STEM in the Old West

“Get those things out of your ears!  You can’t use them here.  I want you to pay attention!”

These are only some of the comments some 4th grade students received while they attended a field trip to the Greeley Centennial Village. 

The students in Mr. Cornwall’s 4th grade class were equipped with an iPod touch or a digital camera when they attended the tour.  They were asked by Mr. Cornwall to document their tour.  They used the iPod touch to record audio comments.  They described what they were seeing and learning and recorded it into the iPod.  Another partner then took pictures of what they were seeing and describing.  The innocuous comments from other people were soon put to rest when the assignment was explained. 

The students returned to school and then the real task was given. They were taught how to use Apple’s Garageband to compile the photos and audio recordings. They added background music and more narration if needed. They then saved the file as a podcast. Here is an example of one of the projects (a QuickTime plug-in is required to view the video below - click here to download the plug-in:

This was a first attempt at using the iPod in this way. The students did a great job at being flexible when things didn’t go exactly the way it was planned. They are not perfect recordings and the pictures might not match up perfectly. But, it only means that future activities of this sort will be cleaner and stronger keeping our students engaged in learning!