Angry Birds Live!

I've not really been a huge fan of Angry Birds, but I see them all over our school.  Our students wear them on their backpack and t-shirts.  The girls even have Angry Birds headbands and bows.  I could see the value of the game to teach physics, but I definitely underestimated the student energy level when they found it loaded on the school set of iPod touches.  They will do quite a bit to earn the privilege of playing a few minutes of the game.  Now, I just need to get the iPods working on a more consistent basis, but that's another discussion.

I was also needing another way to work simple machines into my class.  I had been using a photo tour of the Dr Pepper bottling plant in Dublin, TX, but alas, it is no longer a part of the Dr Pepper family- another rant of mine. I could still teach the lesson with the bottling plant, but not while I'm in a rage over it.  I would only get off track and lose focus on the simple machine part of the lesson!

So, back to working in simple machines... I knew the kids were interested, but I wanted more than a slingshot for this experience.  My idea was to have the students come up with a new way for those Angry Birds to attack those pigs.  Since I want them to have a hands-on experience, they would build the simple-machine-based contraptions for a live action version of the game using recycled materials.  Each group's machine would become a challenge in our classroom Angry Birds game.  The little round birds and pigs easily transferred to old playground and tennis balls!

We began the project by, of course, playing Rovio's Angry Birds game on the iPod touch for about 10 minutes.  I felt we had to have a common experience to build from.  This was probably not necessary for the majority of the students.  2/3 of my students may or may not have had a personal electronic device (phone) on their person that already had the game loaded.  I did see ONE student showing another how to play, so it did catch them up!  After our timer went off, we discussed what the birds and pigs were able to teach us besides how to kill lots of time.

Then we listed the simple machines and began coming up with possibilities for new game plans.  After that, the groups were off.  Their job was to scheme, er, design and build.

After a CRAZY week with the project (good and bad), we had 6 challenge stations ready for our Angry Birds Live test.  The sixth graders made these, now they would play all the stations!

 

 

Next week, we bring Angry Birds Live to my fifth graders, who will play the games to begin discussions about force and motion!

Another Bulletin Board?

I have taken on several projects- the CSI Felix mystery with my sixth grade group, writing checkpoint quizzes for our fifth grade teachers, Survivor Science club, planning several science field trips this year, preparations for Space Night, a Gideon CSI project (writing this one for my church), a new Bible study, and several planning meetings.  Oh, and I have two young kids at home who claim a few of those hours!  I have plenty on my plate.

I also have lesson plans that cycle with a new group of students every 7-12 weeks.  All I really need to do with those is cut&paste and replay.  This is a time saver that allows me to take on the "extras" and to support my fellow science teachers the best I can.

Today, I had a water cycle lesson planned that I had taught many times over.  The plans were submitted.  The copies were ready.  The model was set up.  The students were ready to begin.

So, what do I do?  I try a new strategy- change the activity, approach the discussion differently, and came up with a whole new lesson.  The challenge was to connect the water cycle to other areas of science- weathering & erosion, river systems, temperature relating to solid, liquid, and gas, affects on light, and the list went on!

Then I stayed after school- not preparing tomorrow's lab or catching up on grading- but putting together a new bulletin board display.  I didn't even have a spare area to put it up.  I had to first take down a perfectly good display.

Why?  I'm not too sure.  At the time it seemed to be the most important thing to do, although there were many other things that one could argue were far more important.  All I can say is I managed to build this momentum with the students all day, and I wanted to share with everyone the great connections they made.  It's a validation to the students for a job well done.  Maybe it's also a way to keep me from getting too comfortable with the routine.