Six elements that made Library Tech Week a serious fun

An expression a "serious fun" describes a "learning environment where students are engaged, academics are rigorous and learning is clearly evident" (Hirst-Loucks and Loucks).

Activities offered during Library Tech Week were not only fun but integrated STEM subjects, promoted creativity, problem-solving, collaboration, project and idea exchange, and advocated the connection of academic learning with real life. Students did have "serious fun" during the week!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
Integration of STEM

Two WBAIS critical values, STEM and recycling, were supported with various activities. 

An inclusion of artistic and creativity into science, technology, and engineering evolved STEM into STEAM. We admire imagination and arts! 

Maker space.

Kids used their artistry and played with paper rolls, buttons, broken computer parts, disposable plastic cups and plates and other recyclable materials.

Everyone was curious about 3D printers. They could watch for hours how the Chuck Hull's invention was building up white and red castles, robots, deer, star wars spaceships and other objects.

Collaboration

Students from different grade levels collaborated and participated in a project exchange by demonstrating their work and learning to peers.

High School students shared their skills with Middle and Elementary students while Middle School students presented their projects to the grade school.












Assembling electric circuits,  building molecular models, learning chess moves, and writing star related poems engaged students of all ages.







Students' Leadership



Jonathan and Kanishka ran a Star Wars booth. Younger kids were thrilled to see their photographs been Photoshopped into Star War characters.

Maria and Riti made a presentation about the evolution of their computer skills at Computer App class, and Matan demonstrated how playing DuoLingua could improve one's knowledge of a foreign language.


Teachers' involvement
Teachers generously offered their subject expertise. Their passion and enthusiasm were contagious. Students experimented with wires, lamp bulbs, batteries, fans, and bells.

Ms. Salem, English Language teacher, inspired her students to create bookmarks with Shakespearean quotes.

Language Diversity Booth

Modern Language teachers initiated celebration of WBAIS lingual and cultural diversity. 

The theme of the booth "In the galaxy of languages, every word is a star" motivated writing poems, proverbs and sayings, and just words related to stars in many languages.

Sra. Vahab and Sra. Cohen made two pinatas in a star shape to be broken  the last day of our special week. What a great cultural introduction!



Career orientation

Activities and an exposure to latest technologies introduced children and adults to new trends in real life. Guest speakers and student-presenters spoke about 3D printing, apps, robotics and applied sciences.

Mr. Librus brought many 3D objects and spoke about the use of 3D printing in research, medicine, industry and commerce.

The WeDiggit team explained what green-screen technology is and how it is used in media production. Students practiced composing a green-screen video stream.

Library Tech Week has brought the entire WBAIS community together.


Check out a Media Production Class message about the week:

Integration of STEAM, Makerspace, student collaboration and leadership, teachers' enthusiasm, and guest speakers' presentations made LTW of 2016 a "serious fun".


Thank you, everyone, for supporting our annual event!

Library Technology Week: Science Booth

Science Teachers and students shared their knowledge and skills @ Science booth.

Students from Mr. Horowitz High School Biology class has displayed posters about photosynthesis and the digestive system. The student work demonstrated student knowledge along with their creativity. In addition, students video recorded an explanation of the project and described the processes. 

Prepared by Maria Rosa Saldana

Building electric circuits was one of the favorite activities.

40+ Creative Projects: iSearch Exhibition

Ninth Grade students have finished their special one-month journey led by Ms. Salem, Ms. Cannon, and Ms. Bee. Come see 40+ creative presentations of iSearch projects are displayed now in the library. 

The best part of the journey was that students decided the destination and the route of it. 

'I' reflects personal connections with a topic. The iSearch project is about finding a question that students tried to answer and reflected on the process of their growth as a person and a researcher.

'I’ stands for personal involvement in gathering facts, finding examples, forming ideas, writing a research paper and presenting the main idea in a visual creative format. 

Before arriving at their destination, students met people through reading books and articles and speaking to people in person, directly or electronically. 

Whatever path they took, it was FUN and will last in our memories.

Crediting sources: Creative Works

One of the essential skills every 21^st century learner should practice is to respect intellectual property. 

Educators often talk to students about plagiarism and remind them to give credits to information they have used. However,  we often omit teaching  students to give credits to other creative use media without consideration of their copyright. For example, images, music, and videos used in student works miss credits to their creators.

Students mash up media into their presentations thus creating their own works that also
should be copyright protected. Show them how to choose the type of the license on Creative Commons, an open source,  depository of creative works available for others.

Not every image found on the Web is available for reuse.  By default, Google searches everything. However, if you set up Google Images - Search Tools – Usage Rights on Labeled for Reuse, you will limit your searches to specific use rights, including for commercial/non-commercial use, reuse with modification and other options.

Also, there are many collections of copyright fair use images, music, sound effects and videos. Some of them are collected on Free Media Sources ais-sharing site. 

How to credit media:
Add "Credit" field and display it under the media that you upload to your work.