SPECIALTY SUBJECTS
TECHNOLOGY
Understanding technology has become imperative in today's society. Technology education can play an important role in providing every student with essential knowledge and skills needed to function as responsible citizens. The integrative nature of technology education provides a context for students making connections in the real world. As an integrating discipline, technology education can help reinforce concepts in all subjects, ensuring student understanding in a real world context.
6th GRADE
Sample Topics
Working with Keynote: Sixth Graders are asked to choose an ocean and answer questions using various websites. They are guided in using search engines and keywords in locating specific information. Research techniques are assessed for skill mastery.
Internet Safety: We are all deeply concerned with the well-being of our most precious gifts – our children. With technology becoming such a strong influence in how we communicate, how we learn, and how we search for information, it is imperative that our children are supplied with tools they need to be safe as they explore all the avenues on the information highway. They are made aware of the rules for Internet safety, understand cyber-bullying, and much more. To help guide the children to reach this understanding, Sixth graders do a unit on “Naming in a Digital World: Creating a Safe Persona on the Internet.”
Naming takes on new meanings in digital settings as children build personas through e-mails, screen names, and online profiles. As a result, they can often be unaware of the ways others read the aliases, names and other information they choose to share. In this unit, the children will explore naming conventions in digital and non-digital settings and they will choose and explain specific names and profiles to represent themselves online.
As a result of this exercise, the 6th graders learn “what’s in a name” by thinking critically about what they communicate to their audience when they choose a name for an online space and to consider how and when the names they choose are appropriate for specific audiences of readers.
Excel Spreadsheets: This assignment focuses on refining skills in Excel, and are useful for upcoming Science Projects. Learning more about spreadsheets, functions and formulas in adding columns and rows provides an understanding of how to make Excel “work” for you. The students learn how to add creativity to charts by including pictures in the backgrounds that are indicative to what they are representing in their data. Sample assignments include:
1. Creating a Multiplication Table
2. Locating the Highest Mountain Peaks in The World students create bar charts and also analyze information to create a pie chart showing relevant elevations.
3. Graphing demographics of the Presidential Election of 2009
iPhoto and Screen shots: Sixth graders work cooperatively in a team to investigate the various structures and functions of the frog, starfish, or squid using the FroGuts dissection application for that species. Taking screen shots, organizing images using iPhoto and creating a photo lab journal in iPhoto combines multiple skills while creating a project. The student is to present their findings to the class and share their experiences in their culminating project.
Web page Design Using iWeb: Sixth Graders focus on web page design using the application iWeb specifically for Macs. They enjoy using their creative abilities to set up a web page with their own wonderfully inspiring ideas. Incorporating hyperlinks is also a requirement for this assignment,
Memory Making using iMovie: Sixth Graders create a movie of something related to Laurel Hill, using the application iMovie, in combination with their digital cameras to capture the memories they have acquired of their years here. They incorporate special effects, music, and some appropriate reflective words of their experiences.
Blogging & Podcasting: Blogging and Podcasting are up and coming and very exciting to create. Blogs are forms of personal expression and can provide important information to a specific audience. Podcasts can be listened to anytime, anywhere, and by anybody. The class is introduced to making podcasts in 5th grade and in the 6th grade build on what was learned. Some examples of topics include:
1. Reading a story with sound effects to younger children
2. Discussions about household pets or exotic pets
3. Talk show type discussion about vacations, areas of interest, books, movies, music, what’s going on at school
4. Singing of the school song
5. How to…
6. Learn to speak a foreign language
7. Daily events at school just in case someone missed morning announcements
8. Help with homework similar to tutoring peers
7th and 8th GRADES
Sample Topics
Understanding the Power of Excel: Working toward a goal of applying the use of spreadsheets into everyday activities given practical examples, is imperative. Various scenarios provide the children with examples for using Excel to create these spreadsheets. Some of the sample projects 7th & 8th graders complete include:
1. Tracking My Average: The children create a spreadsheet to keep track of their grades for the first trimester of school. Pie and Column charts are created which are automatically updated to reflect any new grades added to the spreadsheet.
2. Given a group of teams that will be judged by 6 judges, the scores must be tallied and the total points calculated each time a judging takes place. How do you go about setting up a spreadsheet to keep track automatically of the judges scores while color coding the teams?
3. Graphing demographics of the Presidential Election of 2009
Surveys, Data Collection & Analysis: In keeping to our school wide theme of Bullying/Teasing, The following projects help the children:
1. Learn more about the kinds of Bullying/Teasing
2. Learn about the effects Bullying/Teasing has on children
3. Learn what to do if they are bullied by anyone
4. Learn what to do if they see someone else being bullied
5. To learn more about why people bully others
A survey, previously distributed to grades 2-7, is analyzed and the information collected from the survey used to create charts in Excel to represent our findings. Finally, the children use Ipages to create a colorful brochure complete with all the information they have gathered to share with all the children of the school to help combat bullying/teasing. Research techniques are assessed for skill mastery.
Stock Market Tracking: The Stock Market can be a scary place for any investor or entrepreneur. Learning to use a spreadsheet to track the progress of 5 different stocks assists in the process of applying spreadsheets to everyday practical experiences. The children create a spreadsheet to calculate profit and losses of several different stocks using the functions of Excel based on shares, values, prices, etc. They consult the New York Times to determine the necessary information. From this experience, they combine Internet research, their knowledge of using the newspaper to acquire information, and their skills in Excel to complete the project.
Developing Timelines: Using an historical timeline and their prior knowledge of events, the children predict when specific inventions were produced and take notes describing their reasons for placing an invention in a particular year. During a paired thinking and sharing activity, they add to their notes, indicating how this portion of the activity confirmed, refined, or changed their thinking about the timelines they are developing. Following this step, they revise their timelines for accuracy by consulting web resources about inventions. Through discussions, they verify dates and consider the connections between historical events and when inventions were created.
The main emphasis of this unit is to conduct successful research, incorporate findings into documents, and prepare written communications about experiences and learning.
Environmental Challenges: Seventh & Eighth Graders complete an in-depth study of acid rain as a major environmental challenge around the world. They learn the definition of acid rain, research pH levels of rainwater in our state, and investigate the causes of and solutions for acid rain. They incorporate their research skills using a given web site, to collect information they use to complete a spreadsheet. Making comparisons and drawing their own conclusions based on their findings assists the 7th & 8th graders in comparing acid rain in different regions and use what they have learned to complete a brochure explaining their findings using iPages.
Web page Design Using iWeb: Seventh & Eighth Graders focus on web page design using the application iWeb specifically for Macs. The children enjoy using their creative abilities to set up a web page with their own wonderfully inspiring ideas. Incorporating hyperlinks is also a requirement for this assignment,
Memory Making using iMovie: Seventh & Eighth Graders create a movie of something related to Laurel Hill, using the application iMovie, in combination with their digital cameras to capture the memories they have acquired of their years here. They incorporate special effects, music, and some appropriate reflective words of their experiences.
Blogging & Podcasting: Blogging and Podcasting are up and coming and very exciting to create. Blogs are forms of personal expression and can provide important information to a specific audience. Podcasts can be listened to anytime, anywhere, and by anybody. The class is introduced to making podcasts in previous years and this year 7th & 8th graders build on what was learned. Some examples of projects include the following:
1. Reading a story with sound effects to younger children
2. Discussions about household pets or exotic pets
3. Talk show type discussion about vacations, areas of interest, books, movies, music, what’s going on at school
4. Singing of the school song
5. How to…
6. Learn to speak a foreign language
7. Daily events at school just in case someone missed morning announcements
8. Help with homework similar to tutoring peers.