Jump Froggy Jump!

We looked at Design Briefs today and used one on how to make a frog jump. Partnered up, we had to use a piece of cardbaord, a rubber band and a 'frog'. Stickytape and scissors were optional.

Immediately, we decided that the rubber band would need to be used as a propeller or some sort and then then thought of putting the frog on a torn piece of cardboard to give some added weight for distance. We eventually decided to change to using the cardboard as a catapult and flinging the frog from it, which resulted in it going some distance.

It was interesting to see all the different ways people in our workshop came up with making the frog bounce and how even as adults we are sometimes too shy to show something to our peers and friends. I guess it will be important to let my kids know that they should always be confident in trying new things and it doesn't matter so much if it 'fails' but to have an eagerness and a willingness to learn.

I am not a big fan of the design brief as I found it a little bit tedious in writing everything down before we did it. I think it's a good idea to have it initially, so that students had formed a basic idea before the actual experiment, but I feel like the subsequent attempts and experiments do not necessarily require such strict use of the design brief.

The rest of the workshop was spent looking at the QUIA website, the internet's largests "create your own" and classroom management service where different forms of tests and activities can be created. I had a bit of a play with it and created the two 'tests' below. It was very easy and simple to navigate - and I can see that children would be able to have one of these done quite quickly, provided they had 'researched' their topic of questions if necessary.

I think it's a great idea that they can then go and play other people's games not only from their class but from around the world and vice versa. I think the idea of 'playing' with people in another part of the world could be quite valuable especially as the world is 'shrinking' every day.

Again, this program could be used in so many subjects, including English, Maths and Science. he idea of using it in a foreign language, if students are learning it, could be beneficial in that they could create and play games using that language.

From a teaching level, I like the idea I can ascertain the class average and what students scored individually, as this could be used as a piece of assessment to see what students already know at the beginning of a unit and what they know at the end of a unit.

The only down side about this website is that it is only free for a 30 day trial so we would have to make the most of it during that period.