Digital Communication Tools

Chapter 8: Additional Features of Digital Tools

Additional Activities

Moon Phases

Objective

Materials

Procedure

1. Examine the phases of the moon. Discuss what causes the phases of the moon.
2. Discuss the length of the time it takes for the moon to go through one cycle.
3. Create a Sketchy animation of the moon phases. This animation will be 29 frames long. Each frame will represent about one day in the cycle of the moon.
4. Start with a circular drawing of a full moon. For this animation, when the circle is empty, it represents a full moon. For example, the dark portions of the moon will be shaded in and the light areas of the moon will be left blank. Label this drawing Full Moon.
5. Using the duplicate feature, create the next frame. Shade in a small, curved portion of the right side of the moon. Label this Waning Gibbous. You will create 6 total waning gibbous frames by using the Duplicate feature and shading a little more in each frame.
6. The eighth frame will be the last quarter. This is represented by the right half of the circle being shaded. Label the eighth frame Last Quarter.
7. Frames 9-14 will be the waning crescent. Continue to shade frames 9-14 by adding to the growing shaded portion.
8. Frame 15 will be the new moon. At this point the moon will be completely shaded.
9. Beginning in frame 16 and continuing through frame 21, the moon will be in the waxing crescent phase. Slowly erase the right side of the moon.
10. Frame 22 will be the first quarter. At this point, half of the right side should be erased. Label this frame First Quarter.
11. Frames 23-28 will represent the waxing gibbous phase. Label these frames as such. Continue to erase the shading until the moon is full in frame 29.
12. Play the animation to watch the phases of the moon.

Extension

Food Chain

Objective

Materials

Procedure

1. With your teacher, review the role of the food chains in the environment.
2. Create a food chain using the Pico Map application on the handheld. Open Pico Map and create a new file.
3. Create a node, which is the circle where topics are stated. Label the first node Sun.
4. Create a second node to the right of the first node. Label it Grass.
5. Create an edge connecting the two nodes by simply drawing a straight line between the two nodes. A box will appear. Tap off the box or key a word to describe the connections. You might key Producer to indicate that grass is a producer in the food chain.
6. Continue to create nodes and edges to show the other members of this food chain, including grasshopper, frog, snake, owl, and fungus, and their relationships to each other.
7. If infrared capabilities are available in your classroom, beam the food chain to be printed for later use. Otherwise, beam your concept map to a partner to compare food chains.

Extension Activities

Order of Operations

Objective

Materials

Procedure

1. Review the order of operation rules. Consult a math textbook or your teacher, if necessary.
2. Consult a mathematics textbook, and complete several order of operation problems by hand. These are problems that require more than one operation, such as addition and division.
3. Complete the same problems in the same order. If you are using the basic calculator application installed on the Palm OS handhelds, the answer will be incorrect, as it does not follow the order of operation rules. Also, it will be difficult because there is not a parenthesis function, and you will not be able to use exponents.
4. Discuss the results with the class. Did it work? Why or why not? Why must we think even when we are using a calculator? What are some other problems that a person might encounter while using a calculator? When is it appropriate to use a calculator? Why is it important that we learn math concepts such as order of operations? Can a person only rely on using a calculator and have no sense of math concepts?

Extension