[MWForum]Introducing MW 2.0

[Gary McCallister]

There are very few examples of consturctivism or constructionism in the =
school systems out there.  So they can't have seen technology used in a =
very Montessori way before.  can't blame them for mistrusting.

>>> lrpacini@yahoo.com 08/30/02 04:12PM >>>
Great suggestion, Wendy!

The significance of mentioning Montessori is that if
there are folks here working in a Montessori
environment they can appreciate the challenges that
can accompany the introduction of technology in their
classrooms. At the risk of offending any Montessorians
in the group, they tend to be resistant to change!!!!!

Lauren

--- Wendy Petti <wpetti@mathcats.com> wrote:
> I used to start the school year with an
> animate-your-body project that
> everyone loved (grades 2 - 5).  Here are the steps
> we followed:
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> 1) I took a digital photo of each student and placed
> these in a folder.
> The rest of the steps were done by the students.=20
> (Of course they could
> take digital photos of each other, for that matter.)
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> 2) Import your photo into MicroWorlds.
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> 3) Use the drawing tools to erase around your head,
> leaving only the
> head.  (Efficient ways to get rid of chunks of
> background include
> drawing white rectangles or using the selection tool
> then deleting.  We
> traced around the head with a fairly thin eraser and
> then retraced with
> a wider eraser.  The students also learned to use
> the selection tool and
> then double-click to go into the "fat bits editor"
> for pixel by pixel
> fine-tuning for perfectionists.)
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> 4) Copy the head into a shape, put it on a turtle,
> and resize it to the
> desired size for the next step.
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> 5) Drag the head to the upper part of the page,
> stamp it, then drag it
> away.
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> 6) Draw a silly body under your head.
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> 7) Surround the whole body and head with the
> selection tool, copy and
> paste into a shape.
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> 8) Click once to select that shape, edit -> copy,
> then click once on a
> new shape and paste a second copy of the shape.
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> 9) Open the shape and flip it to its mirror image.
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> 10) Name both shapes.
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> 11) Write one or more procedures to animate
> yourself.  We used several
> in conjunction with a "speed" slider (with a maximum
> of 10 in this
> example).  We put each procedure name on a button
> and set the button to
> "many times."  The students could click on one or
> more buttons at the
> same time.  Here are some we used:
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> to dance
> setsh "person1 wait (10 - speed) / 2
> setsh "person2 wait (10 - speed) / 2
> end
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> [[You can just say "wait 1" or whatever, or "wait
> speed," but this way
> the higher number gives a faster speed, and at least
> on a PC, the speed
> that is wait 1/2 ends up looking very good.]]
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> to cartwheels [[for this we made more copies of the
> person and rotated
> each 90 degrees]]
> setsh "person1 wait (10 - speed) / 2
> setsh "person3 wait (10 - speed) / 2
> setsh "person4 wait (10 - speed) / 2
> setsh "person5 wait (10 - speed) / 2
> end
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> to throb [[version 1]]
> setsize 30
> setsize 35
> setsize 40
> setsize 45 (etc... up to:)
> setsize 60 [[or whatever]]
> setsize 55
> setsize 50 (etc.)
> end
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> to throb [[version 2... set the throb button to
> "once," not "many
> times"]]
> if size > 60 [shrink stopme]
> setsize size + 2 wait 1
> throb
> end
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> to shrink
> if size < 20 [throb stopme]
> setsize size - 2 wait 1
> shrink
> end
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> to move
> seth 90
> fd 1 (or whatever... remember to set the button to
> "many times")
> end
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> to hop
> seth 20
> glide 100 1
> seth 160
> glide 100 1
> end
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> 12) Create a textbox and write something about
> yourself.  Change the
> text size, style and color.  Make the textbox
> transparent.  Drag it away
> from your animated body.
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> 13) optional:  Draw a background scene.
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> This project took about 4 sessions to complete.  It
> introduced the
> students to almost all of the multimedia
> capabilities of MicroWorlds and
> a few of the primitives.  The kids LOVED it!!!!
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> Later on they made animated stories in which they
> imported each other's
> silly bodies and had their cartoon friends peopling
> their stories.
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> Another extension to this animated-self idea was to
> apply the same
> strategy to social studies projects, in which
> students animated
> something relevant to their studies, along with a
> text box of
> information.  For instance:  animated cave
> paintings, or Egyptian
> gods...  importing (and then adapting) graphics from
> the Internet.
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> After the animation project, I always went into
> turtle geometry, and the
> kids were wowed by the power of MicroWorlds to
> create exciting designs
> with a few simple commands.  I'll save those starter
> procedures for a
> follow-up message.
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> You can also get quite a few ideas, I think, by
> visiting the MicroWorlds
> project areas of the two sites I've been working on
> (below).
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> I'm sorry we were not more responsive to your first
> request!!  In my
> case I was indeed stumped by the Montessori tie-in.=20
> Any of these
> MicroWorlds projects lend themselves well to
> individual adaptations, of
> course... lots of room for creativity and extra
> challenges.
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> Wendy Petti
> Math Cats - http://www.mathcats.com=20
> (with MicroWorlds projects at
> http://www.mathcats.com/microworlds.html )
> MicroWorlds in Action -
> http://mia.openworldlearning.org=20
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> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com=20
> > [mailto:mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com]On Behalf
> Of Lauren Pacini
> > Sent: Friday, August 30, 2002 2:50 PM
> > To: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com=20
> > Subject: [MWForum]Introducing MW @.0
> >
> >
> > How good it is to see that there is life in turtle
> > land! Perhaps now would be a good opportunity to
> > repost my prior question... but to open the
> parameters
> > a bit.
> >
> > I am new to MW and am looking for some basic
> starter
> > project suggestions for grades 4-6. Something that
> > will light the imaginative fires of the students
> as
> > well as their teachers.
> >
> > What is the best way to present MW as a brand new
> > tool. I mentioned that I am in a Montessori
> school,
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=3D=3D=3D message truncated =3D=3D=3D



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