Gizmo Viewpoint from another teacher.

This post guest blogger is from the Science department, a teacher that team teaches, and likes trying some new stuff.  Mrs. N. Gill 

I wanted to incorporate more technology in the classroom and one of the ways was by using gizmos. Using Gizmos in class first semester with grade 10s worked well.  Lots of animations to visually represent what is happening with atoms to form molecules and a simulation of how mutations affect generations as they reproduce.   Some of the issues that I encountered were techinical difficulties - slow or nonfunctioning computers.

I wanted to use SMART board more in my Sc 10 class.  I was only able to do this once or twice limitations in time on working on this goal.  Again, this allowed a better visual as to what happens when plotting a velocity time graph and this is affected when you increase or decrease the velocity.  Limitations of what is available for science.

Blog owner's comment:

ALthough the school loves Smartboards, unfortunately our boards are mobile, which means setting the board every time you start it up.  This doesn't take much time, but a small tap of the board or a small shift will cause major problems.  So we looked into mounting them and we saw it would be over $1000.  When you compare this to getting a new computer for students to use which one do you choose?  You can use the board in one classroom, with 120 kids, or you can use another computer with the "Computers On Wheels" and reach all the students in school.  It's terrible how things come down to money sometimes.