screencasting Archive - Mathematics and Science in SD#38 (Richmond)

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April thinking together: communicate mathematical thinking in many ways

Posted on: April 30th, 2019 by jnovakowski

This month’s curricular competency focus is communicate mathematical thinking in many ways. This curricular competency is the same across grades K-9 and is included in the Grades 10-12 courses as “explain and justify mathematical ideas and decisions in many ways“.

This competency falls under the organizer of “Communicating and Representing” which includes the following related competencies:

Elaborations are suggestions for educators to consider as they plan for developing this curricular competency:

communicate using concrete, pictorial and symbolic forms
use spoken or written language to express, describe, explain, justify and apply mathematical ideas
use technology for communication purposes such as screencasting and digital photography and videography

There are clear connections between the Core Competency of Communication with this grouping of curricular competencies. A one-page table showing the language of both types of competencies can be downloaded here:

SD38 K-5 Math Communication_Avenir

An important part of communicating mathematical thinking in many ways is to be able to use different forms such as concrete (materials or math manipulatives), pictorial (drawings, diagrams, tallies) or symbolic forms (numerals and symbols).

An example from primary classrooms of how students may move from concrete to symbolic notations is with the use of materials such as base ten blocks. Students may communicate their understanding of numbers by creating that number with materials and then recording the symbolic notation. The following are some examples from a grades 2&3 classroom at Cook Elementary that show how children used concrete, pictorial and symbolic forms to help them solve and communicate their solutions for mathematical problems.

As students begin to understand a concept, such as multiplication, they usually construct a representation with materials to build understanding. These representation may then be recorded pictorially and then labels are added using symbolic notation. This fluency between forms is important and the connections between representations is essential to conceptual understanding. A student may be presented with a symbolic form (such as an equation) and asked to show a concrete form or pictorial form that “matches”. The following are examples from a grades 2&3 classroom at Tomsett Elementary.

For our intermediate and secondary students, it is still important to be using concrete materials, especially when students are developing their understanding of a new concept such as fractions, decimals, or integers. The following are examples from a grades 4&5 classroom at Homma Elementary

and also more fraction investigations with a grades 4&5 class at Steves.

In our curriculum, the terms “concrete, pictorial and symbolic” are used in ways for students to think about concepts but also to communicate and represent their thinking. In some other jurisdictions around the world, the term CRA is used to reference an instructional approach to concept development, standing for Concrete, Representational and Abstract. More information can be found HERE. There is some overlap between the the CRA framework and how our curriculum focuses on concrete, pictorial and symbolic communication of mathematical thinking and understanding.

Another area of focus in our district is using iPad technology for students to communicate their thinking and learning. One of the most common uses of the devices in math is to use screen casting apps such as doceri, ShowMe, Explain Everything or 30Hands. When students screencast, they can take a photograph or video of what they are doing and then annotate with arrows, words etc and then orally describe their problem-solving process or thinking. For example, in a grade 8 class at Hugh Boyd Secondary, students took images of number balances they used to develop their understanding of equivalence in algebraic equations and then communicated their thinking by orally explaining their understanding.

Some questions to consider as you plan for learning opportunities to develop the competency of communicating mathematical thinking in many ways:

How is the core competency of communication noticed, named and nurtured during the teaching and learning of mathematics?

What different materials are students learning to use, think through and represent with? What materials are mathematically structured and what other types of materials might we offer to students?

What opportunities are we providing for students to share their thinking in different ways? Are students provided with choices and is there a balance in the different ways students can communicate their mathematical thinking?

How might technology provide access for students or transform the way they are able to communicate their mathematical thinking?

~Janice

January thinking together: use technology to explore mathematics

Posted on: January 31st, 2019 by jnovakowski

This month’s focus is on the curricular competency: use technology to explore mathematics.

This is the language that is used from K-5 with the accompanying elaborations:

This is the language of the learning standard for grades 6-9:

And this is the language of the learning standard in grades 10-12, with elaborations that are more course-specific:

There are many questions that arise for educators and parents around the use of technology. In some contexts the use of personal devices becomes a management and liability concern for schools and in other contexts there are access and equity concerns around technology. In terms of pedagogy and appropriate use, there is always a professional judgement made as to the suitable use of technology and whether it is enhancing the learning experience in some way. Technology is not to be used just for the sake of using technology but instead, choices are made around technology use based on intention, context and purpose. In mathematics, there are many applications that allow for students to visualize and experience mathematics in ways they would not otherwise be able to (one example is the use of Desmos). Another aspect of using technology in mathematics teaching is as a tool to represent and share students’ learning. There are many accessibility features available on devices for students who may need different tools to support their communication or recording of ideas. Technology can be a powerful tool to support inclusive practices, choice and differentiation.

When we look at BC’s redesigned curriculum for information on the role of technology within a learning environment, the following is shared:

ICT-enabled learning environments

Students need opportunities to develop the competencies required to use current and emerging technologies effectively in all aspects of their learning and life. Technology can facilitate collaboration between students, educators, parents, and classrooms while also providing schools with rich online resources. Today’s technology enables classrooms, communities, and experts around the world to share digitally in a learning experience, wherever they may be.

source: https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/overview

E-Portfolios

Communication with families (and others) is an important part of our education system and in our district we are embracing e-portfolios and the use of technology to share and communicate student learning and progress with families. Students are able to take photographs or videos and upload them to their portfolios and annotate their posts with information or self-assessment about their learning. The teacher is also able to add descriptive feedback that is shared between teacher, student and family.

Screencasting

As a classroom and resource teacher and teacher-librarian, one of my favourite uses of technology was the use of screen casting apps. These apps allow students to take a photograph of the math they have been building, creating, diagramming or recording and then use annotation tools such as text labelling and arrows to explain their thinking as well as using audio tools to narrate their thinking. I found that many students were more confident and detailed in sharing their learning through these apps that what I might have found out about their understanding in other ways. There is also an honouring of students’ uniqueness in how they might see or think through the mathematics that can be shown through these types of apps. Some examples of screen casting apps we use in our district our: ShowMe, Educreations, Explain Everything, 30Hands and Doceri.

Math Apps

There are many apps that can support mathematics learning – some are mathematics specific and others are used to represent and share learning. A caution is the type of math apps that are essentially a worksheet and don’t include any sort of feedback to students, visual supports, problem-solving or mathematical thinking. Some locally produced apps include the TouchCounts from SFU that uses the research around gesturing to create an interactive app that focuses on counting and decomposition and composition of quantities. Another series of BC apps are the MathTappers apps developed through the University of Victoria. Each app has visual supports for students developing their understanding of a concept as well as symbolic or abstract notation. There are also choices as the number range that students can work with, allowing for differentiation. These apps are all on our district configured iPad devices. Some specific apps from this series include Find Sums, Multiples, and Equivalents.

The apps from the Math Learning Centre are also on our district configured iPad devices and allow for content creation and capturing students’ process and thinking. These apps are in web-based and iOS and Android formats. More information can be found HERE.

There are also so many apps that allow for students to share their thinking such as ShowMe, Educreations, Book Creator, PicCollage, 30Hands and Doceri.

Tracy Zager shares her ideas on evaluating math content apps HERE. Her non-negotiable criteria are:

1) no time pressure

2) conceptual basis for operations

3) mistakes are handled productively

Read through her blog post for explanation and examples.

The following is a link to some recommended apps and blog posts about students using them from #summertech15 and HERE is a blog post about using iPad technology and specific apps to support all students in mathematics.

Calculators

Although BC does not yet have a specific statement on calculator use, there is no intent that students will use calculators to complete calculations instead of learning the concepts and practice involved with operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division). In some cases, students that have specific learning needs and plans may use calculators as an adaptation. In some cases, teachers may choose to provide the choice of calculators when the focus of the lesson or assessment is not on calculation but on another area of the math curriculum such as problem-solving and calculators can be used for the necessary calculations so that students can focus on the other aspects of the task. Calculators can also be used to investigate patterns and relationships, support student reasoning or justification.

The NCTM has a research brief on calculator use in the classroom which can be found HERE as well as a position paper on calculator use in elementary grades which can be found HERE.

Virtual Manipulatives

The Math Learning Centre offers a variety of virtual manipulatives in web, iOS and Android formats. They can be accessed HERE.

desmos

Desmos is a free, online graphing calculator application that is used by teachers and students all over the world. There are both web-based and app platforms. Students are “able” to play with parameters in an equation and visually see how the graph changes as the parameters change. The desmos staff and teachers across the world have developed lessons and tasks that are open source and shared through the desmos teacher website at no cost HERE. There is also an activity builder so that teachers can create their own tasks.

I attended a math conference a few years ago where Eli Luberoff, CEO of desmos, shared his passion for the teaching and learning enabled and enhanced by this tool. In particular, I was captivated by the marble slides task he shared and the authentic learning that we witnessed happening for students in the video he shared.

More information about Desmos and access to many classroom activities can be found HERE.

Coding and Computational Thinking

There are many links between coding and computational thinking. Two new senior math courses – Computer Science 11 and 12 have been added to our BC curriculum framework and these courses focus on coding, programming and computational thinking. I will be sharing a blog post specific to coding and math in the next few months.

Osmo

Osmo is an interactive accessory for iPad technology that uses the camera to create Reflective Artificial Intelligence. The red camera clip and white base are used with free apps and game materials that can be purchased online or at the Apple Store. Two of its earliest games focused on mathematics – the Tangram game focuses on spatial reasoning and the Numbers games focuses on decomposition and composition of numbers. Osmo is always developing new games including a Pizza game that focuses on financial literacy and a series of coding games.

More information about Osmo can be found in a blog post here and on their website here. The SD38 DRC has five Osmo kits available to borrow. Note that one iPad device is needed for each kit.

Augmented Reality (AR)

Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real-world are “augmented” by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensory modalities (from Wikipedia). There is an interplay in AR between digital and real-world environments whereas in Virtual Reality (VR) you engage with a simulated environment. A few years ago we had a Google Expeditions team visit Homma school and share their Google cardboard virtual reality devices with the students. A blog post about that experience can be found HERE. This was a first foray into thinking about ways this kind of technology could support teaching and learning. My first experience with AR was a few years ago when the colAR app created a special event to go along with Dot Day (inspired by the book by Peter Reynolds). The information about this can be found HERE and is a great starting point to use AR with students.

Our new technology integration teacher consultant Ellen Reid has been exploring AR with the iPad app AR Maker . We talked about the mathematical possibilities for using AR and along with the development of spatial reasoning, the following concepts came to mind: surface area, volume, transformational geometry, scale, proportion, ratio, 2D and 3D geometry, and composition and decomposition of shapes. The following are some photos Ellen captured as she created AR WODBs (Which One Doesn’t Belong?):

WODB_AR (movie file)

For Richmond teachers, please also check out the Integrating Technology for Teachers page, curated by Chris Loat, on our district portal linked HERE.

Some questions to consider as you plan for learning opportunities to develop the competency of using technology to explore mathematics:

How can technology enhance students’ mathematical experience and see and think about mathematics in different ways?

What specific curricular content and competencies at your grade level could be explored and investigated through technology, including the use of calculators?

How can technology be used to support students’ collaboration and communication in mathematics?

What opportunities are we creating for sharing and communication with families through the use of technology? How are we communicating with parents how forms of technology are being used in our schools to support learning in mathematics?

~Janice

using iPad technology to support all students in mathematics

Posted on: April 7th, 2016 by jnovakowski

Last week I was invited to do a presentation with Richmond’s Learning Resource Teachers, sharing ways that teachers can use iPad technology to support all of their students in mathematics.

The use of technology can support students in different ways – through the use of audio narration (ie. screencasting) of explaining mathematical thinking or strategy use and for many students, using their fingers to navigate or “print” using iPad technology is more accessible than using a pencil/pen. The visual (and often audio and kinaesthetic or gesturing) support is also particularly supportive and this is an area the math apps I have recommended attend to. The Math Tappers apps (developed by University of Victoria math education professors) all provide different types of visual supports and tools for students and provide different “levels” of entry points.

The TouchCounts app (developed by SFU math education researchers) involves moving visual support, audio support in multiple languages (students can choose) as well as the use of physical gesturing which all contribute to many different ways that students can access an understanding of composing and decomposing quantities/number.

The apps from The Math Learning Center is Oregon all provide virtual manipulative that students can access for both mathematical thinking and solving as well as representing. Students and teachers often use these apps to “app-smash” with, where they take a screenshot of what they created with the virtual manipulatives and then use that image in a annotation app like Skitch or PicCollage or a screencasting app like ShowMe or Doceri. This app-smashing creates a way for students to document and share their learning.

Here is a link to slideshare where I have posted the section of my presentation about the different apps. CLICK HERE.

~Janice

inclusive learning communities: grade 8 math at Boyd, year two

Posted on: March 16th, 2016 by jnovakowski

Several schools in our district are participating in Inclusive Learning Communities projects, with a school team working alongside Learning Services staff to consider inclusive principles and practices. Hugh Boyd Secondary is continuing with a its second year in the project, investigating the question: How can we meet the diverse needs of our students in our grade 8 math classes?

A summary of last year’s project can be found HERE.

This year, the school team met with Shelley Moore and myself to look at class profiles, develop performance tasks for the beginning of a unit of study, consider and plan for inclusive practices within lessons and discuss ways of assessing students. This year, the teachers chose to focus on algebra (solving equations) and linear relations (graphing). We looked at the prescribed learning outcomes, considering what students needed to know to be successful at the grade 8 level – language, concepts, processes, skills. I introduced the team to the number balance as a way to think about balancing equations and emphasizing the concept of equivalence.

New this year was a collaboration with SetBC – the school was provided with a half-class set of iPad tablets loaded with apps suitable for communicating learning in mathematics. SetBC facilitators provided support to the Boyd teachers in learning how to use screencasting apps such as doceri.

One of the lessons we developed together was having the students use the number balances to represent algebraic equations and then use the app ShadowPuppet to capture their process and understanding.

A short video of this lesson can be viewed HERE. The teachers noticed the high engagement of the students and how some students were able to demonstrate their understanding of the mathematics in ways that played to their strengths.

The teachers followed up with lessons, continuing with the students creating screencasts using iPad technology. The students were provided with choices of algebraic equations to create a table of values for and then graph using the doceri app (it has various graph paper backgrounds to choose from).

During our debrief session before spring break, the teachers identified the new practices that helped to meet the needs of their students and that they felt would endure for them: using a performance task before the unit of study to assess where students are in their understanding, using manipulatives/models, using open-ended learning experiences, presenting three or more different entry points for students (different complexity of questions or problems) and using iPad technology.

~Janice

elementary math focus afternoon: September 28

Posted on: October 14th, 2015 by jnovakowski

On the afternoon of September 28, about 220 educators from 15 Richmond elementary schools converged upon Steves Elementary for our first of two elementary math focus afternoons.

After an overview of current updates to the redesigned curriculum in mathematics and some thoughts to connect us as we work together, there were many sessions for teachers to choose from during two “break-out” times. Each sessions focused on at least one of the key aspects of the redesigned curriculum such as Big Ideas, a core competency or the First Peoples Principles of Learning. All of the sessions were facilitated by Richmond teachers – math mentor teachers, teacher consultants and some of the teachers from Steves.

Here is a link to the program for the afternoon and an overview of the sessions provided:

Elementary Math Focus Afternoon Sept 28 sessions

Please contact the presenters or myself through Richnet if you are interested in more information.

Three professional resources that were recommended throughout the afternoon are:

We have a growing number of educators in Richmond becoming active on twitter. Any tweets tagged with the hashtag #sd38math for the day are archived HERE through Storify.

Some of the resources shared during the afternoon:

introduction_math Aug 2015 – Introduction to BC Math Curriculum, K-12

whatsnew_math – What’s New in Math, K-9

BCAMT BasicNumberFacts1 – BCAMT pamphlet for parents on basic facts

The Sum What Dice Game Jan2013 – Sum What Dice Game

FH final Turtle Pond coding – Fred Harwood’s coding resources

Financial Literacy primary resources – Primary Financial Literacy Resources (QR codes)

High-Yield Routines September 2015 – High Yields Routines, SD38, K-8

We are hoping that this afternoon was a great launch for the school year, especially for the 17 Richmond elementary schools that have math as a school goal or professional learning focus. We all know that an afternoon like this can be inspiring and teachers take away ideas to use in their classrooms but professional learning takes time. At the end of the day, we asked teachers to turn to each other and commit to trying one or more new ideas that they heard about during the afternoon. We hope that teachers will continue the conversation we began by sharing what they are trying on twitter, through blog posts or conversations at their schools so that we can make our professional learning visible and learn from each other.

Looking forward to the second event on January 18th!

~Janice

#summertech38

Posted on: September 11th, 2015 by jnovakowski

Our second Summer Tech Institute for our district (with lots of guests from neighbouring districts) was held last week on Thursday at Westwind Elementary and was coordinated by teacher consultant Chris Loat. 193 educators spent a day of their summer holidays learning all about ways to integrate technology into their classrooms.

Apple “geniuses” and “creatives” joined us for the first time and this added a new dimension to the day!

A link to the program with links to some of the presenters’ handouts and presentations can be found HERE.

I presented two sessions.

iPads in Math for the Primary Classroom

The first one was one the use of iPads for math in the primary classroom. Now, there are many not so good math apps out there, so I wanted to recommend some ones that developed conceptual understanding, provided meaningful practice of skills and concepts with visual tools and allowed for differentiation and choice.

The list of apps can be found here along with some links to blog posts Summer Tech 2015 Primary Math Apps list.

The apps I recommended are all free and all happen to be developed on the west coast. Some that will be new to teachers are the TouchCounts app developed by SFU Education researchers. It has English, French and Italian capabilities. Also, any of the apps from The Math Learning Center in Oregon correlate well with our curriculum. Their apps are available for different devices, including web-based apps. On their website find the app information under the Resources tab.

Place-Based Digital Storytelling

I shared the project I did with four Anderson teachers this spring, connecting their focus on the First Peoples Principles of Learning with their school’s innovation grant focus on iPad technology. A detailed outline of this project can be found HERE. Apps that we used included Google Earth, DoodleBuddy and 30Hands.

Congrats to Chris on another great tech institute! It was such a positive day and the synergy in the building was amazing!

~Janice

what we know about patterning at grades 5&6

Posted on: October 31st, 2014 by jnovakowski

On Thursday morning, I visited Gillian Ewart’s grades 5&6 class at McNeely to work with the students around sharing their learning with technology. The class has moved on to investigating patterns. I explained that I had just been in a Kindergarten class where the students had been learning about repeating patterns. I asked Gillian’s students to explain to me what they meant by patterns. Students mentioned the terms input/output, expressions and “plus-ing numbers” with an example of a pattern rule of “starting at 2 plus 4” with the number sequence of 2, 6, 10, 14, 18… and were able to use the terms increasing and decreasing patterns.

The students knew about t-charts and terms and what “n” stood for in an expression so I wrote the expression 2n + 1 on the whiteboard and asked the students to represent that expression using materials.

The different representations the students created reflected the materials they used. Some students wanted to replicate a t-chart and label the terms of their patterns, often using the materials to do so, like the photo on the right below.

The photo on the left above shows how one student showed the “plus one” in each term but turning over the two-sided counter to show the yellow side. After sharing his example, we introduced the term constant. A growing vocabulary of mathematics language is associated with this topic of study.

The students took a gallery walk around the class to see how other students represented the expression and thinking about “how is this the same as my representation? how is it different?” Next, the students were asked to think of an expression that they wanted to represent, choose their materials and represent the first four or five terms. Some students chose whiteboards or paper to create t-charts to solve for their expressions to support them as they built their representations. The students then took a photo with their iPads, labelled the photo using the Skitch app and then explained their pattern using ShowMe, submitting their screencasts to the class account.

Some examples of their screencasts follow. These were their first attempts at orally sharing their understanding around number patterns and we asked the students to include as much of the specific math vocabulary as they could. We are considering these screencasts “first drafts” as most of the students just focused one part of a bigger explanation about their patterns. (please note that the sd38blogs platform is having difficulties with links to videos or embedding videos…here are the URLs for now until we get things sorted out)

http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=9nIZow4

http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=24I61w0

http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=z7KHnXc

For many students at this age, they become self-conscious sharing their thinking in large group discussions. Today we noticed the students were comfortable during the gallery walk where their models spoke for themselves and that the students are growing more comfortable recording their voices on the iPads. As a follow-up, some students will share their screencasts using the projector in the class and there will be another gallery walk where students need to figure out their classmates’ expressions, as expressed in their representations.

~Janice

thinking about decimal fractions in grades 5&6

Posted on: October 22nd, 2014 by jnovakowski

I have spent two Thursday mornings in Gillian Ewart’s grades 5 & 6 class working with the students as they learn about decimal numbers (tenths, hundredths, thousandths) and how to represent them. Students at this grade level need a strong understanding of tenths and hundredths and then should be able to generalize this understanding to thousandths, ten thousandths, etc. Taking the time to work with concrete materials and visual tools to represent these numbers helps to develop strong conceptual understanding and sense about these numbers that will support students when they begin to apply operations (adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing) to these numbers.

The iPad app, Skitch, was introduced as a way for students to capture representations of decimal numbers. The students took photographs of hundred grids in the classroom and then used the drawing and text tools within the app. The students saved their images to the iPad’s photo album.

The students were then introduced to the screencasting app, ShowMe, and students were asked to show what they knew about decimal fractions/numbers by using the images they created in Skitch and then annotating the images further as they narrated their screencasts. Gillian quickly set up a class account on showme.com so the students could log in and save their screencasts to a shared site.

An example of one of the students first tries at a screencast is posted below:

http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=QDS4HHU

A mathematics-based app that students used to start up their mathematical thinking at the beginning of our second session was Math Tappers: Numberline (an iPhone app). Students chose a range of numbers they felt comfortable working with and a type of numberline (different types of reference points) and then had to place a decimal number where they thought it should go. The students receive feedback as they play. The whole series of Math Tappers apps is excellent and they were developed by University of Victoria professors so they are particularly well suited to our curriculum.

Next, we introduced the app Number Pieces. The students had been working on representing decimal numbers using base ten blocks and this app has students work with base ten blocks as a virtual manipulative and label and annotate their representations. The students then either used the Number Pieces app or a photo of a concrete representation with base ten blocks to import an image into ShowMe. The students then created a short screencast (we gave them an upper limit of one minute this time) to share their understanding of representing decimal numbers.

By doing some oral rehearsal before recording, the students are getting more comfortable in communicating their mathematical understanding. The classroom teacher, Gillian Ewart has commented on the insights she gets into her students’ understanding and misconceptions as she listens to and views the screencasts which provide valuable information to plan what comes next in planning her instruction.

~Janice

showing what we know in math…first time using iPads

Posted on: March 11th, 2014 by jnovakowski

On Thursday, I introduced iPads in the classroom to Tina Grigoriadis’ grades 3 & 4 students. Garden City has 8 iPads (with more on the way) and the students were very excited to use them for math. They worked so well in groups of three, collaborating and sharing.

The class has been learning about multiplication and has just begun to learn about division and its connection to multiplication, specifically looking at arrays. Tina had many visual supports up in the classroom to support students with their mathematical understanding.

We introduced the students to the MathTappers iPhone app called Multiples. It has options for working with different levels of factors and practicing both multiplication and division, with ten frames and hundred charts as visual supports.

The students then worked together, creating three different arrays using math materials. They learned how to take photographs with the iPads and then import these photographs into an app.

We then taught the students how to use the doceri app to use photographs, diagrams and the students’ voices to represent and share their understanding of multiplication and division through the use of arrays.

Some students preferred preparing a script that they could read as they recorded their voices on the iPad.

Here are some examples of the students’ screencasts:

These screencasts reveal a “first-timers” use of the app – figuring it out, seeing what it can do. Most of the students described multiplication and division equations for the array they had photographed. A further extension (maybe for second-timers) would be to further explain their thinking about the connection between multiplication and division and how an array supports their understanding.

When we asked the students what they liked about using the iPads, one student commented that he was having fun but then he realized he was learning at the same time. As educators, we know that engagement leads to higher rates of learning and retention of information and these kinds of experiences that are hands-on, minds-on and collaborative are highly engaging for students.

~Janice

water cycle simulation in grades 2&3

Posted on: March 9th, 2014 by jnovakowski

The McNeely grades 2 & 3 teachers continue to explore ways of using iPad technology to capture students’ learning in science. On Monday in Anna Nachbar’s class, we discussed the water cycle – precipitation, collection, evaporation, condensation. We had lots of recent examples of precipitation to refer to – rain, sleet and snow.

We simulated the water cycle using the classic boiling kettle and cold cookie sheet demonstration. We poured the water into the kettle (collection), turned the kettle on and boiled the water, watching the steam come out (evaporation) and then watched as water droplets formed on the bottom of the cold cookie sheets (condensation) to the point that the poured down the cookie sheet and onto the desktop (precipitation).

The students worked in pairs and took photographs of each stage of the demonstration. Some students also took photographs outside as it was a very rainy day and there were good examples of collection (puddles), precipitation (rain) and condensation (clouds).

The grades 2 and 3 students then were introduced to the app PicCollage and the students included four photographs, one for each stage of the water cycle. They added text to label or explain the stages.

With PicCollage it is easy for students to email their project as a jpg file and the following are some examples of the students’ work:

Two students did some “app smashing” and used the image they had created in the PicCollage app and used it in the ShowMe app to further explain the stages of the water cycle:

In Deanna Mayotte’s class, we did the same simulation but this time, the students used the screencasting app ShowMe to document and explain the four stages of the water cycle.

And I liked how these two students connected each stage of the water cycle to what was happening in the real world outside!

During this professional inquiry, the teachers and I have talked a lot about the value of having the students develop a repertoire of apps that they can use to represent and share their science learning. After spring break, we intend to introduce another app or two and then maybe decide on a science task we can do and have the students choose the app they would like to use to share their learning.

~Janice