Fun Finds Friday

On Fridays, I share "Fun Finds" with my middle school students. These include cool websites,  interesting images and photographs, and intriguing videos.  If we miss a Friday, the kids are disappointed, and always ask to make it up on the following Monday.  While these finds are often entertaining, they also plant seed ideas for future projects, independent study work, or just add to our schema for future reference.  Innovators pull from a variety of experiences they have had, and connect them in a novel way.  By exposing my students to a variety to "interesting things" I am helping them to develop a broad background of experiences from which to pull.

Fun Finds For This Friday:

1.  The Unseen Technology Behind the NFL's "Magic Yellow Line" - So I am not a football fan, but I am intrigued as to how they make the yellow line magically appear on the field during a broadcast.  The video on the website branches into other sport applications, and explains the complicated process behind this technology.

2.  Google Maps Smart Pins - Putting Trivia on the Map - Geography Based Trivia!  You can start a multi-category game, or choose from specific categories: March Madness, Arts and Culture, Science and Geography, Sports and Games, Entertainment, or History and Cultural Events.  A question is posed, and you drop the virtual pin on the location you believe answers the question.  A point for each mile you are off is deducted from your original 1000 miles. You keep playing until you use up all of your miles.  Many students took this on as a challenge to improve their geographic knowledge!

3.  Desmos Creative Art - Student Examples from Graphing Calculators - A fun connection between art and math!

4.  Flat.io - Allows users to compose musical scores online, including collaboratively.  The free plan met the needs of my students who wanted to try it.  They also offer "Flat for Education" where you can follow student progress and work on class projects.

What "Fun Finds" have you found?