Day 149 - Circle Time - Mrs. Tate - MSMS Grade 6 Math

This post first appeared on Mrs. Tate's Blog 

Recently 6th-grade students enjoyed the beautiful weather while doing some work with circles.  Each team was given a measurement of either a circle’s radius or diameter.  Half of the team computed what the circumference of the circle was using the formula (C = 2 x pi x radius or C = pi x diameter).  The other half of the team was given a tape measure, chalk, and piece of rope to draw the circle.  The students had to be creative with a “human rope” compass to accurately draw the circle.  After the circle was drawn students unrolled the tape measure and placed it along the circle’s circumference to see how close it came to the actual calculation.  Then the teams switched roles while working on an additional circle.  Students then calculated the percent error for each of their circles.  Lastly, they found the average of their percent error to see which team was the BEST!  Here are some pictures of them in action.

Day 142 - Explain Everything Poetry Project - Mr. Conley - MSMS Grade 6

This post first appeared on Mr. Conley's Blog

6B students are creating an Explain Everything project that includes three of their written poems, a video of themselves reading their two-voice poem with a partner, several ‘poetry response’ worksheets, a favorite poem from a published poet or a classmate, and an optional author bio. 

Day 33 - Sphero - Mrs. Tate - MSMS Grade 6

This post originally appeared on Mrs. Tate's Blog 

Several middle school students have been learning how to program Sphero during Activity Block on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Students have been working on writing a code for Sphero to complete several challenges including:

1. Stopping in a specific spot
2. Going in a straight line and stopping in a specific spot
3. Following the path of a “lightning bolt”
4. Completing a maze
5. Tracing the path around a table
6. Following a path through the library stacks

Some students have been successful with almost all of these challenges and are now coding their Sphero to complete a difficult obstacle course with ramps!  Here are some pictures and videos of these challenges.

Day 159 - Shadow Math - Mrs. Tate - MSMS Math Dept.

This post first appeared on Mrs. Tate's Blog

We have been taking advantage of this beautiful weather by doing our math lessons outdoors.  This past week sixth grade students learned how to set up proportions from similar triangles.  In order to set up our proportions we used the height of a person or object and then measured the shadow it produced.  We then selected another person or object to measure to create a proportion.  Sometimes we decided to calculate the height of the object and other times we chose to calculate the length of the shadow.  In some instances we were able to actually measure either the shadow’s length/object’s height to see how close our mathematics calculation got!  In some instances, the object we chose was too tall to measure- so hopefully our math was correct!   Students chose to work with proportions involving their bodies, a lamp post, street sign, trees, and trash can.  Here are some pictures of the students in action and their mathematics calculations.

Day 154 - Explain Everything Animation Lesson from Grade 6 Student - Linda O'Leary - MSMS Instructional Technology Specialist

This post first appeared on the BPS EdTech Blog

Marshall Simonds Middle School grade 6 student Nicholas assumed the role of Assistant Technology Integration Teacher to share his knowledge of animation with his 6th-grade classmates. Nicholas provided a great lesson using the Explain Everything iPad app. Nick’s techniques mimic the traditional method for producing cartoons. The process included drawing an object (stick figure), recording, replacing with a repositioned object, erasing the first object then re-recording.

Nicholas demonstrated his innate teaching skills through his planned lesson by mirroring his iPad on our AppleTV. First, Nick presented a short animation that he created. Next, he demonstrated to the class how to make the animation with a step-by-step approach allowing the students to follow along. He was careful to point out possible pitfalls offering troubleshooting solutions to avoid snags within the production.

As a follow-up assignment to Nick’s lesson the students were asked to create an animation that told a simple story.

Nicholas did a fantastic job on teaching his animation lesson. I was impressed by his knowledge, teaching skills, lesson planning, clear explanation, patience, punctuality, and follow through without reminders.

I hope Nicholas contemplates education as a career possibility. Thank you Nick for your time and the great lesson!

Linda O’LearyInstructional Technology SpecialistMarshall Simonds Middle School