Flipping Science

Sixth Grade Science Teachers, Ms. Black, Ms. Engelke, and Ms. Rodriguez are flipping science all around.  Instead of doing traditional homework at home, students are answering questions about a Google presentation, or watching a short video and having online discussions about what they are viewing.  This type of work is typically done during the class day taking up valuable class time.  Now that the time is freed up, sixth grade science has been able to work more one on one with students as well as they've had more time to provide real experiences for the kids with extra lab experiments. 

Here is an example of a video that a student might have to watch for their "homework".  On the teacher's Moodle Course, the student would have some type of short assignment to insure that he watched the video and was prepared to follow up on that learning in class the next day.  

DMS Robotics Takes on Regional Tournament

On December 7th, the Deerpark Robotics Team took on 21 other teams in the Westwood First Lego League Qualifier Tournament.  The students competed in the four areas of teamwork, robot design and programming, research project, and head to head robot matches against other teams.  In an amazing showing, the team brought home Deerpark's very first 1st place award in robot design.  They were 4th place in the head to head robot matches, and were named the third best team overall in the entire competition.  These students have put in collectively over 300 hours of work on their robot, their research, and programming and deserve every kudos given to them.  

S'more Advertisements for Texas

Ms. Pennington and Ms. Forbes' classes worked on advertisements using a tool called Smore which helps students create beautiful online posters.  The assignment was to entice others to come to Texas, present the requirements for the land, and describe what Texas was like.  Students were able to create these beautiful digital flyers with ease.  

Pazos' Mrs. Pratchett Project

In Ms. Pazos' class, students read "The Great Mouse Plot" by Roald Dahl.  Students wrote similies, metaphors, and examples of imagery on post-it notes about Mrs. Pratchett.  The post-it notes were put on a mini size Mrs. Pratchett poster.  The class then spent the next three days working on a Blendspace, a digital place to store content, about Mrs. Pratchett.  Students used pictures from Google and Flickr, YouTube Videos, text and quizzes to teacher their audience about Mrs. Pratchett using similes, metaphors, and imagery.  Students shared their Blendspace with Mrs. Pazos using a Google form.  From there, students completed the assignment by making a QR code of their Blendspace and posting it in the hall.  Students utilized their school issued Gmail accounts to get the templates, Google Turn in Form, and directions for this project.  
Project Rubric/Instructions

Pages like these were hung in the hallway with the QR code linking to the student's project

Going Google with DBQ's

Ms. Forbes and Ms. Pennington have been having students write their Document Based Questions (DBQ's) using their student Google Accounts.  It has changed the way teachers work with students and the grading process dramatically.  

Ms. Forbes was able to make comments on a child's paper giving him immediate feedback about what he could improve upon in his writing.  

Ms. Pennington commented on how easy her papers were to grade since the kids didn't have to print anything and all she had to do was log on to a computer to review their writing.

Students in Ms. Pennington's US History Classes have been working on utilizing a tool called PowToon to create a more entertaining type of presentation.  The assignment was to create a presentation describing various battles and figureheads of the American Revolution.  

Just Hanging Out

As part of the First Lego League requirements for this year, teams must research a problem that occurs because of Natural Disasters, and then come up with an innovative solution to solve that problem.  In the process, students research various solutions already in place, the reference many sources such as books, websites, videos, and they also speak with experts that can help them with the development of their solution.  This year's team researched floods and came up with a solution for people stuck in their cars during a flood that is similar to the flotation devices in the seat cushions of airplanes.  As a part of their research process, they spoke with a UPS pilot, Jim Crowley, living in the DFW area.  In order to have an authentic conversation with Mr. Crowley, the kids utilized Google Hangouts to ask questions and clarify some of their research.  He was able to ask them more about their project as well.