Sumner Students Use Technology to Raise Funds for Haiti

Schools from all over Boston have come together to help the Haiti Relief Efforts. Many schools have been devising ways to raise money for the earthquake ravaged nation. Some schools have raised money by having bake sales, while other schools have raised money by having special non uniform days, such as "crazy hat day" and "pajama day". You can view a list of what schools have done on the Boston Public Schools Support For Haiti web page.

The Charles Sumner Elementary School in Roslindale is using technology to help raise money for those in need. They used a Flip video camera to film their students and started a web page on the Partners in Health website with the goal of raising $1,000. Kate Klein, the technology teacher at the Sumner, sent me an email about the project. In it she wrote, "The earthquake in Haiti has affected our school deeply. Our students have family members who perished there. Our school is trying to empower our students. We are currently making a video of them to raise funds for Partners in Health (one of our teacher's fathers, a doctor, is currently in Haiti through this organization)." The video they created is below. If you would like to contribute to their efforts, please click on this link: http://act.pih.org/page/outreach/view/haitiearthquake/sumnerkids

How an 8 Year Old Can Help Haiti from Sumner Elementary, Boston on Vimeo.

L4L Annual Registration Clinic

L4L registration clinics are taking place at the Campbell Resource Center this week from Tuesday, February 2nd through Thursday, February 4th. OIIT is hosting these clinics for users who need assistance registering their L4L laptops.

On December 3rd, OIIT launched an updated registration application to all L4L laptops as part of the annual L4L registration process. All L4L users are required to update their laptop registration information by Friday, February 5th. Registering laptops enhances security, runs routine laptop maintenance, ensures accurate user information, and provides updated laptop inventories to schools. For instructions on how to register your laptop, please click here.

Please note that after the February 5th deadline, OIIT will need to collect laptops that have not been registered to run routine maintenance and software updates. As part of the process, data will unfortunately be lost. OIIT will redistribute laptops to teachers at a later time.

The registration clinics will take place:

Dates: February 2nd, 3rd, and 4th
Time: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Location: Campbell Resource Center
1216 Dorchester Ave.
Dorchester, MA 02127

Please bring your laptop and allot 10-15 minutes to run the updated registration application
Contact: OIIT Service Desk, 635-9200.

View Larger Map

Laser Tag Reigns During Winter Recess

For three days, from December 28^th - 30^th, over 30 students stormed OIIT’s computer lab at Madison Park Technical Vocational High School to participate in a series of Digital Electronics workshops offered by Machine Science and TechBoston. During the training, many students had the opportunity to acquire a first-hand experience in electronics and computer programming. The students were introduced to the new Machine Science XIPMods and basic concepts of C programming. Students worked for countless hours programming these XIPMod devices to produce unique and individualized light and beep patterns. While coaching these teens, we were astounded by their abilities and how quick they caught on to programming. Everyone was engulfed in the work, and, as they finished each project, everyone seemed eager for more.

For the culmination of the three-day training, the students created their very own laser tag game. They combined the general concepts of C programming with the introduction to electronics they learned to create an amazing game that pitted two teams against each other to capture the opposing team member who possessed the flag. The game revolved around the students using remote control devices to illuminate the defenders' XipMod that all the students programmed to light up when "hit" by the remote.

The collaboration of Machine Science and TechBoston was a big success thanks to dedicated students, incredible staff, and the amazing XIPMods. This collaboration will continue in the New Year with Machine Science and TechBoston teaming up to offer free digital electronics workshops at the Science Building located at the John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics and Science. For more information, contact Eric Esteves from TechBoston at eesteves@techboston.org or call him at 617.908.1565.

This post was contributed by Phillip Simon and Sam Francois, TechBoston and Machine Science Teaching Assistants. For more information about TechBoston programs, please go to www.techboston.org.

Edutopia's Top Ten Tips for Teaching with New Media

Edutopia, the George Lucas Educational Foundation, has a very helpful resource to teachers who are interested in learning about ways to incorporate new media into their instruction. The website itself has a plethora of resources, case studies and short videos, but they are also offering a pdf document with it's ten tips for teaching with new media. The ten tips offer practical ideas and starting points for teachers as well as links to online tools. The document discusses ways to get started, finding hardware resources, integrating 21st Century learning skills like global collaboration, creativity and critical thinking. You can download the pdf document from this link.

When thinking about using new media with your students, take the opportunity to teach them about digital citizenship! How to safely collaborate, interact and present work online are important skills for students to learn nowadays. Check out the BPS cybersafety campaign for information and links about teaching cybersafety to your students.

Teacher Spotlight - Joe Herrington - John D. O'Bryant School of Math and Science

Springfield native Theodor Geisel once summed up the difficulties of stimulating creativity as such:

"Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!"

Dr Seuss was an illustrator, not an engineer. Yet, challenges will always exist. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the United States face a shortage of well trained and well qualified graduates to fill all the openings in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields now and as we move into the future.

Technological literacy has become essential to informed participation in the democratic process and to our economic well being as individuals and as a global community. Yet few citizens are technologically literate, largely because technology and engineering are not taught in most of K-12 schools. To fully develop a 21st century curriculum that focuses on technological literacy and the integration of STEM education, technology and engineering need to be a core content area in K-12 schools.

One way of approaching that challenge is by creating or enhancing STEM learning experiences for young people in the schools. One BPS teacher is tackling that challenge head-on.

Meet Joe Herrington, a sixth-year physics and pre-engineering teacher at John D. O'Bryant School of Math and Science. Armed with a degree in Physics from Northeastern, Mr. Herrington strives daily to inspire his students to pursue STEM careers.

One of his recent student projects involved the design of truss bridges made out of balsa wood and modeling glue. Truss bridges are typically made of straight components that can be stressed from tension and/or compression in response to dynamic loads. While staying within certain size constraints, the students' main objective was to design and construct a bridge that would support the largest amount of weight while being composed of the least amount of material. Thus, in addition to learning the fundamentals of the engineering design process, students also had to explore the economics of engineering and project management.

To test the bridge, a wooden block was placed at the midpoint of the students' bridges from which a 5-gallon bucket was hung. Water was then added at a constant rate to the bucket until the bridge it hung from experienced structural failure. Prior to building their final designs, the students were also required to build at least one prototype out of a material of their choice (as long as it was not balsa wood). Along the way, each group of students were required to complete progress reports detailing work completed over the course of the previous week and projected progress over the coming week.

This is but one example of how connecting the dots between the classroom and the real world can have profound effects of the career aspirations of students. Maybe one of Mr. Herrington's students will end up in charge of making sure the next phase of the Big Dig is most cost-effective!

This post was contributed by Eric Esteves, TechBoston Program Director. He can be reached at eesteves@techboston.org.