All of the projects on this page are inspired by my experiences as a teacher and instructional coach in K-12 classrooms. 

 

Columbus

Voyages

What if instead of having students read the next chapter in their textbooks when introducing a new topic in history, we asked them to draw their own inferences about what happened by closely examining primary and secondary sources? Voyages is a tangible user interface which allows students to think like historians by taking a virtual journey back in time to actively investigate the past, rather than passively memorize facts from a history textbook.

Through interactive, student-based inquiry, students will examine historical texts to learn more about how individuals experience the same events differently, how to uncover bias and motive in first person and third person biography/narration of historical events, and to question and corroborate information found in historical texts. The context for this lesson is Christopher Columbus’ first voyage to the Americas, a topic that is often misrepresented in textbooks. 

DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

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Ideation phase

Ideation phase

After I collected enough content to be able to at least start with a couple of the islands, I began by writing the code in the Arduino IDE to read data from Parallax RFID reader/writer via Arduino. 

After I collected enough content to be able to at least start with a couple of the islands, I began by writing the code in the Arduino IDE to read data from Parallax RFID reader/writer via Arduino. 

First, I wrote/ran the program to read data from a set of transponder tags (each having a unique ID) and print their value in serial monitor. I knew it was working correctly when I placed the RFID tag in front of the reader and each unique ID was di

First, I wrote/ran the program to read data from a set of transponder tags (each having a unique ID) and print their value in serial monitor. I knew it was working correctly when I placed the RFID tag in front of the reader and each unique ID was displayed in the Arduino Serial Monitor.

I then needed to import the Serial library in Processing to begin using the tags to control screen elements by reading serial data from the tags and storing values.

I then needed to import the Serial library in Processing to begin using the tags to control screen elements by reading serial data from the tags and storing values.

Low-fidelity prototype

Low-fidelity prototype

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Icons on the interactive map to indicate where the ship should stop, and what they type of information or media will be displayed.

Icons on the interactive map to indicate where the ship should stop, and what they type of information or media will be displayed.

Interactive Lesson Sequence

  1. Students will follow their assigned question number through each of Columbus’s major landings on his first trip to the Americas (although he thought he was in Asia)  as they interact with the texts and media at each port on the interactive map.
  2. Emphasize the need to question and remain open-minded throughout most the exercise; collecting information and forming questions about it before they come to any judgements is important..
  3. At each “port,” students will read text and listen and view media related related to Christopher Columbus’ log or other sources for that particular location.
  4. At each “port,” students will enter short responses to their questions into text boxes; at the end, they can print out their text stream as notes/content for the final jigsaw activity.
  5. Before moving on to the next island or port, students will briefly share what they discovered from their question’s perspective.
  6. Once each group has moved through the interactive experience, the groups split into new groups by question number.
  7. Each new group compares their responses to their assigned questions (they each can bring their print outs) and prepare a five minute presentation to tell the class about what they learned that everyone in the class should know, what questions they still have, the kind of resources the need to learn more accurately and answer their remaining questions (and doubts), and what they learned from the activity.