The Word is Out!

Looking to make your blog successful?

Our 6th graders have worked together to investigate and research what the are some of the elements, characteristics and features of quality blogs.  We already knew that engaging writing and interesting topics are what readers come back to a blog for... but there's something about how blogs function and the way users interact with them that helps make for a more successful reading experience.

It looks like all three of our sections found some similarities between the successful blogs they reviewed.  What did they find?  See for yourself in the links posted below!

6th Grade Section 1 Green
6th Grade Section 2 Blue
6th Grade Section 3 Red

An Introduction to Blogger... Narrated!

Congratulations of starting your brand new blog!  In no time we'll be posting amazing content, sharing our ideas and connecting with others from around the globe.  To get us started, we'll need some basic working knowledge of the Blogger platform.  To help you along, we've created a set of Worksheets that should clue you into the features and options that Blogger has to offer.  We've even created a set of video tutorials to better help you find the main areas of your blog that you can modify and customize to better reach your intended audience.

Here's the list of videos to get  you started:

Intro to Blogger: The Blogger Dashboard Menu
Intro to Blogger: Adding New Posts
Intro to Blogger: Inserting Multimedia
Intro to Blogger: Commenting on Posts
Intro to Blogger: Header - Menu - Navigation
Intro to Blogger: Gadgets and Widgets

Misson:

Your task is to finish the Intro to Blogger Worksheet Packet by filling in all the boxes with information about the highlighted features. Be sure to ask your self:

1. What is the function or purpose of this feature? 
2. How will this feature help my readers have a better user experience?

Don't forget to view the task-specific rubric for this assignment so you know what your goal is for this task.

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What Makes You Special?

Blogs allow us to share our ideas, perspectives and the things we love with the world!  Each of us is unique and our blogs should reflect what makes us who we are.  Chances are, there are others out there in the world who share your interests and would benefit from your knowledge and participation in the global conversation. Blogging helps us to grow by strengthening our collaboration and communication skills through the connections we make with others.

Your blog is an opportunity to share your take on the world, however, as we've learned in class there's certain information that's not appropriate to share online, especially in a space when anyone in the world can see it.  When posting to our blog or giving feedback on someone's comments we should remember the messages we learned from the videos we discussed in class.

Your job is to determine what information is interesting and appropriate to share with your global audience.  Before we begin blogging, we'll focus on following a set of blogging guidelines developed by our blogging partners at YIS in Yokohama, Japan.  These guidelines will ensure that we don't end up like the students in the videos linked above.

To help us generate ideas for what topics we'll be posting on, we will be creating idea maps using Google Draw.  These idea maps should be well organized and easy to understand as we'll be posting them to our blog in the near future!

To complete your brainstorm for your mission:

Continue to finish the mind map we started in class to demonstrate you thoughts on what your blog will be about.  You can include ideas on what your hobbies are, what sports and activities you participating in, what you like learning about and what you're experiencing in your classes.

Be sure to make your idea map match the rubric by drawing out clear, well-organized and detailed idea branches.  You should use a variety of formatting and grouping techniques to ensure that the map is easy to read and understand.  The more detail you provide on your ideas, the better.

Organizing your ideas in a theme related to your blogging ideas is a great idea too! 

To earn a 7-8 on the rubric, make sure:

• You have created a complex and detailed map.
• Your map is exceptionally well organized.
• Your map utilizes a variety of formatting tools to make it clear and easy to understand.

If you're looking for some inspiration, check out these amazing examples at work:

Tiana (Here use of color and balance makes her information easy to read and understand.)
Chris (Do you notice he's beginning to create a theme that matches his interests?)
Claire (Her idea map is very balanced and makes a good use of color and organization.)
Mahea (Her idea map is very complex and detailed!  She has a technique with color too!)

If you need help understanding how to use the tools in Google Draw, you can watch this youtube video I made a while back called: Concept Mapping with Google Draw

Bloggers of the World Unite!

Aloha 6th Graders and Welcome to your first design challenge of the year!

In this unit we'll be harnessing the power of the internet by building blogs that will help us to connect with others around the world, build a positive online presence and reflect on all the things we're learning and experiencing in this first year of Middle School.  As we talked about in class, our steps will be guided by the the Design Cycle as we begin to start an Inquiry into the power of blogs and how to make our blogs more powerful!

The limits and reaches of our communities are expanding everyday as the advances of global communication evolve at breathtaking speed.  What was impossible for thousands of years has only recently been turned upside down, allowing you the opportunity to put your thoughts, ideas and perspectives out for the world to see...  With today's technology, you can publish almost anything, practically anywhere, at anytime: day or night... for free.

Your thoughts, your perspectives, your ideas...  shaping the world we live in!

OK!

Now, to get started, we'll be looking at existing blogs from our community and beyond to help us get a sense of what marks a quality blog.  You'll be asking yourself:

• What elements or characteristics of the blogs you liked stood out to you?
• What got your attention?
• What visual features did you enjoy?
•  How were you able to interact with and move through the better blogs?
• What kinds of information and how was delivered in a way that got you to stop and read it?
• Once you've seen a few blogs... what features do you think every blog should have?

 Here are a few sample blogs to get started with:

• NeverSeconds (a very famous blog written by a 9 year old Scottish  school girl about her schools food options)
•  The White House Blog (Our governments blog that let's us know how they're leading our country)
•  Ukulele Underground (a local blog that helps people learn how to master the Ukulele)
• MacRumors (a blog dedicated to sharing all the latest Mac related news and speculation with us)
• Ars Technica (a very well run and respectable video gaming news blog site)
• Troy43 (the official website and blog of Troy Polamalu - Pittsburg Steelers All-Star Safety)
• MAKE (a great blog featuring tons of DIY projects, how-tos, and inspiration from geeks and makers)
• The Tasty Island (a honolulu based food blog that goes behind the scenes of some of our favorites)
• Ono Kine Grindz (A blog of onolicious eats from Hawai’i and around the world!)
• Emily's Blog (the 2010 winning student blog of the annual EduBlogs student competition)
• Chemistry: It's "Element"-ary!!! (the 2010 runner-up student blog)
•  Haley's Blog (The 3rd place student blog from EduBlogs competition)
•  LJADTMYP1 Blog (Our class blog... that's right... )
• LJADTMYP1 Students of the PAST!!! (Go check out the 7th or 8th graders blogs!)

Homework:

Remember, you should start off by reviewing at least 2-3 of the blogs listed above.  Make sure you explain what is good about each blog and why each item is good. You should record at least 2 meaningful comments about each blog (including their characteristics or features that positively impact the viewer). We will use this sheet to determine the criteria for an excellent blog.

To earn a 7-8 on the rubric, make sure:

• You have examined 3 or more blogs.
• You have and included more than 2 comments for each blog you review.
• All of your comments are detailed and meaningful. You clearly explain what is good about each blog and why it’s good (i.e. how it impacts the visitor.)

You're welcome to review other blogs you might enjoy, just make sure that they're appropriate for school.  You need to make sure that you copy and paste the full URL (the address on top) of the blog into the Blog Research Sheet.

If you think there's a particularly great blog out there that your classmates would like to review, share it with us in the comment section below. (Be sure to tell us the name and give us the full URL!)

Good luck!

Images and Video Courtesy Of:
Blogs in Plain English by Common Craft
The Independent (article by Lucy Christie)

Wind Power for the Win!

Have you ever been outside and experienced your hair blowing around or seen the leaves and branches on a tree rustling back and forth?  Of course you have!  The wind is natural and common element of our daily lives.  You'd be amazed at just how many things are influenced and affected by the wind... and how eerie and uncomfortable it can be when the wind stops.

Wind is a natural resource that is infinitely renewable and has been used for centuries!  As part of our next unit, we'll be learning about the wind, especially how we have and can harness it's power to produce work in our lives.

Wind Farm in Kahuku on Oahu.

Let's start by watching a short video that will teach us a few general things about wind power.

Follow this link to access the video and a short form involving questions based on what you learned.

Badges of Design Honor!

Congratulations 6th Grade Designers!  By now each of you has carefully and with much creativity created a number of digital vector-based badges designed to help motivate your classmates and certify them in skill and tool use!  I'm am amazed at the designs you've come up with and can't wait to share them with the world!

We'll need to do three things as part of this process...

1. Submit your badge designs
2. Nominate yourself and others for badges
3. Post our badges on our class blogs

Let's get started!

Submitting a Badge Design

Once you have a badge design to share, we'll need to prep our Google Draw Canvas by resizing the extra space so it just covers the space around the edges of our badge.  Then we'll use the Google Draw "Edit" menu to choose "Publish to the Web."  We'll choose the SMALL size for now, click the publish button and then copy the link provided to us.

Next we'll load up the BADGE SUBMISSION FORM to submit our design.  There are a number of questions that will help collect information about your badge including its title, what category it fits in, and how someone would earn it.  Finally, you will paste in a link to your image that you had copied before from Google Drive.

For detailed steps, check out the following Youtube video.

Earning Badges

Once your badge has been submitted and reviewed, it will be posted to our Class Badge Database Google Site.  Here you'll be able to browse through all the current badges, see what the requirements are and find out each badge's Unique Badge Code.

You can quickly and easily find a badge by using the Badge Category and Badge Level drop down filters that will help separate the badges out.  Did  you do any blogging this year?  Check the category drop down for "Blogging" and see if you qualify for any of the badges.  Once you know which badge you would like to earn or feel a classmate deserves, it's time to copy the badge code and head click on the Badge Certification Review Form.

Be sure to provide the information about who is being nominated and what the associated unique badge code is.  Finally, you'll be asked to also share what makes you feel that you have earned the badge requested.  You'll need to either provide a working link to evidence I can see or you'll use the provided space to write out a short narrative explaining your position.

Once you've submitted your form, Mr. Connors will look over your evidence and message you directly back with a link to your badge or some suggestions on what still needs to be done.

Sharing our Badges with the World!

Mr. Connors will send you some hypertext code you can use to insert the badge into your "Badges Page" on your blog.  Be sure to add additional rows to your badge table by writing the code snippet seen here and placing it into the HTML version of your page.

That's all folks!

Good luck with your creation, submission and posting of your earned badges!  Let's see who's going to become the First Epic Badge Master and Collect Them All!  

Planning for the Finish Line

Can you see it off in the distance?  It's right there!  Our blogs are almost finished...

At this point of the unit we would normally be planning the steps and actions we would take to build and create our product or solution.  We would start determining what resources, equipment and tools we would need, how much time each of the steps might take and what support or knowledge we would need to acquire or call upon.

In this unit, we've already begun the process of creating our blogs.  In fact, each of you already has a functional working blog that you've been posting to over the last few weeks.  So instead of planning to build a blog...  we're going to plan on how to finish our blog...

Some of the functional and aesthetic aspects of our blogs are in place.  There are a number of the elements that need to be added or tweaked before our blog is finally ready for prime time.  Which elements?  Well according to our functional sketches and blog template mock-ups...  we still need to ensure we have a...

• functional Menu,
• a complete Author Bio Page,
• an appropriate unique URL,
• a Background that matches our theme
• appropriate and functional Gadgets,
• a clean and organized Layout,
• and an optional Banner
• any of the Features mentioned in your Specification!

As we've talked about in class, we should plan on finishing these items are part of our create phase by following the guidance we've received by looking over our Design Criteria, the Functional Blog Sketches and our Template Mock-ups.

As our time grows shorter this semester, it will be up to you to determine when the best time for you to work on these items will be.  I have come up with an Action Plan Worksheet to help you plan and budget your time appropriately by coming up with some task action steps, complete with space for you to plan when you'll work on these items and to check off when you have completed them. It should already be in your folder! Be sure to work on this in and out of class!

Additionally I've put together a set of tutorial resources videos to better help you begin creating and fixing each of these items after using your Action Plan Worksheet to determine what your priorities are and when you'll get to them.  To access these resources, please view the linked videos below:

Creating a Menu and Author Bio Page in Blogger
Choosing a Unique URL for your Blog (The blogs web address) [Linked Articles: #1, #2, #3]
Adding Appropriate Gadgets (includes ClusterMap)
Adjusting your Blog Layout
Adding a Banner (Optional)

Due Dates:  

• All tasks in your action plan should be completed by Tuesday, December 9.

How to earn a 7 or 8: 

Finally, if you would like to earn a 7-8, please be sure to pay close attention to our task specific rubric including:

• All sections of your Action Plan Worksheet are complete and include extremely thorough, thoughtful and detailed actions steps for building your blog.
• The Action Plan Reflection is extremely thoughtful and detailed, identifying potential challenges and justifying any changes to the design.
• Student is consistently on-task making best use of their time. Student is constantly providing support to classmates in helping with blog creation.

Image Credits:
Runner's Den by Dru Bloomfield. Creative Commons Licensed on Flickr

Which design shall reign supreme?

Which design will reign supreme?

Talk about some amazing designs!  I've been very impressed with the creativity and personality many of you have put into your blog template sketches!  I can clearly see that the majority of us have included some of the important functions and features we feel will make our blogs successful such as clearly defined menus, user friendly gadgets and colorful backgrounds and themes!  So many choices!

Now that we have a better idea of what possibilities are available to us, we'll need to begin the process of narrowing down all of our ideas to find the design(s) that will potentially be the most successful.

The question becomes... How do we do that?  What standards or methods should we use that will help us separate and choose the best design and theme?

Our Design Specification

In our last blog post, we chose a number of criteria that we felt helped make blogs be more successful.  These criteria are the specific characteristics our blog must have to be successful... and we call them our Design Specifications.  We feel, in order for our blog to be successful it needs to fulfill the criteria we chose.

We can use these criteria to measure and provide some comparison and contrast to our designs.  We can use them to help rate and rank our designs strengths and weaknesses. Simply put, our best choice would be the design that meets our criteria or design specifications the best.  Each of has selected our own criteria from the class criteria we compiled. (Green, Blue and Red.)

Which criteria did you pick and which of your designs meets your design specifications the best?

Your Task:

Demonstrate your thought process of why how you created each unique design by publishing a new blog post.  The post should provide evidence of your evaluation of each of your designs in comparison to your design specifications, the functional blog requirements (from our last task) and your own personality (likes and interests).  Each of your designs should be shown as an embedded or linked screenshot of your scanned sketches.

Finally, you'll need to recommend one final design as the best possible choice and share your feelings as to why you have chosen it.

Due Dates:

Remember, you should have your blog post completed and published for review in class on:

• December 3rd, 2014

How to earn a 7 or 8:

Finally, if you would like to earn a 7-8, please be sure to pay close attention to our task specific rubric including:

• For each blog template sketch you provide a detailed comparison of it against the design specifications
• For each blog template sketch you share how the design will support a quality user experience or detract from that experience
• You select a final blog sketch and explain your decision based on how well it meets your design specifications, our functional blog requirements and matches your personality (likes and interests)

Here are some great examples from students past who have successfully evaluated their designs against their design specifications and chosen a winning design!  Oddly, they both seem to like horses!

• Emma
• Gianna

And so it Begins!

Everyone ready to get started with their first blog post?!?!

This is the final task of the investigation phase of this portion of the project.  On your blog, you'll be completing a reflection using the three tasks you've participated in leading up to this.

In your first blog post, you'll be typing out your reflection answers to the following group of questions that will clue us in to what you have learned so far during this project and how you intend to use your blog to answer our unit question.

• How can we use our blogs to share our ideas online (in a responsible and safe manner) in order to have a positive effect on our community and ourselves?
• How will you use what you have learned to make an excellent blog that is personalized to you and represents you and your learning at Le Jardin Academy? (What learning experiences do you think it would be appropriate for you to share?)
• What features and characteristics of blogs do you feel will need to be present in order for your blog to be successful. (Use your section's Awesome Blog Group doc to help you answer this: Green, Blue, Red)
• What strategies will you use to ensure your blog is dynamic?

To earn a 7 – 8, please check out the task-specific rubrics (here and here):

• the student writes a blog post rough draft that answers the suggested questions in a concise manner and includes supportive and relative media and links

Remember:

• Your reflection should include at least 4-5 paragraphs.
• Your reflection should be saved in your Design Google Drive Folder.
• You reflection should include only answers, not the questions and be conversational in tone.
• Each paragraph should be written so the reader can understand the question (without including the question).
• You are writing for an audience that may not be in our class, make sure to describe things so that anyone could understand.
• Be sure to follow the class Netiquette Guidelines while writing your blog post.
• You might want to consider using multimedia to support your ideas (images or videos) including links to relative resources (like your idea map, our class blog, etc.)

In class we'll discuss some of the formatting choices you'll need to make to complete this assignment including linking to the documents you've been working on, correctly labeling the post and inserting images...

Abigail, Eva and Ameilia did an amazing job with this last year.  You can check out their sites to see an example of how they wrote their blog posts. (It doesn't need to be this long FYI... make it concise.)  Will yours show up here as an example when all is said and done?

Images:
Teacher in Classroom  Stock Image - iStockphoto.com

What makes you special?

Blogs allow us to share our ideas, perspectives and the things we love with the world!  Each of us is unique and our blogs should reflect what makes us who we are.  Chances are, there are others out there in the world who share your interests and would benefit from your knowledge and participation in the global conversation. Blogging helps us to grow by strengthening our collaboration and communication skills through the connections we make with others.

Your blog is an opportunity to share your take on the world, however, as we've learned in class there's certain information that's not appropriate to share online, especially in a space when anyone in the world can see it.  When posting to our blog or giving feedback on someone's comments we should remember the messages we learned from the videos we discussed in class.

Your job is to determine what information is interesting and appropriate to share with your global audience.  Before we begin blogging, we'll focus on following a set of blogging guidelines developed by our blogging partners at YIS in Yokohama, Japan.  These guidelines will ensure that we don't end up like the students in the videos linked above.

To help us generate ideas for what topics we'll be posting on, we will be creating idea maps using Google Draw.  These idea maps should be well organized and easy to understand as we'll be posting them to our blog in the near future!

To complete your brainstorm for homework:

Continue to finish the mind map we started in class to demonstrate you thoughts on what your blog will be about.  You can include ideas on what your hobbies are, what sports and activities you participating in, what you like learning about and what you're experiencing in your classes.

Be sure to make your idea map match the rubric by drawing out clear, well-organized and detailed idea branches.  You should use a variety of formatting and grouping techniques to ensure that the map is easy to read and understand.  The more detail you provide on your ideas, the better.

Organizing your ideas in a theme related to your blogging ideas is a great idea too! For help on understanding how to get started with Google Draw as a mind mapping tool, be sure to check out this tutorial video!

Due Dates:

• 6-Blue: Oct. 30th - J Day
• 6-Red: Oct. 30th - N Day
• 6-Green:  Oct. 28th - R Day
  

To earn a 7-8 on the rubric, make sure:

• You have created a complex and detailed map.
• Your map is exceptionally well organized.
• Your map utilizes a variety of formatting tools to make it clear and easy to understand.

If you're looking for some inspiration, check out these amazing examples at work:

Tiana (Here use of color and balance makes her information easy to read and understand.)
Chris (Do you notice he's beginning to create a theme that matches his interests?)
Claire (Her idea map is very balanced and makes a good use of color and organization.)
Mahea (Her idea map is very complex and detailed!  She has a technique with color too!)

Let the Testing Begin!

It's time to put our Mars Rovers to the test!  Hopefully all that hard work, glue gun burns and broken rubber bands will have led us to the point where we can feel proud to present our "self-propelled scientific transport vehicle."  But, how do we test it?


If you can remember back to the "Developing Ideas" phase, you might remember we looked over the design challenge requirements to being creating our Design Specification.  We crafted criteria we believed would help guide us through the process of designing a product or solution that would run successfully in this challenge.

Each of those criteria we chose to make our Design Specification should be testable in some way.  Will it roll a specific distance?  Lets run it through a trial!  Is it make of the right materials?  Let's have a classmate inspect it.  How should we test our rovers to make sure they meet our Design Specification?  That's where your "Evaluation the Solution" student worksheet comes in.  On the worksheet you'll have an opportunity to list out some potential ways you'll assess your rover to ensure it meets the criteria you chose.

Now that you have a list of ways you intend to put your rover through it's paces, lets get started by using the "Mars Rover - Evaluation Phase - Student and Peer Check-list" worksheet.  This document is designed to allow you to collect data and evidence from your trial runs that you can use later when you need to share your thoughts on just how successful it is.  You'll have a partner objectively fill out the check-list giving you feedback on how they feel the rover fares during each of your trials.

When we've collected the data, we'll interpret what it means to us.  We can decide how the evaluations from ourselves and our peers can give us a clear idea on how successful our rover is.

In the end, you'll have an opportunity to share with us what changes you think you would make to the aesthetics, structure or functionality of your rover to improve upon it.  Could your wheels be better attached, the chassis strengthened or the equipment better secured?

Congratulations on an amazing job!  You guys and girls make me proud with how creative and resourceful you are!  Your energy is great and I can't wait to see what you'll produce for our next unit!

Resources:
Evaluating the Solution - Task Specific Rubric
Evaluating the Solution - Student Worksheet Template
Mars Rover - Evaluation Phase - Student and Peer Check-list

Recipe for Success

I am amazed by all the innovative and interesting sketches i've been collecting from our 6th grade aerospace engineers.  Big wheels, small wheels, space ships, tacos and many more designs have come across my desk, labeled with features and measurements... ready to be built.

Let's take a moment and think about cake..  Imagine you were tasked with baking a cake for Mr. Connors birthday.  What ingredients would you need?... Flour, eggs, sugar?  What tools would you need?... a baking pan, spatula, mixing bowl?  But what about the things we sometimes forget... Wouldn't you also need an oven, a clean space to work, enough time to put it together and the skills and knowledge on how to actually bake?  And that doesn't even take into account having the right recipe!

The question is... Do you want Mr. Connors to have an EPIC Cake?... or an EPIC Cake FAIL?

Now let's transfer this scenario into your rover.  Before we can start to build, we need to construct our recipe... or our plan for how we will build the machine.  We also need to ensure we have the right materials and tools to build as well.

In this phase of the Design Cycle, we'll begin by constructing a logical plan which includes brainstorming all the materials, tools and resources we'll need.  We'll then plan out a task-list that includes step-by-step instructions for how we would build our rovers in the order that makes logical sense.  Just like someone could follow a recipe to make a cake, we should be able to follow your plan to produce your rover just as it is in your final design diagram.

Don't forget to follow your plan to bring your materials with you to our next class!  Can't wait to start building!

Resources:
Creating the Solution Task Specific Rubric
Creating the Solution Student Worksheet Template


Images:
Epic Cake Fail by Amy (mystoriesinrecipies)
Batman vs. Darth Vader by Liz Marek of Artisan Cake Company

Ideas Taking Shape and Form

Over the past few classes we've begun to ask questions that will lead us to better understand our design challenge.  We've collected information about simple machines, working prototypes and potential energy.  Now's the time to begin letting our ideas begin to take shape.

This week we've started putting into words our Design Specifications, those detailed and specific criteria our mars rovers need to meet in order for them to be successful.  What must our rovers do and what features or characteristics must they have for them to meet the challenge?  When we set these concepts down, they provide for us a road map with a goal we can use to guide us through the process of designing a few potential solutions.

As we continue this week, we'll begin to sketch out 2 dimensional drawings of our rover concepts.  We'll design vehicles that are built out of a chassis, wheel and axles and include some form of propulsion.  The more concepts we come up with, the more options we'll have to choose from before we begin to build.  Eventually, we'll pair down our ideas to a final concept with labeled features and annotated measurements.  Whichever concept best meets our specifications will become the solution we decide to build.

I look forward to seeing all the amazing and crazy ideas you come up with... tempered with the reality that each of these designs will be driven by the need to meet our specifications.

Good luck designers!

Resources:
Developing Ideas Task Specific Rubric
Developing Ideas Student Worksheet Template


Images:
Balloon Car by MML
kinetically fueled car by James Noonan

Design Challenge: Welcome to Mars!

This week we begin a design challenge to give you all some basic experience in solving problems through design.  Usually we schedule time to go through the entire process of coming up with the most appropriate solution or product after much time spent researching, planning and building.  For this challenge, a quick start should get us all up and moving.

The Challenge is set and some of the requirements have been shared.  In your handout, you've been tasked with completing the first 4 sections of your design challenge handout on your own before coming to our next class.  You should have a fairly clear idea of what you don't know and what you'll need to know!

For those of you interested in learning more about how the Mars Rover Curiosity was able to successfully land on the planet, you can check out the following video on Youtube:

Challenges of Getting to Mars: Curiosity's Seven Minutes of Terror

Time to Get Testing!

You did it!  We researched, designed, planned, created and finished our final blogs!  As you look at your finished product, you should be proud of your accomplishments.

Now, in this phase, you will take a step back to reflect on the outcome of your product.

Your task is to create a post that includes and addresses the following: 

Introductory Paragraph (to help readers understand the need and process of evaluating a final product and our selves through this process.)

Product Evaluation (potential questions)

• What are your feelings about your final product? (Positive and/or negative)
• What aspect of your final product are you most proud of and why?
• How does your final product meet your design specifications i.e. your personal criteria, functional blog requirements, design elements and your personality/theme?
• What features or functions on your blog would you change to make a better product?

Personal Reflection   (potential questions)

• Moving forward, what steps can you take to grow your blog and use it as a tool to have a positive effect on yourself and your community?
• How effective do you feel you were in this unit?  What actions or behaviors will you carry over or change for our next unit? 
• What learner profile do you think you best exhibited in this unit and which profile do you feel you would like to work on and strengthen for the next unit?
• How can sharing our thought and ideas online (in a safe and responsible manner) have a positive effect on our community and ourselves (our unit question.)

Conclusion paragraph (that sums up the success of your final product.)

---

You may either do this in written or video format.  If you opt for the video option, note the following:

• Suggested web tool to create video:  http://screencast-o-matic.com/
• Or Photobooth/Quicktime recording
• Video length should be no more than 7 minutes.
• Video must be uploaded to your school YouTube channel and then embedded in your blog post.
• An Outline should be written first so you have a clear sense of what you plan on talking about.
 

 

 

Due Dates:

• All 6th Grade Students  Dec. 18th (W)

Looks like a Million Bucks!

Together we've begun to take take the first steps toward designing our blogs functional and aesthetic features.  We know that the first step toward creating a good design is to draw out or sketch on paper the various ideas we have of what we want our blog to look like.

We are using our design specifications (the successful blog criteria we reflected on in our first blog post) as a resources to help guide us in our designs.  Additionally, we will use the knowledge we gained from our research and experience with blogs to help us focus on what features our necessary for our blogs.  Finally, we will also use our own personality as a source for what themes might represent us.

We will be demonstrating our understanding of these concepts by sketching and coloring rough drafts of a few various blog templates.  Each of the templates should be drawn on the provided sheets of A4 paper and will communicate what the "home" page of your blog will look like.

Your Task:
You can look to the examples in this blog post for inspiration.  Each of these were made by a previous 6th grader.  Please note that your template sketches should include the following qualities:

• clean and neat drawings
• lots of color
• clean space on the page
• bold black outlines
• all details included (widgets, header, post area, titles, etc)

Additionally, your sketches should also take into account the quality blog criteria that we researched and decided upon in class together.  Your individual sections created these criteria as seen below:

• MYP 1 - Blue Quality Blog Criteria
• MYP 1 - Red Quality Blog Criteria
• MYP 1 - Green Quality Blog Criteria

Due Dates:

Remember, you should have at least 3 complete and detailed rough drafts that will be due on:

• Blue Section: November 8th
• Red Section: November 8th
• Green Section: November 8th

How to earn a 5 or 6:

Finally, if you would like to earn a 5-6, please be sure to pay close attention to our task specific rubric including:

• You generate 3 or more thought fully created template mock-up sketches.
• All of your templates include the minimum functional requirements of a blog.
• All of your templates incorporate good design concepts using the basic design elements and principles.
• All of your templates clearly reflect your personality, theme and design specifications of your blog.

Future NASA Engineers!

Over the past two weeks our 6th graders have been busy learning about the design cycle and how it can be used to solve problems as they take part in a Mars Rover Design Challenge in class.  They were asked to design and build a "self-propelled transport vehicle" prototype that would successfully transport 125g at least 1m-3m safely and securely.  Their prototypes were to be designed and built using only recyclable or reusable every-day household items.  What they created was amazing!

Each student was responsible for coming up with their own design for the challenge.. and we had a great variety of designs be built and tested.  While not all the prototypes were successful in transporting the 125g weight the full distance, they were all very creative and thoughtful.

Next up, students completed the  6th and 7th boxes on their Design Challenge Packet that asks them to reflect on the success of their product and further challenges them to come up with some ideas on what they could have done or do to make it more successful.   Students have also been given the option to improve upon their design on their own time.  Those who successfully make their changes are welcome to bring in their prototypes for further testing before Wednesday.

 Please see the slideshow below or visit the gallery for some of the amazing images and action from this challenge.

 

Design Challenge: Exploring Mars

This week we begin a design challenge to give you all some basic experience in solving problems through design.  Normally we would have weeks to go through the entire process of coming up with the most appropriate solution or product after much time spent researching, planning and building.  For this challenge, a quick start should get us all up and moving.

The Challenge is set and the Specifications have been posted.  In your handout, you've been tasked with completing the first 5 sections of your design challenge handout on your own before coming to our next class.  You should have a fairly clear idea of what you want your vehicle to look like and how it should function.

• Pay close attention to how you'll provide the propulsion (via stored potential energy transferred to kinetic energy) by connecting your "stored potential energy drive" to the wheels via the axle. (Remember: no motors or chemical reactions!)
• Also you'll need to ensure that your chassis connects to the axle in someway so that the kinetic energy that spins the wheels will also push/pull the chassis forward.
•  Think about what type of materials provide the best mix of strength, flexibility, grip, and rotation while still being lightweight.

Remember, we'll be providing some of the basic tools you'll need to construct your vehicle. (tape, scissors, glue gun, hand drills and hand saws.) You're responsible for bringing what materials you've planned on using for your chassis, axles, and wheels.  You'll have about 45 mins of in-class time to follow your plan and build your rover.  So don't forget to collect those great "vehicle" parts from around the house.

For those of you interested in learning more about how the Mars Rover Curiosity was able to successfully land on the planet, you can check out the following video on Youtube:

Challenges of Getting to Mars: Curiosity's Seven Minutes of Terror

Welcome to Design Technology

Aloha 6th Graders!

Welcome to Middle School, the MYP Program and 6th Grade Design Tech!  I can't wait to meet all of you as I've heard such wonderful things about you all!

This is our class blog for Design Tech.  It's the place you'll go to find out what's going on in class, where to go to get help and what's expected of you.  It will be my way of communicating to all of you and your parents about our units of work (assignments and deadlines), upcoming events (activities) and much more.

I know that were going to learn a lot this year - all while having a great time!  If you have any questions or comments, please let me know! See you all soon!

Paper Chair Challenge

Imagine being asked by your instructor to build a chair out of paper that would be able to support your weight?  Impossible you might say?  Well that's exactly the challenge our 6th Grade Design Technology students were posed with just the other day.

The students were given large stacks of newspaper and a few rolls of masking tape to build their structures.  Pretty quickly they were able to come up with a few ideas on how to strengthen the newspaper by changing the shape of the pages.  Additionally, after a few attempts there even realized that to hold the weight they were placing on the chairs, they would need to build in some additional support.

Finally, it was time to test out our structures and the students took turns sitting on them one-by-one.  Some of the best looking chairs crumpled easily and quickly... while others amazingly stood up to the repeated weight placed on them.

Afterward, students participated in two learning labs where they learned about different types of loads and the forces they cause that act against the structures.  Using the Paper Chair Challenge Worksheet, students were able to reflect on a few of the things they learned including:

• "The newspaper and tape we used to construct our chair is the dead load because it doesn't change, but when someone sits on the chair they become the live load."
• "Each time someone would get on and off the chair, the loads would change causing major vibrations that could eventually damage the chair."
• "When we put weight on the chair we noticed that the legs or columns began to crunch, bend and twist being affected by compression, tension and torsion."
• "We used lots of triangles in our chair as a way to strengthen the legs and make the chair more stable."

Don't miss out on the exciting action of our testing.  Check out the following playlist of videos that show each of the groups in action testing out their sitting structures!



Thanks to PBS Kids Zoom for this great challenge idea and PBS and PBS Hawaii for the learning resources.

Image Appreciation:
Paper Chair by Xiaoli Dai