Edina Digital Age Learning

After Brian Silverman spoke about Playful invention, and using programming to spark learning, Carolyn Staudt from the Concord Consortium spoke on Modeling technology. Everything the consortium produces is Open Source, and everything they put out "changes educational methods, goals, content, materials development and distribution and professional development." She demonstrated the Molecular Workbench software which allows you to simulate atomic structure. Molecular Rover , which shows atomic motion in different states of matter. She demonstrated flying through helium gas to view atomic motion. Inquiry questions are built in to the software, and students are asked to take snapshots of the models to prove their theories. Now they are working on "Evolution Readiness" for 2nd and 3rd graders! She said that Models could work with other social science topics as well. Now she's working on grabing data with inexpensive equipment like cellphones, gps, cameras, etc... H...

Penny Springer , chemistry instructor at Prior Lake High School demonstrated Atomsmith software for "classroom molecular exploration. " Penny and I taught about 6 years ago at McGuire Middle School in Lakeville . She gave an overview of the software, by starting with a gas lab model. The software has a model window on the left, and experiments, instructions, and formative worksheets on the right. The worksheets add a level of accountablility that she likes. In the simulations, you can adjust gas type, model type, preasure, temperature and size of the space the molecules. She ran a simulation with water, and you could see the hydrogen bonds form as the temperature decreased. She currently teaches general chemistry, and with the software she is able to help the students visualize molecular structure and modify it quickley to teach specific points. She pointed to research that showed "students learn and retain more through the use of text, and pictures/annimations, especial...