Observation Coincidences

This past Wednesday, I walked into my Grade 6 classroom for observation to be greeted by a pleasant surprise. My Grade 6s were finishing up a unit on flight and a Mad Science presenter was coming in to do activities with the students. I was learning forward to sharing my new paper airplane knowledge with the students.

As the day progressed, the class reviewed principles of drag, aerodynamics and how a plane creates lift by utilizing areas of low and high pressure. Check out the link below to learn more about this! But finally, the time came for the paper airplane competition. The Mad Scientist challenged the students to create a plane that would stay aloft for the longest period of time. The students begged me to participate, so I folded up a winning, flying piece of paper. Fortunately, I have been working on this winning design for the past 9 weeks.

With all of the practice and experimentation on paper airplanes I've had throughout my Genius Hour, I was able to blow the students away with the time my paper soared through the air. This experience just made my Genius Hour even more satisfying and looking forward to every Grade 6 Flight unit from this point on. 

Genius Hour Reflection ft. Learning Object Support

Today in Tech class, we focused on the application of learning objects to support the development of understanding of content, so I decided to take one of the tools we discussed and apply it to help teach how to make a Classic Paper Airplane.

I chose to use Quizlet.com as my learning object. Quizlet is used to as a way for students to review content in a fun and engaging way by gameifying the traditional flash card approach. By making it into a game, students are more motivated to learn because it is fun and allows the teacher to monitor how they are performing because all results are recorded. Need a quiz? Quizlet has you covered, simply select the questions you want to use and hit generate test. Ta da!

Check out my Quizlet on how to make the classic paper airplane below:

https://quizlet.com/_35y011


Additionally, I was thinking about my Genius Hour in terms of an educational perspective and wanted to see where it would fit within the curriculum. An obvious connection that I found was to Grade 6 Science- Flight Unit. Building and testing paper airplanes allows students to explore concepts of aerodynamics, practice technological problem solving skills and develop/practice the terminology that is associated with aerodynamics and flight. Check out the further breakdown of the Genius Hour below for further ideas on how to tie in paper airplanes to the curriculum.

Grade 6 Science: Understanding Structures and Mechanisms- Flight

2. Developing Investigation and Communication Skills
2.1 follow established safety procedures for using tools and materials and operating flying devices
2.2 use scientific inquiry/experimentation skills to investigate the properties of air
2.4 use technological problem-solving skills (see page 16) to design, build, and test a flying device
2.5 use appropriate science and technology vocabulary, including aerodynamics, compress, flight, glide, propel, drag, thrust, and lift, in oral and written communication

3. Understanding Basic Concepts
3.1 identify the properties of air that make flight possible
3.3 identify and describe the four forces of flight – lift, weight, drag, and thrust
3.4 describe, in qualitative terms, the relationships between the forces of lift, weight, thrust, and drag that are required for flight
3.5 describe ways in which flying devices or living things use unbalanced forces to control their flight
3.6 describe ways in which the four forces of flight can be altered

Trouble on the Genius Hour Front

Time for a weekly update on my Genius Hour! This week, while experimenting with my paper airplane designs that I have selected, I ran into a bit of a problem. Well, it's more like an it of a problem. The problem that I ran into this week while working on my Genius Hour was the household cat, Oliver, and the dog, Milo.

As I was testing my airplanes, I was throwing them down the hallway because that is the only suitable space in my apartment, however there was a bigger issue. Both Oliver and Milo seemed to think that my Genius Hour was on toys for the animals. Oliver was swatting the planes out of the air and Milo was chewing on them when they hit the ground. This resulted in the destruction of several of my planes, and needing to start over on my testing.

In order to resolve this problem, both of the animals had to be relocated to separate rooms for the duration of my testing. The paper airplanes had to be rebuilt because I believe the testing can only be considered accurate and reliable if the same test is administered to the same plane built by the same person. This week will constitute of rebuilding and retesting those fallen planes.

At least the two of them are cute!

My Genius Hour Reflection

ALERT- GENIUS HOUR UPDATE IN PROGRESS:

Slowly, but surely, I am working towards identifying my paper airplanes that will be suited to the challenges set by my Genius Hour goals. This week I experimented with different paper airplane designs to see which I could make consistently and which seemed better suited to general flight. Testing will take place over this coming week. So far, my favourite aerodynamic, flying paper pulp seems to be the classic, needle nosed paper airplane.

A question that I have of my Genius Hour project is if the same style of paper airplane would perform differently if it was folded by different people. In order to solve this question, I believe that my next step is to have friends and family duplicate my work in order to see if they can duplicate my results. This is very similar to the peer review process of scientifically accurate research.

Also, during Technology in the Classroom this week, we discussed the concept of creativity and the idea that a box can be 'not-a-box'. This resonated with me, as my Genius Hour focuses on taking something ordinary, a piece of paper, and making something extraordinary out of it. Students (and teachers!) have the amazing power to see things in a different light using the power of divergent thinking. This is why inquiry based learning and student agency in the classroom is so important because students may come up with ideas/knowledge you couldn't ever imagine.

This is NOT A BOX. This is Han Solo frozen in carbonite. 

Genius Hour Goals and Motivation

My goals for my Genius Hour include:

 -Make a paper airplane that can stay aloft for 20 seconds
 -Make a paper airplane that can travel a distance of 30 metres
-Make a paper airplane that can complete 3 aerial tricks before landing

 While these may sound like arbitrary goals, they relate back to a childhood interest in designing and testing things that I create with my own hands. I sent many a paper airplane over the neighbour's fence when I was a kid. This Genius Hour passion project just helps me to build further now that I have the tools and comprehension strategies to enhance the classic design of the airplane.

Well paper airplanes are fun, part of my motivation stems from an educational perspective. Aerodynamics are an interesting topic for students and paper airplanes provides a concrete, tangible way for students to explore what would otherwise be an abstract concept.

In order to measure my progress, I will be conducting routine tests related to my goals and research questions in order to determine the designs I want to move forward with and then conducting final tests on my favourite designs.

Genius Hour Reflection

After starting on my Genius Hour today, I'm excited to introduce my Genius Hour topic: What styles and designs make the best paper airplanes for time of flight, distance and aerial tricks? My goals for this Genius Hour project are to make a paper airplane that can stay aloft for 20 seconds, make a paper airplane that can travel a distance of 30 metres and to make a paper airplane that can complete 3 aerial tricks before landing. My experiences thus far with my Genius Hour topic would be a casual interest in paper airplanes, no different from a typical kid growing up. My rationale for coming up with this topic is to be the teacher who can make the coolest paper airplanes. This motivation stems from my Grade 9 science teacher, who was known as the teacher who could "make a metre stick fly!". It would be awesome to have my students remember me years later as a fun, interesting teacher (although it would be amazing if they also remember me for my teaching!), as well as serving as an excellent tool for teaching about and starting discussions around the concept of planes and aerodynamics.

This Post is Copyrighted!

As part of working towards being a digital citizen, as well as being incorporated into a digital world, it is vital to understand how copyright works with respect to digital sources. Everything online requires a copyright access, from YouTube to Flicker to NHL.com articles. Seems frustrating right? However, many resources can be used by properly obtaining the licence or permission to use the resource.

You may be thinking, okay Mr. Litt, but why is this important as a student? Well, whenever you want to use a video, image, song, GIF, or any other digitally sourced media, you must first acquire the copyright permission to use it. As a teacher, I think it most important to teach students about ways to find resources that can be used with the appropriate copyright. One method of doing so is to search through the Creative Commons website to locate a properly copyrighted and sourced image, followed by a correct citation.

Below are two examples of images located using responsible copyright and citations.

Ribeiro, Lucélia. (June 30, 2008). Children at School. (Photograph). Retrieved from [https://www.flickr.com/photos/lupuca/8720604364/]

LeanForward. (June 26, 2014). E-learning Tablet. (Online image). Retrieved from [https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2921/14380476210_4a66ee14a2_b.jpg]