Image credit: Trimble Sketchup Sketchup 2013 (formerly Google Sketchup) is a completely free, robust, yet easy to use 3D design environment that is popular in schools and businesses worldwide. We have used it at NCS for years; I’ve done several lessons with it in the past (click here, scroll down to 4th grade).  It’s relatively easy to create with, the learning curve is gentle, and there are boatloads of tutorial videos on YouTube. Where to get it: http://www.sketchup.com/download Where to learn more: http://www.youtube.com/sketchupvideo http://www.lynda.com/Google-SketchUp-training-tutorials/953-0.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWK1Wu-XNtg Note: some of the above may reference previous versions of Sketchup but the critical functionality - the basics - is the same or very close. Printing your design in 3D involves "exporting" to an .STL file - which I will cover in a separate post. For now, download Sketchup and decide if it’s for you! Mr. Jarrett

NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) is currently big business. And it’s being applied to more and more areas of our working lives - just check out the latest NLP book titles on Amazon. Some people I know swear by NLP. Consultants and coaches are particularly keen on employing NLP techniques and they are being applied in a wide range of disciplines from sales training to education. I’m not an expert on NLP - I’ve just read a couple of books and articles on the subject but I can see its attraction - meta models, chunking and re-framing are all so ‘obvious’ once you sign-up to the concept, and are great for adding to your repertoire of management speak. But the following article in a recent edition of Education Guardian sounded a note of caution: "..proto-science of NLP. A system devised by a Californian. Learning styles are cobblers. There is no proof that children have such preferences. They are of use only in describing styles of input, not in terms of describing a child’s hard wired bias for one style over the other." Philip Beadle, Education Guardian 3 Oct 2006 The NLP entry on Wikipedia is substantial and ultimately quite complex, and peppered with warnings about lack of objectivity (and sometimes likened to astrology). So beware NLP lovers, don’t overestimate the power of proto-science. Having said that, I do like the insights that NLP gives us and as a working hypothesis it appears to provide some useful tools for working with people in a variety of contexts. I’m also keen to investigate the application of NLP to learning more closely (keeping in mind of course the warning from Philip Beadle). Talking of proto-science another really interesting take on all this pseusdo-science is at Bad Science.

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Replica and Original One of my goals for Winter Recess was to explore 3D digitizing (scanning) of objects for printing with our uber-cool Makerbot Replicator 2. On Monday 12/23 I and several of my geek (not nerd, there’s a difference) friends met at the John Witherspoon Middle School (Princeton) Learning Commons to do just that… JW Learning Commons The Learning Commons at this middle school was once a gym. It’s now an incredible, learner-centered, state of the art space that was built in just five months this past April. Library/Media Specialist Carolyn Schemick Bailey (center left, seated) hosted us for the morning. In addition to her Makerbot Replicator 2X (dual extrusion heads!) she has a Makerbot Digitizer, a $949 device that looks like a small record player. This short video explains the concept: Diana Potts’ keychain tchotchke, the Tiny Toon "Buster Bunny," served as our model. Carolyn placed it on the digitizer and pressed start. We watched it work… Digitizer about to begin. Close Up View Scanning Underway The whole process took something like 30-40 minutes. Carolyn shared that a darkened room and careful placement of the digitizer resulted in the best quality scans, but, overall, they’d not been impressed so far with the accuracy of previous attempts. (We were in for a similar fate…) Here is the finished scan: Completed Scan Closer View Even Closer The Makerbot people say you can scan objects from multiple directions (didn’t to that) and use software to clean up the scan (didn’t do that either). No, we just went straight to the printer! Here is the result: First Attempt It’s not that far off; the carrot could have been rendered more accurately if we’d chosen to ‘add supports’ to the print. And, the spaghetti mess at the top was due to the fact that the model somehow broke free from the build plate; a subsequent reprint might yield better results (I’m going to try it when we get back to school.) The software used to create the scan is part of the digitizer itself. Since we don’t have $1,000 lying around I wanted to explore free, handheld options. Enter the free app, Autodesk 123D Catch: Does it work as well as the video? (Does a Big Mac look the same as an advertisement?) Our capture results seemed good at the time… 123D Finished Capture But taking the file into the Makerbot software, were were non-plussed. As Captured Closer View Even Closer (note the lack of detail vs. the other scan) What a shocker! The $1,000 device outperformed a free app on an iPad. Who would have guessed? :/ What About Other 3D Scanning Apps? I’m still looking for alternatives, but Trimensional seemed promising until I read the iTunes Store reviews absolutely shredding it. Volumental looks great, I just need an XBox Kinect (I have one coming in to school as a loaner). There’s another app called Mo3dis but guess what, Tom’s Hardware already did a writeup that could have saved me a lot of time - check it out: Do 3D Scanning Apps Really Work? So it appears we need, at a minimum (and assuming we aren’t buying a Makerbot Digitizer anytime soon), more testing with the best free app of this lot - 123D Catch - and to spend some time with the companion software, 123D Make. (I also want to try shooting pics with my DSLR and uploading those to 123D catch. I have a feeling the low resolution of my iPad 2 is not helping the process. Or maybe someone with an iPhone and a better camera will be able to help.) All in all, it was a fun and rewarding day spent with great friends and ending with one of these: A Winberie’s Cheeseburger Now THAT is what I call a good day of Winter Recess! Mr. Jarrett

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Blokify, a free iPad app that allows you to print your creations in 3D, just went live yesterday. Here’s a quick video: The app seems a little sluggish on my iPad 2, but I’m not sure why. It looks great and the user interface is very intuitive. Screenshots (there are four, use the arrows on the left and right to navigate through): I let a few students play with it yesterday, they seemed to enjoy it. Note that you start out with some basic blocks and that more are available but must be purchased. When you are finished, it allows you to email the model to yourself. Works great! Give it a try! Mr. Jarrett

Together with a colleague, Chris Hayford, I have developed a new site for knowledge workers. "Smartworking (www.smartworking.com) helps knowledge workers to explore the issues underlying knowledge work and enables them to improve the way they work. Smartworking provides a fresh perspective on the way we work in the information age. It helps knowledge workers take control of their work

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This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the hopes of improving my craft. Synopsis: Kindergarten students used Kerpoof.com for the first time to create winter-themed images entitled "Think Snow!" (I give them full credit for the snow day we are enjoying today!). First graders did a little non-standard measuring with giant rulers the size of their bodies; Second graders dove into spreadsheets using Learning.com’s EasyTech service; Third graders evaluated different materials for use in the sails we will be constructing next week; Fourth graders finished the knee brace designs they started the week before. Week ending 01/03/14 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: After a quick warmup featuring ABCYa Alphabet Bingo and ABCYa Number Bingo, we set out to use Kerpoof.com to learn about this important digital art creation tool AND to do out part to help ensure a SNOW DAY … and sure enough, we DELIVERED!!! All kidding aside, Kerpoof.com is a terrific, free, easy-to-use website that kids can use to make many different kinds of art and multimedia projects, suitable for grades K through 8. Our lesson this week involved the "Make a Picture" (yellow square) activity, requiring kids to understand and use controls for background selection; object placement, sizing, and orientation; text entry & manipulation; and finally, saving and printing. What I observed / inferred / connected: Kerpoof is such a great tool, so simple, yet, so flexible and powerful. Best of all it grows with students and has sophisticated capabilities that even middle schoolers can utilize to create great art. We use it a lot, and, this was the first time Kindergarteners were exposed to it. Enjoying a snow day with your family today? You can thank our Kindergarten students! ’nuff said! What students can do at home: Visit Kerpoof.com and make some art! Let them show you around, how to add objects, and some of the cool hidden features! Be ready for lots of requests to PRINT and know that the output is large, colorful and will run through your printer ink in NO TIME! Check out the Kindergarten Symbaloo for more interesting and entertaining activities! First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Our topic this week is non-standard measurement. We started the lesson with some assessments of prior knowledge (what rulers/yardsticks are) and introduction of new concepts (you can measure using something other than rulers/yardsticks); with their interest piqued, students warmed up further with Curious George: How Tall and PBS Kids’ Fearless Flying Fleas estimation game, both of which introduced and reinforced key concepts for the day - "understand measurable attributes of objects and the units, systems, and processes of measurement" and "apply appropriate techniques, tools, and formulas to determine measurements" (source here.) We then watched the video clip of Sid the Science Kid above, noting the concepts as they were shown. (We enjoyed watching the student in the video lie down on the classroom floor - honestly - who DOES that?) Finally we made our own "Paper Body Rulers" and measured the length of objects in the room, first estimating how many "paper bodies" it would take and then comparing our estimates to the actual numbers. What I observed / inferred / connected: This lesson is fun every year, the kids enjoy the exercise and really relate well to the concepts. They love getting "into" the measurement and the websites do a great job of communicating the key concepts. What students can do at home: This is super easy to replicate at home - any object can be used to measure another - challenge your child to estimate the size of some objects and then measure them with others. Compare the results! Check out the First Grade Symbaloo for more interesting and entertaining activities! Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: We are getting ready to start a unit on spreadsheets - with some VERY FUN, hands on activities - but first the kids need a solid grounding in the fundamentals. For that, there is no more personalized and individually-focused vehicle called EasyTech by Learning.com, a terrific service we have been using for years. These lessons cover the foundation concepts in detail but at a pace set by each learner. Mistakes are gently corrected until the child succeeds at the task. What I observed / inferred / connected: I especially like how EasyTech allows kids to work at their own pace, and how the scores reported at the end give me instant feedback as to who has mastered the concepts and who still needs help. What students can do at home: This service is accessible at home; contact me for a username and password if you need them! Third Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Our Engineering is Elementary STEM unit, "Catching the Wind: Designing Windmills" is kicking into high gear now. Students are going to be designing and testing sails to determine which material is most suitable. (We are preparing for the segment shown in the video above in which kids design and test sails using different materials.) Working in teams, students evaluated each material, brainstorming adjectives on our Great White Wall. Finally they were asked to make some predictions about sail materials and begin designing their sails on paper. What I learned / observed / inferred: Preparation was key for this lesson as kids worked in teams to evaluate the different materials (paper of various types; felt; aluminum foil; felt; an index card; a plastic grocery bag; and a paper cup), determining which might be best suited to the task. The whiteboard wall worked perfectly and the kids LOVED writing on it. We finished with a short worksheet asking the students to identify the materials that would and would not work well in their design. What students can do at home: The basic science concepts behind this unit are fairly simple, students could easily compare materials found around the home, examining the texture, properties and suitability for sail designs - they could even make and test their own. Check out the Third Grade Symbaloo for fun learning activities! Fourth Grade What we covered / did / explored: Students finished their knee braces and completed illustrations explaining the designs! What I observed / inferred / connected: There is quite literally nothing like a hands-on project to bring out the best in my students! What students can do at home: We will be doing a reflection this coming week, but, ask your child what they learned about knee brace design (and teamwork!) this week and last! Check out the Fourth Grade Symbaloo for fun learning activities!

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