6/9/2017 June 9, 2017
Congratulations, 7th graders, on a job well done in technology class this year. You worked hard on your infographics and they have been published for the world to see. I hope parents will take a look at the student posts under the Africa Infographics category. During the course of this project it was important to evaluate and interpret data and draw some conclusions as well as experiment with design skills. I hope you will remember the importance of the Global Goals and how they are goals for all of us to work toward, not just those in developing countries.
For the summer all student Google accounts will be suspended, and reactivated when school begins. You do, however, have access to your blog, and I encourage you to use it as a journal of interesting summer activities. Maybe you will be engrossed in a great book, maybe you would like to review a movie you have seen, perhaps you will travel to a new destination, do something for the first time or create something on your own. Your blog is a great place to chronicle your adventures. Photos are welcomed as well, as long as you stay within the guidelines for protecting personal privacy and the privacy of others. (No recognizable faces in photos.) I will check for posts awaiting approval throughout the summer.
Be safe this summer, enjoy yourself, and don't be stuck in front of a screen for hours on end! Remember our project on water consumption and appreciate all the ways you enjoy water this summer. Be grateful for each day because each day is a gift.
Mrs. Ruffing 5/9/2017 May 9, 2017Infographic Project update: Students have submitted the first slide of information as mentioned in the previous post (011-7). The next activity was gathering statistics on their assigned countries to be compared with other African countries and putting the data into a table to indicate the performance indicators being compared and the corresponding Global Goal. (012-7) The data chart was due on April 26. Those two activities have been scored and entered into PowerSchool. If the score is missing that means the assignment has yet to be turned in. (Open lab has been offered but there are very few takers!) For the past 2 weeks students have been working to turn the data in the table into three separate column charts. This part of the infographic should be turned in no later than May 17, although most students should be able to finish by May 10. On Wednesday, May 10, I will be explaining the final portions of the infographic and how to put all the pieces together. The last part will be to provide information about some organization that is working in the country to help achieve one or more of the goals and add appropriate graphics. With a resource section at the bottom the infographic is ready to be turned into a single image and published. That means we have to make use of every minute. If a student is behind in completing work due to absence it is important that they see me about time in the lab in order to get the final product completed. The infographics will be shared in a blog post at the end. The image at the right is an example of an infographic completed by a student in an earlier year. Although a few details have changed for our project, you can get the idea of what our finished infographic should be like. See the infographic full size. 3/31/2017 March 31, 2017Keeping with the theme of the Global Goals, seventh graders have begun working on an infographic project that will combine their studies of African countries, the Global Goals, and graphic design. Each student has been assigned an African country and we have begun building the graphics to display information about that country as well as current data regarding their progress or lack of progress toward achieving some of the Global Goals.
We have begun this infographic project in PowerPoint as its charting function lends itself better to what we are trying to accomplish. This does mean, however, that students' work is saved on the network server and not in the cloud. A student can work outside of school on this project by uploading a copy of the file to Google Drive and then downloading it at home, but it will be important to remember to upload the revised version back to Google Drive for use in school. I will be explaining that process to them once we move beyond the first slide. The infographic will be built as a series of slides and then combined into one elongated slide and saved as an image. Our first slide will include religion and age breakdown as well as geographic information. See slide requirements. The due date for this slide has been moved back to April 10. There have been some open labs as well. After that we will be moving on to the next phase of the project. 2/27/2017 February 27, 2017Over the past few weeks we have been exploring infographics. What are they? Why are they used? What makes a good quality infographic? Finally, how can we create our own? We will begin building infographics relating to countries of Africa in the coming weeks to tie in with the social studies curriculum. During the creation of the infographic we will cover some graphic design techniques and tools and also creating a variety of charts to display data. As Trimester 2 draws to a close on March 8, seventh grade has completed a chart and post on virtual water footprints. Those assessments have been posted in PowerSchool. I am in the process of evaluating the independent progress in coding, where students chose how far they wanted to progress on the Code Studio site in Level 4. The last assignment to be entered will be the chart which was an analysis of a chosen infographic and then the analysis shared briefly with the class. We have a few students who will finish up their sharing on March 1. Students should remember that you may condense your talking points onto one sheet as you point out features of the infographic.
1/22/2017 January 22, 2017Seventh graders should be making progress in the coding assignment 007-7 in which they decide how far they want to extend their coding skills. Whatever is finished by January 31 will be recorded as a participation grade based on the chart. Students should be sure to "Mark As Done" in Google Classroom when they have reached the end of the coding activity. We have begun investigating infographics as a means of data visualization and communication. In 008-8 students will be searching for an infographic that has a connection to one or more of the Global Goals. The due date for all students to fill in their chosen infographic name and link on the shared document is Jan. 27. Students have been cautioned that 1) they must choose a unique infographic, so any that are already taken are off limits and 2) they may not alter anyone else's entry. I have, however, looked at what has been chosen so far and there are many students who must revisit their entry and either correct it or choose something else entirely. I have color coded the entries as follows: Some students have chosen web pages rather than actual infographics. Some have chosen an infographic that cannot be enlarged enough to be readable. Some have chosen an infographic that does not have a connection to Global Goals. One example might be an infographic showing different types of salads. Just because one of the goals is decreasing hunger in the world, this does not mean that the infographic has a connection to the goal because it contains food. An infographic dealing with hunger statistics or hunger related illnesses, etc. would be more appropriate. Once the choices have been made students will be analyzing the graphic design as well as the content to discover what makes a useful and interesting infographic and then sharing those findings with the class. That will be 009-8 which has not yet been posted in Google Classroom. From there we can branch out to trying out hand at creating our own infographics.
12/26/2016 December 26, 2016Last post of 2016 here!
I hope that all seventh graders and their families enjoyed a wonderful Christmas together. As the festivities wind down I would like to remind 7th grade of the December 30 due date for the post to share your water footprint chart. (006-7)This is something that had been started a while ago but because of some special events at school on Wednesdays the date was pushed back to Dec. 30. Please feel free to email me with any questions you may have about it. Don't forget to not only publish your post but also to submit your assignment in Google Classroom. This should have 2 attachments, the checklist and the PNG image file. You can also spend a little time on 007-7 which is making progress in Course 4 in Code Studio. Remember it is up to you how much progress you make in this. See the chart in Google Classroom for achievement levels. You have until the end of January to make progress. There will be time to work on January 4 when we return as well. 12/11/2016 December 11, 2016On November 30 we had a whole group session regarding the impact of water and its conservaton, with a focus on the current news of the Dakota Access Pilpeline and water concerns in that area. This all relates back to our 7th grade theme of the Global Goals and sustainability of the earth's resources as well as creating a better life for all human beings on the planet. I also pointed out some issues that came up in the scoring of the water footprint assignment and the need for correction of data. December 5-11 was the observance of Computer Science Education Week this year, and on December 7 students viewed two videos relating to the impact of computer science in our daily lives and the need for more people to get involved in the development of new ideas. We had a discussion of how the Internet actually works and the idea that data is transmitted via "bits" of information. Students tested their log in for Code Studio which they will work in during the December and some time in January. The completion of the post to share the water footprint chart (Assignment 006-7) has a due date of December 30. The checklist for completion is found in Google Classroom. Some students will need to make corrections on their chart before it is published. There will be minimum requirements for completion of coding activities, and as was the case last year, participation score will be based on how far a student advances through the course. Bits and Bytes by FCarmody via Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0
11/20/2016 November 20, 2016On Wednesday, November 16, the seventh grade had time in homeroom to work on their water footprint chart (005-7) which was due on November 18. I had returned some submitted charts with comments on what needed to be corrected and also created a sample chart with information. I also offered an open lab on Thursday, November 17, but no seventh graders took advantage of that. As of today there are 5 students who have yet to submit the assignment which is now late. As the trimester comes to a close I will end up having to score whatever has been completed whether it is finished or not. After this introductory activity in using Google spreadsheets we will move on to researching and charting other data regarding water footprints and continue to make connections to the Global Goals. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a blessed Thanksgiving. Let us be thankful for our families and the gifts of the earth, not only water, but all that we have been given in our beautiful world. Below is Pope Francis's prayer regarding protecting the earth: A Prayer for Our Earth
All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe and in the smallest of your creatures. You embrace with your tenderness all that exists. Pour out upon us the power of your love, that we may protect life and beauty. Fill us with peace, that we may live as brothers and sisters, harming no one. O God of the poor, help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth, so precious in your eyes. Bring healing to our lives, that we may protect the world and not prey on it, that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction. Touch the hearts of those who look only for gain at the expense of the poor and the earth. Teach us to discover the worth of each thing, to be filled with awe and contemplation, to recognize that we are profoundly united with every creature as we journey towards your infinite light. We thank you for being with us each day. Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle for justice, love and peace. Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ 11/6/2016 November 6, 2016We have completed 004-7 Using Creative Commons Images and scores are posted in PowerSchool. Several students had their first submissions returned and I reviewed with everyone the mistakes I was seeing and moved the due date back to allow for corrections. Despite the sample document which served as a model for the assignment and despite going over the specific errors I had been seeing, some students still submitted image credits that looked nothing like the sample! Our current activity is 005-7 in which students are gathering data from a list of sources I selected to calculate the water footprint of various foods and other consumer products. These will be charted in a graph for a comparison. One aspect of the charting is to convert units of measure so they are consistent and compare like quantities. (Comparing the water used to produce a pound of beef to the water used for a sheet of paper would not be an equivalent comparison.) I have purchased the book Your Water Footprint: The Shocking Facts About How Much Water We Use To Make Everyday Products by Stephen Leahy. There is some excellent data we can use in the completion of the charts. This ties in with our study of the Global Goals and also the project seventh graders are doing on rivers, which are an important source for fresh water. Footprint Water by Stoppe under CC0 1.0 Public Domain
10/12/2016 October 12, 2016Today we continued our work with digital citizenship tied in with the Global Goals. Seventh graders are completing an activity in which they are selecting two non-copyrighted images that tie in with one or more global goals. They are determining the rights that have been extended to users based on the Creative Commons license attached to each image. Then they will use the correct image credit format to show how that image would be credited online. The due date for 004-7 is October 20. |