Let the GPS Activities Begin!

This has been a very long, rainy and cold winter here in Columbia, SC.  I've been waiting long enough now for warmer weather and sunny days.  Spring is a time when I can replace the batteries in the GPS receivers and take students outside for a little GPS fun.

My favorite activity that I've developed over the last three years is a slope activity.  This idea came about from a  discussion with a middle school geometry teacher who wanted to find out if the slope of a hill outside of the school could be landscaped.  A slope that is too large can cause serious problems for landscapers. We took her geometry classes outside and asked them to figure out how they could use a GPS receiver to get the slope. I loved watching them as they became completely engaged in discovering how a GPS receiver could be used to determine slope.

Since then, I've created a slope activity that I use with the Algebra classes at my high school.  I start out in the classroom by showing the students how to use the GPS receivers to record elevation and distance.  Google Earth is used to show the students the location of the hillside that we will be investigating.  We can use the tilt feature in Google Earth to view the terrain.  We also look at the elevation of each part of the campus.

We review the data that they will need to collect and then the teacher and I take the students outside to our soccer field.  Pairs of students spread out along the top of the hill and mark a waypoint.  They also record the elevation.  Then they go to the bottom of the hill, mark a waypoint there, and record the elevation.  The last step is to determine the distance between the first waypoint and the second waypoint by using the find feature on the GPS.  After the students have all of their data, they go back to the classroom, calculate the slope, and graph the slope.

This has been a very successful activity, and the students are required to use higher order thinking skills to find the slope.  The activity also reminds the students that determining slope is very important in the real world.

Try the activity out with your students and let me know how it works.

The Power of Drive

I started reading Drive by Daniel Pink this week.  Daniel Pink states that the three most important things we need to achieve Motivation 3.0 are autonomy, mastery, and purpose.  Today's workers are required to perform many creative tasks, and the old reward system just doesn't work.

In my professional experience,  my most rewarding jobs have been where I have been given autonomy over my time and my tasks.  On many occasions I have gone above and beyond the call of duty because of the inner reward and purpose that I experienced from the task.  I've also been in the "flow" zone where my best work is done.  It's a great feeling to accomplish something because you want to do it and not because you have to do it.  I have also seen great results  in classrooms where teachers have provided their students with an environment that allows them some autonomy.  I believe this is why Montessori education is so successful.

Run out to buy the book (or download to your e-reader) as soon as possible. Get a head start by listening to Daniel Pink's TED Talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html.

Google Apps Fills the Gap

After my great experience at the Google Teacher Academy in Washington, DC in December, I came back excited about implementing Google Apps at my school.  Google Apps offers a full package of tools for students and makes it possible for teachers to have some control but not be in control.

In the past, we have had several options for teachers to use when posting information for classes, but none of them give the students a full range of collaboration tools.  Blackboard is great for posting assignments and handouts, but our students are not able to share documents with each other.  We do have blogs and wikis in Blackboard, but the sharing options are very limited.   Teachers also use their personal web pages to post information for parents and students.  Some of our teachers have created class Nings which have more of a social networking feel to them.  Students can join Ning groups, but are still limited in how they can collaborate. All of these applications are teacher centered - not student driven.

Google Apps for Education has filled a large gap that we had in what we can offer to students.  Before implementing Google Apps, we did have teachers asking their students to sign-up for g-mail accounts and share documents, but everything was a little disorganized and out of the teacher's control. Now with Google Apps, our students can easily share documents, presentations, calendars, and e-mail with the group, the teacher, or individual students.

We're just getting started with implementation at my school, but we have already seen successes.  The group feature makes it very easy for students to communicate with classmates.  Students are able to share class presentations or work with other students on the same presentation from remote locations.  The great thing about all of this is that the teacher is in on the action and can keep track of student progress by using the revision history. We love having a standardized, professional e-mail account for the students. In a few weeks, our magnet students will begin working on their electronic portfolios using Sites.  Our vision is that the students will be able to share these portfolios when they begin completing college applications.

The possibilities are endless, and I'll share more successes as our implementation of Google Apps continues.