Thanks to generosity of Chevron through Donors Choose, my math class experienced a new mobile technology, Ollies! Ollies are programmable robots made by Sphero. We used the app, Macrolab to program the Ollies. I modified a lesson from the Sphero website to teach the concepts of measurement and data. The first day, we explored how to program the Ollies and how changing the variables in the program affected what Ollie did. The students recorded data to capture what they were seeing. On day 2 it was time to be more methodical with our data collection. Students only changed one variable at a time. This allowed students to discover the relationship between time and the distance that the Ollie traveled. The students changed the variable of the delay between the roll and stop commands to develop this understanding. There was definitely a lot of excitement and motivation to learn measurement. On Day 3, we analyzed the data recorded from each group. There were some noticeable differences between the data points of each group. This led to a great discussion about why this might have happened. We also brainstormed ways to solve the problems of inaccurate data. We then worked on converting centimeters to meters and milliseconds to seconds. What could have been a simple lesson on a procedure (converting units) was much more because the data belonged to the students. Having the students record data using a highly engaging technology like Ollie made this lesson much more meaningful. When I had to erase the white board that displayed their data, there was an outcry because that data represented their hard work.
That is a great lesson!! What did your colleagues think of it?? Your principal?? Clearly the kids LOVED it!
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking the time to read my blog.
ReplyDeleteMy principal actually took the pictures in the blog. He is very supportive of innovation. I am fortunate. I was asked by a colleague to teach the lesson with a group of her students.