Strip Designer

This afternoon I decided to mess around with the app Strip Design ($2.99). I have seen this app used with students and math, so I thought I would try it out. Here are some of the ideas I came up with....

Have students go around the classroom and find 3D shapes, take pictures, and then create a comic strip.

This app can even create a poster, doesn't look like a comic, but is a way to scaffold the project for some students.

Have the students create characters or take pictures of themselves. Then create math problems for the class to solve.

Again, students can find math in their classroom and create a problem for their peers.

This is more of a science activity...have students go outside and take pictures of leaves, plants, or trees. Then have them write down characteristics of each plant and investigate specific sites. If you have a few sites that you would like students to use for this project, what about creating a link to your diigo site....

Diigo Bookmarking....

Identifying Plants Project Resources

The above is an example of a link to a teacher's Diigo bookmarking site. Students could use these resources while working on the "Identifying Plants" project. These lists can even be embedded into a website, wiki, etc....like the one below...

Fossil Apps

The following are two apps that students enjoyed when we learned about fossils after school on Monday:


Dino Digger ($.99) In this app the player slides a couple fingers back and forth to uncover a dinosaur fossil buried in the sand. When most of the fossils are visible the dinosaur comes together and players can then see what the dinosaur would look and sound like. Students enjoyed listening to the sounds of the different dinosaurs and became good at recognizing what fossils created what dinosaurs. I would recommend this app, simple and players had fun with it!

Dinosaurs: The American Museum of Natural History Collections (Free) Many, many great photos of dinosaurs and fossils. Good discussion starters!




Tools4Students ($.99) This app provides graphic organizers that only work on the iPad. To add onto this activity students could use the an organizer and choose two dinosaurs to compare and contrast. Below I took a screenshot of what that organizer would look like. 


Compare/Contrast Graphic Organizer:

Record Breaking Temperatures

 

We have been experiencing record-breaking temperatures in Bismarck, North Dakota for the last couple days. Tomorrow it is suppose to be almost 60 degrees....that's pretty warm for this time of year. To celebrate the wonderful weather we have been having, this post will be dedicated to weather apps and how to use them with your students.

 The Weather Channel App

 AccuWeather App

 WeatherBug App

 Seasonality Go App ($9.99)

Science Ideas:

1. Wind speed and direction, wind chill (how it is calculated) or the Jet Stream
2. Clouds and the different characteristics (some of the apps have live feeds of city scapes, students can see the actual clouds and organize the cities with cumulus, cirrus, or alto clouds) They can also find places that are experiencing dense fog (other counties too!).
3. Great way to get students interested in the career of weather forecasting!
4. Compare the different temperatures and climates around the world---desert, ocean, tundra, etc.
5. Rain--students can use the apps to help them pick a day that is likely to rain. Have students make rain gauges and place them around the school. Then have students record their amounts and compare to the weather app.

Math Ideas:

1. Discuss the different types of graphs and analyze the data from the graphs. (Seasonality Go-has great graphs).
2. Comparing 10 different cities and their current temperatures--find the mean, median, and mode. Compare regions of the U.S. or world.
3. Probability---least likely, most likely, chance of precipitation (percentages)