Category Archives: Teaching
Ride Poster Improvements
A classroom teacher I am working with for the first time had some great ideas for improving the ride poster for our second grade open ended engineering challenge to make their own amusement park ride. She told the students to … Continue reading
4 Color Map Problem Video
Here’s a video of some grade 4 students working on the famous 4 color map problem. They formed spontaneous groups to try and find 5 color counterexamples, maps that REQUIRE 5 colors. 4 Color Map Problem from John Heffernan … Continue reading
4 Color Map Problem Research Conclusion
It was extremely valuable and interesting for me to take a lesson I have been doing for twenty years and examine it in-depth and against the background of extant research and theory. For example, the research provided insights into how … Continue reading
Spinning Top Misconceptions
The study of alternative or common misconceptions is an active educational research field (Confrey 1990). I have been paying more attention to it in my second grade robotics unit this year which focuses on gears and pulleys. One the of … Continue reading
Adapting Classic Computer Science Problems for Elementary Students: Case Study of the Four Color Map Theorem
Here’s the abstract for a little research project I am planning for my final project for my inquiry learning course. Still trying to pinpoint exactly what to collect for data and what I am looking for. I tend to be … Continue reading
Computer Programming at Williamsburg Schools
There’s been a lot of buzz about a recent video featuring Mark Zuckerberg (founder of FaceBook) and Bill Gates (co-founder of Microsoft). You can watch it at http://www.code.org/. The video advocates the teaching of programming to students (including young students). … Continue reading
English Language Arts Common Standards That Relate to Technology
Massachusetts Common Core Writing Standards with Explicit Technology Integration Compiled by John Heffernan, Williamsburg Schools Guiding Principle 3 An effective English language arts and literacy curriculum draws on informational texts and multimedia in order to build academic vocabulary and strong … Continue reading
Preparation
Well, our NSF National Robotics Initiative (NRI) grant is pretty much done as well as my class in Research in Science, Math, and Learning Technologies so I can get back to some blogging. I am teaching in a second school … Continue reading
The Times They Are A Changing
I was teaching robotics today at a new school and the 6th graders were timing their cars to determine the velocity. I started to tell them to use the second hand of the classroom clock to time their cars going … Continue reading
Robotics Starts!
I had my first robotics class last week. In order to get every grade level done, I need to start in September. I am starting with grade 4 (2 sections) this year. The kids were very eager to get going. … Continue reading
