How the iPad can improve a book report assignment.

From the http://ipadders.eu blog.

Upon hearing that they will have to read another book students usually roll their eyes and moan in disagreement. So to make the reading process more fun for them we let them chose their own book and their own creative assignment.



There are three parts to the book report: A, summary, B character analysis, C creative assignment. Parts A and B are the same for everyone and resemble ”traditional” book report assignments. To rev up our students enthusiasm we have collected a list of 22 creative assignments to include in their book reports for part C.

Below you can see the list of assignments. For each assignments I’ve added suggestions of apps that will help the students. The assignments don’t have to be made digitally but most of them easily can be and will make the execution of their book reports more fun.

For each of the assignments students will need to make sure that their piece of work shows that:

• They have read the book
• Thought deeply & reflected on the book
• Have understood the assignment

1. If a journey was involved, draw a map with explanatory notes of significant places. (Google Earth, Notability, Showme)

STEM 501 Wrap-Up - October 14-21

Between today and October 21 we'll be wrapping up our summer STEM 501 course. This is a time for sharing your lesson with others, reflecting on your lesson and how it was delivered, and how your STEM notebooks are or will be implemented.

Google Document Link

STEM 501 Wrap Up and Reflections - Middle School Group

This checklist is a copy of what you’ll find in Edmodo.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Step One:  Post and Review

• Put your lesson, design brief, and handouts into ONE MS Word document or better, in HYPERLINKED Google Documents (I’ll help with this).
• Post your lesson to this thread in Edmodo.  You WILL NOT comment on teaching the lesson here … that’s the next step.
• Offer some thoughts about your colleagues’ lessons.  Consider these questions as you reflect on your colleagues’ lessons:
• How does this lesson use the engineering design process to engage the students?
• How does this lesson use the engineering design process to push students to think creatively and critically?
• How does the design challenge build relevance to the required science and math content?
• Are the standards addressed in an authentic way?  Are the connections between the science – technology – engineering – math contrived or natural?
• What suggestions do you have for improvements?
• What do you love about the lesson?
• Read your colleagues comments about YOUR lesson and respond to any questions.
• Make any changes or improvements you think needed to your lesson.

Wrap-Up week: October 14 to 21

(You may get multiple copies of this email as we work through the changes in your email system filters.)

It's time to begin wrapping up all that we did in the summer.  As the end of October approaches, here are my priorities:

1.  Fixing the recently discovered email communication challenges due to your new
    Microsoft Office 365 install (my job, not yours!); 

2.  Help you develop, refine, re-design the final draft of your lesson plans;

3.  Have you deliver your lesson plans; and

4.  Have you reflect on your lesson plans.

Beginning next week, I'll provide space for you to enter reflections.  You'll then be invited/encourage but not required to comment on others' reflections.  If you'll have difficulty finishing your lesson or delivering it by October 21, please let me know.

And as we continue through the winter, we'll

5.  Refine your STEM Education notebook templates and student participation;

6.  Refine your blog attempts;  

7.  Re-orient to using Edmodo; 

8.  Document your use of technologies;

9.  Get ideas for additional technology purchases; and

10.  Determine the best schedule for Middle School training for next summer.

Call any time!  (Particularly until we know our email is going in both directions.)  
703-599-3643

As part of this email investigation, please reply to this email with a simple, "Got it!" message (and anything else you wish to say, of course).

Jim Egenrieder
703-599-3643 (cell)   or  GoogleVoice: 571-482-8298
JimEgenrieder@gmail.com or Jim@STEMeducation.us
g+  Hangout or  Skype: jim.egenrieder

Drones in the U.S.

from Popular Mechanics:

Drone Skies: The Unmanned Aircraft Revolution Is Coming

The proliferation of unmanned aircraft is already outpacing the regulations that govern them. Is U.S. Airspace big enough for a deluge of drones?

Call them what you want—flying robots,
 unmanned aircraft, or drones—vehicles
such as this 5-pound Indago quadrotor
are changing the skies over America.

It's a quiet morning in San Francisco, with soft sunlight illuminating patches of thick fog billowing over the Golden Gate Bridge. A solitary unmanned aircraft—a 4-pound, battery-powered wedge of impact-resistant foam with a 54-inch wingspan, a single pusher-propeller in the rear, and a GoPro video camera attached to its body—quietly approaches the landmark. 

Raphael "Trappy" Pirker controls the aircraft from a nearby hill. The bridge is within sight, but the 29-year-old enjoys the scenery through virtual-reality goggles strapped to his head. The drone's-eye view is broadcast to the goggles, giving Pirker a streaming image of the bridge that grows larger as he guides the radio-controlled aircraft closer.

Pirker, a multilingual Austrian and a master's student at the University of Zurich, is a cofounder of a group of radio-control-aircraft enthusiasts and parts salesmen called Team BlackSheep. This California flight is the last stop of the international group's U.S. tour. Highlights included flights over the Hoover Dam, in Monument Valley, down the Las Vegas Strip, and through the Grand Canyon. The team has also flown above Rio de Janeiro, Amsterdam, Bangkok, Berlin, London, and Istanbul.

The Golden Gate Bridge now fills the view inside Pirker's goggles. He's not a licensed pilot, but his command over the radio-controlled (RC) aircraft is truly impressive. The drone climbs to the top of the bridge, zips through gaps in the towers, dives toward the water, and cruises along the underside of the bridge deck. Months later, the self-described RC Daredevils post the footage on YouTube, where nearly 60,000 viewers watch it. 

Team BlackSheep is willfully—gleefully, really—flying through loopholes in the regulation of American airspace. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) allows unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to fly as long as their operators keep them in sight, fly below 400 feet, and avoid populated areas and airports. 

The FAA also forbids any drone to be flown for business purposes. "In the U.S. right now, it's completely open, so long as you do it for noncommercial purposes," Pirker says. "The cool thing is that this is still relatively new. None of the laws are specifically written against or for what we do." 

Raphael Pirker, shown operating a quadrotor
in Hong Kong, conducts daredevil flights
with drones near global  landmarks, to the delight
of Internet viewers and the dismay of many governments.

While the FAA did not sanction Team BlackSheep for buzzing landmarks as a publicity stunt, it has shut down other for-profit drone operators, including Minneapolis-based Fly Boys Aerial Cinematography, which was using drones to take photographs for real estate developers. are specifically written against or for what we do."   

Even the military and other government operators must obtain FAA waivers to operate drones. That means that flying over a wooded area is fine for an amateur, but a fire department that uses a drone to scout a forest fire in the same area requires special federal permission.are specifically written against or for what we do." 

Resources from stemcollaborative.org

Here are some resources for project ideas and lesson plans for adaptation to your students' needs.

JAE

========

Number and Operations In grades 6 – 8, all students should: Understand numbers, ways of representing numbers, relationships among numbers, and number systems Understand meaning of operations and how they relate to one another Compute fluently and make reasonable estimates
Concept	Activity/Web Link	Description	Produced by
Fractions, Decimals and Percents	Size-O-Rama	Use fractions, decimals, and percents to determine an unknown height.	Kentucky Educational Television
	Similar Shadows	Determine an unknown height using the decimal value of equivalent ratios.
	Sunnyside Up	Use fractions to size up a biscuit recipe.
Ratios and Proportions	Din-O-Rama	Resize a figure to fit the scale of a diorama.	Kentucky Educational Television
	Similar Shadows	Use the proportional relationship between similar triangles to determine unknown heights.
	Mural Math	Explore what happens to area when you scale up a painting proportionally.
	House of Scales	Calculate the dimensions of a house that has been scaled up by a factor of 10.
	Sunnyside Up	Scale up menu items to feed a crowd at a family reunion.
	Drive-In Shadow Puppets	Discover the relationship between an object’s distance from a light source and the size of its shadow.
	Musical Scales	Explore the proportional relationship between the length of musical pipes and their frequency.
	At the Track	Learn about the proportional relationships among time, distance, and speed.
	London	Write and solve proportions when ratios are given as fractions, decimals, and percents.	Arkansas Public Television
	Tokyo	Solve problems by using proportions.
Fractions, Decimals and Percents	Photo Booth	Determine the proportional relationship between battery charge and the number of photos one can take.	Alabama Public Television
	Bumper Cars	Control the mass and velocity of a bumper car.
	Rio de Janeiro	Write and compare ratios using fractions and decimals.	Arkansas Public Television
Ratios and Proportions	Photo Booth– Rechargeable Batteries	Determine the proportional relationship between battery charge and the number of photos one can take.	Alabama Public Television
Estimating and Predicting	Bumper Cars– Storing and Using Energy in a Battery	Control the mass and velocity of a bumper car.
Selecting Appropriate method of computation and reasonable of result	Drag Racing - Horsepower	Calculate horsepower and explore accelerating from 0 to 60 mph.
Computing fluently	Roller Coaster - The Inclined Plane	Determine the amount of force required to pull roller coasters up inclined planes.
	Parachute Drop - The Pulley	Explore and calculate force using different weights of people and different numbers of pulleys.
	Seesaw – The Lever	Explore different weights and positions needed to balance a seesaw.
	Ring the Bell – Acceleration	Explore the force that is necessary to “ring the bell.”
	Roller Coaster – Scale Factor	Explore scale factors of roller coasters, dinosaurs and statues.
Determining Unit Rate	Photo Booth– Rechargeable Batteries	Determine the proportional relationship between battery charge and the number of photos one can take.	Alabama Public Television
	Bumper Cars– Storing and Using Energy in a Battery	Control the mass and velocity of a bumper car.
	Barcelona	Determine unit rates.	Arkansas Public Television
Converting Units of measurement between metric and customary	Bumper Cars– Storing and Using Energy in a Battery	Control the mass and velocity of a bumper car.	Alabama Public Television
	Parachute Drop - The Pulley	Explore and calculate force using different weights of people and different numbers of pulleys.
	Roller Coaster – Scale Factor	Explore scale factor of roller coasters, dinosaurs and statues.

Algebra In grades 6 – 8, all students should: Understand patterns, relationships, and functions Represent and analyze mathematical situations and structures using algebraic symbols Use mathematical models to represent and understand quantitative relationships Analyze change in various contexts
Concept	Link	Description	Produced by
Different forms of representation for a relationship	Sunnyside Up	Observe how the relationship of radius vs. area of circle is represented in a graph.	Kentucky Educational Television
	Drive-In Shadow Puppets	Enter data in a table and see how it translates into a graph.
	At the Track	Compare the graphical representations of inverse and direct proportions.
Modeling problems with graphs, tables, and equations	House of Scales	Complete a table comparing the dimensions of a house those of a larger-scale version.	Kentucky Educational Television
	Sunnyside Up	Complete a table with the ingredients for a scaled-up recipe.
	Drive-In Shadow Puppets	Complete a table with measurements of shadows at different distances from a movie projector.
	Musical Scales	Complete a table that demonstrates the relationship between the length of musical pipes and their frequency.
	At the Track	Complete a table that illustrates how distance, time, and speed are related.
Analyze change	Sunnyside Up	Use a graph to determine how big a skillet needs to be to cook 108 pieces of chicken.	Kentucky Educational Television
	At the Track	Answer questions about rate based on graphs of distance vs. speed and time vs. speed.
Comparing, graphing and interpreting data	Photo Booth– Rechargeable Batteries	Determine the proportional relationship between battery charge and the number of photos one can take.	Alabama Public Television
Modeling problems with graphs, tables, and equations	Bumper Cars– Storing and Using Energy in a Battery	Control the mass and velocity of a bumper car.
	Drag Racing – Horsepower	Calculate horsepower and explore accelerating from 0 to 60 mph.
	Roller Coaster - The Inclined Plane	Determine the amount of force required to pull roller coasters up inclined planes.
	Parachute Drop - The Pulley	Explore and calculate force using different weights of people and different numbers of pulleys.
	Seesaw – The Lever	Explore different weights and positions needed to balance a seesaw.
	Ring the Bell – Acceleration	Explore the force that is necessary to “ring the bell.”
	Roller Coaster – Scale Factor	Explore scale factors of roller coasters, dinosaurs and statues.

Geometry In grades 6 – 8, all students should: Analyze characteristics and properties of two- and three-dimensional geometric shapes and develop mathematical arguments about geometric relationships Specify locations and describe spatial relationships using coordinate geometry and other representational systems Apply transformations and use symmetry to analyze mathematical situations Use visualization, spatial reasoning, and geometric modeling to solve problems
Concept	Activity/Web Link	Description	Produced by
Transformations – Reflections	Bring Your Own Food	Place picnic tables to reflect a given arrangement.	Maryland Public Television
Transformations – Rotations	Who’s Hungry	Place, size, and rotate a shape to represent a snack bar in a park.	Maryland Public Television
	Get Physically Fit	Place, reflect, and rotate objects in an obstacle course.
Pythagorean Theorem	Light the Way	Find the distance between two light posts.	Maryland Public Television
	Alley Oops	Calculate the amount of material needed to cover a ramp.
	Access for All	Calculate the amount of material needed to cover a ramp and install rails along the sides.
Pythagorean Theorem	Roller Coaster- The Inclined Plane	Determine the amount of force required to pull roller coasters up inclined planes.	Alabama Public Television
Transformations - Translations	Alley Oops	Determine the coordinates needed to move a skateboarder along a rail.	Maryland Public Television
	Get Physically Fit	Place and translate objects in an obstacle course.
	E-luminate	Describe the translations needed to move a person on a coordinate plane.
Two- and three-dimensional geometric shapes	Similar Shadows	Use similarity to help determine an unknown height.	Kentucky Educational Television
	Mural Math	Explore what happens to area when the dimensions of similar rectangles are increased proportionally.
	House of Scales	Observe what happens to volume when three-dimensional objects are scaled up.
	Sunnyside Up	Explore what happens to the area of a circle when its radius is increased.
Spatial relationships using coordinate geometry	Sunnyside Up	Observe how the relationship between a circle’s radius and its area is represented graphically.	Kentucky Educational Television
Applying geometry to areas outside mathematics classroom	Mural Math	See how proportional reasoning is used to create large-scale murals.	Kentucky Educational Television

Measurement In grades 6 – 8, all students should: Understand measurable attributes of objects and the units, systems, and processes of measurement Apply appropriate techniques, tools, and formulas to determine measurements
Concept	Link	Description	Produced by
Proportional Reasoning	Ahoy Matey	Place and size a pond in a park.	Maryland Public Television
	Alley Oops	Place and size a skateboard ramp in a park.
	Pentagonal Plot	Place and size a garden in an environmental center.
	3 R’s	Place and size a gazebo in an environmental center.
	Musical Scales	Discover the proportional relationship between the length of a musical pipe and its frequency or pitch.	Kentucky Educational Television
	Size-O-Rama	Measure an unknown height using information about a known height.
	Din-O-Rama	Scale a figure for placement in a diorama.
	At the Track	Explore the proportional relationships among speed, distance, and time.
	Similar Shadows	Calculate an unknown height using shadows and similar triangles.
	House of Scales	Determine the dimensions, area, and volume of a house using a 1:10 scale.
	Mural Math	Determine how much more paint is needed when the length and width of a painting are doubled or tripled.
	Drive-In Shadow Puppets	Explore the relationship between the size of an object’s shadow and its distance from a light source.
	Sunnyside Up	Scale up recipes for a family reunion.
	Sunnyside Up	Scale up a skillet to cook chicken for a crowd.
Applying the Process of Measurement	Roller Coaster – Scale Factor	Explore scale factors of roller coasters, dinosaurs and statues.	Alabama Public Television
Scale Factors	Paris	Measure distances on a map and calculate the actual distances.	Arkansas Public Television
Volume of a Cylinder	Ahoy Matey	Calculate the volume of a pond and the amount of water needed to fill it.	Maryland Public Television
	Aquatic Adventure	Calculate the volume of a pond and the amount of water needed to fill it.
Area of a Circle	Aquatic Adventure	Calculate the number of goldfish that can be placed in a pond.	Maryland Public Television
	Sunnyside Up	See how increasing the radius of a circle affects its area.	Kentucky Educational Television
Perimeter and Circumference	Slam Dunk	Calculate the number of cans of spray paint needed to paint the lines on a basketball court.	Maryland Public Television
Perimeter and Area	Tokyo	Solve problems using perimeters and areas of rectangles.	Arkansas Public Television
Area of a Composite Figure	Safety First	Find areas of composite figures in order to cover areas in a park with rubberized mulch.	Maryland Public Television
	Pentagonal Plot	Find area of composite figure in order to cover it with topsoil.
	3 R’s	Find area of composite figure in order to cover it flooring.
Rates and derived measurements	At the Track	Calculate speed in mph based on distance traveled in a set time or time taken to travel a set distance.	Kentucky Educational Television
Solving Problems Using Velocity and Mass	Bumper Cars– Storing and Using Energy in a Battery	Control the mass and velocity of a bumper car.	Alabama Public Television

Data and Probability In grades 6 – 8, all students should: Understand and apply basic concepts of probability
Concept	Link	Description	Produced by
Using proportionality and a basic understanding of probability to make and test conjectures about the results of experiments and simulations	Photo Booth– Rechargeable Batteries	Determine the proportional relationship between battery charge and the number of photos one can take.	Alabama Public Television
	Bumper Cars– Storing and Using Energy in a Battery	Control the mass and velocity of a bumper car.
	Drag Racing – Horsepower	Calculate horsepower and explore accelerating from 0 to 60 mph.
	Roller Coaster - The Inclined Plane	Determine the amount of force required to pull roller coasters up inclined planes.
	Parachute Drop - The Pulley	Explore and calculate force using different weights of people and different numbers of pulleys.
	Seesaw – The Lever	Explore different weights and positions needed to balance a seesaw.
	Ring the Bell – Acceleration	Explore the force that is necessary to “ring the bell.”
	Roller Coaster– Scale Factor	Explore scale factors of roller coasters, dinosaurs and statues.