Students, grades 3-6, in this elementary STEM lab took on a video and photo challenge to capture their discussions and plans from a recent Marshmallow Challenge. During the video challenge, they shared notes and final sketches that they used prior to building their structures.
A conversation about Digital Citizenship was a requirement prior to this challenge. Students planned academic/professional conversation and displays for their videos. They put away name tags to protect their privacy when posting to their teacher's Youtube channel. The students used the preview feature, prior to posting videos to make sure that they did not share personal information and that the learning process was more of the focus. This took some teamwork and quite a few tries.
Once the videos were captured and stored in the teacher Youtube channel, the links were shared on a Padlet wall. This online "wall" will allow for ongoing conversations and reflections with other students that visit STEM lab. This wall can also offer a quick way to share learning processes with homeroom teachers and students' families. The STEM teacher might use this as a place to assess the learning and to offer immediate feedback for students.
During the photo challenge, students took pictures of their final sketch or the actual Marshmallow structure. From the camera roll on the iPad, they could select the file and put this to the Padlet wall for publishing and further discussion.
By capturing scientific discussions and processes in STEM lab, the teacher and students now have an online record to share with others. Outside collaboration with other students and experts could be a future possibility!
Learning Objectives & Resources:
Marshmallow Challenge: http://marshmallowchallenge.com/Instructions.html
Chromebooks: http://www.google.com/edu/chromebooks/
iPads: https://www.apple.com/education/ipad/in-the-classroom/
Youtube Webcam Capture (only available at school through teacher accounts, under teacher supervision): Go to the Youtube app in GAFE, click on the Upload button. In the Create Videos column, click on the Record button under Webcam capture.
Padlet: http://padlet.com/
