"Simple as That" Project Meets the iPad in 2015

If you've been an avid follower of my blog for years, then you may remember my post in February of 2012 about our simple machines project. 

For the record, if you really have been reading my blog for that long.... I'm sending you a virtual hug right now. 

Now...hop in your time machine and flashback to 2012. 

Using the six computers in my classroom and Publisher my students created advertisements for Wal-Mart selling simple machines that had been disguised as common household products. Read more about the logistics and requirements for the projects ---> here. 

As the technology in my classroom has changed this project has evolved. Because of our iPads, we were able to do the same project this year... except we gave it major facelift and upgraded to Explain Everything! 

To begin the project, I handed out the project description and checklist. After we discussed what Wal-Mart would be looking for in the ads, I asked my students if THEY could be the teacher this time. Of course, students were more than willing to grade my work. :) While my 30-second ad played, students were checking off things I had included. 

For your viewing enjoyment, "Furnelly's Forks & Company":

I was slightly weary of showing an example to my students. I didn't want to stifle their creativity. However, I really think the example helped get my students in the right direction. The example was a great way to demonstrate my expectations for the project. I was also able to demonstrate how to get your point across - and stay focused - in about 30 seconds. 

Tomorrow we'll be uploading our projects to Dropbox and viewing the advertisements in class. Hmm.. I wonder if Wal-Mart will pick any of our products? :)

5th Grade Explains it All - Vertebrates Project

We kicked off the new year with a few new apps in 5th grade. (Catch up on my other iPad posts here) I've been anxious to use the app Explain Everything with my students since downloading it myself back in August. One of the (many) things that intrigued me about Explain Everything was the functionality - I could use it as a teaching tool and my students can create projects as well. 

As our first Explain Everything production, I decided to introduce the tool during my science classes (I have three sessions this year!). Mastering the five classes of vertebrates is a big deal in 5th grade and I thought it would be great - and equally fun - to introduce Explain Everything with this unit. 

My requirements for the project were the following:

Name the 5 classes of vertebrates

Provide three living examples of each vertebrate

Identify three characteristics of each vertebrate

From there.. the sky was the limit!

I strongly believe what made this project so successful (and fun.. have I mentioned how much my kids loved it?) was the intense app tutorial I provided on day one. I justified spending more time on introducing the app to eliminate confusion and frustration for the rest of the year. I simply introduced all of the features and walked through different samples with the kids. This way, they would spend more time focusing on the content of their project and not playing with the lightsaber feature. (Can you tell we had to spend time playing with the lightsaber?)

Once the kids started working on their project... they were ALL IN. Within 10 minutes, my students were showing ME the features I hadn't figured out yet. Pretty incredible! 

Our vertebrates project using @explaineverything are coming together!! #edtechchat pic.twitter.com/EHGFm9NhY4

— Jordon (@furnelly) January 16, 2015

I anticipate our next encounter with Explain Everything will not be as elaborate. I want students to see the app as tool to demonstrate their understanding of multiple content areas. I'm excited to see what else we create this year!

Curious to see some of our projects? Check out our playlist on YouTube! (P.S. Creating a playlist was a great and easy way to share our projects with families!)