SCIENCE OF A SNOWFLAKE
The digital atelier step by step goes from the analogical to digital activities – from observation of photos of different shape snowflakes and interesting scientific facts presentation to watching video material on the formation of a snowflake. After introductory, scientific facts presentation stage and exploration of the variety of their shapes, we go to the manual tasks related to making a six-shaped snowflake and then coming to the digital part where students try apps to add snow effect, make collages and digital snowflakes. The final result of the activity is double – we have a tree of snowflakes made using different techniques and a virtual gallery of students’ works.
COUNTING EMOTIONS
The digital atelier contributes to the development of emotional intelligence with the help of mathematics, ICT tools. The first part of the atelier focuses on the recognition and naming, expanding the vocabulary of emotions of students. At the very beginning, they are introduced with 5-6 basic emotions, how emotions differ in their intensity. Then they try to make emotions, feelings, and moods’ vocabulary using the letters of the alphabet of their mother language or English in combination with the facial expressions captured with their smartphone. Throughout the process, students count and record the numbers occurring in the workshop. In the second part of the atelier, students try to identify and mark where in the body we feel emotions. Afterwards, the results are depicted statistically and graphically. In the third part, students discuss how we can express emotions using colours and make infographics to illustrate the numbers encountered in the process of the workshop.
UNDISCOVERED JOURNEYS OF BIRDS
The main objective of this workshop is to inspire students to observe the world of animals and realise the influence of our actions on the life of birds. Participants research the subject and then create relevant infographics gallery with the involvement of augmented reality. Participants investigate the anatomy of birds, ecosystems they live in, the food chain, migration, the greatest threats to the existence of the birds and the causes of extinction. The activities are focused on the use of technology to observe, investigate, acknowledge and raise awareness.
COLOURFUL FOOD ART
This digital atelier contributes to the perception of what is a colour, what determines it in plants, flowers, how we perceive it and how we can play with colours in different ways. The atelier combines some phenomena of Physics (for example, colour spectrum, Newton’s disc), chemical, biological phenomenon (biological pigments which determine the colour of plants, animals; observation of cells under the microscope) combined with some modern tools –apps, smartphone camera, digital microscope, UV lamp as well as art techniques.
FACES OF THE MOON
The digital atelier step by step goes from the analogical to digital activities – scientific knowledge is mainly included in the first part of the workshop to enrich students’ experiences and produce materials with a different touch and more specific details. As ancient people, students try to see some shapes, objects on the lunar surface, get acquainted with the different names of full moons and paint the moon of the month of their birth trying not to forget to depict the main and easily distinguished parts of the moon. In the second part of the atelier, the concept of Moon is being explored in the context of folklore and poetry – how it was personalised, what features, attributes it was given. Students become poets and create poems inspired by the activities of that part of the workshop. The third part of the atelier is devoted to the valorisation of the students’ work done in the first two parts – the drawings, paintings and poems are included into a common digital book created using MyStorybook programme online.