http://www.150.si.edu/150trav/remember/r817.htm
Grade Level: 4
Competencies Met: This activity integrates Language
Arts, Technology, Information, and Social Studies competencies from
the North Carolina Standard Course of Study for fourth graders. Click here
for a list of the specific competencies met. Link to the North
Carolina Standard Course of Study.
Description: This activity will have students
pick a random object, develop an idea for an invention, take pictures using
a digital camera, write a news article incorporating an allusion to popular
culture, peer review a friend's article, and develop a final product in
the form of a Web page using the programs Microsoft Word, Netscape Composer,
and Adobe Photoshop.
Materials:
Assorted random items
digital cameras
two or three floppy disks per student
Computers with Netscape Composer, Microsoft Word,
Adobe Photoshop and an Internet connection.
Optional worksheet. Link to a printable worksheet
for this assignment.
Process:
Students will work in groups of four or five in
order to develop a new product idea based on an item they select from the
mysterious basket of oddities. Using this item, they will create
an idea for a marketable product. The product they invent can not
be the object's original intended use.
They will then photograph this new item in use with
a digital camera. Save the pictures to a disk. All group members should
be involved in this process. Every group member should appear in
at least one photograph and should have a turn at being photographer.
In their groups, the digital photographs should be cropped using Adobe
Photoshop. Link here for a tutorial on Adobe
Photoshop.
Each person will then compose a a handwritten news
article. Included within the written text should be some allusion
to the popular culture of television, film/video, or literature; this could
be a character, distinct event, or plot.
After everyone in the group is completed a rough
draft, the students should exchange products and answer the following
questions:
1. What aspect/s of popular culture did they use in their piece?
2. Why do you believe that they chose to use those particular popular
icons?
3. Would a person from another country be able to understand their
writing?
4. Please find five words and look them in the thesaurus. Write
down some possible synonyms.
Return the writings to their authors. Authors consider changing
some of the words to synonyms that are more specific.
Link to a printable worksheet for
this assignment.
They should return each other's rough drafts.
At this time, all needed corrections should be made. They should
then compose a final copy in Microsoft Word. Click here on instructions
on how to use
Microsoft
Word.
Using Netscape Composer, each student will develop
their own web page. Click here for an explanation of how to use Netscape
Composer.
Teacher Feedback: The teacher should provide feedback
during the assignment via e-mail.
Grading Rubric:
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Special Notes:
Signed permission
slips are needed to post student's pictures on the Internet. These are
in addition to the permission slips needed for students to use the Internet.
The teacher should assign groups in
order to allow for the success of each child. Each child should have
the same equal access time. A possible solution to this problem is
rotating which children have computer time every day.
This project will take time.
It should not be done in a week even under the best circumstances (each
child have an individual computer).
Even though each child will produce
their own web page, encourage them to help each other.
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