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| Space Camp 2015 Group |
Each year our fifth grade class visits Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Florida. We call this trip Space Camp. Before we leave the classroom and head to Titusville we spend several weeks studying Newton's Laws of Motion. This helps us understand the physics involved in lifting a spacecraft off the launch pad. Our 2-day trip by bus to the east coast of Florida includes an "overnight adventure" in the Atlantis Shuttle Experience building where we sleep under the actual Shuttle Atlantis. The Atlantis is housed in a new building that was specifically built around the Atlantis. In the past we slept under a Saturn V rocket housed in the Apollo Saturn V building! Needless to say, this class trip is an awesome and unforgettable experience.
Our Podcast Workflow
When we returned we compiled our field notes taken at Space Camp. We sorted through all the pictures we snapped while there. This year we gathered 999 photos via DropItToMe and made them all available to the students via a shared Dropbox! Finally, student groups picked 5-6 key photos for their Google Slides presentation and created audio podcasts with Audacity focusing on various things we learned and experienced while at the Space Center. For podcast music we used the CCMixter site. The artists there have made their music available for podcasts and videos. In the final step we played the audio and video portions simultaneously while recording the audio-video with screencasting software Camtasia. The final .mp4 video file was then uploaded to a Dropbox Public folder and shared via the links below.
Curriculum Connections
The week-long podcast project is a culminating activity following several weeks of study in science and computer classes prior to the Space Camp trip. The podcast preparation involved reading, writing, listening and speaking (language arts), skillful use of a laptop computer (part of our 1:1 netbook program), online and hands-on research and experiences in science and, specifically, the space program, and much more. Students collaborated and shared in groups led by parent volunteers. All of this work before, during and after Space Camp made the podcast project a reality.
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This year's podcast project is a 5-photo story that combines 5 photos into an audio-visual "story" focusing on a specific space theme. (Thanks to Wes Fryer for the inspiration for this project!)
Our 2015 podcasts are featured below. We hope you enjoy them! We would love to hear from you in the Comments section below. Your comments encourage us to continue our creative work online. Thanks in advance!
Mr. Schwan's Groups
Mrs. Bell's Groups
*password required to protect student's privacy. Students can enter password for parents, grandparents, but will not share the password with anyone.
