Technology @ Hebron

During the winter trimester, the 7^thgrade Latin students participated in the first-ever NPR Student Podcast Challenge. The challenge was to produce a podcast with the following parameters: students must be between fifth and twelfth grades, podcasts must be between three and twelve minutes long and the podcasts must not include music. The prompts included: telling a story about our school or community, showing two sides of a debate, discussing what you would like to change in the world, explaining something kids understand and grown-ups don’t, and teaching about a moment in history. The latter was chosen since a good deal of class time was going to be used on this project and this choice allowed the class to learn about Roman history. And the best way to learn something is to teach it!

The first few podcast classes were spent listening to samples of NPR podcasts and discussing what made them particularly effective. Next, the specific topic was chosen – we used ranked choice voting for this! The highlights of Julius Caesar’s dynamic life was chosen as our subject. Interestingly enough, when the students began interviewing people, they found that most people, likely from studying Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in English class, knew only about his death.

The students made a time-line of Caesar’s life and broke it into six segments. The students wrote and edited the script for their segment. These were recorded, with back-up recordings as well, and sound effects were incorporated. The sound effects were made by the students at home, at a swim meet, and by the basement lockers in the School Building.

Mr. Crofton and Ms. Reedy assembled the recorded historical segments, interviews, and sound effects. Mr. Crofton adjusted the amplification to rectify the problems inherent in having nearly a dozen different recording devices. Huge kudos to Mr. Crofton for making us sound so good!

The finished podcast is not perfect but it is not bad at all. Did the students learn anything? Absolutely! They all now have a very good foundation of knowledge about Julius Caesar. They are amazed (as one ought to be) by what this one individual accomplished in his lifetime. They learned how to work together and how to support one another.

We hope you enjoy it!

Ms. Reedy, Latin Teacher

Many years ago, my husband and I read Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth before we traveled to England. That book gave us an excellent background on gothic architecture and it helped us gain a better understanding and appreciation of these man-made marvels. When I traveled to France for the first time in 1988, my visit to Chartres Cathedral was the high point of the trip.

When I began teaching French in the 1990’s, I decided to teach my students about gothic architecture so that when they one day visit France, they, too, will look knowledgeably at these miraculous skyscrapers of long ago. They will recognize the cruciform floor plan where the north-south nave is crossed by the east-west transept. They will appreciate the flying buttresses giving support to the vaulted ceiling. They will admire the pointed gothic arches surmounting the tracery of the stained glass windows, including the magnificent rose windows.

And it worked! I received this e-mail last summer from a previous student of mine:

“I am in Malta on vacation and doing sightseeing. I’ve visited three different neo-gothic cathedrals and the knowledge from our project helped alot and it was great.”

While the French students were reading an excerpt of Les Misérables,“The Bishop’s Candlesticks”, in class, they each researched a gothic cathedral. They were required to draw and define a number of architectural terms, research the history of their own cathedral, and do an oral presentation, partially en français, to their classmates.

With the help of Mr. Crofton, the students used Tinkercad and the 3D printer to make models of their cathedrals. To do this, each student had to look carefully at the cathedral – Where do the flying buttresses intersect with the roof? – Are both of the towers exactly the same? – How does the interior floor plan compare to the exterior design? By the end of the design phase, the students really knew their cathedrals. I so hope that someday these students will visit these cathedrals!

Mrs. Reedy, French Teacher

In grade 6 & 7 Science a recent project was to create biomes in 3D using SketchUp, a 3D modeling tool. The class was split into groups of two and each randomly allocated a different biome, from desert to tundra.

After several lessons of directed research, finding out about the climate, landform, and animals and plants, the groups began by sketching out in 2D a plan of what they wanted their 3D models to look like. These sketches had to include:

1. Biome Title – at the top of the sheet
2. Land forms – the shapes for the base of the model
3. Vegetation – sketch out types and locations
4. Animals – sketch out types and locations
5. Labels – what is going be labeled and the label location

Next, using the various drawing, shape, texture, model and camera tools within Sketchup the groups had to create their models in 3D following the same steps. Once completed each group then took a range of screenshots of their model, from different angles and zoom levels, and from this, and their research, they will create and give academic presentations on their particular biome.

Here is a gallery of the class working at different stages in the project as well as screenshots of some of the complete models:

For the final part of the Conceptual Physics project based around car design, students had to prep their 3D printed cars for the test ramp and were then given three trials to record their fastest speed down the ramp (recorded with three timers) and longest distance travelled off the ramp. Any car that did not make it down the ramp was disqualified for that turn.

Here are a few shots from the race prep and race day classes and a close-up of some of the finished designs the students created using the 3D printer and Tinkercad:

And finally, a YouTube playlist of some of the different cars heading down the testing ramp is embedded below:

A project that Freshmen complete every year in their Conceptual Physics course is designing and creating cars that are raced down a ramp and measured for speed and distance travelled. Students design their cars completely using Tinkercad to create parts to be printed on the 3D printer.

The project started with an introduction to professional car design based around this video from BMW. We talked through the three main steps of: drawing and sketching their design ideas; prototyping using clay to create a 3D model; and then manufacture. We also spent some time discussing wheel design and how wheels could be attached to the main body of their cars.

We then worked through these same steps using the sketching tools in the Notability app (or pen and paper) to create 2D designs, professional-grade modeling clay to create their prototypes and finally Tinkercad to design their car parts for the 3D printer for manufacturing.

A selection of photos of the students working on their iPads and in the Science computer lab, some of their car sketches, clay prototypes and a selection of the finished printed models can be seen below:

Honors Geometry students spent the the first part of the spring term working through a unit on Similarity. As an extension of this unit, they recently worked through a project on 2-dimensional scaled floor plans and 3-dimensional models. In groups, students were assigned to find the actual measures of one of the sections of the Science or School Building. Each student was then charged with drawing a to-scale floor plan of the area, complete with accurate measures. To conclude the unit, we moved to the computer lab and built 3-D models using SketchUp to be printed with the 3-D printer.

Ms. Gerrits-Leyden, Math Teacher

A collaborative writing project the Freshmen recently completed last semester in their English and Humanities classes was the creation of an Ancient Greek newspaper. The students were split into groups and each was responsible for one section of the newspaper, from local news to sports and opinions – complete with professional design and a range of article content.

When crafting their section the groups had to follow these design rules:

• Use color only in pictures (can use greyscale shapes)
• Limit font use in your section (can use bold/italic)
• Maximum of four columns per page
• Need to include your section heading on first page
• Local News section needs to include the masthead (name, date, price) and index information
• Each article needs a headline, lede and byline
• All photos must have a caption
• Can use appropriate newspaper-style graphics, e.g. barcode, weather icon

All initial writing was completed and collaboratively edited in a shared Google Doc and then, after the group had decided on template design for their section, each student had to use the layout options in Pages to create section pages for their own writing. This meant that students all had to contribute content for the newspaper as well as learn hands-on design skills on the iPad.

Below are a few shots of the students working on their iPads and MacBooks as well as examples of the different page layouts:

And the finished newspaper, with all the sections stitched together to create one complete document, is published below via ISSUU:

Grade 7 Math students spent the past two weeks working on a survey project, with each student picking a topic of interest, creating a survey based around this topic, collecting data from the school community and then analyzing and reporting their results.

They worked through the following steps, using a range of different apps in the process:

1. Define research question (Google Docs)
2. Create survey (Google Forms)
3. Distribute survey (Gmail)
4. Data collection (Google Sheets)
5. Data manipulation (Google Sheets)
6. Data analysis (Google Sheets)
7. Report findings (Google Docs)

Creating Google Forms and working with data in a spreadsheet were brand new skills for most of the students, which we took even further by creating custom templates when designing the surveys and manipulating the data collected using calculations and formula. The students also created several different types of charts and presented their findings to their classmates.

Here are some screenshots of their surveys and photos of the students working hard on their Chromebooks:

And a selection of their finished reports are embedded below (click the square icon in the middle to view the documents full screen):