123D Catch, Skitch & Floating Boats

Every year, 7th graders at our school embark on an adventure called Hopeameboatafloata.  It is a week-long interdisciplinary unit that uses inquiry to answer the following essential question:  How does the design of a sail powered boat maximize the forces of nature? 

This year, our teaching team decided to explore our own essential question:  How might the integration of technology maximize student understanding of the unit's essential question? 

Two icebergs appeared on our course right away before we even set sail:

1. The epiphany about technology integration happened about two weeks (maybe less?) before the kick-off of our unit.  Nothing new, here...the old "come up with a great idea but no time to plan for it" routine.  As always, we went for it anyway...what's the worst that could happen?

2.  The unit is crammed into one week.  Not enough time!

Nevertheless, Captain Susan Hennessey from Tarrant guided us with a steady hand.  She came in and worked with a small group of our students to pilot a few apps...123D Catch and Skitch.  I would have loved to have seen this group in action!  Apparently, our students were super excited about this opportunity and came up with lots of great ideas on their own about sharing out to their peers, sharing work in the cloud, etc.  And the excitement was noticed by their peers...many asking how they, too, could be a part of a pilot group.

The pilot group's mission was to teach their fellow sailors about the following apps:

123D Catch--capture images of their sailboat design and create a 3D model of the boat.  This would allow them to see areas of strength and weakness in their design.

Skitch--a mark-up tool that would enable them to label important elements of their design.

The group was also then supposed to use these apps on their boat design.  We hoped to be able to share these 3D labeled models with experts in the field who could then provide feedback to our students.

So...awesome ideas, right?!?!  Reality, however, is large and looming.  The icebergs mentioned above were significant enough to alter our proposed course.  At the least, a small group of students learned about the great potential of some interesting apps.  In turn, they shared this information with their peers.  A decent first step.  Who knows, maybe they will make a connection to these apps with a future project?  And there's also Invention Convention week coming this spring...

Perhaps these ideas will set sail once again.  :)