Digital Communication Tools

Chapter 2: Communicating with Digital Technology

Additional Activities

Visual Vocabulary

Objective

Materials

Procedure

1. Read through the chapter or unit vocabulary in your foreign language textbook.
2. Your teacher will divide the class into teams. Each team is responsible for taking pictures of one set of objects identified by the vocabulary terms. Have a team member record the vocabulary terms and meaning for each picture.
3. Work in your team to review the new vocabulary by viewing the photos and naming them by using the foreign language terms.
4. Divide your team so that half of your group joins a new group to view a different set of photos and to learn and practice another set of terms. Continue until everyone has had a chance to work with each team.

Extension

Experimental Evidence: The Pendulum

Objective

Materials

Procedure

1. Create a pendulum by sliding wooden beads or other weights on a knotted string. Suspend the assemblage over the edge of a table so it hangs down vertically. Put a pile of books on the other end of the string to keep the pendulum in place. Pull the weight back about a foot and let the pendulum start swinging.
2. Measure the length of the string and the amplitude, or the distance from where the string would be when not in motion, of the swing by using the meter sticks.
3. Measure the period of the pendulum swing using the stopwatch. Count how many times the pendulum swings back and forth in 30 seconds.
4. Determine how the length of the string, the mass of the beads, or the amplitude of the swing affect the period of the pendulum by changing one variable at a time and recording the results.
5. Use a digital camera to photograph each trial of the pendulum and to use the images to illustrate your report on the results of your experiment.
6. Share your report with the class and compare outcomes.

Extension

Internet Project

Objective

Materials

Procedure

1. Determine what the focus of your project will be. For example, you could share cultural information or gather environmental data, such as water quality.
2. Contact a school in another location and propose that they do a similar project so that you can exchange information.
3. Work with your teacher to plot out the project timeline on a classroom calendar. Identify tasks and break into teams.
4. If you choose a water-quality monitoring project, travel to the stream, riverbed, or lake location. Work with your team and conduct water-quality tests. Document the process and appearance of the water with digital cameras.
5. If you choose a cultural exchange project, work with classmates to identify notable landmarks, institutions, and features of your area. Work with your team to photograph them and write descriptive narratives.
6. Work as a class to create a summary report and send it by e-mail with photo attachments to your project partners.
7. Read your project partners' contributions and compare your data or descriptions to the ones you sent.

Extension