Middle School Music Video Project - The Scientific Method Rap

I worked with Andrea Thelen and her class this past marking period.  The class is called SETS - Students Engaged in Technology and Science.  This is a video project we assigned at the end of the course.  The hope was to follow a process like I outlined in this post from last year about music creation in the classroom.

As it turned out, we almost ran out of time.  I worked with the group of students to create the lyrics and we recorded a rough version in the very last days of the class.  I took some time on spring break to spice it up on my own.  Details of the process are below, but here's the final result.  

It is not perfect, so I pose this as a challenge for other groups.  Do something better!

Here's the Project Process:
First I had the students do this assignment to research and review the scientific method.

I didn't show them any examples of existing videos.  Instead, I just asked them to write the lyrics for a rap after they did the above assignment.  This group featured above turned in some great work, but I was disheartened to find a very similar version online!  We had a talk about using online content in acceptable ways and how to give credit where it's due.

I then worked with them to write the lyrics shown in this final version.

Using my iPad with an iRig Mic Cast microphone, I recorded the students while they rapped.  I made one simple track using the Smart Drums and then recorded their vocal part on a few other tracks as we accumulated takes.  This took longer than I expected, but it was a great learning process for them as we had to tweak their lyrics to fit the beat.  After class I took time to put the good takes in order.

The students then took the iPad while I worked  on the same process with a second group.  They used the free Video Star app to record their lip sync performance.  They came back with one rough take.  I told them to go do a few more.  In the end they had four videos.

I should note that Video Star is a great, fun app for adding effects to a lip sync performance.  But I was glad that three of the four takes that these students gave me did not use the video effects.  Instead, they just used the app as a means of syncing their performance with the song.  I suggest that because it's better for a polished video to add the best effects during post-production.

The videos that the students made at that point were acceptable for purposes of the class.  We were out of time anyway, so I did not have a chance to take them through the editing process.

Since it is spring break, though, I had a lot of time to play around with it on my own.  I did the following:

• I created a few background tracks using options using UJam.  That site makes it easy to try the options, download an mp3 and then try another version.  I made two that I liked based on their hip hop styles. One important point to note is that UJam was a great seller for this project.  The students liked how it immediately spruced up a vocal track.  I was disappointed we didn't have more time to use this in class, so I hope to start the project earlier in the marking period next time.
• I combined, rearranged and mixed the vocals and UJam track using my old version of Music Creator. While I did put in some effects from that program, mostly I choose it over Audacity only because it lets me easily cut the tracks right at the measures.  This makes it extremely easy to move parts around and repeat them.
• I then combined the parts from their video performances with my audio track using Corel VideoStudio.  I love the program, but see the details I wrote about the good and the one big negative I had.  I really enjoy video editing, so I had fun with this.  I have to admit it took several hours just to make this short video, though, and it is not realistic that our students would have created something this complex within the usual time limits of our classes.  I hope to get them there someday though!

Doing this project with this group was my dream project this marking period.  I was hoping to give them something to make the class very memorable.  Since it was rushed and we worked around other distractions, I'm not sure I achieved it.  I did build a couple important relationships, though, and I set the groundwork to do much better the next time around.  

I have always said that nothing provides an option for more content and important skills at a variety of levels like a good video project.  Though it can complicate an already complex process, I'll go further and say that a good music video project adds several other advantages to the mix.  Not the least of which is that the students who are hardest to hook often have a love and talent for music.

Wikipedia Math Mazes - Fun filler activity for math class

When I was a high school math teacher I would often do games and activities on the days before breaks.  One of the more popular ones that I created was a "math book maze" that would take the students through several pages of the textbook and ask them to follow steps that usually involved math operations.

For example, it would say, "Take the last number you see on page 257 and divide it by 6.  Go to that page and do problem 16."

If I made the challenges just right students had a lot of fun racing through the steps hoping to get the correct number at the very end before anyone else.

Recently a high school math teacher asked about some technology activities for a similar "fun day" he was having in his basic algebra class.  I updated my idea of the math book maze and called it a Wikipedia Math Maze.

The idea is the same.  Students do some basic math problems and follow directions while they search through Wikipedia.  It went over very well with the students I tested it with.  Here it is as a Google Document:

Wikipedia Math Maze 1 - March 2013

I quickly realized that Wikipedia is updated frequently and it can throw off my maze!  The day before the activity I found I had to change some of the numbers because new footnotes had been added to one of the entries.  If you base it on a well known topic it would be possible the details could change even during the day you hand it out.  This is not an assignment to copy at the start of the year!

An obvious extension of this assignment (possibly for an advanced class) would be to have the students make their own maze.  While just solving one of the mazes requires accuracy and careful reading, making one is even more challenging because one has to be sure the directions are not ambiguous.

Google Hangout in the classroom - Bring in the experts

Last week I experimented with Google Hangouts in the classroom. I asked two of my game designer friends if the would connect for a short time with me and four students who have been using Stencyl to make computer games in a science class.

James Kyle and Kory Heath (see below for more information on their work) graciously agreed to take time to meet with us.  I sent them a short email explaining what we've been doing in class and we arranged to connect about 20 minutes early just to make sure things were working.

The classroom teacher I'm working with, Andrea Thelen, and I met with James and Kory and quickly prepped on what we'd cover in the 25 minute session.

The students were glad to meet with a couple guys who are livings their dream of making digital games.  James and Kory were quick to point out that its a lot of work with no guarantee of decent pay when one sets out as an independent game designer.

The best tips that came out of the session were:

• Don't try to work alone. Find other designers you can work with, get feedback from and learn with. 
• Keep a game design notebook for ideas.  You'll never have time to program them all, but by keeping them in one place you can easily come back to them even years later.  They will develop and combine over time. 
• Break big ideas and dream designs up into manageable pieces you can start on even now. That can make the hard work of learning a little more fun. 

The meeting definitely encouraged me to try more of this. The students enjoyed it and have asked more than once if we can meet with them again. On the downside,me did have a lot of lag for about 10 minutes of the meeting. I think it can be attributed to the computer lab being in full operation right when we started.  Next time I will try meeting with just one person to see if that makes a difference. 

I want to give a special thanks to my friends James Kyle and Kory Heath.  Please check out their work when you get a chance.

• I wrote about Kory's work in this post and he was very influential in the work that led to my class creativity presentation games. 
• James Kyle is a great friend of mine who helped immensely in my early efforts to get my games to the world.  His unique word game for iPhone is called Word Surgeon. 

What's It to Ya? randomizer for classroom presentation games

Much of this site is dedicated to classroom games based on my party game What's It to Ya? (a.k.a. Oh, Really!). You can find all the rules and ways to use the game on the Critical Thinking Games page.

This new installment to my resources is simply a randomizer that draws item cards for any of those activities.  If using this as a classroom presentation game, you'd need a response system (set of clickers) that allows students to do a sort in order question.

Update 8/8/2013:  If you like this activity and want to use the physical party game in class, my friends at Fair Play Games are selling four copies in a classroom bundle for only for $7.99!  That's enough for 32 students to play in multiple groups.  Check this post out for more information.

Just click the start button in the randomizer below.  Five cards will be randomly drawn from a set of 118 items that could spark interesting discussion or thought in the classroom.  See this page for a list of free critical thinking classroom activities that would use the cards.

(If the randomizer is not displaying correctly in your browser right click here to download the file.  You might have to open it with Flash Player or another browser.)

Again, you'll want to see the game's page to get all details, but basically you can use the randomizer to select the cards and then use them in any of the many ways outlined on that page.  Usually someone (depending on how you play) will rank the items from most important to least important.  Predictions and discussion can follow.  Briefly, some possible uses are:

• Have one student or the teacher rank the items and the class tries to predict his or her rankings.
• Just display five items, have the class rank them and discuss the results.
• Display random items at the end of class and assign a short writing piece for homework.  Students can express their own opinions and also make predictions on how the class would rank them.
• If students are playing in groups they could use a laptop to select the five items for their group instead of using cards.

If you're having fun with What's It to Ya? be sure to check it out at Fair Play Games.  My friends there are selling off the last remaining copies for less than $2.50 each! I'm not getting royalties for this game, so this is just my effort to help you and them out.

Middle School Web Design Assignment with Google Apps for Education

We set up Google Apps for Education at the the middle school this year.  I really like the possibilities, though we still have a ton to learn and grow into.  I created this assignment to get students started with a basic website and blog using Google Sites.  Let me know if this is of interest and I can post the other assignments I've given using Google Sites, Forms and Presentations.

Middle School Website Assignment 1