Healthy Living

This week I'm going into a school to spend two days with the children on Healthy Living as part of Science Week. The format is straight forward, I'll give them a chat and then they'll show their knowledge and understanding by either creating a comic in Comic Life or a leaflet in 2Simple Publish.

Sample sections of a 2Simple Publish leaflet

We hope to be able to print the leaflets and comic to distribute to parents.

My friend who is a linguist was showing me some interesting work he was doing with older children on the same theme but in French. He wanted me to check the Science which was absolutely fine. When he asked me if there was anything else, it struck me that often when talking about a healthy diet "they" talk about portions (two of this and five of that) but often don't say what a portion is and how it varies with age, sex and activity. 

Mm, I'd better check my presentations before the event.

National STEM Centre - York

I visited the National STEM Centre in York today. There were two reasons for my trip. One was to drop off some of my book/resource collection for their archive. They've already taken some 12 boxes and 10 carrier bags of resources off my hands. They'll eventually get everything when I stop trying to make a living as an educational consultant. The second reason was to discuss with their Primary person my Christmas Lecture and to have a look at their library and resource bank.

Whatever stage your teaching is at, I can highly recommend being added to their mailing lists and searching their archive for support materials. I am definitely going to get involved on-line with their Primary Group. A personal visit should also be added to your list of "to dos" if possible. Staff were just as you'd hope, enthusiastic, understanding and knowledgeable and they are amassing a large and comprehensive set of resources to support teachers.

Animation Club - First Post

The Animation Club that I mentioned in an earlier blog is going ahead. I visited the school and spoke to the teacher in charge. We discussed the structure and, because it is an after-school club lasting for an hour and a quarter, we decided to get straight on with the animation so we have something completed by Christmas. 

Made with my Nosferatu model

I am not going to approach this in my usual way :-
         1. General Introduction
         2. A History of Animation
         3. The Story (and storyboarding)
         4. Set construction, props and characters
         5. Animation (software, practicalities and doing it)
         6. Audio - sound effects, narration and dialogue
         7. Titles and credits
         8. The Premieres

Instead, because of constraints with hardware, software and finances, we're going to use PowerPoint. I have high expectations because the pupils will come without preconceptions and embrace the task which involves Superheroes (commercial* or of their own invention).
My preparation involves:-
      images : backgrounds; props; characters; anim gifs, 
                   photographs or scans
      story and storyboards
      sound effects, narration**, dialogue** and music*
* -copyright!
** - we'll use Audacity for these as it's a free download

I'll post how we get on and, for those of you who'd like more info, I'll add in blogs about the History of Animation, examples of software (see some previous posts too) and on some of the practicalities based on my past experiences.

Imagination in Science

I always tell people how imaginative Science is, from the imagined submicroscopic world to the imagined vastness of the Universe and all of its phenomena. Dawkins has written about this in his books "Unweaving the Rainbow" and "The Magic of Reality". However, sometimes the use of imagination to help young children is, I feel, unhelpful and indeed causes learning difficulties later in school.
It seems mean to pick on one particular example but it is current. It is an iPad app. It is well researched with excellent content and well illustrated but annoyed me. The app is called The Adventures of Norman the Neuron.*

My objection involves the teaching of young children that neurons can move around the nervous system. That's all. But "facts" learned early can be difficult to unlearn if they are wrong. 
My experience of this involves a session I did with trainee teachers. I challenged them over the number of senses we have. They all said FIVE. I proceeded to show that that was incorrect. They followed and understood but then began to argue that:-
     - "five" was correct because it was in the literature
     - "It's what we are supposed to teach".
     - "five" was correct because they were our five "main" senses. 
Some of them did not want to change their "belief". I can imagine some of them even now teaching children that they only have 5 senses.

In a similar vein, I came across apps about Space in which:-
  - Mars is strong - don't like
  - Saturn is beautiful - no problem
  - Black holes eat planets - don't like
  - Black holes are like vacuum cleaners - no problem.

Knowing me, I've not been particularly clear. Am I being pedantic, old-fashioned or just plain miserable with these criticisms? Am I denying the use of imaginative, literate teaching? Or am I still embarrassed to admit that I've been guilty of teaching bad Science in the past?

This finally leads me round to Bad Science. The book by Ben Goldacre is excellent and a visit to his website worthwhile:-

http://www.badscience.net/2012/10/

* Anyone remember the Numbskulls? What comic were they in?

Comic Life & Comic Books

Comic Life is a programme that I've used a lot and which is widely available in local schools. It has lots of potential for engaging pupils in literacy and design in addition to them showing their subject knowledge using IT. I've used it extensively with children and, if I can find the support, I like to use it to provide a resource for pupils which complements my Christmas Science Lecture for Inspire2Learn. Any volunteers?

There are no areas where it cannot be used. I've used it for everything from Cleopatra to The Solar System to Zumba. I'm going to be using it as part of Science Week at a school to highlight the importance of Healthy Living (knowing your body, eating properly and cultivating good habits).
Here is an example for World War 2 made into an anim. gif with Google's GIFPAL:-

They key to making this work with children is to have the image resources ready for them, preferably offering a wide range of choice. 

Comic Life is available for the iPad for a couple of pounds and although lacking many of the features it is engaging and enjoyable for pupils to use. Couple it with the iPads camera and easy of sharing and you have a potentially very powerful teaching and learning tool.

It is worth pointing out that Comic Life can be used to make a video of your comic too.

Finally, I'm sure that there are alternative programmes available, so explore, find the one that suits you/your budget/your pupils.

Frank Cottrell Boyce

I've mentioned a few Art books in the past but they've been picture books. If you are looking for a children's novel with Art references then I highly recommend "Framed" by Frank Cottrel Boyce. Set in Wales where the art treasures of our national art galleries have been stored for protection during the war, it is a charming story or as Wikipedia puts it:
     "This is a funny and touching exploration of how art - its beauty and its value - touches the life of one little boy and his big family in a very small town"



 
I've also really enjoyed two other books by him which could complement your teaching, Cosmic and The Unforgotten Coat. Cosmic is a tale about Space and relationships. The Unforgotten Coat is a tale of Mongolian immigrants and is full of imagination. I love it because for years I've been interested in Mongolia - deserts, dinosaurs, yurts and open-throated singing.




If you want to explore the music of Mongolia, I'd recommend the following:-
   Shu-De : Voices from the Distant Steppe (1994) Realworld CDRW41
   Yat-Kha : In Europe Live (no details)
   Albert Kuvezin (of Yat-Kha) : Recovers (no details)
   Hanggai : Introducing Hanggai : World Network 
   Rough Guide to the Music of Mongolia
   Anda Union - The Wind Horse (20111) Hohhot Records HR001

What would you save?

I must have picked up on a radio programme and was idly thinking "What would I save?" if my house was burning down. Then, when I was doing The Phantom Cat Burglar, the children told me what they'd not want a burglar to steal.
What would you save or hate to have stolen? 
What about your pupils? 
Being acquisitive, we've got thousands of books and CDs, a Victorian-style curiosity cabinet (actually a 19th century Indian apothecaries chest), cuddly toys, ceramics, original art works and prints, family photos, hard drives of memories and all the other stuff of life.
My house is not going to burn down. I couldn't decide. So, what do I value? Not in order
1. A copy of The Golden Shadow by Leon Garfield & Edward Blishen, illustrated by Charles Keeping and signed by all three. Keeping (along with Chris Riddell) is my favourite illustrator of children's books. He'll be the subject of a blog, for sure. 

 2. An original drawing of The Navajo Myth of Creation by Dave McKean. An illustration for Richard Dawkins' book The Magic of Reality with links to Vadjak Paw, animation, beliefs, evolution, Darwin and Thomas Henry Huxley (another future blog).
3. The signed concert poster by Malian singer Salif Keita. An albino African who was ostracised but became world famous for his amazing voice. Just listen to Sina on the Soro CD.

4. Another signed concert poster, this time by Jackie Leven. A wonderful, Scottish singer who's "Call mother a lonely field" is a favourite of mine.
5. A death plaque from the First Wold War. As Morpurgo says, the First World War resonates much more through the ages than any other. This plaque belongs to a man from South Shields who died on my birthday in 1918. A very special present.
6. Three drawings by Ken Dunn, the Head of Art at a school I taught at. All have special resonance for me having an environmental theme.
7. Autographed first editions by Jonathan Stroud, Michael Foreman, Charlie Higson, Lauren St John and more. I've got two signed copies of The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd. Why? Don't know, but I loved her stories and she was the inspiration behind Patrick Ness's award winning book "A Monster Calls".

8. The bird-nose man carving from the Far East, my kora, my mbira(once owned by Ephat Mujuro), ........ 

Mbira from Zimbabwe

Better put a stop to this, it could be never-ending.