Day One
Students  completed the following projects
1.Photo Booth Pictures
2. Trading Card Creation
3. Chair for Mr. Bear

1. Photo Booth Pictures

• Students learned how to use the program Photo Booth to take different types of pictures
• Saved a picture of themselves

2. Trading Card Creation

• Introduced each other by creating trading cards
• Cards included information about hobbies and their favorite things
• Added pictures to their cards and printed them
• Shared Cards

3. Chair for Mr. Bear

• Read Three Little Bears
• Designed a chair to fit a stuffed animal using only Legos
• Chair had to support animal on all sides
• Created pictures of their chairs

Day 2

Students  completed the following projects
1. Lego WeDo Overview
2. Discussion of Gears, Pulleys and Motors
3. Dancing Birds

1. Lego WeDo Overview

• Learned about the software and hardware of Lego WeDo kit

2. Gears, Pulleys and Motors

• Introduced concept of gears and participated in short building demonstration to see concepts in action

3. Dancing Birds

• Used Lego Kits to build pair of dancing birds
• Programmed the birds' movement
• Added music for birds to dance to

Day 3
Students  completed the following projects
1. Gearing down and up
2. Spinners

1. Gearing up and down

• Hands on activity to learn the concept of gearing up and down

2. Spinners

• Built a spinner out of Legos
• Programmed spinner on the computer
• Task was to see how long spinner would spin for
• Changed program and design in order to spin longer

In Cool Tools we completed a different technology project each day. Below is a summary of our week. 

Monday - Students created interactive posters called Glogs. The Glogs were used to introduce the students to one another and also to introduce them to different technology. Click on the links below to see their Glogs.

Glog Links
Olivia
Gabriella
Howard
Pranathi
Tony
Emma
Sophia
Nico
Morgyn
Howard
Bryce
Ritvik
Nitya


Tuesday  - Today we introduced the students to online animations. Students came up with original story ideas and created their own animations using a program called GoAnimate. You can see their projects below.

Wednesday - Students worked on a Lego robotics project. We introduced the Lego sets to the students and discussed the concept of gears. They then built spinners and modified them to spin as long as possible. There are pictures of the spinners in the slideshow at the end of this post.

Thursday and Friday - On Thursday we discussed digital photography. We talked about different camera angles and shots. The students took pictures using Photo Booth and then went for a photo scavenger hunt outside. They then put the pictures into a slideshow with music. On Friday, we went over making videos. Students created short videos and learned how to use the green screen. You can find the slideshows and videos on our Vimeo site at https://vimeo.com/album/2044328. The password is August12.

Below is a slideshow from our week. Most of the pictures are from our afternoon writing class.

Board Game Creation Day 3

Students  completed the following projects
1. Board Planning
2. Game Testing

1. Board Planning

• Made a sample board for their game
• Created game cards

2. Game Testing

• Tested their own games and made revisions
• Tested each other's games. 
• Gave feedback to each group 
• Made revisions to cards and boards based on feedback

Video Game Design Day 3

Students  completed the following projects
1. Quest Completion
2. Game storyboards 
3. Game construction

1. Quest Completed

• Created a sample video game level
• Evaluated their level
• Reviewed elements of video game design
• Discussed the concept of balance in their games

2. Game Storyboards

• Used storyboard to plan their games
• Storyboard including pictures and description of their levels

3. Game Construction

• Began construction of their own video game

 

Board Game Creation Day 3

Students  completed the following projects
1. Board Planning
2. Game Testing

1. Board Planning

• Made a sample board for their game
• Created game cards

2. Game Testing

• Tested their own games and made revisions
• Tested each other's games. 
• Gave feedback to each group 
• Made revisions to cards and boards based on feedback

Video Game Design Day 3

Students  completed the following projects
1. Quest Completion
2. Game storyboards 
3. Game construction

1. Quest Completed

• Created a sample video game level
• Evaluated their level
• Reviewed elements of video game design
• Discussed the concept of balance in their games

2. Game Storyboards

• Used storyboard to plan their games
• Storyboard including pictures and description of their levels

3. Game Construction

• Began construction of their own video game

Board Game Creation Day 1

Students  completed the following projects
1. Reviewed professionally made and student-made games
2. Created a puzzle.

1. Reviewing Games

• Students played professionally made games like Sorry!, Scrabble, and Guess Who?
• Reflected on the positive and negative aspects of each game, as well as rated each game on a scale of 1-5 for four categories: Clarity of Rules, Appearance of Game, Functionality, and Fun.
• Students played student made games from a previous Board Game Creation session.
• Reflected on the positive and negative aspects of each game, as well as rated each game on a scale of 1-5 for four categories: Clarity of Rules, Appearance of Game, Functionality, and Fun.
  

2. Creating a Puzzle

• Students were shown an example of a home-made puzzle, and were asked to draw their own picture and made their own puzzles out of card stock paper.

Video Game Design Day One

Students  completed the following projects
1. Video Game Reviews
2. Episodes 1 and 2 of Game Star Mechanic

1. Reviewing Games

• Students played a series of video games
• Evaluated games in an number of categories
• Discussed the first element of video game design (rules)
• Students came up with ideas on how to change rules of the video games to change the way they are played

2. Episodes 1 and 2 of Gamestar Mechanic

• Registered for game accounts
• Went through first 2 episodes of Gamestar Mechanic
• Students earn elements for their video games by completing quests
• The quests teach students different aspects of video game design

Day 5 Comic and Animation Creation

Students completed the following projects
1. Podcasting

2. Page proofing

1. Podcasting

• Learned how to use the program Garage Band to record audio
• Students recorded podcasts giving tips about their chosen topic
• Uploaded podcasts to website.

2. Page Proofing

• Went through webpages and proofread and put finishing touches on pages

Website Information
Students will have access to their account through May 2013. They can continue to work on and edit their page. We encourage you to visit their websites and also to leave comments through their guest book. All messages are moderated here before they are approved. We did not have students put personal information (ex. no last names) on their websites, but I would be happy to add a password for any website for anyone that would like one. Below is a list of the websites created this week. If your child does not remember there password, please email me and I will get it to you as soon as I can.

Websites
Logan
Hunter
Gavin
Andy 
Vinny
Pranathi
John
Mark
Tony
Neil
Benet
Matthew
Alex
Devin
Utkarsh
David
Anna

Comic and Animation Creation Day Five

Students completed the following projects

1. Fractured Fairy Tales (PM Group

• Students used a online comic creator to take a classic fairy tale and turn it into a new original story
• Stories included updated version of Goldilocks, Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs and more

2. Stykz

• Learned how to animate stick figures online
• Created original animations

3. Comic Books

• Worked on final pages of their books

We used a variety of online tools this week that are available on the student access page. Their GoAnimate accounts will be active until November 1 and they can continue to make new animations. The program Stykz is a program that can be downloaded. We enjoyed working with the students this week.

Web Design Day 3

Students completed the following projects
1. Website Videos
2. Set up guest book

1. Website Videos

• Finished filming videos
• Edited videos
• Began adding videos to website

2. Guestbook

• Students added a guestbook feature to their blogs
• Discussed netiquette of leaving messages for other people on their website

3. Puzzles

• Used Kid Pix to create drawings 
• Uploaded pictures to puzzle creation website
• Learned how to use embed code to add the puzzle to their websites
• Completed each other's puzzles

Comic and Animation Creation Day Three

Students completed the following projects:
1. Online Animations
2. Comics Books

1. Online Animations

• Received a tutorial on the Program Go Animate
• Create original 30-60 second animations
• Students scripted animations, programmed movements and selected backgrounds and props.

2. Comic Books

• Continued to work on their original comic books