One of the wonderful educational tools that recent technology affords is digital storytelling. Applicable in a wide variety of subject areas and curriculum connections, digital storytelling provides a medium for students to demonstrate their understanding in rich ways through the act of combining of images, text, and sounds. This grade 8 example was completed for… Continue reading Digital Storytelling: Student Exemplar
Our grade 6 students have recently finished wrestling with the math problem: “Are there enough trees in Canada’s Boreal Forest to be the lungs of the earth?” The question came from research that one of the Grade 6 teachers, Erin Couillard, found which stated that the northern boreal forest now produces more oxygen than any… Continue reading Boreal Math: Final Thoughts
Over the last number of years, our grade 9 students have participated in a project called Canada: Your Story is My Story. This project involves students interviewing recent immigrants to Canada with the purpose of better understanding the immigration experience. After meeting and interviewing new Canadians, the students create multi-media narratives of the immigration stories… Continue reading Exploring Immigration: A Student Perspective
In a recent post we shared an example of podcasting as a powerful tool for students to demonstrate their mathematic thinking. Here’s another example of students recording their mathematical thinking, this time by a grade 4 student. We believe that this is one of the most powerful uses of a 1:1 laptop program – how… Continue reading More Math Podcasting
Our grade 5’s have just finished using Google Earth to solve a math problem designed to build large number sense. The students were challenged to find a route across Canada, starting in Calgary, that would take them to each of the capital cities. The trip could go in any order after leaving Calgary, but the… Continue reading Google Earth for Mapping Math
Here at the Calgary Science School we are currently in our 5th year of 1:1 computing. As part of our 1:1 program, the University of Calgary, along with the Galileo Educational Network have been researching our 1:1 program. Below you’ll find the full research report from year three of our program: [googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”viewer” query=”a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=false&embedded=true&srcid=0BzRowXbm315ZYWJjYWQxZDgtZmI1Ni00MTdkLTlkN2YtMzNlYmYxYTNmYWQy&hl=en”… Continue reading 1:1 Research Report – Year Three
We’re really excited about our upcoming Mayoral Forum. The event will be an open webcast allowing anyone with an internet connection to watch – though in particular we’re targeting it to Calgary classrooms. In particular, one of things that’s got a group of our grade 9 boys really interested is being the technology crew for… Continue reading How to use LiveStream for Multi-Cam Broadcasting
The laptop program at the Calgary Science School is now entering it’s 5th year. Our 1:1 program started in the fall of 2006 with 100 grade 6 students. This first year of the program was made possible through a Personalized Learning Initiative grant through the Alberta Government. In the 2007/2008 school year the program expanded… Continue reading Research Confirms Laptop Program
Last year we moved our Fine Arts courses away from traditional report cards and onto digital portfolios as the primary form of assessment. Moving 600 kids onto portfolio based-assessment was a massive undertaking for our Fine Arts teams, and they did a commendable job of embracing the possibilities of these digital tools. The Fine Arts… Continue reading What we've learned about Digital Portfolios
Last year our grade 8 math teachers held a math fair with their students, supported by the Galileo Educational Network. Students were introduced to a number of classic mathematical problems and brainteasers, and were allowed to choose what medium would best represent their solutions. The Galileo site has a number of resources on math fairs,… Continue reading Podcasting Mathematical Understanding
