Chapter 8 Log

When I was much younger, my parents were thinking about doing some remodeling in our house. We went to the office of an architect and met with an interior designer who used a CAD program to show us some ideas he had. It was at that moment I knew I was interested in architecture and would be an architect who worked with CAD programs. Of course, things change and that never worked out. But just seeing someone use that CAD program got me interested - at least for a while - in something I never would have been otherwise exposed to. Using programs like SketchUp or Pro/DESKTOP incorporate the core subjects like science and math, and help a student by increasing his or her spatial reasoning skills. But they also can help turn a student onto a new hobby, interest, or even career path. Too often in schools we push nothing but the core subjects, leaving students with a lack of hobbies or extracurricular interests. Programs like these can help foster a new interest while also addressing academic points.

Similarly, programs like Scratch can help develop a student's interest in programming. Years ago, I used to love programming. Over the summer after 4th grade I took a robotics class in which we programmed sequences for robots to act out. I taught myself HTML and built websites with raw HTML. But with the advent of WYSIWYG editors and once school cut into my extracurricular time, I no longer had the time to learn the new languages or keep up with anything programming-related. Just from the simple Scratch projects we've been doing in class, I have remembered how much I loved programming.

I checked out the iStopMotion site, as I had never heard of it. The producers of the site understand that their product is very useful for education, and as such they include a list of curriculum ideas for their product. Sadly, the product is not free, so I had to rely on examples to see what it was capable of.

In the past, I have designed music with programs such as Finale Notepad and Sibelius Music, neither of which are listed here. Musical background is required for both, however. I thought that the Musical Sketch Pad was a really cool lsite that could be used with most any grade level and any level of musical ability. I'm glad that tools like this exist in order to get kids interested in and thinking about music at a young age. Budget cuts often take away from music programs, so any help is tremendous.