Learning Objects and Authoring Tools

http://www.thinglink.com/scene/584703899395424260

Learning objects can be a fun and easy way to provide an interactive tool for students.  To make math relavent for students, real life events or situations should be used if possible.

Caldwell County is a rather small, close knit district.  The students at my school will attend South Caldwell High School.  They have parents and siblings that attend or attended South Caldwell. The community isupports baseball, especially the San Fransico Giants.  After all, the Giant's star pitcher, MVP of the World Series, Madison Bumgarner, is a graduate of South Caldwell and a member of the community during the off season.  With the excitement of the World Series win, what better way to bring real life math to my students.  

The next unit of study in math is 3.MD.3 which pertains to creating graphs and solving problems using the graphs.  In order to find real life data, I sent a survey out to the staff on a Google Form.  The survey included several pictures from the World Series and staff members were asked to pick their favorite.  It was short, one question, in the hopes of most of the staff participating.  This will provide the data needed for the graphs.  

Using Thinklink.com, I chose a image of a baseball diamond and the World Series.  I search on Discovery Education for videos about bar graphs and pictographs.  These links were inserted along the first baseline and first base.  Along the second baseline I inserted the link to the survey.  The link to the Google Doc with the responses was inserted at second base as well as directions to create a tally chart using the information.  Along the third baseline and third base, links were inserted to create an online bar graph and pictograph. To make it home, the students were directed to create questions and share their questions and graphs with the class.

This learning object could be adapted using team stats, player stats or other types of baseball data.  Thinklink is an easy tool to manipulate and edit.  I plan to use this tool to create other learning objects as the school year proceeds.