Who-gnu?!

Typeracer for Schools - Great Keyboarding site

janders31@gmail.com — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 20:33:00 +0000

As students enter my middle school Computer Lab, they immediately ask if they can go to the keyboarding site, Typeracer for Schools to race their friends. If the answer is yes, the room quickly becomes electric with the excitement of the keyboarding races which the site is based on. Students excitedly call across the room to others as they learn on their screen who they are about to race against and a friendly banter begins, as their racecars speed across the top of their screen.

I recently learned about and signed up my school for the Typeracer for Schools and have been delighted with its ease of use and account set-up; its racecar/words per minute format; and most of all, the eagerness and excitement that my 6th, 7th and 8th grade students get from participating in this keyboarding game. These are students with a typing rate of as low as 10-12 words per minute, to up to 80 words per minute. And, yes, within a relatively short time of using the site, I am seeing an improvement in my students’ keyboarding skills and words per minute speed - with no drudgery or complaints on their part, I might add!

Another feature that I particularly like about the Typeracer for Schools site is that students aren’t just typing individual words; they’re typing sentences complete with commas, exclamation points, dashes and quotation marks. And, better yet, these sentences are from reading materials that they have read at school. As the teacher in charge of the typeracer school account, I can enter short or long passages and/or sentences from specific novels or poetry that students have read that then they will type in their races. Or, if you as the teacher don’t have time to enter specific sentences from your own curriculum, students will be typing from the thousands of sentences/passages that the typeracer site provides for you. These lines are level-based, and in a short time, the site will recognize what level a student is typing at, so it will provide either a more difficult or easier passage, depending on the student’s rate of typing.

It appears from the levels that I’ve seen on Typeracer for Schools, young elementary typists to high school/college age students can all find content and typing levels that will be appropriate and suitable.

Typeracer For Schools is a keyboarding teacher’s dream! But, most of all, as I mentioned earlier, the students LOVE it! I have many students who want to return to the site even on their own at home at night whether or not I assign it as 15 minutes a night homework. One fun feature is from home at night they can notify their friends that they are on the site and can send them the URL to the exact “racetrack” that they are on so they can race against each other! They love that feature!

You can also imagine my delight as an educator when the students finish a race and learn on their screen that the book passage is from Gary Paulsen’s, “Hatchet,” or Lois Lowry’s, “The Giver,” or even some whimsical lines from Dr. Seuss. I hear, “Oh, that was from “Holes!” We just read that in our Language Arts class. I loved that book!” A short conversation by others who were in the same race often follows – “Oh, remember how those boys were sent to dig those holes all over the place?” “Yeah, what was the thing with the onion juice?” Another student will pipe in, and a brief little discussion and review of one of their middle school readings takes place - a moment for their teacher to take pause and smile.

“Yes, they were paying attention when they read that book and now they are to their keyboarding! Thank you Typeracer for Schools, for adding some fun and excitement to our learning at school today!!”

The Meaning of Life Video

janders31@gmail.com — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 23:43:00 +0000

Mr. Neat's Engineering Class: Hybrid goKart

janders31@gmail.com — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:00:00 +0000

More good stuff - Solving Real World Problems with Dr. Neato.

Check out at the end of the video students driving the Go-Karts that they built in class!!

2009 JPL Invention Challenge - Crescenta Valley High Team

janders31@gmail.com — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:54:00 +0000

Solving Real World Problems!
Friend Greg Neat - aka Dr. Neato, and his bridge building Engineering Class.

Project Based Learning

janders31@gmail.com — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:21:00 +0000

Project-Based learning allows students to become invested in their own learning. Research shows that students have different learning styles and that those who are engaged and provided a varied approach to their learning, aside from just using textbooks, are often eager and ready to learn more, ask important questions, and develop some critical thinking skills! If educators are able to provide a learning environment where students can more actively participate in their own interests and learning in an engaging, challenging and stimulating manner, we can see some exciting results!

Over the years many different terms have been used to explain this active and creative learning style - Experiential Learning, Hands-on Learning, Problem-Based Learning, or Inquiry Learning. This video shares with you some examples of students and teachers involved in active project based learning activities.

Think about one lesson that you do with your students and think of how you could open it up to a more project-based learning activity! More tangible, hands-on LEARNING and more FUN for everyone!!

PTC-ProDesktop CAD Program

janders31@gmail.com — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:20:00 +0000

PTC ProDesktop is an introductory CAD program. CAD stand for Computer Aided Design.

All types of engineers, designers and architects use CAD programs to help them with their design work these days. You don't need to be a great artist any more to work in these fields, although it is helpful if you can "think visually" - or, picture your ideas in 3-D.
Even jewelry and cake designers use CAD programs for their work...have you ever seen that TV show - "Ace of Cakes?" They definitely use a CAD program for all of those fancy designs that they create!
Spend some time with this program and learn some of the basic tools of how it works.

Design Squad - Collective Collaboration

janders31@gmail.com — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

In this episode of Design Squad the teams are presented with a challenge to create a better peanut butter making machine for a community in the poverty stricken country of Haiti. When they first learn about the challenge the teams are shown a short video of how peanut butter is made in Haiti. You will see that these Haitians live in very primitive and limited conditions. The teams are then given certain criteria that they must understand for creating their final project - their device must use only manual power - no electricity, and be made with parts that can easily be replaced and repaired in Haiti.

As you watch the video you'll see the challenges and difficulties that each team has in their process. You should start to recognize the steps of the Engineering Design Process as you follow along. Keep that in mind because after watching this video you will being completing a short project using the video and the Engineering Design Process!

Design Squad Engineer

janders31@gmail.com — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 23:28:00 +0000

The field of engineering can be many things.
Designing new products, coming up with new materials for these products, and testing things out....to name just one aspect in the many fields of engineering.

This video shows us the work of a design engineer, Connie Yang, an MIT graduate who loves being outdoors and doing different outdoor sports. Connie is currently working on designing new style tents for the NEMO Company.

I'm sure her work is quite difficult, but it actually looks kind of fun in this video. Makes you think that being an engineer could be quite stimulating, creative, challenging and fun!!

Check it out!

Kite Power?!

janders31@gmail.com — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 13:57:00 +0000

Saul Griffith unveils the invention his new company Makani Power has been working on: giant kite turbines that create surprising amounts of clean, renewable energy.
A TED video

Honda Cog Commerical

janders31@gmail.com — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 13:39:00 +0000

Stop Motion Animations

janders31@gmail.com — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 13:27:00 +0000

Leonard Zakim Memorial Bridge Boston, MA

janders31@gmail.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:48:00 +0000

Galloping Gertie: The Collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge

janders31@gmail.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:27:00 +0000

Model Making - Bridges

janders31@gmail.com — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:47:00 +0000

Bike Pack

janders31@gmail.com — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:10:00 +0000

Now here's a clever idea and design

for those who like to mountain bike....

a bike that folds up into it's own pack,

so you can carry it up the mountain...and ride down!

Google Docs

janders31@gmail.com — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:23:00 +0000

If you are one of those people who doesn't own Power Point (and a Student Edition can cost about $75.00), you may want to check into Google Docs. Google has come up with several different programs that we can use including spreadsheets, making forms/quizzes, even making your own website, using google...and the beauty of it is -it's all for free!

In Google docs there is a category called Presentations where you can create a Power Point presentation, similar to the ones we've done in school. A great added feature of Google Presentations is that if you and another student are working on a project together, you can both contribute to the Presentation, but also can work on it separately - each in your own home!

Check out this little intro video to Google Docs

You will need to create your own gmail account to get to these Google options and then you'll be able to create your own projects, so you should check in with your parents on that. Let your parents know if have any questions about this that they can email/check in with me anytime.

Not Your Average Bridge!

janders31@gmail.com — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:50:00 +0000

In London there's an interesting bridge that pedestrians and boaters get to navigate. It's called a Rolling Bridge (some call it a "curling bridge"), and that's just what it does...curl up on itself, much like one of those "pill bugs" that you used to find as a kid, that curled up into a miniature looking soccer ball in your hand when you picked it up!

Thomas Heatherwick's studio designed and built this unique design. It opens only on Fridays at noon, and draws quite a crowd when it does. Apparently it runs on hydraulic pistons that activate the curling motion of the bridge that otherwise spans about 40 feet.

To see some great animated graphics of moveable bridges check out the site on Wikipedia...

Veggie Cars

janders31@gmail.com — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:33:00 +0000

Some people have figured out a way to change their diesel engine cars and trucks so that they can run on used French Fry oil...yes, that's right...I said used French Fry oil!

When a restaurant is finished with using the frying oil that cooks those tasty French Fries, Fried Clams, Fried Dough, deep fried anything actually, they have to drain it and add a new batch of oil to the Fry-olator. They also need to get rid of the old, used cooking oil, but they just can't throw it away into the trash. Restaurants have to pay a special oil removal service to take it away.

This is where some very clever college students came up with the idea of using the used cooking oil instead of gasoline to run their diesel engine cars. They go around to different restaurants and offer to take away the used oil for free, so the restaurant owners like that they don't have to pay to have someone take it away.

Justin Carven started his business - "greasecar.com" out in Western Massachusetts after doing a lot of hands-on research while he was in school at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA.

Another fellow, Josh Tickle, had just completed a cross-country trip in his bio-diesel-run van and wrote about this experience in his book, "From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank" . Carven took some of the ideas that Tickell wrote about and applied them to his theories on creating a converter for diesel engine cars. He's been in business selling these converters since 2000, and business is steady and rapidly growing! More than a few people are jumping onto this idea of burning used veggie fuels to run our cars!

Click on the title above to learn about Justin Carven and his company, greasecar.com.

Fastest Swimsuit

janders31@gmail.com — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:50:00 +0000

You might remember hearing the big controversy just before the summer Olympics this year in Beijing. Everyone was talking about how some swimmers from certain countries had an advantage over others because of their new swim suits. Once the swimsuit design and materials that made it up was made public, each country's swim team scrambled to get their team suited up in time for the Olympics.

If you watched the swim races you probably noticed Michael Phelps was one of the swimmers wearing one of the full-length Speedo LZR-Racer suits (laser...get it?!), that is if you could take your eyes off of all of the gold medals hanging around his neck!

These new swimsuits proved that they could indeed help the swimmers improve their performance and race times in the water. This was all because of first a great idea that they turned into a good design, made with the right materials, and repeated testing of different designs that helped the engineers/designers come up with their best product.

The Engineering Design Process in action!

Click on the title above to read further about how they created this swimsuit. You can listen to the podcast, too.

BackPack Power

janders31@gmail.com — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 21:59:00 +0000

Are you thinking that that backpack you bring to school is just TOO heavy?! When you try to cram just one more book into it, does it feel like it's going to rip the seams out?

Let's face it, backpacks do provide a convenient way to carry our things...lots of things. Some scientists/engineers are developing a new kind of backpack that not only carries our stuff, but can produce electricity while you're walking... and, be lighter in weight too!

Why would you want your backpack to produce electricity? Well, think about all of your electronics -- MP3s, cell phones, even lights... What they need to run on?...Electricity! Usually you have to hook them up to a charger when you get home, but with this new invention you can charge them as you are walking!

Click on the title above to read further about this interesting new invention that has some great potential to power our electronics and possibly even be a bit lighter for us to carry all that stuff we just have to have in there!

The Falkirk Wheel

janders31@gmail.com — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 12:46:00 +0000

A tremendous engineering feat - The Falkirk Wheel. It was constructed in Scotland to connect two canals together for ferry travel. It connects the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal and has a diameter of 35-meters and two arms shaped like big bird heads complete with beaks, that carry the ferry boats from one canal to the other as they rotate around.

Click on the title to watch a great video of it in operation!

Walsh Wildcat E-Zine

janders31@gmail.com — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:15:00 +0000

If you haven't found our school on-line E-Zine yet, just click on the title above and it will direct you there.

Several students from school participate in either writing articles, providing artwork, or taking pictures for this on-line "newspaper." We try to have new editions once or twice a month where we cover lots of school activities as well as just all kinds of stuff that we like - and think you will too!

Feeling creative? Want to share some fun stuff with the rest of the school? Come on down and join us with your creative ideas and be a part of this cool on-line community!

Trebuchet Challenge

janders31@gmail.com — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:46:00 +0000

We've been having some fun with this site (click on title above), especially after 7th graders designed and made their trebuchets, siege machines, or ballisters in the woodshop/fabrication lab next door.

As you may know these were made mostly for battle in the Middle Ages days of old...it was the technology of their time!

On the game site give it a try to create a trebuchet that goes for accuracy, distance, and/or power! There are some physics involved...like potential energy, kinetic energy, projectile motion and gravity...but, don't let that scare you!

If you search on-line for "trebuchet videos" you can find some fun modern- day creations that some HS and college students are doing with these big sling-flinging machines. In the fall some schools have big Pumpkin Flinging catapult/trebuchet contests...see if you can find some to check out!

Shel Silverstein

janders31@gmail.com — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:16:00 +0000

Did you grow up listening to and reading the stories and wacky poems of Shel Silverstein?

Remember "Where the Sidewalk Ends?" "The Giving Tree?" and "A Giraffe and a Half?"

Although Shel Silverstein died in 1999, they've put out a new publication of one of his earlier works. One great thing about this new/old work is his wonderful and wildly creative sketches are in color, not black and white as many of his works are. Silverstein's great humor and imaginative fun with twisting words and names around will delight you again in this new release - "Don't Bump the Gump."

Another great find that I'll bet you'll like is the Shel Silverstein website. It's animated, has audio and lots of fun things for readers of all ages to get a kick out of, turn a smile, and want to re-read again and again.

Click on the title above to get there and find yourself back with Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who would not take the garbage out, and lots of other fun and funny characters you may remember!

April is National Poetry Month...write a poem for yourself for the fun of it!

DO Something!

janders31@gmail.com — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 14:11:00 +0000

Click on the title (above) to check out this site http://www.dosomething.org/

If you want to do something good with your cellphone and your free time check out this site.
"Do Something Now" is a database of volunteer opportunities for teens. You can access them by texting "Do Something" to #30644, insert your zip code (no other personal info is needed), and you will get a monthly list on your cell of teen-appropriate volunteer opportunities at Boston-area organizations.

Their site has lots of good projects and causes to learn about and participate in for you, your friends and family.

You might find it fun to join in on one of the projects...meet some new people who have similar ideas and interests like you do...and, just feel good about yourself for participating in helping others!
You can check out the widget on the sidebar to see some of the causes and projects that the volunteers of "Do Something" are working on.

Who-Gnu?!