Billings Beta » 8th grade

Independent Project Spotlight: Jake

Jac de Haan — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 17:08:19 +0000

Recent graduate Jake made a short film about one of his independent projects from DigiArts. Students Noah and Lexi assisted with the filming.

Jake blended low-tech objects (M&M container, string, rings) and high-tech (i-Pod, scavenged speaker) to create the illusion. His magic left viewers speechless:

Project spotlight: Noah & Digital Arts

Jac de Haan — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:04:27 +0000

8th grade student Noah, one of the co-founders of the Billings Digital Arts program, just completed a circuit-bending project using a Speak & Math. He used Reed Ghazala’s book as a reference and did some of the work at local create:space Metrix. Check out the video he posted:

Summer technology opportunities

Jac de Haan — Thu, 13 May 2010 04:55:21 +0000

Summer is fast approaching and students have been asking about technology and computing opportunities around town. Of course summer is a time to get away from a screen and explore a world of sunshine…that said, here are some offerings to compliment fresh air and exercise:

Lego Robotics @ Billings: Billings Middle School has our very own Seattle Lego Robotics camp, presented in conjunction with the amazing educators at EdLab. 2 sessions – August 2-6 and 9-13.

iD Gaming Academy: Held at the University of Washington, this 2-week overnight game development camp is a great opportunity to learn about video game creation. 6th grade student Gray says “you get to make your own unique game and play it as well as play other peoples games.”

911 Media Arts: Classes in making movies, digital storytelling, website design, and more.

Reel Grrls: Get hands on with animation and video production day camps – girls only!

TechReach: SeaBots – Dive into science. This girls only one-week camp is a great intro to programming and Lego robotics.

Youth in Focus: Intro to digital photography classes are offered 2x a week. Applications are due end of May.

Digital Arts updates

Jac de Haan — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 20:07:55 +0000

The tech lab is the place to be on Monday and Wednesdays afternoons. 2 weeks into DigiArts, students are knee-deep in a variety of excellent projects:

Jake successfully installed Linux on a donated computer and also harvested motors from a DVD/VCR combo unit.
Alex is trying to change the infrared filter on an old video camera to capture a light spectrum invisible to the human eye.
Ella and Cillian have got the Arduino boards communicating with a couple of lab computers, and are writing basic programs (so far just output but soon we’ll tackle input as well).
Rachel, Torri, Remy, Charlie and Griffyn are working on 3 different screenplays and will begin filming next week.
Noah completed his first hand-coded website. Click here to view his iPad review and then click here to learn more about it.
Lexi is recording a reharmonization of a Miley Cyrus song.
Mike dismantled a laptop and is ordering a couple of kits from the MakerShed.
Elijah has been working with a mixing board for turntables and an old Yamaha keyboard.

Community class sets their sight on a site

Jac de Haan — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 00:09:29 +0000

8th grade students have begun their final rotations this year, meaning 14 soon-to-be graduates have cycled up to the tech lab for Community Class. Students already had a strong understanding of the definitions and complexity of community, having recently spent a week studying the subject with a variety of teachers and team-based activities.

Past groups have explored community from different angles: 1st term focused on community service and documenting our neighborhood, 2nd term surveyed the student population and shared findings of digital identity with the parent community. This term, the group is planning on creating a website for future Billings students that documents all of the trips students take over the course of 3 years.

This website will be a team effort and will include trip overviews, maps, photos, do/don’t lists, gear lists, how-to videos and more. Stay tuned as our website takes shape!

Google Apps for Edu updates

Jac de Haan — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:01:08 +0000

Teachers, 7th and 8th grade students use Google Apps for Edu daily to collaborate, present, capture information, and express creativity. Google just announced an upgrade to the system with some great new features that will help us be more productive. Watch the official video for more information:

2010 digital identity survey results – cell phones

Jac de Haan — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 03:15:30 +0000

The 8th grade Community class has been analyzing the results of their 2010 Digital Identity Survey. 88 students (out of 103) completed the request for information. There is a lot of information to work through – from social networking accounts to gaming consoles to parent perceptions of tech use. Below is a small sample: student cell phone ownership and texting trends.

Applied Math Lab: Avalanche!

Jac de Haan — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:33:01 +0000

8th grade students have been learning about the aspects of avalanches as well as safety and awareness (partly in preparation for the February snow camping trip). They simulated three different avalanche terrains on a flat board, and used flour, salt, sugar, and potato flakes to simulate varied snowpacks. As they increased the angle of the board, they measured the angle of incline as they observed what was happening to the different layers. They looked for slab and loose avalanches and reported at what angle they occurred as well as the distance of the slide. They used their data to derive generalizations about snowpack and incline in nature.

Applied Math Lab: Newspaper = Structure

sarahsw — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:36:25 +0000

The engineering section of 8th grade Applied Math Lab (AML) has just finished a unit on structure building. Using a required number of newspaper sheets, students worked in groups to create a structure that could withhold the weight of one small book, two small books, a math book…?!, a dictionary…?!, two dictionaries…?!, all of this combined, and more! Students followed a design process that included building, testing, evaluating, and redesigning.

8th grade project spotlight: Cillian

Jac de Haan — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:46:47 +0000

8th grade student Cillian is working on an independent project with Passports with Purpose, a fundraiser that is using online donations to build a school in Cambodia.

Cillian is using his skills as a programmer to help out with this project, which was recently featured online by the New York Times. Take a moment to enjoy an interview with Cillian:

Community class focused on digital identity

Jac de Haan — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:18:07 +0000

The new group of 8th graders enrolled in Community Class have turned their attention to digital identity in preparation for a January 20th presentation to parents.

The Parent Education committee has requested an evening to discuss “what exactly do students know about social networking and tech usage in general.” The 8th grade sees this as an opportunity to educate parents about screen-time, gaming and social networks and to teach parents what kind of questions to ask.

The class has split into 3 groups:

Parent/Teacher survey about screen-time and online habits, both for the parent and for their children
Student survey about digital device interaction (texting, accessing media, gaming, etc)
An online resource website for parents with links to studies, news stories and FAQ around digital identity.

Results will be posted once data gathering is complete!

Chemists use YouTube to understand scientific concepts

Jac de Haan — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:08:23 +0000

8th graders appeared in the lab this afternoon to take advantage of our Promethean interactive whiteboard. Students researched chemistry concepts online and shared some resources through a collaborative document. In the below photos, students use YouTube to understand diffusion.

Documenting community

Jac de Haan — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:32:29 +0000

One 8th grade class is photographically documenting the meaning of the word “community.” After an introduction to some well known photographers, students used our new interactive white board to sort thumbnail images into a Venn diagram (shown below). We differentiated between artists that convey their theme purely through subject and composition v. those that use treatments after shooting to express themes.

Students then took to the streets to capture the Green Lake community. Once back in the lab, most chose to use a Hockney-esque treatment to convey their theme.

Chemistry – lemon batteries

sarahsw — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:44:00 +0000

By Annaliese F. and Cillian M.

parts of a battery

On Wednesday, October 21^st, the 8^th grade class A created actual working batteries out of nothing but copper rods, zinc coated nails, and lemons. The lemon batteries were connected to LEDs by alligator clips, and the LEDs actually lit up! You might wonder how a plain old lemon can power a light. It all has to do with the acid in the lemon juice. Normal batteries work by having an anode, which is the + side, and a cathode, which is the – side. The anode and the cathode are separated by an acidic solution, which contains positively and negatively charged ions. An ion is an atom that has gained or lost one or more electrons. The positive ions are attracted to the cathode (+ attracts –) and are called cations. Likewise, the negative ions are attracted to the anode and are called anions. The acid is known as an electrolyte because it conducts electricity. This is because of the presence of ions. In our lemon batteries, the copper rod acted as an anode, the zinc coated nail acted as a cathode, and the lemon juice acted as the acid. We connected all 14 of our lemons, linked it up to two LEDs, and turned off the lights. The attached pictures capture the moment that they were lit. To quote a famous man: “It’s Science!!!”