HCPS Middle School

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Students in Ms. Dyson’s Earth Science classroom researched information about earthquakes, volcanos, and tsunamis. In part one of the project,  students were taught internet safety and copyright law while gathering information from traditional and digital sources. In part two of the project, students were asked to create informational movies or news broadcasts like those seen on the evening news or on learning channels such as Discovery. As part of the process, students created a storyboard to organize their work, wrote and recorded their scripts, and organized their pictures in a video presentation. To accomplish the creative portion of this project students used Garage Band.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Play The Cell Cycle

Ms. Raine’s science students teach each other about the cell cycle using digital artwork and presentation software. Students used Appleworks draw tools to create original artwork portraying the cell cycle and they used powerpoint to create presentations a then movies to illustrate and teach the process.

Popularity: 6% [?]

AudioPal.com is a great site for students to make audio recordings that can be easily embedded into a website, blog, or social network.  This site has many advantages and allows for students to record audio clips via cell phone, computer keyboard, computer microphone, or they can upload already existing audio clips from their hard drive.  The sample below was recorded by a student pretending to be Thomas Jefferson.  The assignment was to make believe you are an important person in American History.   Your objective was to leave a voicemail to one of your contemporaries stating relevant facts and posing questions that relate to the Virginia Standards of Learning.   This created an enthusiastic, and modern take on the Revolutionary Era.  To listen to the sample below, just click on the play button.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Mrs. Martines  7th grade math class used Make Beliefs, a  web2.0 tool, to create a comic strip using math word problems. The students selected a word problem, used a storyboard to create conversation cloud to given important information and then solved the problems. The students really enjoyed showing their humor using this creative tool to solve word problems.

Popularity: 6% [?]

The students in Mr. Cross’ 8th grade English class spent some time studying abridgements. (Specifically- The Princess Bride)  After finishing their study, they were given the task of taking one of the Grimm, Perault, or Anderson  fairy tales and abridging it.  In groups, they wrote, directed, filmed, edited, and starred in their own “abridged” versions of the fairy tales.  Students used iMovie to create their movies.  Here is an example from a group that abridged “Little Red Riding Hood”

Popularity: 12% [?]