Recent posts for Digital Zoo
“What’s Wrong With Vocational School?”
In a recent Wall Street Journal article, (subscription required) “What’s Wrong With Vocational School?” Charles Murray critiques the “false premium that our culture has put on a college degree.” Murray suggests that instead of touting 4-year college as the top educational option, we should recognize that because of its traditional emphasis on “advanced analytic skills” applied to a broad range of information, it is really just an option for those to whom this kind of education appeals, which is by no means all students. So what about everyone else? Continue reading »
Google-icious!
It appears that Google is jumping headfirst into the primordial soup that is technology-based K-12 education. CNN has recently reported that Google is offering a free online word processor and spreadsheet editor (among several other useful online tools such as Google Maps, Google Earth, and a 3D imaging tool called Google SketchUp). This is great news for schools and educators that would like to develop technological fluency in their students but cannot afford higher-end software packages like MS Office or AutoCAD.
Physical Activities for Engineers
Our research group is busy testing the four physical activities that are built into the storyboard of the Digital Zoo version that will run next spring. These activities are designed to support the physics concepts that the young engineers will encounter as they work with Sodaconstructor. Most recently, Aran presented the epistemic games group with the challenge: build a structure using marshmallows and straws that is at least four inches high and can support a mass (we used a notebook) for as long as possible. Guess which one Professor Shaffer built?
Engineering Technology in Schools
A technology update in Education Week (free registration required) announces that “a high-tech firm has offered Minnesota teachers free mechanical-engineering and design software potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars in a bid to foster student interest in math, science, and engineering.” According to the article, “Fewer than 10 percent of Minnesota high school graduates pursue degrees in engineering, and of those, only about half earn a degree.”
Digital Zoo for elementary schoolers
Until now, we have run the Digital Zoo game with students at a Middle School level. We are curious about how the differences between Middle School and Elementary School students 
in computer literacy, attention span, and other areas of development will cause this epistemic game to look different when played by a younger population of student. What adaptations will we need to make in order to give elementary schoolers access to the same engineering content and practices as the middle schoolers had? We are planning to run a version of the Digital Zoo game with a class of 23 4th and 5th graders from a Madison K-8 school. This version will run for three days early next spring. We are also planning a version for a group of 2nd graders who are part of an Elementary Science Club that meets on Saturdays. This version will run later in the spring of 2007.
