coding challenge idea/mathandscience

[Mark Greenberg]

	Since we're brainstorming (kind of cool, since we're all over the 
world), how about this?  The student is asked to make a family tree -- 
a common assignment grades 2-12 in my part of the world.  They use an 
inspiration stack similar to Ron's to create the family tree.  It has 
nodes for each family member and links that describe the relationships. 
  When the students are done with the family tree, they create their own 
Rev stack to tell about the family members.  This stack is linked to 
the tree nodes so that when Grandpa's node is option clicked (or 
whatever), it launches a picture, an audio of Grandpa talking about the 
drought of '57, a field containing the horse feed recipe, and a 
whatever else the student can come up with.
	This incorporates Ron's ingenious framework, Judy's criteria for a 
worthwhile challenge, maybe Marielle's tree structure (as an alternate 
view of the family tree), and Lisa's Grandpa.  The second part could 
branch into history, science, media studies, language arts, art history 
or art production, etc.  Of course, this assumes that students have 
access to Rev (though they could do the last part in another program) 
and a teacher who could lead them through a constructivist type project.

		Mark G

On Wednesday, June 1, 2005, at 06:32 AM, lisa wrote:

> Besides the nice thought of having a computer to bring over while
> visiting the grandparents and showing Grandpa what I created today
> (better yet on Grandpa's computer )... that pulls in a little
> research from his time...and might just get him talking about family
> history....
>
>   (like a formula used in the 1920s
>   [that I found in an old math book]
> to mix a horses' feed [wheat, corn, oats and rye] according to
> whether the horse was sedentary or working that day......