Computer+Technology+Projects

Below are the lessons that Grade 6 students study during the course of the school year. Hyperlinks to sample projects have been provided.


 * Lesson #1 -** An introduction to our grade 6 technology/computer class. Our discussions include: class goals and rules, the ISB Responsible Use Policy and basic computer operations skills.


 * Lesson #2 -** Use a spreadsheet (//MS Excel//) as a database. Students look at the advantages of using a spreadsheet as a database and how to organize and sort data. Students access the school's admission database and update their family contact information. (A sample of this project can not be shown because of the nature of the information.)


 * Lesson #3 -** Use a spreadsheet (//MS Excel//) to generate a table and graph. Students calculate the number of M&M’s in a package to explore the creation of tables and graphs using a spreadsheet.


 * Lesson #4 –** Generate an advanced word processing skills using //MS Word//. Students hone their word processing skills; including paragraphs, numbering and bullets, keyboarding and line spacing, headers and footers, superscripts and subscripts and inserting and formatting graphics and tables.


 * Lesson #5 -** Practice keyboarding with proper fingering using //TypingMaster//. Students begin to practice and improve their keyboarding skills. The student's goal is to keyboard 25 words per minute with 95% accuracy by the end of the school year.


 * Lesson #6 –** Create a country poster using //Adobe PhotoShop Elements//. Students create a poster of their home country; including their school picture, country flag and map and a sentence about special celebrations in their country. These electronic posters are displayed on the school’s eBoards during International School Week.


 * Lesson #7 –** Alter/morph photos using //Adobe PhotoShop Elements//. Students morph their school picture to create a completely different persona.


 * Lesson #8 –** Create a graphical representation of research using the software application, //Inspiration//. Students graphically organize information about early man and early civilizations to see the benefit of this approach to research. One of the benefits of creating a graphical representation is that the software automatically generates an outline, which can be used in report writing.


 * Lesson #9 -** Create a timeline of research using the software application, //TimeLiner//. Students create a timeline of the research on early man and early civilizations to understand the time reference for their studies in Humanities class.


 * Lesson #10 –** Understand the “Big6” research strategy and how to effectively search topics on the Internet. Students discuss the “Big6” research strategies and practice effective Internet researching skills in preparation for their Humanities project on Digging up the Past and their early civilization museum.


 * Lesson #11 –** Media Awareness and Social Networking. Students discuss the benefits and risk of using the Internet for online games, playing games from a console and visiting social networking web sites, such as //MySpace//, //Facebook// and //MSN Instant Messenger//. Students evaluate their use of these sites through several //MS Word// documents.


 * Lesson #12 –** Produce a poster in //MS Publisher//. Students explore different issues of Internet and WWW awareness, including cyber safety, teen marketing, social networking sites and email, blogs, chat rooms and instant messaging. Finally, students produce a poster used to persuade their peers into “taking a stand”, e.g. Who are you really chatting with?


 * Lesson #13 –** Create a student web page – student Grade 6 portfolio. Students create a personal web page that will act as their end-of-the-year portfolio. In the past we have used //Adobe Dreamweaver//, but this year we are going to produce our web pages as Wikis. This Wiki is a sample of what the students will be creating.


 * Lesson #14 –** Produce a poster in //MS Publisher//. Students discuss the key components in a poster used to convey a message and then create a poster of themselves as either a “convict” or a “rock star”. Finally, students produce a poster used to persuade their peers into “taking a stand”, e.g. anti-smoking poster.