Billings Beta » Projects

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:

Bike to School 2010

Jac de Haan — Fri, 21 May 2010 15:42:42 +0000

Imagine combining a series of simple machines (lever, wheel & axle, screw, plane) that would allow you to travel faster than a human can run with less effort involved. And what if this new technology had close to no impact on the environment once it is built?

Well, the future is here! 13 students (13%) and 5 faculty/staff (17%) participated in Bike to School day today – flexing their understanding of technology and their muscles to brave the weather and power themselves to school.

Thanks to everyone who participated this year, and to the Cascade Bicycle Club and Gregg’s Greenlake cycle for the organization efforts.

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.

Art: showing vs. telling

Jac de Haan — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 04:40:43 +0000

When Annie, the Billings visual arts teacher, wants to get students excited about a new journaling elective, she uses Google’s online Presentation tool to show instead of just tell. The idea worked – the class is full and students are excited!

Digital Arts class launches next week

Jac de Haan — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:00:59 +0000

Spring is a time for flowers, sunshine, developer conferences and DigiArts!

DigiArts is a time to explore programming and tinkering. We might take apart a broken scanner. We might build a game in StarLogo TNG. We might make a stop-motion film.

Class time will be divided between direct instruction/presentations and free exploration. There may be a couple of field trips that will extend the school day until 4:30pm.

To get a sense of the offering, check out last year’s DigiArts blog, created by 8 students from the 7th and 8th grade.

Students will plan specific projects and work independently towards completion with regular teacher check-ins.
Students are responsible for regularly documenting progress on the 2010 Digital Arts blog, with writing, photos and/or video.
Students are expected to share their work with classmates and the school community.
We will not be playing with alternating currents, messing with networks or other people (but Rick-rolling is okay).

Because this class is limited to 10 students, you are required to apply. Interested students should send Jac answers to the following (complete sentences where appropriate):

1. Why do you want to be in this class?

2. What are some project ideas you might be interested in working on?

3. With great power comes great _________________.

4. AYBABTU – explain.

Independent Project Spotlight: Jamal

Jac de Haan — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 21:29:03 +0000

In conjunction with a month-long language arts identity writing project, 7th grade students have chosen independent creative projects to support their words. These projects have taken on a variety of forms, all sharing personal experience through vision, sound or touch.

Jamal taught himself to use Garageband to create an original rap about his life and how it has shaped his identity. Judge the results for yourself:

Independent Project Spotlight: Kelly

Jac de Haan — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:29:02 +0000

Kelly just taught herself to use Pivot, a free stick-figure animator. Enjoy her first extended project, “The Fall.”

Independent Project Spotlight: Thomas

Jac de Haan — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:19:43 +0000

6th grade student Thomas recently finished an interactive animation using Scratch, a free application that introduces programming. Use the space bar to begin and the arrow keys to interact with this cool creation:

Aviary addition to Google Apps for Edu

Jac de Haan — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 04:59:32 +0000

Billings 7th and 8th graders use Google Apps for Edu regularly to communicate with peers and faculty. The Calendar service allows us to keep track of athletics, trips and community events. Docs provides free document and spreadsheet editing and publishing. Sites are used for student, faculty and class homepages.

Today we added a new service to the Google suite: Aviary. Aviary is an online editing suite for sound recording, graphics and vectors. 7th grade students spent Tech this week playing with the new tools – creating custom t-shirt designs, remixing beats and mocking up album covers for an iCLAST identity project.

Our mission: to figure out if these tools are intuitive enough and robust enough to use regularly. While these online offerings aren’t as powerful as their software counterparts (Photoshop, Garageband, Illustrator), they are free and accessible from home/school/library/anywhere with an internet connection.

So far so good, we’ll keep testing and report our findings in future posts.

Billings students: to access Aviary, log in to Google Apps. In the top left corner you’ll see “Documents Calendar Sites more.” Select “more” and then “Aviary” from the dropdown list. Enjoy.

Independent Project Spotlight: Gray

Jac de Haan — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:13:45 +0000

6th grader Gray recently finished an independent project using the Phun 2-D physics engine. His goal was to “make a magnetic accelerator cannon or a railgun sort of thing to fire very fast destructive projectiles,” and “it was achieved through balancing properties of mass and density.” Nice work, Gray!

Independent Project Spotlight: Rowan

Jac de Haan — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:18:02 +0000

My name is Rowan, and I am a 6th grade student doing an independent tech project about important issues around the world. My website has links to other websites that are helping to solve these issues.

Check out my website to see how you can help too. You can leave comments right here on the tech blog. Thanks.

OK GO followup

Jac de Haan — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:11:56 +0000

On Monday, the 7th grade talked about the band OK GO and their inability to post embeddable videos due to the record contract they have in place. State Farm Insurance stepped in and gave the band money to make a new video that falls beyond the EMI agreement. Enjoy this massive Rube Goldberg machine:

Apple iPad testing

Jac de Haan — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:01:40 +0000

Students got their hands on an Apple iPad today – weeks before the product has officially been launched! We did some testing and compared the size of this new device with an iPod and a laptop. Overall impression was that the screen seems small for web surfing, but it is a fun gizmo.

If you are interested in trying out the iPad for free, follow this link for access