized, but not created, constructed, or made sense of. Teachers still interact with students as they always have. The platform doesn’t offer them any new insights into the ways their students think about mathematics. As far as I can tell, the iBook doesn’t establish any new link between the student and teacher, or strengthen any old ones. — Dan Meyer, On iBooks 2 and iBooks Author In my classroom, I have very few textbooks. They have their place … Continue reading On Kindles, iPads, SmartBoards, Prometheans and Apps in the Classroom
After my quick reflections on the Tea Box project and my computer science course, I’d like to take a spin over to my most successful, challenging and rewarding class(es) this semester. I had the opportunity to teach 2 CAD courses with a great, energetic group of young men (and one woman). As the year progressed my classes split into three distinct groups – a developmentally young (think elementary-school-age brains) group, a progressing (middle-school-age brains) and a developmentally-ready (high school or middle school) group.
My CAD course description:
In this course, students will create and build physical and digital representations of the world around them. Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development will frame the instruction to the appropriate cognitive developmental level for each student. Computer Assisted Design is the use of computers and specialized software to create digital objects; be they animations, skyscrapers or the interiors of engines. Students will use Google Sketch Up 8 to re-create and re-imagine the world around them, beginning with a floor-plan of their bedroom and ending with a self-directed project.
What made this course successful? My answer after the jump.
Continue reading “Course Curriculum: Computer Applications:CAD”
The Fall 2011 semester came to an end last week. I’m taking stock of what-used-to-be (my previous semesters classes) and re-tooling, re-gearing and re-searching my way into new course-load.
I’d like to start with my Computer Science & Electronics course. I described this course as:
This course introduces computer programming to students with little or no prior programming or technology experience. Students will use Alice, 3D graphical computer language, to introduce basic computer science theory. Topics to be covered include program design and problem solving, Boolean operators, logic statements, loops and flowcharts. Unlike other languages, Alice lends itself to an exploration of thought, rather than an exercise in coding or mathematical ability. If time allows, the Python language will also be explored. In the electronics portion, students will explore basic electronic concepts of resistance, current and voltage. Students will learn to build, manipulate and understand basic circuits & operate the tools necessary to create these circuits. Students will identify basic parts, such as resistors, switches, wires and capacitors.
So, let’s go over the class and see how I did and what I will do better in the future.
Continue reading “This Week in the Classroom: Computer Science & Electronics”
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