CARIBOU, Maine — Caribou eighth-graders recently gained hands-on experiences with design, animation and coding technologies that could bring to life the lessons they are learning in humanities classes.
Earlier this week, the students took part in special workshops hosted by the Maine Department of Education’s Maine Learning Technology Initiative Ambassadors. The workshops marked the second time that English/language arts and social studies teachers at Caribou Community School have collaborated with the ambassadors to enhance students’ experiences with modern technology.
The five ambassadors of the initiative travel to schools across Maine and provide professional development to teachers who want to increase technology use in the classroom. The group also hosts all-day workshops to give students more in-depth lessons on how to use those technologies productively.
Caribou Community School English/language arts and social studies teacher Heather Anderson assists eighth grader Trent Hersey with a 3-D printing project. (Melissa Lizotte | Aroostook Republican)
English/language arts and social studies teacher Heather Anderson said she and colleagues first invited ambassadors to the school during a unit on podcasting last fall. That experience inspired them to increase students’ knowledge of 3-D printing, stop-motion animation, virtual reality and coding for drones and robots.
Anderson said students will use those technologies when creating projects for English and history courses this spring. In their poetry unit, for instance, students might post their poems in a “museum” they create in a virtual reality co-space, or print a 3-D object that corresponds to the poem.
“In history, we’re doing a unit on the Civil War and Reconstruction. With the VR co-spaces, students can create a museum [to teach others] about the topics,” Anderson said.
On Monday, students took individual workshops on each technology topic, with MLTI ambassadors serving as their guides. The next day students gathered in the cafeteria to turn what they had learned into self-guided projects and activities.
Caribou Community School teacher Heather Anderson assists eighth graders Abby Cyr (left) and Juliana Lovewell with a 3-D printing project. (Melissa Lizotte | Aroostook Republican)
Classmates Maggie Bell, Charlotte Plourde and Madison Thibault used coding software to program a small robot to move through and finish a hand-drawn maze. The students noted that the workshops have made them more interested in coding and in pursuing technology-related careers.
“We’ve worked with coding before, but when you have a day like this it gives you more time to work together and learn,” Bell said.
The school’s 3-D printers were popular with many participants. Unlike projects involving traditional printers, students create digital images that the machines draw and print as 3-D objects.
On Tuesday, the demand for the 3-D printers grew so high that Anderson had to create a wait list for printing the students’ projects. Trent Hersey used 3-D printing software to design his own fishing lure.
“I like [3-D printing] because you can make anything you want and do more hands-on projects,” Hersey said.
For MLTI Ambassador Rob Dominick, students’ reactions show the importance of helping them move their technical knowledge beyond social media and internet usage.
“It’s easy to assume that because these students are digital natives they know how to use the technology. But there’s a difference between scrolling through social media and using technology productively,” Dominick said. “We’re hoping to blend learning with technologies with their everyday curriculum.”
