Xtraspecial with Xtranormal.com
This all started with a hot summer day and a science investigation.
After finding a ton of different sunscreens and ultraviolet beads, we were set!. When I say we had sunscreens, I am not exaggerating. We had different brands, types, SPFs, ages, waterproofness… You name it, and I most likely had a kid or two trying to learn which protected the best against ultraviolet light.
When we finished the experimentation, we needed to share what we learned. In our science class, that generally includes writing up a conclusion as a scientific explanation. My ultimate objective was for students to be able to create a scientific explanation. The explanation needed to include making a claim, citing evidence from their experiment, and justifying their claim using scientific reasoning.
This can be so hard for kids to accomplish! I decided this time to try something new. Let’s make a movie! We set the explanation in a public service announcement.
Xtranormal.com is a free site that allows the user to create 3-D movies simply by typing.
Here’s what I got…
Emma looked to see how the age of the sunscreen affected how well it protected against UV.
Mikel looked to see which brand of sunscreen worked the best.
Aren’t they fantastic!?!
And the text-to-movie feature had an unanticipated bonus. Students discovered what they wrote down actually mattered! The literacy help was done by a website and fellow students. Students quickly learned that punctuation matters! It was so funny to hear the kids laughing instead of grumbling when they realized they spelled something wrong or forgot a period. Some of their characters never paused for a breath!
Xtranormal.com will definitely be included as a literacy tool for me in the upcoming school year. It should for you as well.
Communication Arts teachers, take notice! And any science teachers… And social studies… Math too!
Photo credit: Thanks to snikolhaus’ photostream for Day 2 011.
Xtranormal video credit: Thanks to Emma and Mikel.
July 24th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
What a different way to showcase the learning of your students! I immediately showed Xtranormal.com to my husband after reading your post–I’m sure he will now use it in his Communication Arts classroom sometime this year. Thanks for sharing!
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July 25th, 2009 at 8:40 am
Fantastic! What a cool, innovative alternative to writing scientific explanations. I definitely plan to incorporate that tool this year!
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July 27th, 2009 at 10:11 am
@drdial
Thank you for sharing my blog! I found it took about 45 minutes for students to mess around with the layout. I told them to be “button pushers”. We pushed all the buttons until we figured out what everything did. Then, it took another 45 minutes to create these videos for their first tries.
I felt it was a good use of time as Xtranormal.com can be implemented in any subject. If you go to the actual website to view Mikel’s video, you’ll see he asked his social studies teacher if he could create a movie instead of a PowerPoint. He has several versions of sharing the same information.
@Tanya Dalrymple
I know you’ll run with this! Some of my students that tried Xtranormal.com will be yours next year! These are the kids that may have been in the required summer school class. What a great way it will be for them to start out the year being the experts in something you will do in class!
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