Artifact 1

Artifact 1
Modern Fashion and Invention
This activity allows students to have the opportunity to create their own invention using objects that they see daily. Students are then able to write about and advertise their invention in a creative way. There is also an example of this activity with a lesson plan included for teachers in case that they decide to use this activity in their own classrooms.

Context
The Modern Fashion and Invention activity was done in the fall semester of 2001 in my Teaching Media and Technology in the Classroom class at Appalachian State University. This project was done individually, and after the assignment was completed our projects were loaded to the class web page. This allowed us to look at our classmates lesson plans and creations for this project.

Impact
The Modern Fashion and Invention activity is designed for a fifth grade classroom; however, it can easily be used in a third or fourth grade classroom. This activity gives students the opportunity to express their creativity while using language arts, communication, and information skills. This activity also provides students with an opportunity to explore the uses of a digital camera while also enhancing computer skills as well as writing skills.

Alignment
The Modern Fashion and Invention assignment is an activity that addresses many parts of the North Carolina Standard Course of Study Curriculum (Technology Competency 3A). Objectives that are meet through this lesson for a fifth grade class include:

Language Arts Curriculum - 1.01, 1.04, 4.08, 4.09, 4.10, 5.01, 5.07, and 5.08
Information Skills Curriculum - 4.09, 4.10, 5.02, 5.04, and 5.05
Computer Skills Curriculum - 2.4 and 3.7

This activity also allows students to have an opportunity to use creativity in coming up with their own invention and then writing a news article that promotes this new product (Technology Competency 3C). The model that I made for this project is provided on the web and can be downloaded as an example for student use. Teachers are able to view the web page for this activity over the Internet by viewing the example page as well as a page of instructions for students as well as teachers in case this activity is done in a classroom (Technology Competency 5D). If this activity is done in a classroom, parents may also chose to look at their child's work over the Internet. The Modern Fashion and Invention also allows the teacher to better manage the class because student's will be working in pairs throughout this project and because of this should trade off when using the computer, the digital camera, and other resources used when doing this project (Technology Competency 2E). The teacher can assess student learning both formally and informally with this activity by assessing how students are working together when creating their project and then by assessing the final product of their project (INTASC 8). This in turn helps to "ensure the continuous intellectual, social and physical development of the learner." This activity centers allows students to use a variety of resources to promote creativity, problem solving, and critical thinking (INTASC 4). In this activity, students are encouraged to use their creativity, imagination, and critical thinking skills in order to come with with an invention and then report to their peers about their invention. Student learning is also managed through this activity because of the Student Page on the project that is designed specifically with student instructions and expectations (Technology Competency 3D). Since the students are working in groups, it is vital that the teacher remember to have all student's participate in the project. Teachers are reminded to do this on the Teacher Page of this lesson so that the student pairs will switch off in order for all students to have an opportunity to steer (Technology Competency 6E).