AE/MS Seventh Grade Participates in a Monster Exchange

Learning skills highly used in everyday life

December 7, 2016 • Saved under AE/MS
By Andrew Tyler, AE/MS Technology Instructor

 

Through multiple art and technology classes, the 7th grade class of Andover Elementary Middle School has been working on a collaboration project with the 6th grade class from Campton Elementary School. Despite the distance separating the two schools, AEMS and CES students were able to work together on a Monster Exchange Project and to Skype each other at the end of the project to showcase their results.
Through multiple art and technology classes, the 7th grade class of Andover Elementary Middle School has been working on a collaboration project with the 6th grade class from Campton Elementary School. Despite the distance separating the two schools, AEMS and CES students were able to work together on a Monster Exchange Project and to Skype each other at the end of the project to showcase their results.

The Monster Exchange Project is a lesson that teaches students the importance of paying attention to detail, following and writing clear directions, all the while integrating art and technology skills. Ms. Courtney Minnehan, art teacher, and Mr. Andrew Tyler, technology teacher, worked with the 7th grade on different parts of the project.

The first step was for students to draw a monster of their own creation. Then students were asked to write directions about how to draw their monster so that someone could replicate it by following their directions. Students drew their monster in Art Class and wrote their directions in Technology Class. Campton students followed this same process with their librarian, Mrs. Kiley Kapp.

Next, the two schools shared directions for their monsters, and students were paired up with a peer from the other school. In their next art class, Andover students drew a new monster based off of the directions they were given from Campton, and vice versa.

When this process was completed by both schools, drawings and directions were collected, scanned, and uploaded to Google in order for the teachers to share the results with each other. To finalize the project, both Andover and Campton students planned a Skype meeting and set the date. During the Skype call, students were able to come up and show their original monster and see the monster their peer from the other school drew based on their directions.

During each reveal, students were asked to think of a question or statement to give regarding the directions they had to follow or about the results of the shared experience. Students from both schools expressed that directions were tough to follow, and many had positive remarks to give to their partner, but there were also great successes with the program where a student’s directions were so clear, the monster drawings were almost identical.

It was very exciting to see students who often only see each other on the sports field working together and sharing an educational experience. The students very much enjoyed being able to see the results of their month-long project in real time as well as get to meet their partner face to face.