Animation Cross Curricular

Students will begin in Science. Objective- I can discover different constellations using my iPad. They will be exploring the animated skies with the SkyView iPad app. They will use the iPads to meander about the sky and learn information about many different constellations. They will also use the app to create their own constellation. This is a fantastic way for students to see something (the complete night sky) that they don’t normally get to see. Seeing the stars make patterns in the sky will give students a much better understanding of constellations than just looking at pictures of dots on a printed piece of paper. They can see the stars in the context of where they are in the sky. Then the focus switches from science to language arts. Objective- I can create a myth or legend about my constellation using my iPad. Students will be using Toontastic to create a live animated version of the myth they make up for their constellation. This is not only a writing project, but also a lesson on a new technology tool. Incorporating these technologies is a great way to teach students 21^st century skills. Making up these myths will show students what people did thousands of years ago to make sense of what they saw in the sky and it will help students connect to those ancient astronomers. The final project students would submit would be a picture of their constellation along with the animated video of their myth that students could present to the class. This is a great project because even students who are shy and don’t like speaking in front of the class could still be stars of the show with their projects.