prms mratzel

Polygons, Turtles and Variables

Geometry and turtles make for a fantastic combination. It lets you unravel the secrets of geometry because those turtles do all the work. Using the combination of procedures in Teaching Turtles New Words you were able to combine a number of commands into one button so that you could quickly do a number of things at once. Then in Polygon Maker you were able to introduce variables into your MicroWorld toolbox.

What I want you to take a few minutes to think about is this..........

When you were experimenting with how to draw a closed shape, what did you first have to realize about the relationship between a polygon and a circle? Write that as the first part of your comment.

The next thing this challenge provided was the way you divided the circle into sides and what the length of those side were. You used sliders to control those two variables and then experimented to see what happened. Write down what you observed as the second part of your comment.

Remember when you write a reflective comment, you should use complete sentences and each part should be 3-5 sentences long. When you are finished you'll need to hit the post button. It will ask you to type in your name. Use good CyberSafety smarts and only list your first name and last initial...no last names. It will also require an email. Here you have the chance to be creative since I do not want you to put your real email, but what you create must be school appropriate because I come back through and check every single comment and email.

These reflections can be done in one post or in two posts. It doesn't matter as long as you answer both questions eventually. I want to hear your best thinking and you might refer to the tutorial questions and directions if you're stumped for how to approach answering the reflection questions. (Hint: The questions are always meant to guide you as you work through the problem!!!!)

Refining Our Microworlds EX Skillset

New assignments for a new week. This week brings some new Microworld tools. You'll be learning how to how to take simple commands and combine them into more complex ones, create buttons, use variables, more about penup and pendown, and basic animation. It will be a full week. Keep track of what you're learning because I will expect you to reflect on your learning by writing comments back on the website. When you first go to these websites, save the directions into your folder so they are readily available as you work through the exercise.

Teaching Turtles New Words challenges you to expand your thinking beyond just simple commands. Your challenge is going to come in another way. These directions were written for a different version of Microworlds....we have EX. So you'll have to adapt the directions as you go along. In your reflection, I'll be asking you to tell me what changes you had to make.-

When you finish that challenge, test yourself with another idea from Open World Learning. This time you'll be exploring the use of a slider. Here the slider takes you into using variables. Math class comes to computers. What happens when you change your thinking to vary the idea to different values? How does that change the way the polygon looks? Polygon Maker will let you experiment with variables so keep track of what impact variables have on the shape of polygons.

And the last tutorial let's you have some fun with setting shapes for animation in Climb a Ladder. You'll draw some simple shapes and work to animate those shapes climbing up a ladder. Have some fun as you learn.

Reflecting on Turtling

I want you to add a comment below this question so I can get a sense of what you are learning about Microworlds and what you think about some of the things you've learned about geometry. You should add only your first name and last initial to your posting. Remember CyberSafety!!! It will require you to put in a email address. Do not enter your real email address. You can make up a clever email address as long as it is school appropriate!!!!

First....add one comment that explains what you've learned about how a circle and polygons are built. When you are finished writing at least 3 sentences, hit the post button.

Then... add another comment that explains what is your favorite MicroWorld feature. Do you like the fact that you can create buttons or Procedures that allows your turtle to do multiple things at once? When you are finished writing at least 3 sentences, hit the publish button.

Once these reflections are done, you can return to the tutorials. Have you taught your Turtle new words yet?

Netiquette? What's That?

What is netiquette?

Come and explore at this Disney site!!!

First when you arrive at the page....scroll down a little bit and read through the Ten Rule for Netiquette. Open a Word document in another window and paraphrase what the rule means to you in your own words. Save this document in your Tech Ed folder on the student server. You'll be needing the information when you create the Inspiration web assignment on Friday.

Once you have these ten rules restated in your own words, then scroll back up to the top of the Disney page and enjoy watching the three short cartoons on Netiquette. As you go through each cartoon, be sure and click on the characters and what they might be thinking or saying in their balloons. The ballons carry important information that you should know about Netiquette. I will be using that information in our next CPS quiz. So don't skip over it!!!!

Have fun and enjoy this fun site.

Microworlds Feedback.

We've just finished our first Microworlds Project. So I need to pick your brains, so to speak, and find out how things went from your point of view. I need to know....

Were you pleased with how your Countryside project ended up looking and working?

Did you think you would be able to create the animations? and what was the hardest part about creating them?

If you could give me one suggestion that I could use with the next group of students in this project what would it be?

And now that you are planning your project...one where you will be able to do anything that you want...it's an open-ended assignment....what do you want to try? Why did you think about doing this?

I want you to write in complete sentences to I can understand what you are thinking and I want you to be as honest as you can. Your ideas are important to me and they help me plan my classes and help me improve what I do each and everytime I do these lessons. So thank you and I look forward to reading what you have to say.

When you click on the Comment button, please list only your first name, add your last initial if I won't know who you without including it, and then make up a email address and don't include a URL. When you have finished, then we can talk about your creative project.

Mrs. R

Figuring Out What we Know About Being Researchers

Narrow
Exact Phrase
Trim back the URL
Seek Similar Pages

All of these seem all fine and good on the worksheet, but which ones do you think will really help you when you need to search something out for a class project?

Think of something you've had to research in class over the past couple of weeks, honestly would there ever have been a time that this would have helped out. Why would it have helped? Or do you think it might have been a better bet to have just used a book? Do you have any idea when it would be better to just use a book instead of a computer?

New Adventures Await Us on the Frontier

We were accepted into TechnoSpud's "What's in a Name" blogging project. That's great!!! You'll be hearing lts more about it as the weeks go by. It will be a chance for us to put to use the searching strategies you're going to be learning and we'll divide and conquer this topic. Then compare note and see what we can come up with.

TechnoSpud.....now I want to know where the organizers of this project came up with that name!!!!

Surf's Up Again

I know we've done this Treasure Hunt before, but give it a try and see what you can find. Click on the comment button whenever you find answers to the questions. Describe your finding in a complete sentence and only use your first name. Do not fill in an email address.

Are you an expert surfer or do you have trouble finding things on the web? There are techniques that can help you become more and more efficient in zooming into just the exact thing that you wanted to find without endless wandering. I'll teach you more about that next week.

Mrs. R

EVIL E-MAIL WORMS 'n HACKERS!

Read through this site and see what you think about the sense of humor these cartoonist use to talk about a serious issue of computer hackers. Add a comment to this post

EVIL E-MAIL WORMS 'n HACKERS!

As always, make your comment useful, in complete sentences and state what your opinion is with supporting ideas and some examples.

TechTV | 'Fresh Gear' Glossary

Vocabulary Helper Site
Hey guys....Here's a site that might help you add some up-to-date vocab words to your list. Which ones are your favorites?

TechTV | 'Fresh Gear' Glossary