Magazine 2018

Innovation happens at the intersection of disciplines and ideas. In March 2018 a team of teachers collaborated on an idea to showcase the power of 21st Century Learning using an iPad. We invited a number of prospective learners to join us for a day in the holidays called the Parklands Experience. The theme of the day was “Transform Yourself”. An asteroid, in the form of a Sphero Spark + was about to strike the earth and the question was, “Will the transformers be able to save the day?” The day started by designing and 3D printing a logo for each group of learners and then learners designed and built an arm for their Lego EV3 Robot and programmed it to intercept the Sphero asteroid and stop it from destroying the Earth. The learners had to calculate angles, rotations and speed of both the Sphero and the EV3 to make sure that the EV3 was perfectly positioned to stop the Sphero from destroying the earth - this involved a number of Mathematics and Science concepts. Learners were given a basic script and used it as a basis for filming a newscast using TouchCast and iMovie on their iPads. Learners also made an animation of the asteroid moving towards earth using Animatic (iPad App). In the recording studio they made use of GarageBand on their iPad to record the voice of the transformer from outer space and create movie sound effects. Our Parklands Grade 7s took this project to new levels at the end of the second quarter by making use of Green Screen techniques to position their asteroid and robot in outer space! 121. parklands.co.za