Learning in the Lou

In the Marines we had this corporal who had us play these memory games. What he was helping us do was become hyper vigilant of our surroundings and commit to memory what we saw. I wasn't so sure it was working at first but then slowly I began to take notice of things I normally would have ignored. The lessons he taught us started to change how I saw my surroundings. This past summer I had a similar experience which opened my eyes to things that once went unnoticed. A handful of us participated in the STEM TQ program which put us on the path to becoming STEM capable learners. One of the big ideas was to see STEM everywhere, from a ball point pen to why water ponds on the parking lot. Today I had two experiences that made me stop and wonder. How is what I am seeing STEM? I left Truman and saw this leaf tornado. The red boxes highlight some of the leaves that suddenly started spinning almost out of nowhere. Was it due to the shape of the building? Was it two weather fronts ...

Copy Center - Sperreng Issue Sometimes you have this one paper document laying around that you need to quickly send to copy center. Sending over the paper is possible but that takes time. Why not just use your phone to scan and send? How Make sure you have downloaded Google Drive on your mobile device. Find and open Google Drive on your mobile device. Click the plus symbol in the lower right corner. Click Scan to open the camera. 1. Line up your shot. 2. Push the button to take the picture. Google Drive will then convert it into a PDF. Use the little circles to crop the PDF just right. Click the check in the lower right to save it to Drive. It is now uploaded to your Drive! NOTE! When sending an email to the copy center plase include:      subject line:            Copy Job for YOUR NAME (Copy Job Colin Davitt)       body of email:          ...

Just saw this and thought you might be interested in trying it out. Washington University's MySci Institute for School Partnership program created this Hour of Code page that offers a series of coding activities that appear to be based on weather. I think they are all on weather, I have not gone through them all yet. The idea of these challenges is to give you and your kids a little dabble time with what coding and how it is used in the actual world. Give it a shot, we are sure you will not be disappointed.

We have been making the rounds during our Lunch and Learn to talk about the power of #booksnaps. One idea that has plagued classrooms since the beginning of time is getting kids to share what they are doing with their classmates. Experiencing what our peers create is key to thinking about our own work and serves to push us to think from a different point of view. Any time we place work online it tends to make it much easier to see but it can offer barriers if it can't be accessed quickly. Did you know that within Seesaw there is a hidden little feature that can make the work the students created super visible? What if you could pin up a few exemplars for the class to discover on their own? Check out how to bring this idea to life. Teacher   Log into your Seesaw account on your laptop. Find the post you want to use as the exemplar. 1. Click the three dots in the lower right corner. 2. Click Get item QR code . Print and post the QR code. Student S...

We were at Dressel today when my friend gave me three of these amazing chocolates. I ate two almost instantly and left the third in my car for a few hours Just before I reached for it I suddenly stopped and thought about dinner last night. I made a batch of banana chocolate chip pancakes, mostly because plain pancakes are gross. I accidently dropped a chip near the hot griddle and when I went to grab what I thought was a solid chip all I got was chocolaty fingers.  Back in my car I hesitated picking up the Dove because I didn't know if it was solid or not. How is this STEM? What makes chocolate hold its shape even when it pretty much melted. Is it due to the Dove and chip where undisturbed and once a little force was applied they would collapse? Maybe the chemical structure of chocolate can withstand higher temperatures? A quick Google search could answer this right away and stop me from thinking about it. I wonder how many different solutions I could think of before I l...

Source: https://mojang.com/2016/01/announcing-minecraft-education-edition/ A great feature of Minecraft: Education Edition is the ability for the teacher (or a student) to host a game for others in a closed Minecraft world.  There are a few basic requirements we will need: All computers being used have Minecraft: Education Edition installed All computers are connected to the internet on the same wireless network (LindberghBYOD, for example) Note: teachers will need to turn off LAN just as they might at home or their local coffee shop All computers have a mouse connected (recommended) All students are logging into Minecraft with different account IDs The hosting computer has the desired Minecraft world loaded onto it If you are ready to go, follow these steps: All computers should launch Minecraft The hosting computer should launch into the desired Minecraft World Students who wish to join that game should find their hosting friend in the middle tab ...

Source: https://mojang.com/2016/01/announcing-minecraft-education-edition/ This is the sixth article in a special series on Minecraft: Education Edition .  We have been covered the process of downloading and installing Minecraft, adding and creating worlds, and playing through the first three parts of the world, Tutorial: Volume II.  Now we are ready to walk through Stage 4, which will explore a number of features found exclusively in Minecraft: Education Edition.  If you are interested in viewing previous articles in this series, head to the bottom of the page where you will find the links. So far in this series, we've been exploring the basics of playing Minecraft without talking about what teaches can do to design and maintain worlds that promote learning.  Questions that we will address during Stage 4 include: How do I edit the world I am sharing with students? What are some ways students can document their learning and creations? How do I kee...