Last year our school adopted the Next Generation Science Standards and we had a lot of fun brainstorming as a grade level what to do for our first unit which revolves around the scientific method and engineering. During the Engineering unit, students are tasked with designing and object, testing that object, and then finding a way to better that object. Tying that to my CEP 810 assignment this week we were tasked with designing a 21st Century Lesson using technology to help drive instruction. In searching for a tool to integrate technology into this engineering lesson, I turned to the best tool to use and the #1 technology tool according to The Center for Learning and Performance Technologies list of the 100 Best Tools for Learning that tool is YouTube.
Earlier this week I had some inspiration from one of my students who was crafting a paper airplane during choice time but just couldn’t get it right. It hit me! My students could engineer their own paper airplanes using YouTube videos. When we looked on YouTube the students had access to hundreds of different how to videos on making paper airplanes. The videos were short enough where they could analyze a couple different planes to come up with which one would be the best for them to create. Then we could do a follow up lesson the next day where they could test their planes reflect on what they did the day before, and act on ways to make their plane fly better. It was a perfect way to hit all of Hobbes core competencies of fundamental literacy practices.
Being an ambitious teacher I thought I could fit all areas of this lesson into one day. After talking with my colleague and taking her advice. I found the process would be better spaced out across two days. I definitely believe there are more areas in this lesson to plug in different technologies but so many of my students already use YouTube, I thought this was a great tool to get us off an running into the 21st century. The lesson plan can be found here, and it includes some of the notes from my colleague, which I value highly. I plan on executing this plan this week so check back in on the blog to see how the students did in engineering their own paper airplanes.
References
Hobbs, R. (2011). Digital and media literacy: Connecting culture and classroom. Thousand, Oaks, CA: Corwin/Sage.
www.youtube.com – Search How to Paper Airplanes
Comments