Thursday, February 26, 2015

Google Tools Add-ons

Cornerstone calls these "New Google Add-Ons".  Many are neither.  But all 28 are probably useful for educators, students and others.

ADD-ONS FOR DOCS

MERGE BY MAILCHIMP

Benefits: The set-up is simple. Add data (names, addresses and any info) in a spreadsheet. Create a document and show Merge where you want to add the data. It creates custom documents that you can e-mail.

Drawbacks: Setting all the data up can be time-consuming, but the product is worth it.

Idea 1: Customized grade reports. Student data can be typed or exported into a sheet and shared in a fancy document with all of the data merged.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Benefits: Using the headings (next to font) Documents. It creates a clickable table of contents in a little window next to your document. It makes document navigation simple.

Drawbacks: Some users report that navigation is slow with larger documents.

Idea 2: Reports/papers. When students write, they add a table of contents for easy navigation.

Idea 3: Student work in one document. If all students do an assignment in one document, they can add their names as a heading above their work. Click on the student name to see his/her work.

Idea 4: Easily navigable readings. If you provide students with long articles or readings in document form, finding each chapter is easy. Plus, you can add a new heading after each day’s reading to serve as a bookmark.

CHARTS

Benefits: It very simply pulls in data from a spreadsheet into a chart/graph that can be inserted into a document.

Drawbacks: Some types of charts, like scatterplots, are not available.

Idea 5: Lab reports. Students can take readings, data, etc. from science labs and easily incorporate them into reports.

Idea 6: Tabulating results or student data. Student council elections. Class votes. Standardized test data. If it can be added to a spreadsheet, it can come out as an attractive chart or graph.

TRACK CHANGES

Benefits: It incorporates the approve/reject changes function of Microsoft Office to Google Documents. It shows changes made to a document and includes a simple

Saturday Face-to-Face Meeting Cancelled

While there is a possibility that Saturday morning travel and parking will be more comfortable or care-free than imagined, I'm going to take the advice many of you shared with me privately based on plowing, ice, and other factors.  

Concerning the topics we were to discuss, we'll use your blogs and online tools for sharing.  More details and templates will follow.

(Please send a quick. "Got it !" reply so I know you received this news.)  Otherwise I'll start calling people tomorrow.

Call or email me anytime.  

Jim


Jim Egenrieder
GoogleVoice: 571-482-8298



Input from you folks?

It seems the snow totals will be right around the middle of the predicted range, but also heavy and wet.  With icing from overnight temperatures tonight and tomorrow in the 20's, I'm strongly leaning to cancelling our face-to-face meeting on Saturday.  Instead we'll rely on all your new skills in blogging and online collaboration to accomplish the same things over the next week or two.

Snow Forecast
05:23am, Thursday, February 26, 2015

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Changing predictions - 4 to 8 inches by Thursday 10am

I'm leaning toward cancelling because of the amount predicted, the ratio of streets to plows, and the re-freezing due to overnight temperatures.  

That said, I don't want to cancel until we see just how much snow falls.  If it's over 4 inches, it's likely to stick around until Saturday.  If it's only two inches, it may melt and dry in the Friday sun, or of course it may melt into ice.

I'll post an announcement on http://www.nnps-secondary-stem.blogspot.com/ and send an email on Thursday around 10am unless some other official declaration influences us.

03:34pm, Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Click here for
  • Current radar (10 minute delay): LINK
  • Southeast map:  (30 minute delay):  LINK

Weather on Saturday

I'll rely on some of you folks to guide us on how to manage weather in your area.  Is there some metric we might use on whether to meet?  Friday closure?









Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Preparing for Saturday, February 27

We'll keep an eye on weather, closings, etc., and I'll suggest an alternative plan if necessary.  Currently weather predictions look unpleasant through Friday morning, but clearing quickly.

Thanks to all that have shared their STEM Notebook templates.  Keep them coming.  We'll invite some presentations on Saturday and allow time for you to share.

Our primary objectives for Saturday are:

1. Review resources for integrative STEM activities 

I'll share some hands-on interactive STEM ideas for middle and high school students, and we'll talk about scaling up or down for different ages. We'll then categorize a list of resources, including learning activities, classroom and personal technologies, and sources for funding.

Please feel free to bring an activity or resource to share.

2.  Developing engineering design challenge activities and 7E lesson plans

We'll individually and collaboratively develop your ideas for engineering design challenge activities that support the Newport News curriculum.

We'll then work on formatting your ideas within a UbD lesson plan format suitable for observations or publishing your lessons.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Consider this design process

Consider this design thinking process from the Nueva school, promoted by the KQED Mind/Shift blog last year.  How does it fit with other design processes you've explored and embraced?


Design Thinking, Deconstructed

 | October 16, 2013
Screen Shot 2013-10-16 at 9.53.23 AM
At the Nueva School in Hillsborough, Calif., design thinking is built into students’ and teachers’ everyday lives. The process, which is an approach to learning that includes considering real-world problems, research, analysis, building by hand, and lots of experimentation, is documented and shared among staff.
The infographic (click on the image to see the full PDF) was created by Kim Saxe, director of Nueva’s iLab, and one of the champions of design thinking. To learn more about the process, readWhat Design Thinking Looks Like In School,  How to Apply Design Thinking In Class, Step By Step, and our entire collection of articles about design thinking.
-------------------

If you write about this on your blog, the citation for this can be:
Barsenghian, T. (2013). Design Thinking Deconstructed.  KQED Mind Shift.  Retrieved from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/10/design-thinking-deconstructed/

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Consider animation and video in online STEM notebooks

Online or other digital versions of STEM notebooks allow for videos and animation.

Pythagorean Theorem:
Source: giphy


Exterior angles of polygons ALWAYS add to 360 degrees:

                             Source: math.stackexchange


Pi:


Source: imgur