ISM Author Interview

Centennial HS teacher Matt Pirtle's ISM (Independent Study and Mentorship) student, Paige, is researching what it takes to become an author. As a part of her exploration, she had the opportunity to Skype with author Elle Casey. It was a spur of the moment event and turned out very well! It was around 4 PM here and Ms. Elle shared with us that she currently lives in France where it was around 11 PM!

Notice the use of Paige's personal tablet (BYOD). She typed her questions on her tablet before the Skype session began. 

BYOD in Physics

Leslie Drake and Matt Hudspeth’s Physics students used their own devices (or ones provided by the school when needed) to record videos of themselves performing games from the popular NBC TV show, Minute to Win It. They then included their video in a class presentation that also explained the game and the physics behind it. During the next class period, students will play each other's games. They loved this fun real-world application of the physics principals they’ve been learning all year.

BYOD in High School Art

At Centennial High School, Heather Wolford's art students use their devices to help create art projects. 

This student used his phone, propped on an easel, to distort his image. 

These students used their phones to zoom in on detail from the original picture.

Trival Pursuit Review Game

In Mr. Crowe's AP European History class at Liberty High School, students used their smart phones and a free app called Flashcardlet to play a Trivial Pursuit type board game to review for their upcoming Advanced Placement test.  Students pulled in a pre-made flashcard deck into Flashcardlet from Quizlet that contained review questions for their AP exam.  These flashcards were used as a substitute for the cards that normally accompany a Trivial Pursuit game.  Mr. Crowe also created special game boards representing different dynasties throughout European history.  One card deck or phone was used per group.  In case someone in each group could not lend his/her phone to the game, Mr. Crowe reserved a handful of iPod touch devices from the campus stash.

Here are the resources used for this project:

• Flashcardlet app: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flashcards*/id403199818?mt=8  
• Quizlet deck used:  http://quizlet.com/841620/ap-euro-full-exam-review-flash-cards/ 

Here's a cool video of the game in progress!

Bring Your Own Data

For Mrs. Tuck's 8th grade science lab this week, students had to record data in an unusual way. For this lab, the data actually needed to be visual. In the past, students have drawn pictures on their lab sheets to illustrate the data from their experiment. This time though, students were encouraged to bring a device to help them create their data in a different way. Instead of drawing pictures, some students took pictures with their cameras. Students who wanted color pictures then printed them from home and attached them to their lab sheet. Some students made videos, and used Google Docs to share the videos with Mrs. Tuck. Here are two great video examples of the data that students took during class with their own devices.

Making Videos

Students in Debi Brown's Digital and Interactive Media (DIM) classes at Centennial HS used their phones and other devices to take images and/or videos outside of school then transferred them to the PCs in her classroom so they could edit the images/videos for their projects. The video assignment was to make a commercial, public service announcement (PDA) or how-to video.

iPad and Microscope

One of Lisa Barton's biology students used her own iPad (Yay BYOD!) to take this picture through the eyepiece of a microscope during a lab.

The picture can now be more closely analyzed and referenced in the future after the lab is over and cleaned up!