Students Using the iPad to Document Learning

A team of teachers from my school, including myself and Ms. Marrella, are currently participating in this year's Early Primary Collaborative Inquiry.  As a result, we recently received an iPad mini to share and use in our classrooms for the remainder of this school year. Ms. Marrella and I were very excited, as this would be our first experience with an iPad in the classroom. 

EPCI iPad

Prior to introducing the iPad to our students, Ms. Marrella and I discussed how the iPad could best be used in the classroom.  We thought it would be a great idea to have our students use the iPad to document and reflect on their own learning. 

Class meeting introducing the iPad.

We introduced the iPad during a class meeting.  This was a great opportunity for us to review and discuss with our students why we take pictures of them, where those pictures are stored, who has access to those pictures, and most importantly, how they felt about their pictures being taken.  We also talked to our students about inviting them to use the iPad themselves to document their own learning.  

The following images show our students using the iPad to document their learning.

Example #1 G documenting his caterpillar creation.   

G took a few photos of his caterpillar. 

After looking through the photos he took, G decided
on one image that best represented his work.

The image G took using the iPad to document his creation.

Example #2 M documenting her collage creation.

M, using the iPad to document her collage.

Photo #1 taken by M using the iPad.

Photo #2 taken by M using the iPad.

After explaining her collage to me, I asked M to look back at the two images she took and decide on the one that she felt best represented her work. She wanted to keep photo #1 because... "I like this one better.  It doesn't show my hand.  You can see my picture better."

Example #3 E documenting sand castle construction with friends.

E using the iPad to document his part of the sand castle.

E wasn't happy about this photo because
it didn't show his part of the sand castle.

E trying a second time to document his part of the sand castle.
He changed his position to capture a different picture. 

E was happy with this photo that he took because
"It shows my part of the castle.  I made it with rocks."

Reflecting Thoughts

Inviting our students to use the iPad and document their learning has been an exciting new experience for us all, teachers and students.  Allowing our students the opportunity to document and reflect on their creations has provided us with a new layer and perspective on documentation in our classroom.  At first, Ms. Marrella and I wanted to help our students position the iPad camera to capture what we thought were the best images possible.  We quickly learned to "let go" and allow our students the opportunity to experiment with the camera (distances, positions and angles), and choose the images they felt best represented their work.  

We asked our students how they felt about using the iPad to document their work.  They said... "I like taking pictures." "The pictures help me remember what I made." "Sometimes I have to take lots of pictures because it is fuzzy." "I like looking at the pictures I take."  Having the students participate in documenting their learning empowers them because they feel a sense of independence. They are free to take a variety of images and choose the ones that they feel capture their learning best.

How Do Cars Fly?

Our Winter Inquiry came to an end with students racing their toy cars inside the school and in the snow. This experience prompted some students to wonder about how cars could fly?  To be honest, Ms. Marrella and I were a bit hesitant to add this wonder to our Wonder Wall.  After all, flying cars didn't seem to make much sense.  We asked our students to explain where they had seen cars fly.  Excitedly, they told us about flying monster trucks and a cartoon movie called, Cars.  With all the excitement and interest surrounding this question, we had to form a group and investigate. 

The first thing we did was find an appropriate video on You Tube that showcased cars flying.  We asked the students to look closely at the video and identify what made the cars fly.  After watching the video (a few times - they couldn't get enough), the students figured out that it was a combination of high speed and ramps that allowed the cars in the video to fly.  We decided to explore this a bit further by attempting to construct our own ramps. 

Our investigation group took a few toy monster trucks outside to see if we could create a ramp in the snow. 

Outside, the students found a small hill.  As they began to smooth the surface with their gloves, they uncovered an icy portion.  Though the cars were able to travel smoothly on the icy surface compared to the snowy surface, the students couldn't get their monster trucks to fly.  Though we were a bit disappointed that we couldn't get our trucks to fly in the snow, WE DIDN'T GIVE UP! 

Inside the classroom, Ms. Marrella and I invited the students to work either independently or in small groups, and choose materials to construct ramps.  Here is what our students came up with. 

This investigation required students to pose a question, make predictions, select materials, and make observations during their exploration. 

Reflecting Thoughts 

The process of investigation would not have taken place without the original question, "How do cars fly?"  The question did seem a bit strange to Ms. Marrella and I, however rather than dismissing the question because WE didn't understand it, we asked our students to explain it further.  Our investigation in the snow was both exciting and disappointing.  The students were excited to uncover an icy patch that allowed their trucks to moved easily, though they realized that the snow stopped their trucks from gaining enough speed, thus flying wasn't possible. This ended up being a good lesson in problem solving for our students.  They learned that rather than giving up, they could just change the materials they were working with.  Once in the classroom, we asked our students to select materials independently without our guidance.  The purpose of this was to have students test a variety of materials in different ways.  Ms. Marrella and I knew that some materials would work better than others, but it was up to the students to figure that out on their own through trial and error.  Constructing the ramps required students to use and practice their communication skills.  In learning to negotiate with each other regarding the placement of materials, it was inevitable that small arguments would arise.  Rather than stepping in to help students solve these problems, Ms. Marrella and I watched as our students worked things out independently.  We observed that some students were fair in their problem solving, while other students weren't.  This informed Ms. Marrella and I that a bit more direct teaching about problem solving would benefit our students.   Finally, students were definitely creative in terms of the different types of ramps they constructed and the materials they used.  In the end, the investigation group presented their ramp constructions to the rest of the class. 

Racing Cars

Winter Inquiry Continued

Our students, particularly the boys, are very interested in toy cars.  Our classroom collection of cars has significantly grown recently, as the students donate their own cars .

   

Based on this interest, Ms. Marrella and I thought we would pose a question to our students and the Wonder Wall for investigation.   Our question asked... Which car will travel the furthest distance in the school hallway and in the snow?

Our fist step in solving this problem was to sort our car collection.  Our first sorting attempt was unsuccessful.  We realized that we needed to use our voice and communicate with each other about putting the same type of car in the same sorting square.  We tried again, and re-sorted our collection. 

      

Our second sorting attempt worked!  We also realized that we needed 9 sorting squares rather than just 6 to sort our collection of cars. 

It wasn't until our cars were sorted that we realized we had a lot of little Hot Wheels cars.  We decided to count and write out the number of each sorted pile. 

Then, we created a graph and interpreted our results.  Our graph showed us that the Hot Wheels, the Zamboni trucks collected from McDonalds, and the large race cars were our largest collection.  We also learned that we had a very small airplane collection.    

We made predictions about which car we
thought would travel the furthest distance.

 It was time to test our cars inside and outside to see which car would travel the furthest distance.  

The winning indoor car!

We found this snow ramp.  We thought it
would be perfect to give our cars a boost!

The winning outdoor car! 

Reflecting Thoughts

Knowing that our students love playing with the car collection, Ms. Marrella and I decided to use them in our Winter Inquiry.  This project required students to sort through our collection of cars.  It was okay that our first sorting attempt didn't work because it gave us an opportunity to re-sort and understand that communication and collaborating with each other is key.  We always knew that we had a large Hot Wheels collection, but it really wan't until the cars were sorted that we saw how large that pile was.  Using one-to-one correspondence we counted each sorted pile of cars and then wrote the number out on pieces of paper.  This activity gave us a chance to practice counting objects one at a time, rather than skipping over a few.  By placing the cars on a graph, our students were given a different perspective of our car collection.  The car graph also gave students a chance to interpret the different columns and cars.  Through the different investigations we have been exploring in our class, our students have become familiar with predicting.  Some students still give predictions without a rationale, while other students are learning to base their predictions on reason (e.g., the monster trucks will travel the furthest because their wheels are bigger).  Racing the cars gave students a chance to cheer on and root for each other.   Though our inquiry on Winter has slowly come to an end (for now), we have sparked a new interest about cars.  Our students have begun to ask questions and are curious about building ramps to fly cars, and the rockets at the back of cars (aka, the exhaust pipes).