digital lab write up

Last week we performed a limiting reactant lab and I had the students video the lab as they were performing it. While their products were in the oven drying they were uploading their videos and editting them on the macbooks as well as using keynote to make a title slide, material slide, data table, and answer some post lab questions. Keynote worked fine, I still do not know how to do everything in it like where subscripts are so we just made due with what we could figure out. We ran into issues on some of the computers because as they would boot them up it would tell us that it was going to have to reboot after installing an update. Imovie thought that it was in use when it wasn't and would not close so I had to force quit and that didn't work so I had to hold down the power button. This caused the computer to go crazy by shutting down and rebooting, shutting down and then rebooting over and over so our Tech had to reimage it in order for it to work. I luckly had a few extra mac books so we continued to work.
The next day I had my 4th period doing the same thing my 1st and 5th did on the previous day. I got their early and made sure everything opened and had it ready to go to make sure I didn't have the same problems but today two of the six computers would not recognize the flipvideos so we could download the student's films, it would work on my computer but not on the macbooks which did recognize the flipvideos the day before. The students just did what they could by making sure their keynote slides were complete.
We waited until the following friday to complete the lab since I needed to try to figure out what was wrong with everything and since I needed a break from the equiptment since I felt out of control since things were not working and I didn't know how to fix it.
The day before we finished I stayed 3 hours after school to set up every computer and make sure they all had the students videos and their keynote presentation ready to go for the next day so we wouldn't have to worry about all of that since I could not afford another day in class working on the lab.
The time I spent was well worth it since there was no issues the next day everytime worked well. Some groups did not finish but they did not break up the work like they were suppose to, some grouops that came very close, and some groups finished. If the groups did not finish they had one week to come in after school to finish their video. Everyone has not finished at this point but they have until Friday.
After this experience I will try making another video lab with the class but hopefully since we have all been though it once it will run much smoother.
Jamie

Helping Others Out

On Thursday January 15, my second period class video taped the simple machine station labs so that absent students may used the videos to observe the labs instead of completing the labs alone. To verify that they had the correct information, the students voluntarily performed the labs first to obtain data. They wanted to verify that they truly understood the concepts that were being investigated. Unfortunately, the sound was very weak and you could hear the background of the other lab groups. Therefore, this class has decided to use the Garage band to re-create the voice on the tapes. On today during the circular motion lab, the class again use the flip cameras to video tape a lab. This lab required everyone to have an active part, so no one was able to just observe. The video taping of the lab allowed them to review the procedures and discuss the outcome of the lab. D. Wilkes

Taping a Lab in Physics

On Tuesday, January 5, I decided to allow one of the lab groups in my 1st period to video tape the lab. I wanted to get a feel for how it would appear, sound quality and the ability of the students. The lab equipment covered a large area, therefore the camera was set further away than I would have like it to be. When one of the students tried holding the camera, he had to rapidly move the camera to keep up with the action; due the the lab itself. Also, the recording student was more involved with videoing the lab instead of learning the concept of the lab. After recording for about 15 minutes, the student and I reviewed the quality and found it to be very poor, due to the noise of the other groups. Therefore, it will be necessary to use Garage Band to describe what is happening during the lab. (AHHH - another task) Another noted fact, which is very important, is to make sure that the students understand the importance of not playing in front of the camera. Overall, I believe that this would be a good process for other students to make-up a lab, but it will require addition time for the teacher

cool sites

So today I made some screen casts before I left school so when I got home I could add sound so my AP students could sync their i-pods tomorrow. After I finished making the screen casts which took about 45 minutes for two lessons I realized I didn't have a flash drive with me and the videos were to big to e-mail so I was pretty upset. I looked on the web to see if their was a website that could help and I found filedropper.com which is a free website that will hold large files for free and you just open the webpage link they give you when you get home or give it to another teacher. This is an easy way to share videos or lessons. I also used zamzar to convert my files from .avi to .mov so they would pay on my macbook so I could add sound to the lessons. This is also a free website that will convert files from one ending to another and then send you the link to download your converted file. I found both of these site to be very easy to use and very helpful today.