Joel Garcia's Blog (6)

Well, this is week three of exploration into the realm of electronics using the Arduino microprocessor board, the Elenco Electronic Lab, and the Elenco Snap Electronics Lab. This week students began to code using Sketch to control the behaviour of circuits made on the Arduino. Lessons learned, one has to write code correctly in order for the IDE to recognize it. Second, all components must be correctly connected to the board. Students practice following directions and learned the difference…

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First day of the inventor's club went well without a hitch. Half the time was spent introducing the materials and methods of work. We will be using the Cornell Notes format to write reflections and about discovery while completing our projects. Students will keep a journal each day. My fifth and sixth graders really did well the first day and were able to follow directions and work together to solve any problems with understanding they may have had. I was just the facilitator watching and…

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On Tuesday, October 7th the Hawaiian Technology Inventors Club will begin. Fifth grade students will be involved in exploring hands-on activities using various electronic kits to create electronic circuits and mini projects. Most projects will utilize software and text sources available through the vast resources in the open source community. This is the beginning of a science lab experience that I hope to grow that will include many more activities in the future.

Here is what…

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A Viable Reliable High Quality Software Student Proof Solution…

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The 2008-2009 school year has ended and we are now in December, two days before Christmas 2009. I have been incorporating Open Source technology into my classroom for some time now and find the results quite rewarding. If I were to categorize how I have used technology thus far I would include mainly four areas of concentration: writing, research, reference support, and enrichment. The main issue in using technology in a fifth grade classroom is finding time and utilizing time in a meaningful… Continue

This year I am going to create a class for our after school program that shows students how to build computers from scratch using spare parts from other computers. I think working with the computer today is like rebuilding old cars of the past. Find parts for that Chevy and make it run better than it did before. No need for for new parts, go to the junk yard. Anyhow, I have been experimenting this year building thin clients and servers from computers that people throw away and thought this… Continue