"Good morning, Mrs. H! What are we going to be learning about today?" These words are said almost every day that my students walk into my classroom every morning.
My students are sponges, eager to learn.
I love coming up with new adventures to take them on as we learn about science together. My students are intelligent, hardworking, and ambitious. They are fun, eager to learn new things, and are motivated to expand their knowledge base, especially in the STEM field.
I want the best for my students. I want them to succeed and know that it is important to ask questions and that I do not have all of the answers. I want to be able to help them as much as I can by providing the tools necessary to find the answers.
My Project
Specdrums are new, innovative devices from Sphero. Specdrums work by placing them on fingers like rings and students learn how to create music through 21st century technology; specifically through using color and an app on the tablet. When touching a particular color, the ring will sense the difference and play a certain note or sound. The sounds are from a variety of sources including preprogrammed sounds and various types of percussion instruments. They can also switch the sounds and have the color represent musical clips, orchestra instruments, varieties of pianos and guitar, their voices-it is very versatile.
Specdrums can be can be used in multiple ways in a science classroom.
Watching the video of how these work, I started thinking about how I could incorporate them into my science class. Students can explore sounds with colors throughout the classroom. They can program the Specdrums to play a song of their creation. We could use them for reviewing. Each letter of an answer response could correspond to a color-play the correct color to get the question right. The possibilites are endless for these musical masterpieces. Not only can I use these to teach about sound properties, but also engaging students in music as well. Specdrums are a perfect blend of technology and music!
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Hoadley and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.