Embedded Files
At Foothills Community School we, as well as the rest of McDowell County Public Schools, utilize the Google Suite of tools. All staff and scholars have access to these common digital tools which include word processing, spreadsheets, slide presentations, websites, calendars, classrooms, forms, and hangouts. Students have the opportunity to utilize these and other resources, such as WeVideo and Flipgrid, in order to share their student voice on a variety of class assignments and projects. Students also have the opportunity to utilize Venier probes to collect data and utilize collection software to analyze the results.
Each of our quarterly projects has embedded digital technology components which help students either gain proficiency as a user or to expand their abilities as makers/creators. As scholars engage with this embedded digital technology, it allows them to collect information/data and share/communicate their ideas in a myriad of different ways. For example during the Space Survival Unit, a topic that may seem far fetched in relevance for students in rural North Carolina, the students participated in a virtual reality trip to the International Space Station or ISS. They went on to learn about products in NC that are critical to the construction of the ISS as well as the importance of knowledge, background, experiential diversity to ensure the successful construction and execution of such a massive undertaking.
Other digital tools are utilized at FCS to help students acquire the skills they need to become successful in their STEM-related classes. Students work on the acquisition of vocabulary by building Pixton comics to put context and sentence structure through continuous elaboration and instruction. Students have also used WeVideo to create culminating videos from their project study if they feel that is the best way to present their information. They have also utilized WeVideo to tell why North Carolina schools are so great, winning 3rd place in the state competition. During our most recent hour of code (though many of our students do this regularly) students sent messages and programming to the international space station. Beyond this, students use software to code games and apps for school projects along with a LEGO robotics club that codes machines (designed and built by students) to complete tasks using LEGO’s EV3 software. This group has proved to be fairly successful, earning a trip to the state level competition two years in a row. We have also had a drone club in which students build drones from scratch, and then race them against one another and their instructors. We have also had a girls-only coding club. Since the summer of 2018, we have also hosted a robotics camp that has focused on beginner robotics design and programming as well as allowing several of our advanced robotics students a chance to share what they have learned and to dabble with more complex programming. In our everyday setting, students have the opportunity to build and create with available building-level resources such as Fusion 3D printers, Raspberry Pis, Ardunios, Makey Makeys, and SeaPerch ROV kits depending on their need.
Each of our quarterly projects has embedded digital technology components which help students either gain proficiency as a user or to expand their abilities as makers/creators. As scholars engage with this embedded digital technology, it allows them to collect information/data and share/communicate their ideas in a myriad of different ways. For example during the Space Survival Unit, a topic that may seem far fetched in relevance for students in rural North Carolina, the students participated in a virtual reality trip to the International Space Station or ISS. They went on to learn about products in NC that are critical to the construction of the ISS as well as the importance of knowledge, background, experiential diversity to ensure the successful construction and execution of such a massive undertaking.
Other digital tools are utilized at FCS to help students acquire the skills they need to become successful in their STEM-related classes. Students work on the acquisition of vocabulary by building Pixton comics to put context and sentence structure through continuous elaboration and instruction. Students have also used WeVideo to create culminating videos from their project study if they feel that is the best way to present their information. They have also utilized WeVideo to tell why North Carolina schools are so great, winning 3rd place in the state competition. During our most recent hour of code (though many of our students do this regularly) students sent messages and programming to the international space station. Beyond this, students use software to code games and apps for school projects along with a LEGO robotics club that codes machines (designed and built by students) to complete tasks using LEGO’s EV3 software. This group has proved to be fairly successful, earning a trip to the state level competition two years in a row. We have also had a drone club in which students build drones from scratch, and then race them against one another and their instructors. We have also had a girls-only coding club. Since the summer of 2018, we have also hosted a robotics camp that has focused on beginner robotics design and programming as well as allowing several of our advanced robotics students a chance to share what they have learned and to dabble with more complex programming. In our everyday setting, students have the opportunity to build and create with available building-level resources such as Fusion 3D printers, Raspberry Pis, Ardunios, Makey Makeys, and SeaPerch ROV kits depending on their need.
Evidence for Students Using Digital Technology:
FCS STEM Recognition Website (contains evidence for each key element): https://sites.google.com/mcdowell.k12.nc.us/fcsstem/student-opportunities/students-using-digital-technology?authuser=0Student-Created Digital Technology: https://www.desmos.com/calculator/pbggbtygffhttps://twitter.com/STEMFCS/status/1075442544752947201https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zO9JJi3Owg7wD9xSw7k9nXdZG4VOMD2omrLVTMm51iw/edit?usp=sharing
Student Evidence Project Digital Technologies:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19CPv_A_XmNbZ_M3ejwpljL_26IQKcVY-erLKtDfw_A0/edit?usp=sharinghttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1s3fahjAlndphlAZK0yFFhW8ZSkmE2Crg/view?usp=sharinghttps://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12csUhlfpsSThLTwR1Z5eo3Q02Grja7koDuxRj3CXWBQ/edit?usp=sharinghttps://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13HvOdklQJIqDS4AzJZcpiwWw6lO_RHwJXAa6CfqN6T8/edit?usp=sharing
In/After School Opportunities: https://twitter.com/TheMrsShaver/status/1021797036553920512https://twitter.com/STEMFCS/status/784540245748486144https://youtu.be/OdAbp2IkCvkhttps://youtu.be/WB-pnrDEcJc
Students created WeVideos to get information to the general public about the food insecurity problem.
At FCS, we have realized that the saying that students this day and age are technology natives is incorrect. They are "swiping" natives to play games. Students do not come to use knowing how to type, use a google document, or google sheets, etc. As teachers, we have to explicitly teach them. The first year that we had students, we taught them how to use Google documents. Once students had an in depth understanding on how to type and create on Docs, we then decided Google Sheets would be next. We spent the second year teaching them how to type on a gGoogle sheet to creating a map and charts on Google Sheets.
Students were working on the final part of their Garbology lesson. This part had them view the work of Peter Menzel. He went around the world and photographed families in different places noting their houses and material possessions. His work was called Material World. Students split into pairs or small groups and analyzed a different country, then compared it to the US, and then shared with a larger audience.
Student Work Sample
Student Work Sample
Evidence of computer programming with design thinking. This is a computer design of how the water cycle works to be printed on the 3D machine.
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