NCTIES2022

Stellar lessons fascinate students and help them learn. This session proposes development of stellar lessons that challenge students to be creative with a digital tool while attaining a learning goal. In a stellar lesson, a teacher might direct their diverse students to design an app, create a 2D animation, engage in data mining, tinker in a maker space, or develop an app, for instance. Stellar lessons could also direct students to utilize application software for development, such as the free 3D modeling and animation tool, Blender. Whether seeking to attain a learning goal pertaining to language symbols, historical battles, regular polyhedra, or planetary orbits, students may benefit from making a 3D model or animation. Through demonstration and coaching, this session guides participants to use Blender to create 3D letters and punctuation marks, as well as regular polyhedra, and a 3D model of Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Further, in this session, we will discuss options available to teachers when planning stellar lessons that invite innovation with digital tools while helping diverse students attain learning goals for multiple courses in the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.

In summary, through hands-on activities, participants will learn to use Blender to create language symbols, a tetrahedron, and a model of Earth and its orbit. In addition, participants will discuss how to apply what they learned in their teaching practices.