On Friday, I was so pleased to be able to return to one of my favorite days of the year, High-Interest Day at Brookfield Elementary School. This is a day where I have been able to bring the concepts of physics to k-5 graders. You may be asking yourself, "Elementary students doing physics?" YES! Not just experimenting, but understanding the concepts behind the physics of electricity and sound. This is a very special day I have had the opportunity to be involved in since 2017. So, how are we able to bring the concepts of electricity and sound traditionally taught to high school 11th and 12th graders to the elementary level? There are a few keys 1) make it a hands-on experience 2) remove the mathematical calculations and make it practical. In the past, I had the luck of bringing a handful of my physics students with me to guide the elementary students through the concepts that they had learned over the course of the year. But in my new role as a Teaching and Learning Speciali
There were two different components I want students to report out on at the end of their personal learning project. I want students to be able to provide information as it related to their question or goal. The other report I wanted was a reflective piece on the process itself. I could see this being very doable as a “poster presentation” where students stood by a poster and reported out to a public audience. I like this idea but wanted to change it up for a couple of reasons. Due to the tight time frame in which I laid out this project, I wasn’t able to advertise and get enough of a public presence to attend. Without that audience, I would need to rely on students as the audience. I wanted all of my student to be able to experience the projects. So, I decided to find a way to make this poster presentation a little more virtual using augmented reality. Not familiar with augmented reality? Take a look at this clip from the film Minority Report and the future of adv