I have attached a link to my interactive learning experience on the Mindmeister website.
https://www.mindmeister.com/503129948
In this lesson, students will begin creating their design for a greenhouse that can be used by their school to grow more vegetables to use in their diets.
This is a mind map of a lesson about designing bridges using only selected items.
https://www.mindmeister.com/502627585
Ebony Dowson
Here is an interactive lesson plan for students to develop ideas of forces applied to bridges and how to use these forces to strengthen the construction. Check out my mind map detailing the lesson.
https://www.mindmeister.com/450355744
Photo Credit: Don McCullough via Compfight
Useful websites http://www.teachersmedia.co.uk/videos/toby-oliver-making-bridges
http://www.primaryscience.ie/media/pdfs/col/design_a_bridge.pdf
Resource: Water: Friend or Foe. Discovery Education
Year level: Year 3-4
Subject: Design and Technology
Strand: Digital and Technologies Process and Production Skills
Sub-strand: Creating digital solutions by: Evaluating (4.6)
Cross Curriculum Priorities and general capabilities
Literacy (LIT)
Critical and Creative Thinking (CCT)
Personal and Social Capability (PSC)
Link to other learning areas: Geography and Science
Analysis:
This lesson is explicit and direct in assisting students to understand the risks of fire and what we can do to both prepare and prevent fire. The lesson directly addresses the positive and negative impact water can have on the environment. The lesson could be extended through the inclusion of additional tasks that consider the positive and negative impact that water has on humans internally and the effects on the human body.
The lesson educates students on what they should do in the event of a fire and what they need to do to protect themselves. The learning could be enriched by having students develop their own safety video making it more memorable for them if they were to experience this unlikely event. The students could also design their own fire prevention kit where they include items that would assist if a fire were to occur. This could be included in the video.
This activity would give students an in-depth understanding and broader knowledge of the curriculum. Overall, the lesson adheres to the standards of natural hazards, risks and benefits. Making the learning experience more hands on would ensure the content is remembered beyond the classroom.
Resource: Design and build lego cars
Year level: Year 1-2
Subject: Design and Technology
Strand: Design and Technologies Process and Production Skills
Substrand: Investigate (2.5), Generation (2.6), Producing (2.7), Evaluating (2.8) and Collaborating and managing (2.9)
Cross Curriculum Priorities and General Capabilities
Literacy (LIT)
Numeracy (NUM)
Critical and Creative Thinking (CCT)
Link to other learning areas: Maths and Science
Analysis:
In the Lego car lesson the students are required to design and create a car that would be used for a specific purpose, e.g. for speed, for rocky mountains etc. The students engage in a learning experience that is hands on and both intrinsically and extrinsically motivating. Giving the students the freedom to choose what they want in their car design will allow them to critically analyse what it is they need in order to produce an effective product. To provide the student with the opportunity to extend on their problem solving, creativity, innovation and understanding will ensure that they are achieving the requirements of the curriculum. Students are given the chance to evaluate and identify problems so that they can make adjustments and alterations to improve their design. Allowing the students time to critique their product will expand their thinking and understanding of how technology is always improving.
This lesson is authentic and credible to educating students on the importance on technology in today’s society.
Year: 5/6
Strand: Design and Technologies – Processes and Production Skills
6.7 – Generate, develop and communicate design ideas and processes for audiences using appropriate technical terms and graphical representation techniques.
Curriculum Content Description: Develop project plans that include consideration of resources when making designed solutions individually and collaboratively (ACTDEP028)
Link to resource:
http://makeymakey.com/
Link to video demonstration:
http://vimeo.com/60307041
Description and potential classroom uses.
The Makey Makey invention kit contains a mini ‘keyboard’, alligator clips and a USB cable. It allows users to turn any object that can conduct a small amount of electricity into a functional ‘touch-pad’. When connected to the internet, the user can use various objects to control screen functions. For example, by connecting the alligator clips to bananas and loading a piano keyboard on the internet, the user can ‘play’ the online keyboard by pressing the attached bananas.
This resource can be used to demonstrate proficiency in the above content descriptor (and possibly several others) by allowing students to collaborate and decide on which materials and websites to connect to, and also to consider useful applications for the device. Students could select materials, draw and label plans and test their circuit designs. They could also present their designs to the class.
As the kits are fairly expensive (AU$76 each), one or two kits could be purchased for each class and shared for testing and demonstrations.
Links to other learning areas:
Science – Yr 6 Physical Sciences – Electrical circuits provide a means of transferring and transforming electricity (ACSSU097)
English – Yr 6 Literacy – Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations, selecting and sequencing appropriate content and multimodal elements for defined audiences and purposes, making appropriate choices for modality and emphasis (ACELY1710)
General Capabilities:
• Information and communication technology (ICT) capability
• Critical and creative thinking
• Personal and social capability
Subject: Design and Technologies
Year Level: 6-7
Strand: Design and Technologies processes and production skills
Sub-Strand: Planning, producing and evaluating design solutions
6.7 Generate, develop, evaluate, communicate and document design ideas and processes for a range of audiences, using some relevant technical terminology.
Link to the resource: http://www.apple.com/au/mac/garageband
Cross-curriculum Priorities and General Capabilities:
Links to other Learning Areas:
Classroom Activities:
Garage band gives users a range of opportunities to make recordings, create music, edit audio, add loops and mix a project, which can then be turned into a podcast! Effectively an entire music studio is available to those with Apple computers/tablets/phones to record sounds from live events or from musical instruments, or even learn how to play the instruments via online lessons. Recordings can be arranged, trimmed and manipulated to attain desired effects and there is also an option to synchronize video frames with the audio project.
Please view the Mindmap of my lesson plans at DTM4260 Task 3
Mindmap for lesson 1
This lesson is suitable for most middle to upper primary students. It is interactive and involves a variety of resources to engage the learner. It has a good mix of partner and individual work as well as incorporating speaking and listening, and viewing skills. By the end of the lesson students are able to identify and explain three features of the three types of bridges – truss, suspension and arch.
This lesson is easily modified by either decreasing or increasing the amount and/or nature of information required to be found by the students. Students that have learning difficulties may only be required to find information on one or two types of bridges.
By the end of the five lesson sequence students design, construct, test and evaluate a bridge based on research and information collected over the first three lessons.
