Sign Generator is fun and I think would go great for a project... It was for the most part easy to use and the students would love it.  Anything that would make their name stand out... They are all for :)

Spell City

Spell City is a really cool application that I would use or will use if I ever move back down to the elementary level.  The reason for this being that many of the science vocabulary that my 6th graders use is not recognized in the program.  For example, it recognizes Earth or Volcano, but not plate tectonics etc.  Still I really like this web site and recommend its use for students in general to help them with their spelling or literature.  If I taught English Language Arts, this would be perfect to use right now.

Animoto

Animoto was fun and creative and I know that my students would most likely enjoy making a short video.  Unfortunately district firewall would prevent it plus, as far as I am aware, the student laptops don't allow downloading or uploading of documents or pictures.  Still this application is fun and is similar to iMovie which student computers have. 

UOP#2

Using "google" for finding information on what each part of the scientific process

UOP#2 Reflection

With the end of the trimester nearing by UOP#2 had to crammed in so now it is done.  Students were given a paper reviewing each part or step of the scientific method before starting science fair projects.  Students were then directed to the internet to research or find information on the web on each step.  Originally we tried to go to searchme.com but the laptops didn't allow it so we had to "google".  Students said that this part was hard and they did understand that you could or had to click on the listed website to get information first.  Also, once they chose a web page to get information from, they then had to read it.  This was another challenge for some.  Once we got the information necessary students then went into WORD and created a kind-of poster illustrating and telling about each step.  This was the easy part.  Students were very familiar with WORD for the most part and even were able to do things that I forgot about.  They really liked this.  We then tried to get images for the posters off of flickrstorm; however, this site was blocked by the district firewall so we had to find different ways to do it.  We went back to google and looked at web pages to find images and then dragged them to our posters.  The students loved this part.

Only a handful of students finished as time didn't permit to continue with the assignment. But the posters that were complete or partially complete were quite impressive.  Students really liked this assignment and said that they would love to do more projects that use computers as well as more time.

UOP #1 Reflection

Students were collectively asked what they thought about the project and if it helped them to understand the concept better.  The students for the most part said yes because of how the project was structured and directions were very specific.  Other students said that they understood the concepts but the actual project was hard.  Everyone did say how much they liked it because they love using the computers in general and they liked creating a project.  Students suggested that next time they would like to use the computers more and that they would want more time.

UOP#1 had to have some adjustments made from what was planned.  Students used there notes to complete a quiz and then used the information from their quiz answers to create their powerpoints.  This was the easy part.  Students were familiar with powerpoint as they used them in their English Language Arts classes.  We went over how to select a background and insert images by dragging it from a page on the internet to the desktop.  They were very comfortable with this.  Also students were shown that they had to click in the text box to start typing.  Students used quiz questions as their headings or used some part of them.  

I think that overall students did meet their understanding goal.  The part that they did have trouble with was explaining why they thought that for the higher level thinking question.  Most students lacked the explanation part and simply stated their predictions.  It seems like anything that requires them to think a little extra seems to be were the struggle with them lies.  I get questions like " what do you mean by explanation?" or "I don't get what it means by explain how ..."  

I think that their technology skills did improve a little but I probably won't see it until we have another project.

I liked that I really structured the lesson.  That helped a lot when it came to creating the final product.  Typing came very easy for them and they finished rather quickly.  Finding images was much more difficult because  of the strict district firewall.  I liked that they got to use computers and they did as well.

Not everyone finished the assignment.  Only a handful finished out of thirty-four students due to technical difficulties.  For example, not all laptops were working.  There was trouble signing in or the slightest closing of the laptop screens, internet connection is lost as well as the printer doesn't work.  So some students had to start over and others spent time looking for pictures.