Category: 4th Grade Science

Google Expeditions

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The content for both VR and AR has grown exponentially in the past year, and Google Expeditions is a fantastic resource for students and teachers to gain a broader perspective about a range of topics. For teachers in a classroom, it is very easy to control all student iPads at once while guiding a tour. But even in the absence of a classroom experience, students can independently take advantage of this platform in a variety of ways. You can print off AR “markers” which act as a trigger to show a model in augmented reality, or simply move your device around a specified area until the model appears. For VR, you don’t actually need a VR headset to explore in a meaningful way. The VR content (which is a larger catalog than AR currently) can be viewed by moving your device (tablet or phone) around and exploring the content as if it is all around you.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Google will be phasing out Expeditions and it will no longer be active as of June 2021. It is worth taking advantage of this platform while it exists though, and after it ceases to exist, check out Google Arts and Culture where many of the tours enjoyed in Expeditions will transfer over.

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Students don’t need to be just “consumers” of the content either. You can create your own VR tour in Google Tour Creator (or see that entry on this site to learn more) and upload it into Google Expeditions to view. Using the screen record feature on the computer, tablet, or phone, students can also record their voice while giving a tour of what they have learned or detailing features of an AR model while it appears projected right there in the room with them. There are lots of possibilities for app smashing (combining tech platforms) with this tool.

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality is perhaps even more powerful than VR in an education setting because every student can have the same experience at the same time. It can easily be added into an existing lesson and be experienced concurrently with class lecture, group work, research, and more.

Imagine frog dissection without the smell! Students can look at the human body and dive into layers of a cell. If you have a topic you teach, there is an augmented reality visual experience you can draw on to reinforce learning. There are also numerous ways for students to take advantage of existing material, add to it, and incorporate it into their own project to showcase their learning.

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Virtual Reality

VR has long been considered an extension of the video game industry and the assumption is that it is purely entertainment (or worse, excess screentime strapped to your face). However, the educational ramifications of putting students into space, geographically anywhere on the planet including in the oceans, in the midst of a battle fought long ago etc… are pretty powerful. Even as a short intro to a larger lesson, VR is a fantastic way to engage students and give them a more visceral learning experience to complement other more traditional components of teaching a unit.

Schools that have headsets, and can take advantage of apps like Discovery VR and Google Expeditions to instantly take students anywhere. Screen Shot 2018-08-23 at 10.41.57 AMScreen Shot 2018-08-23 at 10.41.37 AM

Additionally, we have a top of the line virtual reality headset and equipment that lives in the tech training room. Although only one student at a time can actually navigate with the headset, classmates can watch on the big screen while they await their turn working on another “learning station”.

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Apple CLIPS

CLIPS is a relatively new app (also a site) that was released late last year. It is a FANTASTIC alternative to iMovie, especially for our lower school students as it allows for an engaging, visual project but can be condensed into a one-off lesson. It is simple in its layout and can be used in a variety of ways. From narrating and animating a story or poem, to labeling parts of the ecosystem, to breaking down the cause and effect of a moment in history, it is all very easy and engaging for our students. It can also be a powerful tool for our youngest learners because of its ability to show the words you speak in “real time”. The possibilities for students to be able to narrate and illustrate their own books with words that fly out on the screen in any style they choose is really exciting. Clips is available on all school iPads (including the Library if students would like to check one out for a project).

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Check out a student-created example below!

 

 

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BrainPop Jr.

This is both a site as well as an app that is on our students’ iPads. BrainPop Jr. could really live in any category on this tech resources site as it contains videos and interactive lessons across the academic spectrum. However, the resources surrounding social studies are particularly useful as it provides one more source of student-friendly information about a range of research topics. We have a school account so you can check your email for login username and password info.
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Scientists at the Smithsonian

This site has bios and more dedicated to meeting the scientists who are a part of the Smithsonian Institution. Depending on a particular grade level’s unit of study (ex. SK bat unit, 2nd grade’s rainforests, Middle School’s Earth science…) they could be interesting introductory snippets. There is also contact info for potential distance learning opportunities.
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EMAZE

Emaze is a super visually appealing platform for creating presentations. Because it contains such a robust catalog of templates and tools, it probably is more powerful in older grades. However, it can be made simple for those who are more comfortable sticking with the basics. For those who wish to pursue extended enrichment opportunities, they can dive into a deep well of features.
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Quizizz

Quizizz is similar to Kahoot but with the added bonus of being able to display the quiz questions directly on all student devices. It also has a large library of premade quizzes from teachers and students all around the world.
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Quizizz also has an app is on all library iPads so theoretically, a class could borrow them so they all had an iPad in front of them and their laptops could be freed up (or put away) depending on need.
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Socrative

Socrative is in the same family of quiz creators and interactive digital learning platforms that help track student understanding in real time. You can set up classes as well so in effect it is a more formalized collection of student data than other quiz platforms like Quizlet or Kahoot.
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Watch a video demo below!
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FLIPQUIZ

FLIPQUIZ is a resource for making Jeopardy-style games. It doesn’t link you to student responses, in the same way, some of the other platforms like Kahoot or Quizlet do, but it is a good option to have on hand, particularly for students that want to use this as a component to a presented lesson.
Click HERE try out a live demo template
Click HERE for a video overview
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EDpuzzle

EDpuzzle is a program that lets you easily create lessons/mini-lessons and quizzes that incorporate video clips that you and/or students can annotate. It is a solid tool for both teacher designed and student created lessons.

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ThingLink

ThingLink is another option for independent student projects, or unit wrap-ups for students to show what they have learned. Click HERE to examine the picture below to see how one could embed info into an animated gif. There are unlimited possibilities for using this platform either in teaching, student learning, assessment, and lesson enhancement.
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Tinybop

Tinybop is another app that allows students of a variety of ages to construct a course filled with ramps, gears, and pulleys to traverse through a scene.Screen Shot 2018-08-10 at 9.52.59 PM
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Water Cycle App

There are tons of apps that support teaching lower school science. This app (also a site) centers on the watershed and contains a number of interactive models to show students.
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CoSpaces

CoSpaces could actually live anywhere on this menu as it is more a platform whereScreen Shot 2018-08-07 at 10.32.32 PM can create a 3-D world embedding any content they wish. One particularly powerful possibility is having students create a virtual museum, either collectively or individually.
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Students wishing to code may do so as it can use drag and drop for the non-coder, block-based coding for the novice coder, and java for the advanced coder. As a cherry on top, students can explore their world, museum, etc… using a virtual reality headset. 
 
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Wonderopolis

Wonderopolis is a great site for students to explore independently, or as a class “warm-up” as it rotates a new thought-provoking question a day. There is a ton of information, videos, etc… on a huge range of topics.
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