Gaming as a SPORT: Expanding Opportunities for Students to Belong and Compete through eSports

Fall means the start of a new sports season! Tryouts are held and a roster is set based on player interests, abilities, and team needs. Practice schedules are created. Preseason matches occur then come regular season games and tournaments; the team works towards Playoffs and has the ultimate goal of making it to Finals. Fans attend to root for the home team and players hope for college recruiters to see their skills and potentially offer scholarships. The competition is tough, but skillful strategizing and teamwork can lead to a big win and open doors for future opportunities.

Nope, this isn't describing the upcoming football season -- this is a look at the new Fall eSports Season! As much as video games seem like a just-for-fun activity, this past time is becoming recognized as a varsity level sport in addition to Generation eSports being selected as the exclusive sponsor for the University Interscholastic League (UIL).

Two Eaton student going head-to-head in the Smash Ultimate Grand Finals.

Depending on the streaming requirements of the game being played, students will either use the designated Alienware PCs or their own gaming devices, such as Nintendo Switches. 

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• Almost 1 Billion awarded in eSports Tournament Prize money in 2021 alone
• Gamers have opportunities to play in front of college recruiters and win scholarships
• Kids can turn a passion into a career in the gaming field
• The 2022 High School eSports League (HSEL) National Championship is hosted in our own 'backyard' at eSports Stadium Arlington
• eSports has competitors across several continents. The Google Map below shows the competitors at the world, national, state, and our own local level for HSEL competitions for the Spring 2021

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"The purpose of eSports is to provide opportunities for ALL students to have a platform to acquire critical communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills needed to thrive in work and in life as outlined by the NISD Profile of a Graduate" - NISD eSports Code of Conduct

Students at Eaton High School, Northwest High School, and Steele Early College High School participate in eSports Clubs as part of both casual and competitive teams. Student leaders on the various campuses coordinate with their game-based team on practice schedules and upcoming goals for league games.

Students at each of NISD 's high school eSports programs have top-of-the-line gaming PCs from Alienware including the PC and device peripherals such as Alienware mice, keyboards, and headsets.

Popular games on NISD campuses play games include Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, Overwatch, Valorant, Rocket League, and League of Legends offered through either the High School eSports League or the PlayVS league; because students have the opportunity to complete in two different leagues, this increases their opportunities for tournament play and competitions to enter. Students communicate game preferences and teams are formed based on student numbers and interests. For example, Super Smash Bros compete in teams of 3 whereas Valorant complete in teams of 5 and Overwatch in teams of 6.

Did you know? Eaton High School had teams compete in PLAYOFFS of different games in each of the past two years!

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Why is eSports an important program? 

What skills are kids getting as a result of their involvement?

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All of the NISD eSports clubs are welcoming new students. Show up and we will find a place for you to belong!

Get more through this NISD blog eSports: More Than Just Fun and Games and by exploring the NISD eSports Code of Conduct.

How Summer PD Impacts Student Learning!

 

“Implementing Hyperdocs was a complete push out my comfort zone. Relinquishing the control early in the school year was not something I was used to” comments Mrs. Spring, 4th grade at Nance Elementary. Kim Spring has not only been intentional about the professional development she attends, but also intentional about implementing her learning in meaningful ways with students. Two years ago, Kim helped co-lead “Delivering Engaging Lessons with Pear Deck.” This was a tool Kim learned and then implemented consistently with her students. Pear Deck wasn’t just a new tool for Kim. Pear Deck meant continual formative assessment, intentional student discourse, and even a way for students to create assessments for their classmates. By attending and leading Pear Deck sessions, Kim was able to maximize the use of Pear Deck to meet campus and district learning goals. 

Last year, Kim decided to attend “Save Time and Give Choice with Hyperdocs” led by Instructional Technologists Shelly Hall and Kylie Lloyd. Immediately after the session, I received an email from Kim with her takeaways and goals for implementing a hyperdoc with her class. Designing a hyperdoc takes intentional planning. Mrs. Spring used backward design and considered her learning targets and desired outcomes as she created each aspect of her hyperdoc. Since this would be a self-paced lesson, she had to plan ahead for students. 

During the 3rd week of school, Kim’s students experienced their first hyperdoc! This unit on Place Value was not only engaging and interactive, but also allowed for gradual release of the content and self paced learning. Gabriella, Tommie, and Abby were three students that specifically enjoyed this unit. Gabby mentioned, “I liked learning at my own speed and pace. I was able to take things one step at a time, but always had something I was working on.”  

The unit started with students ENGAGING in the topic of place value through direct instruction and focused videos for students to watch. After students had a grasp on place value they were asked to EXPLAIN their learning in Flipgrid. The Flipgrid check in allowed Mrs. Spring to see who understood the content and who needed extra support. Mrs. Spring pointed out, “Flipgrid comes in handy as I'm able to hear the kids verbally explain their reasoning and see their work. I am able to leave feedback to them as well.” 

As students progressed through the hyperdoc, they were asked to APPLY their learning. Mrs. Spring had students complete a self-paced Pear Deck to assess their knowledge up to this point. She pointed out,  “I LOVE Pear Deck. It allows for self-paced lessons and I’m able to leave feedback at any given time. It helps me keep track of who has finished, so I know where each student is. It’s a great teacher sidekick!” 

Instructor and Student Paced Pear Decks Throughout The Unit

Next, students SHARE and REFLECT with their peers. They look at problems they’ve completed in their Stepping Stones book, along with the work they’ve explained in Pear Deck and Flipgrid to answer the following questions with others: 

1) What was your favorite part of this unit?

2) Was there a part of this unit that confused you?

3) Show a partner how you explained place value to the millions on slide 4.

Lastly, students are given an opportunity to EXTEND their learning. Not all students will have time for this section of the learning, but it’s a great way to challenge students who have successfully grasped the content. In fact, this is a great way to differentiate learning for students. Students were given the opportunity to create their own Pear Deck to share with the class. This task required students to apply their learning by creating their own questions. Both Tommie and Abby pointed out “The most challenging part of this unit was creating the Pear Deck. It was tough making the questions.” 

All in all, Mrs. Spring’s first hyperdoc was a success! “I love the independence of it all,” states Kim. “It was really neat to watch the kids take such quick ownership of their hyperdoc. I have a large group of students that are pretty above level in math. This helped with my fast finishers. They instantly went into their hyperdocs and got going!” 

This unit is a prime example of the NISD Learning Framework and the intentionality that goes into a well designed lesson in NISD: 

Click HERE to Enlarge Image

Esports: More Than Just Fun and Games

Einstein said, “Education is not the learning of facts, but training the mind to think.” Teaching
students how to think and how to succeed helps develop those “soft skills” we all frequently hear about as students transition out of formal education. These time tested skills are not just another educational trend or revolving initiative. Characteristics like communication, integrity, empathy, professionalism, time management, responsibility, teamwork, and critical thinking are things that contribute to our social and emotional development and they are what helps us, as humans, to be able to successfully adapt to a variety of situations. What many educators differ on is how to go about facilitating the development of these skills and characteristics in our students.

One way to develop these skills is in the growing realm of esports. It is a relevant place that can not only support Social Emotional Learning initiatives, but it can also facilitate many of those soft skills we want students to gain. In fact, the mission of the North America Scholastic Esports Federation (NASEF) is “to provide opportunities for ALL students to use esports as a platform to acquire critical communication, collaboration, and problem solving skills needed to thrive and work in life.” Esports does not just facilitate gamers getting together to play video games, but alternatively, it ensures “that ALL students possess the knowledge and skills needed to be society’s game changers: educated, productive, and empathetic individuals.”

Mr. Fidel Sanchez, a science teacher at V.R. Eaton High School, is leading the charge to establish Eaton’s very own esports club. To the inexperienced gamer, this new club seems like a fun break for students from the regular grind of a traditional learning environment. However, it is way more than it appears on the surface. Esports is projected to become a billion dollar industry in the next year and not just due to hosted events that resemble what you might see at the Super Bowl or World Cup Soccer. Esports has the potential to help a large number of students access college through NCAA scholarship opportunities and related career paths. The Eaton esports group meets twice a week to practice and develop a very complex and impressive skill set. The goal is to build a team that can compete interscholastically for large scale academic recognition, scholarships, and career opportunities.

Michael, a sophomore on Eaton’s team, explains that he loves to participate not only to have fun but also to have the opportunity to be competitive at something he enjoys. He and his teammates, Andy and Larry, feel that esports helps them to develop better communication skills. Parker, a junior orchestra student, agreed that participating in esports has helped him to “be more social” and build the skills necessary to positively interact with others. Kameron, a sophomore team member, agreed and explained that the communication students learn through esports is different than most socialization and in order to be successful, one has to be able to “stay calm during competition and communicate professionally with their teammates to build trust.” He pointed out that “unprofessional communication does not help teammates to believe in your ability to deal with challenges,” which is important for a team to be successful. Beau is a freshman student on the team who says that there is no place for students to “be toxic or to fight with other players.” All the students agreed that participating in esports encourages them “to stay on top of their grades and to prioritize” because maintaining the level of skill needed for competition takes at least an hour or two of practice each night.

These Eaton students hope to see this activity grow larger among younger audiences here at EHS and across the country. They recommend that for anyone interested in getting involved in esports to “just start playing.” They suggest spending time learning about various roles, different strategies, and “champions” (characters) in games like League of Legends or Super Smash Bros. and to work to develop the style of play for their role and “champion.” These students also suggest finding adults like Mr. Sanchez , who are just as passionate about gaming to help them organize and advocate for resources and opportunities necessary for their club’s growth.

"Breaking out" and "Escaping" to Active Learning

Scenario: You are a student sitting in class, eyes glancing at the clock, counting the minutes to the bell, wanting to “escape”…Unless, you are in Rachelle Enax’s AVID classroom at Eaton High School where your only glances at the clock are in hopes for more time. Mrs. Enax’s students have already spent several class periods this school year wishing for more time to access information that will give them much needed clues for solving mysteries within educational breakout games. The escape room or breakout concept began in Japan in the early 2000’s with escape rooms created for entertainment purposes. As the trend grew, educators began to adopt this idea and evolve it into a type of classroom activity that empowers students to independently search for themed content needed to solve puzzles and unlock a series of clues, eventually “escaping” a fictional scenario.

Mrs. Enax elected to try this type of activity with her students after seeing the Breakout EDU resources available in the library media center. Breakout EDU resources allow teachers and students access to physical breakout boxes with already built clues and hints as well as completely digital breakouts that cover a variety of content areas. While completing their first “Back to School Boogie” breakout box activity, several of Enax’s students commented that they enjoyed the activity because “it allowed them to get information and learn things on their own and it was so different than what they usually do in school that it didn’t even feel like school.” After completing a second digital breakout, one student commented that “it was much better than someone lecturing us or just watching videos.” The student also appreciated that if there was something she already knew, she didn’t have to spend a lot of time on that and could move on to new information on her own. After the first couple of breakout experiences, Enax’s students have begged for additional breakout opportunities to help them study and discover concepts that are part of the AVID curriculum.

Several other EHS teachers are beginning create their own completely digital breakout games and try out the Breakout EDU resources available in the EHS library media center. Karri McGovern, an Eaton social studies teacher, noted that several of her students were complimentary of the digital breakout idea after working through an academic honesty scenario presented as an option for freshmen during PSAT testing. McGovern said that “Even the reluctant players bought into the game eventually. It took some of them a few minutes to start thinking the right way and find the first couple of clues, but once they did, they were engaged and determined to finish.” Students in Parween Noori’s freshman class stated that it was “fun to work together in a group to figure out the clues. You really had to look at the videos and articles closely to find the answers.”

This increasingly popular active approach to classroom instruction is part of a growing movement of educational strategies that puts responsibility for learning into the hands of the students, reversing traditional teacher-centered instructional strategies. These methods create more opportunities for engagement, collaboration, creativity, and excitement over the same content. The critical thinking and problem solving required of students in these scenarios tap into key academic and life skills needed while also exposing them to course content.

When reflecting back on the activities done in class so far, Mrs. Enax’s students credit their breakout experiences with improved team building and communication skills and they are excited to see what additional opportunities they will experience with future breakouts, maybe even getting to create their own.

A Recipe for Success: "Stringing" A Rhythmic Pattern

Learn.

Act.

Reflect.

Goal Set.

Repeat.

Is nailing down this process a Science or an Art? I'd argue it’s an Art - Fine Arts to be exact. Students in Gary Keller and Sessalie Shapley’s Orchestra class at Byron Nelson High School have perfected this process on a continual, weekly basis to improve students' overall abilities. One might think that Technology doesn’t doesn't have a logical place in an instrumental-based class, but that's far from the truth as this Orchestra class is fully dependent on the technology used in preparation for and reflection of daily performance.

Each class is infused with technology from start to end. For example, students are tasked with the responsibility of tuning their own instrument at the start of class each day; they use readily available, free, phone-based tuning apps such as DaTuner and InsTurner to put the accountability on themselves rather than the teacher to ensure the instrument is in the right key. This process is critical to harmonizing as an Orchestra and developing a natural ear for the correct sounding notes.

To continue in the lesson design, classes often provide traditional opportunities such as learning new music and practicing as a full Orchestra. However, the power of technology is truly evident in the individual practice times. During these times, students participate in the general format as follows:

Recipe for Success:

1. Students create a video of themselves playing a specific song or section of a song determined by the instructor. During this time, students use a combination of their phone and their computer to have both the online metronome and video camera co-functioning. This video serves as a pre-assessment to create a base-line of performance and needs assessment for the week.
2. Self-critique that video to identify one specific goal to work towards throughout the week. This then becomes the targeted focus for all practice times throughout the week. Topics of suggested focus include intonation, bow placement, vibrato, dexterity confidence, or other of choice.
3. The student then creates an end of week video over the same content and again uses that as direct evidence to self-assess progress towards goals.
4. Upload and reflect upon these artifacts in Google Classroom. The Orchestra instructors then review each student's performance to provide individualized attention and feedback focused specifically on the students' performance and self-set goal.
5. Based on their self-assessment and teacher feedback, the student then goal-sets via a Google Doc for the following week to continually focus on targeted instruction and self-improvement.

Each of these weekly goal sheets provide evidence for the student to reflect up on their progress towards goals and make new objectives based on previous performance. Since the evidence gets uploaded to Google Classroom, students have a personal Google Folder within their own Google Drive which serves as a private portfolio that stores their yearly progress. Students then have the ability to select which pivotal pieces they would like to showcase within their published ePortfolio.

Assistant Orchestra Director, Sessalie Shapley, comments on the power of infusing technology into their classroom, "Google Classroom video recordings allow me to give feedback to every student based on what I see and hear in their recordings. It is a far more efficient use of time letting the recording and grading happen outside of class instead of one at a time, in class, while all of the other students are waiting;" furthermore, "The video recording assignment allows and even encourages students to record themselves multiple times in order to get their “best” recording" which is the ultimate goal: student-driven success fueled by continual practice in perfecting their art. Best of all, the power of technology has helped Mr. Keller and Ms. Shapley build connections beyond what would be traditionally capable with a large Orchestra on a time-restricted class period as Sessalie continues, "The goal sheets and comments have given me several opportunities to discover something about the student’s expectations and other musical talents, gifts and thoughts, which then allowed for deeper discussion about their playing and their musicianship."

As a natural final step, students reflect on their year in an open-ended format. The power of reflection, goal-setting, and improvement shine through in the following student final responses:

Student 1:

“I thought that the goals were a great way to stay conscious of our playing abilities - to constantly be reminded of our strengths and weaknesses so that we can improve on them over time. I also believe that the exercises we were given are great practice strategies for improving many aspects of musicianship like dexterity and intonation.  I think I have certainly seen evidence of our goals in action as the progressed. Some of the goals on the goal sheets did not always pertain to me, but still having to look at them on a regular basis caused me to think more upon how I can always channel my actions in class and practice towards furthering the goals and the overall quality of our orchestra.”

Student 2:

“This year I have heard and felt so much progress in my playing. This was the first year I took private lessons, and I think that was extremely beneficial by itself. But beyond that I have felt so much more confidence in my playing. This was the first year I made it through a solo contest without crying, and the first year I came out of an audition room feeling proud of myself. And confidence alone has made a world of difference in my playing. I have also noticed a lot of progress related to our goals and goal videos. I didn’t realize it in the beginning, but when we came back near the end of the year and redid the dexterity video, it was actually really cool to find how much easier it was for me to do and how much clearer I sounded than in the beginning of the year. It was also useful to see the goals and realize that it’s okay to experiment with the bow and with the left hand, and just that everyone is doing what they can to make beautiful music in the outcome. I have seen so much progress this year in my playing and how I feel about it and I hope to see even more in years to come.”

The presence of technology has empowered these students to find value in the daily struggle of learning, trying, and occasionally failing all while appreciating their own growth that would otherwise not be as apparent strictly as perceptions and memories.

This intentional goal-setting and reflection process meets the following Student ISTE Standards:

Empowered Learner: Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.

• 1a: Students articulate and set personal learning goals, develop strategies leveraging technology to achieve them and reflect on the learning process itself to improve learning outcomes.
• 1c: Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.

This also exemplified the following TEA Music Level 1 TEKS in which the student is expected to develop processes for self-evaluation and select tools for personal artistic improvement (6c).

Teaching Your Future Forgetful Self

From homework, to extra-curriculars, lunch, friendships/other relationships, as well as chores and other duties at home, so much "life" happens in between today's class period and tomorrow's. Units of study are typically scheduled to end on Fridays so that students can cultivate skills throughout the week and test on Friday with the weekend being a mental break and a new unit/topic starting the following Monday. As much as a week-long Thanksgiving Break is desired, it occurred in the middle of a 7th Grade Math Unit causing Medlin Middle School teachers, N. James and B. Salazar, to get creative in overcoming this potential forgetfulness.

Following a rigorous Scope-and-Sequence, students began studying TEKS 11A (model and solve one-variable, two-step equations and inequalities) and 11B (determine if the given value(s) make(s) one-variable, two-step equations and inequalities true) with only three days remaining before Break. In having this unit resume upon return, James and Salazar wanted to find a way for students to not only learn the foundational skills within the limited time, but also retain the information post-break to maximize instructional time focused on next-steps with minimal review.

What better way to remember content than become your own future self's tutor! To do so, students were tasked with creating a video tutorial utilizing Sketch IO and Screencastify that included the following requirements.

Multiple scaffolds were put in place to ensure students were reinforcing correct information. To start, these on-level students were allowed to be in groups no larger than 3 so peer-teaching could be utilized to support and clarify learning. Additionally, students were tasked with prewriting a script which encouraged planning and preparation instead of an on-the-fly performance; furthermore, this script had to include a few Key Terms in order to provide structure to the video whose remaining components were largely decided by student-choice.

Upon return from the week-long Thanksgiving Break, students had access to their own tutorial as well as a shared Google Folder containing their classmate's videos. This repository was valuable because students could hear and see explanations in student-friendly language from multiple viewpoints and problem sets. Creation of this video is at the highest level of Blooms Taxonomy in which students must synthesize information to create their own original work. Through creating a tutorial to teach yourself and others, students not only had to remember, understand, and apply these math concepts, but then use this to analyze the required steps and evaluate their order and purpose so that they could formulate this video. Applying higher level thinking commonly solidifies the learning to long-term memory so that instruction could resume right where they left off before Break with the tutorial videos available for memory jogging and review.

This activity meets ISTE's standard of being a 'Knowledge Constructor' in which "Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions." (3c)

Multiple Intelligences = Multiple Products

Do you know your strengths? Mrs. Champion’s 5th grade GT class at Hughes Elementary School recently did some self reflection and explored multiple intelligences. After taking a survey and watching Soar (a five minute short film), students identified their highest scoring multiple intelligence. They learned that knowing their multiple intelligence can help them solve problems, communicate ideas, and work with others. Students were asked to create a product, using the tool of their choice, that would allow them to discuss the Soar film using one of their high scoring multiple intelligences. They truly took ownership of this project and created a product unique to their own strengths.

Keet decided to focus on “Music Smarts.” Keet created a rap by Mara and Lucas (characters in Soar). He also chose to pull in his classmate Josh to help him. Keet commented, "Josh and I came together as a team. I could have done the rap alone, but I chose to add Josh because he's really good at editing video." Josh and Keet used Sock Puppets for their rap because they thought it would portray the characters well and make their class laugh.

Josh focused on "Word Smarts." Soar is a silent film, so Josh decided to create a comic that would predict what the characters were thinking and saying during the film. “I enjoyed coming up with what each character could have been thinking,” commented Josh.

Macy and Connor focused on "Body Smarts." They collaborated to build a model of the plane built in Soar. They used a Google doc to collaborate and created a summary of their model. For Connor, the most enjoyable and challenging part of the project was building the plane. "It was fun learning that we could use classroom scraps to build a plane." He added, "we had to try multiple times to get our model correct."

One neat aspect of this project was that learning was differentiated for each student. Some built digitally, some built models, some created visuals, etc. 

Intentional Feedback: 
All students shared their final product on a class Google Slides presentation. This allowed students to not only learn from each other, but also to leave intentional feedback. Students gave specific feedback, received feedback, and made changes based on the feedback of their peers.





















ISTE Standards:

• 1C: Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.

• 3C: Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.

• 4A: Students know and use a deliberate design process for generating ideas, testing theories, creating innovative artifacts or solving authentic problems.

• 6A: Students choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication.
• 6B: Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations.

Don't Put Away Your Fidget Spinner Just Yet

Fidgets spinners are supposed to help students sit still and focus. On the contrary, many teachers are saying, it's having the exact opposite effect which causes students to loose focus.  But, students in Mrs. Fryar’s, 6th grade Tech Apps course at Wilson Middle School, are not losing focus.  They were challenged to create digital spinners all while strengthening critical thinking and problem solving skills.

So many spinners! pic.twitter.com/OleRynuEq9

— Karen Fryar (@KarenFryarArt) May 12, 2017

Students went right to work discovering how coding on Scratch worked.  They were able to question their understanding and take it deeper, by helping others find answers to the questions they still had. With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with others in the online community.  

Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century

 

ISTE Standards

4. Innovative Designer - Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions.

4a Students know and use a deliberate design process for generating ideas, testing theories, creating innovative artifacts or solving authentic problems.

4b Students select and use digital tools to plan and manage a design process that considers design constraints and calculated risks.

4c Students develop, test and refine prototypes as part of a cyclical design process.

4d Students exhibit a tolerance for ambiguity, perseverance and the capacity to work with open-ended problems.

Annotation Videos for the Win

Eaton High School students are using features on their Chromebooks to take an active role in their learning. One method to capture their understanding is video; examples include students recording themselves talking through their thinking, recording each other conducting interviews, creating screencasts, and so much more. This article features a unique method of using digital tools to explain their understanding of processes: a digital whiteboard combined with a screencast recorder. Two classes, Geometry and Chemistry, use this strategy to enable students to collaborate on how to solve a problem and then verbally explain the solution while annotating to show details step-by-step.

In Geometry class, students work in groups to create their own word problem to solve a missing component of a right triangle using trigonometry functions. Each group rolled dice to find two numerical components and drew a playing card to determine if the trig function is basic trig or inverse trig. Given just these three simple components, students constructed a unique word problem to introduce a scenario with a missing piece that needed to be solved. Students then worked through solving the problem, each group member providing part of the solution in the video. Once complete, each group submitted their video in Moodle and the next day each class watched all the videos to verify accuracy and vote on the winning video of the class. This activity provided an opportunity for students to be creative in their learning and provide peer feedback on their work.

Geometry Video #1

Geometry Video #2

In Chemistry class, students work together to predict the products of a chemical reaction. Each group is given only the chemical reactants and must combine several steps: identify the type of reaction, predict the chemical products that will be formed, and balance the equation. After first working through the chemical reaction on paper and getting it verified by the teacher, students then recorded their solution using the whiteboard and screencast tools, each student explaining a portion of the solution with their reasoning. Once complete, each group added their video to a shared class Google Slide, in which each slide represented one chemical reaction. This activity provided students the opportunity to work through several steps of a solution from beginning to end, demonstrate their understanding, and contribute to a class set of video explanations. This collective document was then available to all students as a review to help them work through similar problems while preparing for an upcoming exam.

Chemistry Video #1

Chemistry Video #2

These activities are aligned with ISTE Student Standards:

1. Empowered Learner: Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.
1a. Articulate and set personal learning goals, develop strategies leveraging technology to achieve them and reflect on the learning process itself to improve learning outcomes.
1c. Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.

6. Creative Communicator: Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.
6a. Students choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication.
6b. Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations.
6d. Students publish or present content that customizes the message and medium for their intended audiences.

Visit www.iste.org to learn more about the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)

Digital Learning Can Be a Zoo!

Students at Northwest ISD's STEM Academy recently finished an extensive project across two classes to research, design, and create a functional zoo habitat for a specific type of animal.  Students who were enrolled in both Mrs. Goodwin's Biology class and Mrs. Garrett's Intro to Engineering and Design class used their knowledge from both subjects to informatively create their habitats.

Initial Hand Drawn Plans

Austin, a student who worked on the Elephant Habitat Project, said that "the design part of the project had multiple steps.  The first plans were hand drawn and then scanned in so we had a copy of them.  Then I used inventor to create the digital model of the habitat."  Inventor is a 3D modeling program that offers professional-grade 3D mechanical design, documentation, and product simulation tools.  Student's in Mrs. Garrett's class use Inventor for numerous projects throughout the year, including this one.  "I started by creating a general shape of the habitat, then cut into it with features like stairs, rails, and trees," said Austin.

The project had many parts other than the actual modeling aspect.  Students had to research many aspects of their chosen animal's living needs and incorporate those into their design.  Factors such as natural habitat, environmental niche, food web, behavior, adaptations, and limiting resources were all considered.  Groups created folders in Google Drive to share and collaborate on their project portfolios while completing their research.   "My favorite part of the project was designing the zoo habitat so it resembled a real habitat," said student Marla, who worked on the Harpy Eagle Habitat Project.  "We discovered things during our research that changed out initial designs.  For example, two harpy eagles in the wild occupy an area of over 20 square miles and they typically nest at a specific height.  Because of this, we had to change our initial design which wasn't large or high enough."

Austin agreed with Marla, saying that "concepts for our design were created over and over, including many drafts as we did research."  But not only animal factors had to be taken into account when creating their zoo habitat, as they had to ensure that designs accounted for humans visiting as well. "For example, the [Americans with Disabilities Act] requires that all stairs be between 30 and 50 degree elevation, so we had to take that into account as well," said Austin.

Elephant Habitat Final Project Portfolio

This project incorporated technology for in-depth research as well as informed design using cutting edge modeling software, allowing students to explore multiple facets of what it takes to create a real zoo habitat.  If you'd like to examine some of the projects in more detail, check out the links below!

Elephant Habitat Portfolio

Harpy Eagle Habitat Portfolio

Zoo Habitat Project Rubric

Learn, Experience, Explain: Kindergarten Jumping Into The Frog Life Cycle

Working on the Popplet Flow Map

Students in Mrs. Slimmer's Kindergarten class at Hughes elementary recently learned about the life cycle of a frog. Rather than simply reading about the process in a book, these students got to create their own frog habitat, take care of their own class frogs, and create a collaborative flow map explaining what they've learned. This project allowed the students to explain their learning through visuals and voice over using SeeSaw and Popplet. Popplet gave students the opportunity to draw their learning and connect different parts of the life cycle, which is great for visual learners. Mrs Slimmer pointed out, “This project gave my students exposure to the technology in a very meaningful and purposeful way. They are used to playing games on the iPad, but this project allowed them to create and be producers rather than consumers.”

Owen, Kalynn, Mason, and Alliah had a lot to say about this experience. When asked what they learned throughout the project Kalynn's face lit up as she stated, "I learned that frogs actually live in land and in water." Owen quickly added, "And they need food. They need lots of crickets." Mason adds, "Did you know that frog's eggs look like eyes? They start as eggs and then turn into tadpoles." The group all agreed that their favorite part of the experience was taking pictures of their frog habitat and drawing each step on the iPad. They especially liked drawing the frog eggs and the tadpoles. They also enjoyed being able to use SeeSaw to explain their learning with voice over.

When asked what the most challenging part of the project was, Alliah comments, "I had a hard time drawing the water and finding the best picture of eggs to take from our book." At a young age these students are learning how to gather, organize and sequence their information. They are also able to explain their learning, and work together to create a published product.

Students Take Pictures of Their Frog Habitat
for Their Flow Map

Primary Student ISTE Standards:

• 3C: Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.
• 6B: Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations.
• 6C: Students communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively by creating or using a variety of digital objects such as visualizations, models or simulations.