Learning and Leading - November 2009

By Maureen Brown Yoder

S’Cool Tools

5 Great Tools to Perk Up Your Classroom and Engage Your Students

If you’re a tech geek (and we know that you are), you are probably looking for the latest, greatest tools out there to engage your students. It is almost winter, after all, and the perfect time to jump-start your lessons and energize your students. Whether you’re a kinder- garten teacher trying to find a new way to help your students learn about shapes and patterns or a high school science teacher hoping to bring ecology alive, I have a tool that could be just right for you. These are not merely toys. These are learning tools that I selected only after I could answer a definitive “yes” to these three important questions: 1. Does this tool have the potential to enhance teaching in some powerful way? 2. Is this tool easy to learn and well supported? 3. Is this an innovative new tool or a substantial improvement on an earlier version? Based on this criteria, the following five tools have the potential to transform your lessons.

Lego Education’s WeDo

Robotics Construction Set

As a former elementary school teacher, I believe young learners can benefit from being introduced to high school subjects in an age-appropriate way. A spiraling curriculum provides young students with experiences that prepare them to better understand more complex theories later on. Conversely, high school students can learn from exploring manipulatives borrowed from kindergarten.

Lego Education collaborated with MIT’s Lifelong Kindergarten group to create WeDo. Designed for kids ages 7–11, WeDo includes more than 160 Lego elements, a motor, a tilt sensor, a motion sensor, icon-based software, activities with instructions for 12 models, and teacher notes with curriculum objectives, discussion questions, and suggestions for activity extensions.

One sample project involves an alligator whose mouth snaps shut when anything comes close, employing the motion sensor. Another is an airplane that plays sounds as you move it, using the tilt sensor. Students use the drag-and-drop WeDo Robotics software created by National Instruments as well as the Media Lab’s free Scratch programming system to create their own on-screen animations with WeDo constructions, integrating virtual and physical worlds. Students can even share their stories with children in other countries.