Monitoring the Environment with Digital Technology

School NRM Environment Grant

In 2018-2019, our school received an NRM Environment Grant for the purchase of digital equipment and nesting boxes.  This project has enabled our students to engage more closely with the Hahndorf Creek & surrounding environment by using this equipment to collect evidence of existing plants & wildlife and to monitor environmental changes that are related to our larger Creek restoration project.

We would like to share some photos and videos from this project.

Smartphone Microscope Converters

These $5 converters attach to our iPads and allow us to take photos and videos with up to 30x magnification.

Check out our amazing galleries of photos and videos.

 

 

Make sure you have the sound turned up for the videos to hear the excitement of discovery in our voices.

 

Motion Sensing Camera

This Swift Enduro motion sensing camera has been set up in the school grounds and along the creek to take photos and videos whenever it detects movement OR at certain time intervals (timelapse mode).

Some of our SLC students learnt how to set up and install the camera and have discovered that it takes patience and perseverance to get good footage!!  Below are some photos and video, including a timelapse video of our tree planting day.

 

Nesting Boxes

We purchased 3 medium parrot nesting boxes and a brushtail possum box.  These arrived in flat packs and some of our SLC students put them together and painted them with timber oil.  They are now waiting to be installed on trees along our creek and in our school grounds.

Once our nest boxes are installed we are looking forward to using our nest box camera to monitor the comings and goings of wildlife to the boxes.

STAY TUNED for more photos and video in the months ahead

 

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Scratch Jr Animations & Quizzes

Our Junior Learning Community students have been busy designing and creating animations and quizzes in the Scratch Jr visual coding iPad app.

 

Year 2 Animations

Year 2 students were given a 20 x 15 grid on which to draw a background and character(s) for their animation.  They then designed an algorithm which listed the sequence of instructions needed to move one of the characters through a set path on the screen.

Students then coded their animation by dragging the Scratch coding blocks from the blocks palette to the programming area at the bottom of the screen.

Here is a video of Phoebe’s Racing Girl animation.

 

Year 3 Times Table Quizzes

Year 3 students had a more complex task, which involved branching and user input.  They designed and coded a times table quiz, where each question had 1 correct answer and 2 incorrect answers.  The characters on their screen would perform different actions depending on the answer chosen.  Students began the process by designing their screen and algorithm on paper.

They then coded their quiz using Scratch Jr coding blocks.

Here is a video of Marley’s Times Tables Quiz.

 

Australian Curriculum Links

Foundation to Year 2

ACTDIK001 – Recognise and explore digital systems (hardware and software components) for a purpose

ACTDIP004 – Follow, describe and represent a sequence of steps and decisions (algorithms) needed to solve simple problems

Year 3 – 4

ACTDIP010 – Define simple problems, and describe and follow a sequence of steps and decisions (algorithms) needed to solve them

ACTDIP011 – Implement simple digital solutions as visual programs with algorithms involving branching (decisions) and user input

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Coding with Scratch the Cat

For the last two weeks, Year 2 & 3 students in our Junior Learning Community have been learning how to design & code their own interactive stories and games in the Scratch Jr Coding app.

The students learnt how to select or draw scenes and characters and then used visual coding blocks to write instructions for the characters.  These instructions enabled the characters to move left, right, up and down; to turn around, hop, grow, shrink, disappear, appear and speak.  By dragging and connecting the coding blocks in the correct sequence, students were able to construct a series of actions for each character and were able to send messages between characters to control the order in which the characters performed their actions.

Coding enables students to acquire knowledge & understanding of digital systems and to practice and learn processes and production skills which are part of the Australian Digital Technologies Curriculum.

Here are some photos of our coders in action and a video of some of the projects.

 

Video : JLC Scratch Jr Projects

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Rap IT

GarageBandDuring Creative Arts last term our year 3 and 5 students looked at the basic structure of lyric writing and music composition using digital technology.  Their summative task was to write their own lyrics for a rap song on a chosen topic and then use the Garageband app to create their backing music and record their lyrics.

Students learnt about the structure of a rap song and music recording concepts such as time signature, tempo, bars and count-in.

The students selected ‘Apple Loops’ from the Garageband app as their backing music tracks and were encouraged to gradually build up the tracks at the beginning of the song and gradually fade them out at the end. Here are some examples. The picture is a screenshot from the Garageband project, showing the individual tracks and the build up and fade out of each. If you click on the picture, you can listen to the rap.

Sweets – by Isabella and Tegan

Footy – by Oliver and Sam

Chocolate – by Chloe and Eliza

Maths – by David and Macca

More information

The instructions the students followed to create their rap song in Garageband can are available in this document – GarageBand – Making a Rap Song.

 

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Curriculum Support through ICT

As well as using ICT as an essential tool for inquiry, communication, collaboration and content creation, St Michael’s students and staff have access to several fantastic websites and apps to support their learning in all areas of the curriculum.  To access the websites, the school usually pays a subscription for each student, so that they can access all features of the site, login from school or home, and have their progress monitored by their teacher.  The school also purchases apps for specific areas of the curriculum, as outlined at the end of this post.

Mathletics

Mathletics2

http://www.mathletics.com.au/

Mathletics is an engaging eLearning website which contains over 1000 learning activities covering all areas of Mathematics.  It is aligned to the Australian Curriculum, enabling teachers to easily find suitable content for their students.  Students are given a username and password and they can then access the website from school or home, using an internet browser or an iPad app.  Student’s progress is recorded and then staff can access powerful reporting tools to see individual and class strengths and weaknesses.

Students can also challenge other classmates or students from other schools in games of speed and skill.

IMG_2347Mathletics3

 

 

 

 

 

Spelling City

SpellingCitySpelling City provides spelling, vocabulary and writing activities for our students, through it’s website and iPad app.  Our student’s primarily use the spelling activities, where they can access their weekly spelling lists and access activities based on those words and also spelling and vocabulary tests.

Teachers can set up the lists or access lists shared by other educators, including many lists from the Jolly Phonics programme.

SpellingCity

ABC Reading Eggs

ReadingEggs LogoABC Reading Eggs is an online world where children learn to read. It supports each child’s learning by offering individual, one-on-one lessons that allow children to progress at their own rate.  Reading Eggs makes learning to read interesting and engaging for kids, with great online reading games and activities.

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Scootle

Scootle LogoScootle is a free website with thousands of digital resources to support the Australian Curriculum.  For teachers, it contains videos, photos, audio, ideas and units of work that they can access and share with their students.

For students, there are also many interactive multimedia resources which combine still and moving images, text, audio and animation to provide engaging and motivating experiences for students.  The activities are based on the most recent research into how children learn and how teachers can facilitate learning.

 Scootle1 Scootle2

 

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iPad Apps

Some of the most popular iPad apps we have purchased for curriculum support over the last couple of years include:

HookedOnPhonicsHooked on Phonics
By Hooked on Phonics
This digital reading program is based on the award-winning Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read system with which millions have learned to read.

rED WritingrED Writing – Learn to Write
By Rogue Mobile
App for teaching children how to write letters and numbers using Australian education approved font.  Co-designed by an Australian teacher for children aged 3-7 years old.

FriendsOfTenFriends of Ten
By Aleesha Kondys
App for use in early school years to introduce an understanding of numbers to ten, counting objects, subitising, counting on from a number, partitioning of objects & combinations that make ten.

Subitising Flash CardsSubitising Flash Cards
By Aleesha Kondys
App for testing subitising knowledge by recognising small groups of objects without counting.

Moofy Recognizing Pattern Games Moofy Recognizing Pattern Games
By PlaySmart-Kids
App for learning alphabet and number ordering and recognizing patterns with simple shapes and colours.

Jungle AppsJungle Coins, Jungle Fractions, Jungle Time
By Andrew Short
Engaging apps for teaching coin maths, fractions and telling the time.

 

 

 

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Explain Everything

ExplainEverythingExplain Everything is a wonderful interactive whiteboard and screen-casting app.  It allows you to create interactive video presentations that includes pictures, text, video, drawings, shapes, pointers and of course, your voice.  The result is a video file that you can share with others to demonstrate your knowledge of a topic or to create instructional videos for other students or teachers.

As part of their Unit of Inquiry on Forces, year 4 students were asked to use the Explain Everything app to explain the different types of forces, show examples of simple machines, explain how forces effect objects and show examples of forces in everyday life.  Here is one student’s video.

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iPads in the Creative Arts room

In Cathy Hunt’s fantastic iBook titled iPad Art, she says

iPad ArtroomThe personal mobile devices we see in the hands of our students are powerful tools for creation.  Mistakes can be erased, experiments are easily undertaken, exploration is exciting, learning is student-centred and confidence reigns supreme. 

But how do you integrate iPads into the hands-on classroom?  It’s not about getting rid of the great things we’ve always done in the art room – the iPad and other technology can be valuable additions to your teaching tool kit.  The studio really is a place where paint and pixels can work together to enhance creativity, visual literacy, divergent thinking, ideation and more.

Our students have been exploring the world of digital art in the following ways:

Still life drawings

As part of a Unit of Inquiry on “How We Express Ourselves”, some classes were given the task of using the Drawing Box app to re-create a still life artwork.  They were asked to use several different shades of colour and to become familiar with blending and the mixing of colours.  Here are some of the masterpieces.

 

Music Video Clips

As part of another Unit of Inquiry on “How We Express Ourselves”, students were given the task of creating digital music and then complementing the music with visual images in the form of a pop-style video clip.  More than one app was used in this process, which introduces the concept of ‘Workflow’, where the output of one app is used as input to the next app until the final product is completed.  The apps used in the process were GarageBand, VideoFX Live and iMovie.

Some of the things students were asked to consider in making their music video clip were:

  1. What makes a song catchy?
  2. What effect does the speed of the tempo have on my song?
  3. How can I use the editing tools to help create dynamics?
  4. How can I keep the listener interested?
  5. What effects can I add to emphasis the feeling of my song?

Here is a brief compilation of some of the student’s music video clips.

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Term 1 2013

A Busy Start to the Year

Term 1 was an amazingly busy term as far as ICT developments go at St Michael’s.  Over the Christmas holidays we had a brand new server installed and some new cabling to the Junior Primary building, which will set us up nicely for future broadband developments and wi-fi access to the server and the internet from every classroom and building around the school.

Acer Tablet PCs

At the beginning of the term we received delivery of 90 Acer tablets for our Senior students to use throughout the year.  Along with the 30 that we already had from last year, there are now enough for each Senior student to use throughout the school day.  The students were very excited to receive these tablets and have been using them in class for research, communication, collaboration and presentation of assignments and class work.

iPads

Thanks to our Parents & Friends Committee, we have been able to purchase 15 more iPads.  Together with the 15 we purchased last year, we now have enough for students to have one each when they are loaned out to their class.  We have loaded a lot of apps on the iPads, for all year levels, in the areas of Literacy, Maths, Science, Christian Studies, Books, Word processing, Presentation, drawing and multimedia creation.  The built in and free apps such as the Camera, Google, Facetime, Skype and Voice Recorder have also proved very popular.

Cybersafety

The 10th Safer Internet Day was celebrated worldwide on Tuesday 5 February 2013 with the day focusing on online rights and responsibilities.  The key message this year was “Connect with Respect” and the our Senior students participated in an interactive workshop where they learnt about their online rights and responsibilities.  The students voted that the most important online rights were safety and privacy and the most important online responsibilities were respecting others, managing their time online and abiding by school policies.  You can watch one of the videos that they watched by clicking here or visit the Cybersmart website at www.cybersmart.gov.au for other great cyber safety resources.

Later in the term I ran more Cybersafety sessions with Year 3 and 4 students, where we learnt about ‘Keeping Personal Information Safe’ and ‘Cyberbullying’We learnt about this from Hector the Dolphin and his friends at the Cybersmart Website.  Click here if you would like to visit this site.

Making Advertisements

In the second half of the term, the year 5 classes inquired into the transdisciplinary theme ‘How we express ourselves’ by exploring the central idea ‘Advertising attempts to influence the way people think and act.’  As part of their assessment, the students worked in small groups to invent a product, design a logo and a slogan for the product, and then create a 30 second advertisement for the product.  After the students had planned and videoed footage for the advertisment, they spent several sessions in the Computer room using Windows Live Movie Maker to edit the video clips and add music, voice-overs, captions and special effects. The students commented about how they had learnt a lot about working in teams, using Movie maker and the challenge of condensing all of their video footage into only 30 seconds!

Super Super Energy Max

Jelly Shoes

Blogs

All of our classes now have a class blog where they can share information, news, photos and resources with families and the wider school community.  All families should have now received instructions on how to access these blogs and they can also been accessed from the Parent Portal on the Parent Information page of the School website.  There is also a blog for Creative Arts, German, Physical Education, Library and ICT.  Families would also have received instructions for subscribing to these blogs so that they are sent an email whenever anything new is added.  Please ensure that you do this so that you receive immediate notification of important news.

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Maths, Literacy and iBooks

During a mathematics unit on Volume and Capacity, Mrs Kruger’s year 3 students were asked to create an informative iBook.  The students were given several plastic containers and then asked to estimate and subsequently measure which would hold the most water and pasta.  Each group was given an iPad so that they could take photographs of each step and then produce an iBook containing

  • The learning intention
  • Definitions of the mathematical terms
  • Photos and text explanations of each step
  • Results and reflections
  • Voice narration

The students used the popular Book Creator app to create their iBooks.  Here are some examples

Harry and Josh – (Open in iBooks)
Harry and Josh – (pdf format, no audio)

Aisha and Chantelle – (Open in iBooks)
Aisha and Chantelle – (pdf format, no audio)

Emma, Jade and Chloe – (Open in iBooks)
Emma, Jade and Chloe – (pdf format, no audio)

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iPads in the Classroom

Last term we purchased 15 iPads for shared use among our classes. These new devices were received with great excitement from students and staff alike, and I thought that now might be a good time to reflect on our experiences to date.

Why iPads?

With many different tablet and mobile devices on the market, we carefully reviewed other options before selecting the iPads. Although most options would have met many of the following criteria, the iPads were the most suitable device across the board.

  • They start up instantaneously and are ready to use immediately. No network login is required.
  • Their touch interface, large screen size and portability make them very easy for the students to handle and use.
  • They allow quick and easy access to information, multimedia and learning activities.
  • They enable access to a whole new market of educational ‘apps’ through the Apple App store – many of which are free.
  • They are great for taking photos and videos and recording audio.

We chose to purchase the iPad 2 16GB Wi-fi model. These were purchased on special as the supplier was clearing this model out to make way for the ‘new iPad’. We didn’t see any major benefit in purchasing the ‘new iPad’ at this stage and so were content with the iPad 2, especially at the discounted price. We also chose the base model (16GB) over the 32Gb or 64Gb model and didn’t worry about the 3G functionality as they will primarily be connected to the school Wi-Fi network.

Challenges

Some of the challenges that we faced in the initial setup and ongoing use of the iPads were as follows.

  • iPads were designed as a personal, single-user device and we needed to use them in a shared environment. Where students needed to save and share work, we needed clear, simple procedures for doing this.
  • Apple had no volume licencing program for iTunes purchases in Australia. To comply with the App Store terms and conditions we had to set up an iTunes account for each iPad and ensure that we purchased apps legally.
  • With so many apps on the market, we needed to decide which ones to load on the iPads up front and how to manage requests from teachers for new apps. Several apps were free, but for purchased apps we needed to set a $limit per iPad and manage how to decide which apps to purchase.
  • We needed to set up and manage the iPads effectively and efficiently, ensuring that the setup was identical on each one.
  • We needed to set up procedures for storing, carrying, charging, backing up, updating, upgrading and maintaining the iPads.

This involved a lot of up-front effort, but once set up the on-going maintenance of the iPads has been quite straight forward. Given the small number of iPads, we manage them individually over the school Wi-Fi network and have not invested in any multiple device configuration or synchronisation software at this stage.

iPad Setup

We bundled the 15 iPads into 3 sets of 5 and purchased sturdy carry bags for transporting them around the school. Each set was colour coded and we designed and installed a unique wallpaper on each iPad which had a background colour to match the set colour, the school logo and the iPad number. The apps were installed identically on each iPad and spanned 3 home screens. Several of the default settings were changed, including the following.

  • General > About > Name : Each iPad was given a unique name from smlpsipad01 to smlpsipad15.
  • General > Auto Lock : We increased this to 15 minutes so that the screens wouldn’t go into lock mode too quickly during lessons.
  • General > iPad Cover Lock/Unlock : We turned this off to prevent the iPad going into lock mode when the cover was ‘flapping’.
  • General > Restrictions : We turned restrictions ON and DISABLED access to YouTube, FaceTime, iTunes, Ping, Installing Apps, Deleting Apps, In-App Purchases and the Game Center. We configured the settings in the ‘Allowed Content’ section appropriate to primary school aged children.
  • Mail, Contacts, Calendars : We set up a unique gmail account for each iPad using gmail’s plus addressing syntax (ie smlpsipad+01@gmail.com). We then changed the e-mail signature to “Sent from smlpsipad01” etc. This allows students to send documents they have created on the iPad to their teacher and the teacher can identify the exact iPad from which the e-mail was sent.

Apps

A full list of apps that we installed is in our document titled ‘Student iPad Setup’. A few that have been put to good use at this stage include.

Book Creator
by Dan Amos
A simple iBook creator. Add photos, videos, music, voiceovers, text, colourful backgrounds etc. Read your creations in the iBook reader or share as an iBook or pdf file.

Several junior primary classes have used this app to create iBooks and pdf documents. The Year 1 classes created narrated iBooks for their Unit of Inquiry on story writing.

Google Earth
by Google Inc
A virtual globe, map and geographical information app. Explore global satellite and aerial imagery, geo-located photos and Wikipedia articles etc.

The Year 3 classes used Google Earth to explore natural and built structures around the world and the Year 4 classes used it to explore Asia.

lino
by Infoteria Corporation
On-line sticky note app. Post, see and peel off stickies on on-line collaborative canvases, which are also accessible from PC browsers. Stickies can contain text, images and videos.

Several classes have created collaborative canvases using this app on the iPads or on the lino website from the schools PC’s.

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Camera
by Apple
The built-in camera app takes still photos and video and saves to them the Camera Roll in the Photo app.

Most year levels have enjoyed using the iPads as another method of taking photos and videos to use in documents, presentations, video clips and movies.

 

Our reception classes have enjoyed using the following literacy and numeracy apps …

rED Writing
by Rogue Mobile
An app for teaching children how to write letters and numbers using Australian education approved font. Co-designed by an Australian teacher for children aged 3-7 years old.

abc PocketPhonics
by Apps in My Pocket Ltd
An app for teaching the basics of reading and writing to young kids (aged 3 to 6). Letter sounds, handwriting, first words.


FriendsOfTen

by Aleesha Kondys
An app for use in early schooling years to introduce an understanding of numbers to ten, counting objects, subitising, counting on from a higher number, partitioning of objects and combinations that make ten.

Subitising Flash Cards
by Aleesha Kondys
An app for testing subitising knowledge by recognising small groups of objects without counting.

 

 

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