All resources in Form & Function STEAM

Ocean Garbage Patches

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In this project-based learning unit, students take responsibility for their learning through active, hands-on engagement, while the teacher acts as a facilitator.  Students will learn about ocean garbage patches, the cause, its impact, recycling, and solutions to reduce them. Students will share what they learned to help raise awareness of this environmental issue and promote recycling by creating posters for their school and writing scripts to be read during morning announcements. This project requires background knowledge and understanding of the water cycle and the importance of the ocean to the water cycle.  Students should know how to use email and some digital format for presentations.

Material Type: Unit of Study

Author: marcella koffler

What is OER?

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Brief video describing Open Educational Resources (OER) and their associated copyrights and permissions. Generally Open Educational Resources have terms of use that allow for permissions that are known as the "Five Rs:" Reuse, Remix, Revise, Retain, and Redistribute.

Material Type: Lecture

TCC Library Handout - Copyright, OER, and CC Licenses

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This is a 3-page "quick guide" handout about copyright, OER, and CC licenses, including what they look like and what they mean for usage in and out of the classroom. This handout is meant for students and would be a useful supplement for any assignments requiring openly licensed multimedia or sources. This handout also accompanies the TCC Library's "Student Guide to OER" LibGuide.

Material Type: Student Guide

Author: Tacoma Community College Library

Form and Function(s): A Sustainable Design meets Computation Design Plan

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IntroductionThe Concept behind Form and Function(s): Sustainable Design meets Computational ThinkingWhen Architecture, the Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Computing intermingle something beautiful and purposeful occurs. Through this course of study, students are challenged to think computationally by considering the notion of “design” through three perspectives on form and function.  Through the first perspective, we challenge students to consider a structure’s architectural form in the context of its function within the ecology in which it belongs.  A second perspective on form and function is provided by way of the natural sciences, where students explore nature’s designs, which are created through natural selection.  Finally, form and function are further abstracted through a mathematical and computational perspective that focuses on how natural selection can be emulated through modelling and coding. The journey comes full circle, and the three perspectives coalesce when students engage in a hack-a-thon in which they model and code evolutionary algorithms to design a better building.Watch the Form and Function(s) animation on the Callysto Youtube channel.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study

Authors: Brad Skeet, Connie Blomgren, James Greenwood-Lee, Stella George, Liliana Tang, Trevor Butler