Curriculum Casts aka Kids Teaching Kids

Our district is putting together a training for our teachers that will teach them how to use various technology tools to produce student made curriculum casts. We are building off the idea present by Mr. Marcos' Math Train (http://www.mathtrain.com/). However, we are taking it a step further. We are asking teachers to really develop those higher level thinking skills with their students by using this technique. For example, if a student is explaining how to find an area of a triangle, they need to explain and show WHY it is 1/2bh. Where did the 1/2 come from? etc. We really are discouraging recording students simply repeating a memorized formula or idea. It's the "why" and not just the "how" behind it all we want to see.

This is where I need your assistance. I can find a lot of good examples of this were students are video taping themselves. However, I cannot find any good examples where this is done with just say a IWB recording, a powerpoint, or other multimedia tool. We are attempting to show this can be done without a lot of video and video editing so we really need these examples. Most of the examples I am finding are just students show you HOW to use a formula or do a procedure without any discussion of why it is done that way.

If you know of any of any good examples that pull in that higher order thinking that can be viewed from the web or if you have any that you can send to me I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you,
Kimberly Nolting
Seminole County Public School
Educational Technology Faciliator
kimberly_nolting@scps.k12.fl.us

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Permalink Reply by Anne Pemberton on May 11, 2009 at 8:22pm

Seems to me that if a student can explain the why out loud, and it is recorded, it could then be inserted into a flash or powerpoint product. The key is the student being able to explain the why. Then, figure out how to show it.

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Permalink Reply by Kimberly Nolting on May 12, 2009 at 7:41am

Exactly. That's what we are trying to get them to do. However, what I'm looking for is good examples of exactly what you described to show the teachers in our trainings :)

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Permalink Reply by Linda Jones on May 12, 2009 at 11:41am

Kimberly, I recently finished a grad class regarding using technology in education. Having students show the "why" regarding math and science problems was a concern here, also. My professor showed us some short movies on-line that used higher order problem solving in science projects. The students discussed their project, and then showed how it worked. I will try to get the URL from my professor for you.

Linda Jones