Lesson Plan #1

Coloring Fun

Grade Level: Kindergarten, 1, 2

The Lost Dog

Subject(s): Language Arts, Computing, Fine Arts

Topic(s): Writing, Graphics, Creative Writing

Level(s): Early Elementary, Intermediate Grades

State Standard(s): LA.D.2.1.3 grades PK-2; LA.B.2.1.3 grades PK-2; LA.B.2.2.4 grades PK-2; LA.B.2.2.5 grades 3-5; LA.B.2.1.2 grades PK-2; VA.A.1.1.3 grades PK-2; VA.B.1.1.4 grades PK-2; VA.B.1.2.2 grades 3-5; VA.B.1.2.4 grades 3-5; LA.D.2.2.3 grades 3-5

Featured Technology: Creative Writer, Microsoft Corporation , One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052.

Prerequisite Skills: Students should have familiarity with basic computer operations and have basic keyboard skills. Students should have some prior experience at writing original stories or paragraphs.

Other Materials: Paper, pencil, construction paper, paste

Specific Goals: The purpose of this lesson is to practice creative writing skills and to learn to insert digitized graphics into a document to minimize the number of words required for communicating ideas. The students will compose an original short story about a dog who is lost. Using the software, the students will learn to electronically insert pictures to replace words in their story.

Teacher to Teacher: Students are divided into small groups of 3-5 students to allow them to be peer tutors during the computer requirement of this activity. However, students should compose their own individual stories and design their own booklets.

Procedures:

OFF THE COMPUTER:

Have students compose a short story about a lost dog. Have students discuss their first drafts and consider ways to make their stories more interesting. Introduce the idea of replacing words with images to clarify content and to make it more dynamic. Give examples of how this could be done using familiar stories that children know. Let students make covers for their stories including original drawings. Tell them to include their names as "authors" of their books. If possible, let them hand bind their books using string and poster board. Otherwise, let them use construction paper. Laminate their covers if possible.

ON THE COMPUTER:

Demonstrate to small groups how the Creative Writer 1.0 program works. Include specific instruction about how to use the "sticker" tool to insert illustrations into documents. Have students practice using the program with small groups. Some students will act as peer tutors within the groups as questions arise or help is needed. Students will type the final edited copy of the written story. Then, they will use the "sticker" tool to replace certain words with pictures in the program. Have students print the pages of their story and bind them or paste them on the inside of their cover. Display the storybooks so that students from other classes can see them.

Evaluation: The teacher will evaluate the student's final printed copy with computer graphics in booklet form based on creativity and computer expertise. These booklets are displayed in the classroom or the halls of the school. When students become more familiar with the program, they can produce other publications such as newsletters for their parents. Students can create other short stories with missing words replaced with pictures for use as a classroom game. Other students divided into teams will guess what the pictures of the story represent. To receive points for their team, they will have to write the correctly spelled word on the chalkboard.

Lesson Plan #3

By "dissecting" a disposable camera, students can explore the mechanics of a camera. They can observe the shutter mechanism, a combination of springs and gears. They can remove the main plastic lens and determine how the camera forms an image on the film. Students can determine the focal length of the lens. Students can study the viewfinder, using it as an example of a double lens system. Students can determine how a magnifying glass can be used to create a virtual image by observing the lens that magnifies the number of pictures remaining on the film.

Objectives:

1. To create real and virtual images using disposable camera optics systems.
2. To determine the focal length of a lens.
3. To relate the shutter mechanism to conservation of energy principles.

Procedure:

Safety goggles must be worn due to danger from flying parts. Do not let students handle flash cameras. Disable the flash mechanism before allowing students to handle the camera (See below).

1. Instruct students to take apart the camera. The parts of the camera are easily snapped apart.
2. Students should carefully observe the combination of gears and springs comprising the shutter mechanism. Urge them to determine how it operates. In the cameras that my students dissected, there was black knob inside the camera that students turned until it could go no farther. Cameras varied by desing, by my students found they could open the shutter by next pushing on a switches or springs that they found in the camera. Students were amazed at the shutter speed.
3. Instruct students to remove the plastic lens in the main body of the camera. My students were amazed at how small it was. It can be easily mounted on a piece of cardboard or manila folder. Instruct students to experiment with it to create images and to determine its focal length.
4. Instruct students to remove the viewfinder system. My students initially thought that this was simply a concave lens. Upon further study they determined that it was used in conjunction with a convex lens. Have students look through the double lens system and describe the image produced. Have them compare that to one produced by only a concave lens.

Suggestions for Further Study:

1. Dissect a sheep's eye and compare its parts to the camera's shutter mechanism, optical system, and film. The sheep's eye dissection and comparison to the camera created lots of discussion in my classes.
2. Have students construct water lens and compare them to the camera. These can be made from a 1/2 inch straw segment that one end has been closed off with tape. Fill the straw with water until the meniscus "bubbles" over the rim, forming a convex shape. Have students view a square drawn on paper by setting the convex water lens on top of it. Let the water leaks out of the lens so that it becomes concave. Have students describe the differences in the image produced (My students informed me that a water lens was made out of a blade of grass in the movie A Bug's Life).
3. Have students construct a pinhole camera. They can glue a piece of paper between two small Styrofoam cups which are then glued together. A one inch diameter hole is cut in the bottom of one cup. The cups are wrapped with aluminum foil. A pinhole is punched through the aluminum foil bottom of the cup of the other cup. Have students view an incandescent light bulb using their pinhole camera.

Disabling the Flash Mechanism:

I learned the hard way how to do this. I would never let a student touch a flash camera until I had removed the flash assembly due to danger from electrical shock. Students were impressed with a demonstration of how the flash assembly worked.

This procedure worked best for me:

1. Open the camera and remove the battery.
2. Carefully remove the circuit board containing the flash circuit from the camera. I carefully pulled up an edge to find the large black electrolytic capacitor. Do not touch the capacitor's leads and do not touch the two soldered connections for the capacitor on the opposite side of the board.
3. Hold a screwdriver by its insulated handle. Use it to short circuit the capacitor leads. This causes a large and spectacular discharge.
4. Repeat the discharge process because the capacitor does not fully discharge with one try.
5. The flash circuit is now safe to be removed. As long as the battery is not returned to the circuit and the capacitor has been successfully discharged, it is not an electrical shock hazard.

Lesson Plans #4

Space has a Problem!

Grade Level(s): 5, 6, 7

1. use the internet to research the given information pertaining to the 9 Planets. Information: distance from sun, diameter, average temperature, surface areas, atmosphere.
2. use the collected data and complete a database on planet characteristics. A solution to problem 1 will be word processed.
3. perform calculations that will indicate their weight on the 9 planets using a spreadsheet application.
4. evaluate spreadsheet data on the planets and realize that the more mass a planet has, the more gravity it has.
5. use the internet to collect data on moon phases.
6. create a spreadsheet showing the correct name of the moon phases and the day on which they occur.
7. discover that the revolution of the Moon around the Earth causes the Moon to appear to change shape in the sky.
8. evaluate the information from databases and spreadsheets to solve and word process the solutions to three specific real world problems.

Problem 1:
If the Earth was no longer able to sustain life, which planet would you suggest we move to and why? In groups of 2, students research the planet characteristics, compile database, collaborate, and word process the solution to the problem.

Problem 2:
How much would you weigh on the planets? Why is your weight different on each planet? Groups of 2 are given the percent of gravity for the planets. Next, they enter data into a spreadsheet application and use this spreadsheet to determine a solution to the given problem. Students collaborate and word process solution.

Problem 3:
Why are you able to see a Full Moon one night and a Crescent Moon another night? Students use the internet to research moon phases. Students will enter the name of the phase and the day it occurs on into a spreadsheet and create a graph. Students will use the graph and other information from the internet to word process the solution to problem 3.

Assessment:

Students will be assessed using a rubric which identifies the degree of success to which they investigated and solved each problem successfully.

Lesson Plan #5

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