I am sooooo pleased to announce that the fantastic online TV show our Yr10 pupils produced last year, the one and only “EM Spectrum Show“, was awarded first prize at the Guardian Classroom Innovation Awards at BETT 2011!
Posts Tagged ‘EM’
The Guardian Classroom Innovation Awards Winners
Posted: January 18, 2011 in Awards, new technologies, Thoughts and ideasTags: active learning, ASUS, awards, children, Classroom, Classroom Innovation, Community Clips, Creative, Creativity, Education, Educators, EM, engage, engaging, Guardian, Innovation, Innovative, Learners, Livestream, Movie Maker, Parents, Photo Story, Physics, Procaster, Pupils, Science, Show, Songsmith, Spectrum, Students, technology
Oops, we did it again!
Posted: January 11, 2011 in Institute of Physics, new technologies, NGfL Cymru, Thoughts and ideasTags: ASUS, BETT, Broadcast, Classroom, Creative, Croesy Physics, Croesyceiliog School, Education, EM, Guardian, Innovation, Innovative, learning, Live, Livestream, Physics, Spectrum
I am very proud and privileged to announce that Croesyceiliog School, for the second time in a row, will be represented at BETT for the great and innovative work its pupils produced in Physics. Last year our Yr12 students received a laptop each for their great News Report on how we used Google Wave to create a collaborative Physics revision club, but this year our “EM Spectrum Show” (that our Yr10 pupils produced to be broadcast live on the 17th December 2009) has been shortlisted as one of three Finalists in U.K. at the Guardian Classroom Innovation Awards.
I am very grateful for all those who voted for our project and we hope you will continue to support us. We will present our project at BETT in the next few days and we would love you to come to the ASUS stand (K29) and vote for our project. I will present our project at stand K29 (ASUS) on Thursday 13th January at 11 am, so make sure you come and see us, if you are at BETT!
Thanks again for all your support.
Making Paper/Plastic Cup Loudspeakers @ Skills Cymru with NGfL Cymru
Posted: September 16, 2010 in Institute of Physics, NGfL Cymru, Thoughts and ideas, WorkshopsTags: Burger, courses, Creative, cymru, Electromagnetic, EM, for, Fun, grid, induction, Institute, IoP, king, learning, magnet, McDonalds, Millenium, national, neodymium, Network, NGfL, nln, Physics, resources, skills, Stadium, Starbucks, vocational, Wales
Today was the first day of NGfL Cymru‘s presence at the Skills Cymru (Cardiff Millenium Stadium) and we were showing ourFree Vocational resources and our links with National Learning Network (NLN) to teachers and students. We were also engaging the children who stopped at our stand with some fun activities, like building walls with Lego bricks, folding napkins (we have learnt many fancy folds today) and building loudspeakers out of plastic and paper cups which were kindly donated to us by Starbucks and Burger King. Unfortunately, McDonalds decided not to be quite so generous and gave us no cups (I was very surprised about that, but maybe they too feel the effects of the Recession). Check out the instructional video on how to make the speakers below.
I have adapted this activity from one of the workshop the Institute of Physics does, i.e. Son of New Ideas. The link takes you to the group about this workshop on TalkPhysics. The IoP version of this loudspeaker is made with cup cake paper stuck at the back of children exercise books and it is a really nice activity, but because there is a lot of noise at the Skills Cymru event we went for a more powerful version and a bit quicker to build!
This activity is really good to get students engaged with Electromagnetic Induction, because they all have speakers and getting to know how they work and make one in few very simple steps brings the Physics to life immediately. They actually were amazed to find out that there really isn’t much more in a commercial speaker than the version they made (well there is a bit more, but the basic principle is the same). They are also finding very interesting to discover that their friends’ speaker is louder than theirs, for example, and they ask a lot of questions about why this might be! This is a good opportunity to use this activity in the classroom, as you could investigate whether the volume of the cup makes a difference in the intensity of the sound emitted, or the number of coils, the material of the cup, etc. And it is a nice opportunity to dig out your data loggers to measure the sound intensity and develop some interesting aspects of How Science Works. I hope you will have as much fun as we at NGfL Cymru are having with this nice idea.
Thanks to IoP for their ever amazing bank of resources and winning ideas!
Are pupils better as viewers, or producers?
Posted: February 20, 2010 in new technologies, Thoughts and ideas, Torfaen Innovative Teachers CommunityTags: collaboration, Creative, Creativity, Education, EM, Innovation, Innovative, Livestream, Maker, Movie, new technologies, Physics, PowerPoint, Procaster, revision, Spectrum, technology, TV, Yr 10
You can now watch a preview of our Yr 10 EM Spectrum “TV Show” directly from this blog. The section we are showing below is part of the EM Spectrum News Report. If you want to watch the whole show click here.
Please, also take a look at my previous post about this show for more details.
Do kids learn much from a TV show? Well, yes when it’s them producing it!
Posted: December 18, 2009 in Institute of Physics, new technologies, Thoughts and ideas, Torfaen Innovative Teachers CommunityTags: Broadcast, channel, collaboration, Collaborative, Community Clips, E.M., Education, Electromagnetic, EM, engage, Innovative, Learners, learning, Live, Livestream, Microsoft, Movie Maker, Network, Office 2007, Partners in Learning, Photo Story, Physics, PowerPoint, Procaster, Pupils, Show, Songsmith, Spectrum, Streaming, Teachers, teaching, technology, TV, Video, Yr10
A few weeks ago I introduced the E.M. Spectrum to my yr 10 classes (14-15 years old) by asking them to produce activities that we would broadcast on our very own online “TV” channel http://www.livestream.com/croesyphysics
Needless to say they were very excited by the idea, especially because they were given complete choice on the type of activities they could create, the groups they were working with and even the software they could use. So, we got activities ranging from News Reports and Revision Songs to Documentaries and Comics. The whole process was highly enjoyable for them, to the point that some pupils who normally would not be that interested in the subject and that would find it difficult to focus on the work given became those who were always working very hard at their project and even came back at lunch time several times to make sure they could complete the activity in time to be broadcast.
Our pupils used a range of sources of information to produce their activities. Many used the internet, but most also checked their facts on Science Textbooks and made sure that their content was both relevant to the AQA Specifications (our examination board) and scientifically sound!
As I mentioned above, all groups had complete choice on the software and format they were using. So, some groups used Photo Story 3 to record short documentary-like videos.Photo Story 3 is very easy to use and very intuitive. It basically lets you choose a sequence of photos and record an oral narration on each frame. Other groups used Songsmith to create lovely revision songs. If you are a teacher, you can download Songsmith free by joining the Partners in Learning Network. Songsmith gives you a choice of musical bases and by singing to the software your voice is recorded and the base is turned into the melody you’ve created. You can then export your song in Movie Maker and add background images, text and effects, like our yr 10 pupils did.
One of the highlights of our show was the News Report created by our pupils using only PowerPoint 2007 and Movie Maker. Michael asked permission to ITV News to use their music and he then produced the most amazing PowerPoint presentation I have ever seen. In this presentation he included the videos created by the other Reporters in Movie Maker and it looked really professional, as well as containing really good Physics. I think the most powerful message we could get from work like this is that we don’t really need to spend thousands of pounds in highly expensive equipment, nor have a state on the art recording studio in our school, because what really makes the difference is the creativity and engagement of our pupils.
Some other groups used Community Clips to record their presentations directly from their computer screen. Community Clips is a very useful free tool from Microsoft Research that lets you record a video of whatever happens on your screen. You can also narrate what’s going on and your voice will be captured by Community Clips. A Good example of use of this software were the instructions made by our pupils on some useful websites for revision, towards the end of our show!
So, how did we broadcast? Well, we used a free software called Procaster that lets you broadcast live directly on your Livestream channel. But the great thing about Procaster, and what makes it stand out from any other free broadcasting tool, is that you can choose to show just your webcam view, your screen, or a lovely 2-D or even 3-D mix of the two. The result looks very professional and the quality and speed of streaming is also pretty impressive for a completely free service. Your Livestream channel is also free and there is the option to let your audience interact with the show and with each other via the chat built in the channel. You can also link the channel to your Facebook and Twitter to maximise advertising possibilities. Our E.M. Spectrum show went live on Thursday 17th December 2009 at 20.30 (U.K. time) but it’s now available on demand in our Croesy Physics Livestream channel. Please, watch it and have fun!
Have you ever used live streaming software, or websites? What was your experience?
We had a very Special Viewer during our live broadcast, Les Foltos, the Director of edLAB
Puget Sound Center for Teaching who commented: “Dude. Really great. Or as you said it, Bringing Physics to Life is Amazing.” Les also asked our pupils: “What is the benefit of sharing your work in this online show?” and this are some of their comments.
Michael: the benefits are that we are in control of our learning and the research that we did to produce the “TV show” allowed us to take everything in and understand all about what we were learning.
Niall: some of the benefits would be the new and great technologies and software and being able to watch the show on the internet.
Jess: the benefits are that your parents can see it and get involved with what you’re doing in school. Also, it was more fun knowing that lots of people can see it!