technology with intention
6th Grade
Tech class happenings from the 6th grade, including STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math).
Students excel at….well, Excel.
1105 days
by Kasha Roseta
in 6th Grade
Today marked the start of our Million Dollar Project, Part Two: Introduction to Excel. Students worked diligently to transfer the data contained in their balance sheets into a new spreadsheet. They then worked on properly formatting the cells before learning how to input formulas to calculate their total expenditures and the amount of money left over. Next week, we’ll learn how to create different types of charts from their data, as well as how to make their projects look professional.
An example spreadsheet by Halley. Formulas are used to add, subtract, and create percentages.
What’s that?!
1107 days
by Jac de Haan
in 6th Grade
For the last 3 weeks, 6th grade students have been exploring mystery technology items in teams. We began by examining 6 neat looking objects (see photo). Then, students completed an online survey where they noted their degree of comfort and understanding with each object.
Students were grouped together with others who knew the least about each object, and then through examination and discussion, these groups decoded the mysterious technology. Along the way, everyone gathered keywords that might help when searching online for more information about each device.
Next Tuesday, students will present their findings to the class – describing what each object is, how it is used, and what earlier technologies the devices improve upon.
Are Google and Apple friends?
1125 days
by Jac de Haan
in 6th Grade
First day back to tech and the 6th grade tackled what turns out to be a difficult question: Are Google and Apple friends?
Students agreed that Apple is a computing company and Google is an advertising company. They don’t compete for hardware (iPhone, computers, iPod, etc) but they DO fight for software users (Apple sells software, Google gives it away).
Students pointed out that Google’s web browser (Chrome) only works on PC, not on Apple computers. This makes us think that Apple and Google will work together to steal users from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
However, on January 5th, Google released a piece of software called Picasa for Mac, a direct competitor to iPhoto (the most popular free Mac photo organization/editing software). What does this mean? Is Google attacking Apple?
The 6th grade thinks that this will be a tough fight for Google. Apple computers come with iPhoto already installed, and for people that already use iPhoto, there isn’t a lot of reason to switch.
How would you spend one MILLION dollars?
1125 days
by Kasha Roseta
in 6th Grade
Buy the moon? A Ferrari? A hamster named Fred? A mansion with a moat? Invest in a stock or two?
These were some student suggestions in response to the challenge we faced today in Tech class, when we began Part I of the “Million Dollar Assignment.” Using a mind-mapping/outlining program called Inspiration, students worked either in pairs or independently to figure out a way to spend one million dollars. There were a few strings attached:
1. Taxes on the full amount must be paid.
2. Only one of any one thing (car, house, etc) can be purchased.
3. 25% of money (after taxes) must be given to charity.
Using an online tax calculator, students got to work, and were somewhat horrified to discover that $328,597 of their hard-won cash would be gone before they would have a chance to spend it. The new subtotal? A mere $671,403.
But wait! What about that 25% earmarked for charity? Subtract $167, 850.75 and the new subtotal is a paltry $503,552.25.
Gulp. Scratch the plans for the Ferrari. Maybe a house is more important than a car after all.
Next class, we will spend more time on researching the actual cost of the things they want to buy – rather than just creating a mind-map – and students will explore the financial feasibility of their current expenditure plans.
All of this is leading up to creating a balance sheet in Microsoft Excel, where they will create formulas to calculate costs, and hopefully, find an equitable way to spend their remaining half-million dollars.
6th grade Winter plans
1145 days
by Jac de Haan
in 6th Grade
For Winter term, the 6th grade will be enrolled in 2 tech classes, running concurrently: Tech Tuesday & Working Wednesday. Typing will continue to be required, 3 days per week. Students can get ahead on these assignments by typing over Winter break. For each day over break that a student completes an assignment, they receive a day’s credit (up to 10 days) for the Winter term!!
Tech Tuesday
Jac & the 6th grade will work in a seminar style to research, hypothesize and deconstruct tech companies that are having a huge effect on our lives. Students will be expected to work in small groups and participate in full class discussions. There will be some homework – mostly reading short articles in preparation for class discussions.
Working Wednesay
Kasha will introduce the 6th grade to the Microsoft Office suite of applications. Students will become proficient with Word, Excel & PowerPoint this term through a series of creative and practical lessons designed to introduce program functionality and teach students when such tools are appropriate. There will also be time for students to use these programs beyond their “intended” use, for instance, making art with Excel or creating Mad Libs using Word’s mail merge feature!
End of term wrap up
1152 days
by Jac de Haan
in 6th Grade
Last 2 weeks of 6th grade tech have been used to practice memory and critical thinking skills as well as self reflections.
Quiz summary:
Class average: 72% (77% adjusted)
Range: 47-95% (52-100% adjusted)
The end of the Internet
1162 days
by Jac de Haan
in 6th Grade
Last day of discussions around the Internet. We covered a lot of ground today.
Imagine a cell phone address book. This software presents information about a “contact” such as their name, phone number, possibly an email address or photo. Your phone is actually creating a big table for all your contacts, and the address book presents the info you want clearly.
The web is designed in much the same way. Humans use domain names (e.g., www.yahoo.com) because they are easy to remember. When you type a domain name into a web browser, the name is sent to the company that provides Internet service, which sends the domain name to a giant network of root servers. These root servers are the world’s most used database, looking up the appropriate IP address (phone number for a specific computer) for the requested domain name. That IP address is sent to the internet provider, which sends the numbers to your computer and then you are connected with the computer. Phew!
We have a root server in Seattle, located in the Westin Hotel. This server is operated by Verisign, Inc.
Some resources from our discussion today:
What’s in a name?
1177 days
by Jac de Haan
in 6th Grade
This week was an intro to the Internet. Although students have become comfortable using school-provided email addresses and the student Start page, we haven’t had a clear discussion on how the Internet is used in an academic setting until now.
Some terms we learned along the way:
- web browser
- domain name
- web address/URL
We discussed the 3 most popular web browsers, their history and the companies that produce them. We also learned about Google’s very recent entry into the browser war. We reviewed the 3 most popular search engines and talked about market share and critical mass.
Finally, we discuss the lab and Internet guidelines that have been created by Billings students in negotiation with the faculty.
Counting on this election…
1190 days
by Jac de Haan
in 6th Grade
Tuesday is November 4th, elections day! In tech today, after a brief conversation about typing homework and passwords, we read an article from Computer World called Election Day: What could possibly go wrong? This article examined 6 errors that can occur with electronic voting machines:
- machine malfunction (hardware)
- touch screen calibration errors (hardware/software)
- training problems (user)
- human error (user)
- voter registration database errors (software/data)
- malicious attack (software)
As one of our first forays onto the WWW this year, we used this time to identify pop-ups and advertisements in the article to build awareness.
When finished, we took a quick pop quiz and identified the electronic voting issues that Homer Simpson encountered when trying to vote.
Stand back and smile
1192 days
by Jac de Haan
in 6th Grade
We took a couple of days to reflect on all the work we’ve accomplished this year so far. Email, passwords, intranets, programming, Boolean operators, logic statements and prototyping are just a few of these things we’ve learned about.
While remembering past classes, we took the opportunity to create a visual mindmap of the concepts that have been introduced. We found some interesting discoveries, one of which was that we use typing in almost everything we do!
On Wednesday we created a new mindmap that explored how people use technology. This schema will be evaulated throughout the rest of the year, as we connect ideas and deepen understanding.
