Standard+3.3.4

=Advise and assist colleagues to use, select and develop resources and materials to engage students’ learning. =

I presented a workshop on Monkey Jam at an [|AIS] conference. My introduction to the workshop advises and assists my colleagues how to use Monkey Jam to engage their students and enable their students to enhance their understanding. For this workshop I prepared 2 instructional videos and loaded them onto YouTube. They are:-

Monkey Jam Instructions

media type="youtube" key="n0loL_ZBqXE" height="265" width="351"

 and “Monkey Jam Image Resizer Instructions” media type="youtube" key="0WFPMn45FLM" height="277" width="368"

(These resources are referred to on eTAMS by using opening screen shots and URL's)

After reading an article on stop motion animation “From Claymation to Slowmation: A teaching procedure to develop students’ science understandings.” Hoban G. Teaching Science Vol 51 No 2, 2005 I asked my school IT support whether we could download Monkey Jam. It is a free program and the IT department did download Monkey Jam onto our computers.

I realized that when students plan their animations they must understand a number of sequences of events. Planning their animations highlights some inconsistencies in their knowledge and it often brings out concepts that the students realize they do not fully understand. In order to make the animation flow and make sense the students must organize their thoughts. They often need to make their props or draw their diagrams. This also requires clear understanding of the process.

Students generally learn to use Monkey Jam within 1 hour. They then plan their animation and make whatever equipment they need. I find that most of this happens outside school. It generally takes about 1 hour to make the animation. Once the animations are done the students can then add a commentary to their animation. It usually takes about 1 week of lessons for students to learn how to use the program, prepare and complete their animation.

The beauty of using this program is that it is very easy to use, so the students can spend their time and effort ensuring that their facts are correct and their sequences are accurate. The other advantage of using animation is that the students are immediately engaged by it.

My students have found it to be engaging, enjoyable and a great learning experience. I have found it to be a wonderful tool for formative assessment.

This work has also been published in SEN as [|Animating Science] to advise and assist a broader range of science educators