Weeks 10 and 11

The past two weeks have been a true test of the effectiveness of integrating technology into the math and science classroom.  This upcoming week students will be taking the STAAR math and reading assessments, and so the past few weeks have been spent in intensive intervention as we worked to prepare.  Technology plays a significant role in our classroom environment and took the form of math games, drill and practice, as well as QR codes for students to self-check their work.  Students used the math program Prodigy that I had mentioned in a previous post to work on computation, and Reflex math to improve math fluency.  Students also worked on completing STAAR aligned task cards that they scanned using a QR code reader on their Kindles.

But these past weeks weren't just about math.  My class participated in a virtual lab investigation where they got to create working circuits.  Students really enjoyed the activity and used Seesaw to share their reflections with their classmates. The greatest benefit of completing a virtual circuit lab was that students could safely find out what happens if the circuit was overloaded, which caused the batteries to catch fire.  This use of a virtual lab showed one of the benefits of technology integration in the science classroom - students could take risks, manipulate their works in ways they would normally not be able to do safely in a real lab environment. 

Example student reflection page

      Student designing then sketching a complete circuit.

These past two weeks have been intense, but have shown to be great opportunities to integrate technology into the classroom.

Below is the link to the virtual lab:
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/circuit-construction-kit-dc-virtual-lab