Description of Nebo Elementary Department of Fine Arts Technology Program:

The purpose of the Nebo Elementary Department of Fine Arts is to equip students with the tools of music, movement, and technology understanding so students will think artistically, express themselves, and share in the artistic expressions of others.

In the Fine Arts Technology Program, students learn digital media technology so that they will not simply consume media, rather, they will create and share media with the world around them.

There are three components to the Nebo Elementary Fine Arts Technology Program:

1. Digital Communication: Using technology to communicate ideas, tell stories, create art, and share feelings between people.

2. Computer Science: Using technology to manipulate data and create programs and instructions for computers to follow.  Study of storage, transformation, and transfer of information.

3. Engineering/Robotics: Using technology to create hardware and mechanical robots to carry out programs and tasks.

This section describes 5 areas of Technology use in school, a "Hierarchy of Skills in Technology," and the specific activities and objectives for each grade level.  These skills and concepts will be introduced in MusicTech Special and reinforced during the After School Technology Program.

5 Areas of Technology Use in School:

1. Research
2. Drill and Practice
3. Communication (Text, Graphics, Pictures, and Sound. Examples: Word, PowerPoint, HTML editing)
4. Expression and Creativity
5. Programming

Most students gain significant experience with levels 1 and 2 (Research and Drill and Practice) during regular academic activities.  The Nebo Fine Arts Technology Program seeks to stretch students into levels 3, 4, and 5.

Hierarchy of Skills in Technology:

1. Passive Reception: From creator to receiver with no action on receiver to alter flow of content. (watching a video)
2. Active Research: From creator to receiver with receiver selecting path and specific points of content. (Surfing the web)
3. Interactive 1 way: From creator to receiver through game model.  Receiver must master a skill to progress through activity. (Skill and Drill, Compass)
4. Communication / Expression: User creates content and art with technology.
    Verbal / Text
    Images
    Plot
    Web
5. Interactive 2 way: creator and users interact. (Email, Blogs, Multi-User Virtual Environments)
6. Data manipulation and Analysis: User uses computer to interact and manipulate the content and data.
7. Software creation / programming: Users encodes logic thought into computer. User tells computer what to do. Provides platforms and engines for above skill sets.
8. Hardware creation: User designs and assembles hardware to run, input, display software.

Again, most computer users have fluency in skill sets 1 to 5.  The Nebo Fine Arts Technology Program works to lead students to fluency in levels 6, 7, and 8. 

Technology Objectives and Activities map:

1. Digital Communication:  We will use both Microsoft Office and Open Office 2.4.  Open Office 2.4 is a free download and provides an alternative office suite.  Text, Presentation, and Spreadsheet documents in Open Office can be read and edited by Microsoft Office.  We will not learn one brand of software, rather, we will learn the general layout principles of software so students can teach themselves how to learn and create with new programs. 

In addition, we will also teach basic keyboarding skills using K-Touch and other web-based typing programs.

A. Microsoft Word / Open Office Text Editor

  • Paragraph Typing: When to use "Enter" and "Space Bar."
  • Center, Left, Right Justify
  • Tabs
  • Working with Text Formatting
    • Size
    • Typeface (Bold, Underline, Italic)
    • Font
    • Color
  • Inserting and Manipulating Graphic Files
  • Drawing and manipulating drawing objects
    • Shapes
    • Fill
    • Line
    • Layers
    • In Front of vs. In Line with text
  • Columns
  • Tables


Microsoft Word / Open Office Text Projects:

  1. Letter Format
  2. Narrative Writing / Assignment Writing (Use of Header and Footer)
  3. Lists and Directions with auto numbering and bullets
  4. Poetry
  5. Posters / Invitations


B. Microsoft PowerPoint / Open Office Present

  • Slide Layouts
  • Bulleted/Numbered Lists
  • Working with Shapes
    • Basic Shapes
    • Line Types
    • Formatting shapes
    • Fill: (Single Color, Two Color, hatching, bitmap)
    • Line
    • Size
    • Rotation
    • Layers
    • Grouping
    • Shadows
    • Shading
  • Using Text Boxes in PowerPoint.
  • Formatting Fonts in PowerPoint
  • Word Art / Font works
  • Formatting Slide Background
  • Slide Design Templates
  • Inserting Pictures / Graphics
  • Inserting Sound and Movies
  • Hyperlinks

Microsoft PowerPoint / Open Office 2.4 Projects:  (Will include Graphic Design and Excel concepts)
  1. "All About Me"
  2. Create and Advertise a Pizza
  3. Draw a Face
  4. Assignment based projects
  5. Sentence Types
  6. "I Can See My House from Here!" Google Maps and PowerPoint
  7. Creating a Map
  8. Animation / Story telling
  9. Math Facts Slides
  10. Sight Word Quiz
  11. National Anthem Project
  12. Daily PowerPoints for Broadcast

C. Microsoft Excel / Open Office Spreadsheet

  • Making and sorting Lists by values and alphabetical Order
  • Use of Cells for organizing data
  • Creating Bar, Pie, and Line graphs with data
  • Using autofill
  • Using Math functions to calculate perimeter, area, and other sums and products.

Microsoft Excel / Open Office Spreadsheet Projects:

  1. My checkbook!
  2. Stockchart contest
  3. How cold is it?
  4. The Perimeter and Area machine
  5. I Ate What??? 
  6. My Friend's Birthdays

D. HTML / Web Page Creation (Open Office HTML editor or Mozilla Composer)

  • Entering and Formatting Text
  • Hyperlinks
  • Inserting and manipulating image files
  • Formatting background
  • Bulleted and Numbered Lists
  • Creating a website with linked pages and home page
  • Basics of web publishing
  • Embedding files into web pages
  • Principles of web page construction
   

E. Digital Photography

  • Use of camera
    • Distance Shots
    • Closeup shots
    • Use of Flash
  • Transferring and managing jpeg files.
  • Resizing pictures for use on web pages, text documents, and presentations

F. Graphic Design (PowerPoint / Open Office Draw / Scratch Draw / GIMP )
  • Resize graphic
  • Rotate
  • Color
  • Line
  • Layers

G. Movie Editing ( Windows Movie Maker / iMovie)

  • Inserting Still pictures
  • Inserting movie files
  • Adding text / credits
  • Adding transitions
  • Adding sound
  • Rendering final movie

H. Broadcasting

The ASP Broadcast Club provides on screen and technical support for all Nebo Network News Broadcasts and the morning announcements.  Students in Broadcast learn to operate the audio/visual equipment to produce television productions. In addition, students learn Microsoft PowerPoint software, script writing skills, and on screen stage presence. 

2. Computer Science: 

Students at elementary should have a basic introduction to computer science through a visual programming language such as Scratch, and basic text languages like Python.  Learning computer science teaches students logical and higher order thinking skills.  A visual programming language encourages kinesthetic thought in a system where students can examine and edit their creations as they change over time.  Computer science activities also provide an opportunity for project-based and integrated learning in accordance with the Georgia Performance Standards.  Finally, students with an understanding of the structure and flow of computer programs develop a deeper fluency with software and hardware. This fluency enables students to express their creativity and share their creations with others.

A. Programming:

  • Iteration
  • Boolean Logic
  • Threading
  • Sequence
  • Functions
  • Methods
  • Properties
  • Variables
  • Conditionals

B. Video Game Creation with Scratch

  • Chase and Eat Games
  • Target Games
  • Pong Game
  • Red LIght / Green LIght
  • Board Game
  • Dance Games

C. Simulations

  • Polygon Robot

D. Animations

  • Cell Animation with PowerPoint / Open Office Present

E. Python Programming

  • Use Turtle to create drawings
  • Define and use functions to automate tasks within program
  • Simple text printing exercises

F. Alice Programming

  • Manipulation Objects in 3 Dimensional Space
    • Location: Up, Down, Right, Left, Back, Front
    • Orientation: Pitch, Roll, Yaw
  • Writing Methods for 3 Dimensional Objects to move through space
  • Creating simple animations and games
  • Do Together, Do In Order, Loops
  • Creating Methods

G. Using Excel formulas

H. Identify Hardware components in computer system

  • Output: monitor, sound, printer, ethernet
  • Input: keyboard, mouse, Ethernet, Sound
  • Storage: Hard Drive, USB Flash, CD R, CD ROM, DVD ROM, Floppy
  • Processing and mechanics:  RAM, ROM, BIOS, Power Supply, video card, ethernet card, CPU chip, Disk Drives, USB ports

3. Engineering/Robotics:   

This is where software and hardware meet in the real world.  Students engage in problem solving activities where they build and program machines that complete tasks.  We use Lego Mindstorms NTX robotics kits and other materials as needed. 

A. Pre-Robotics simulations with Scratch

  • Follow a course
  • Sense and avoid objects
  • Motion paths

B. Lego Mindstorms Robotics

  • Robotic Programming with NXT software
  • Construction of Robotics to perform specific tasks
    • Go and Get
    • Go and Push
    • Go and Put
    • Follow a Course
    • Sense the World

C. Simple Machines

  • Levers
  • Pulleys
  • Gears
  • Wedges
  • Mechanics
  • Force and Motion

D. Direction and Distance

Instruction Times:

Nebo students will have two opportunities to participate in the Fine Arts Technology Program.  3rd, 4th and 5th Grade students will have Technology in their specials rotation with Mr. Michaud in "MusicTech."  This will be addition to the regular Music Specials class taught by Ms. Queen.   

Also, there will be ASP Technology groups for 4th and 5th Grade students after school during the week.  ASP Tech Club on Thursdays will cover advanced topics in Computer Science and Robotics.  ASP Broadcast on Fridays will cover advanced topics in Digital Communication.

The content breakdown be grade is as follows:

3rd Grade:
Touch Typing
Microsoft Word / Open Office Text
Microsoft Powerpoint / Open Office Present
Basic Programming with Scratch
Basic Graphic Design and Image Manipulation

4th and 5th Grade:
Touch Typing
Microsoft Word / Open Office Text
Microsoft Powerpoint / Open Office Present
Microsoft Excel / Open Office Spreadsheet
Advanced Programming with Scratch
HTML Editing and Web Page creation
Creating games, animations, and simulations with Scratch
Advanced Robotics / Robotics Competitions
Broadcasting
Movie Editing
Python Programming
Alice Programming
Digital Photography
  
Questions: Please email Mr. Michaud.

Copyright ©2011 Mr. Michaud.