Hello Apple Teachers -
I want to share with you a project that my students have enjoyed these past few years. This digital story work focuses on middle school students collaborating and co-authoring an inspirational project with a first grade partner or partners.
Working with both my middle school Science colleague and my first grade homeroom teams, we generate a list of black American scientists. This list is then presented to the eighth graders to preview and select a scientist of interest. The eighth graders conduct research on their scientist focusing on his/her field of study and significant contribution. At this point in the project, the middle school students will design a digital storyboard outlining their initial story concept. These storyboards are then presented to their first grade co-authors, who will learn about the scientist and suggest changes to the design.
Students work together to compose a fun, inspiring, story about the black American scientist. The final stories are shared with the greater school community in a special Black History Month presentation.
What I love about this collaboration is that it promotes a variety of soft skills: communication, teamwork, time management, patience, troubleshooting, and creative thinking.
Hope you're inspired to try it or something similar in your communities!
Marianne
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Cheryl, thank you for this extension idea. Yes, I am always looking for ways to improve this project, especially since the students enjoy working together. I will include your comment in my teacher journal notes and be sure to post on X (formerly Twitter) too. Have a great school year!
Marianne,
Wow! This is a great project! I like how it involves different grades collaborating on a single project. What seems to be the most common way that your students are sharing their findings? Keynote, Clips, GarageBand?
I can see how this project framework could be used for a variety of topics!
Hello Jeremy,
I apologize in my delayed response to your question. I am still getting use to using our Apple forum space. In terms of which Apple tools my students will use for this project, Keynote is the staple. I’m thinking that I may have them use Notes to gather data/images for their brainstorming work. Also, I love that they collaborate on the short story.
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Posted on August 14, 2023
Wonderful combination of learners. And it’s so good to see students step up and take on the role of teacher and collaborator with younger learners. Thanks for sharing your process.
I work a lot with primary sources. So another extended idea might be to pair students up to create a Pages book focused on Black scientists throughout history using primary source images to help tell their story.