Annoyingly Yours...

Sometimes I get a creative idea and I refuse to let it go for better or worse. A little back story: My current afternoon classes are currently working on a project where they are required to design, build and test a scale-model vehicle powered by a Co2 cartridge. The idea is to apply what we have learning about aerodynamics, the forces of motion and and Newton's 3 laws to make the fastest car possible. For my Animoto I decided to show my students examples of past projects as they get ready to start the design process to reinforce concepts and give them some ideas to jump start the creative process:



 
I picked the accompanying song for obvious reasons but I also liked how it's annoyingly catchy. Like a "song of the summer" that burns into your brain until you can't get the melody out of your head. On one hand you don't particularly like it but on the other it parasitically sticks to you like a remora. I observed this same phenomena with the jingle from the Japanese Rube Goldberg clips as seen in my last post. The tune drive the students crazy but they can't forget it, even years later. 

The other song I was considering was the opening track from Pixar's Cars but I wasn't sure if the students would make the connection or if it really even mattered. I feel like "Real Gone" is overall the better song and has a natural propulsive energy to that nicely reflects the project but I am kind of stuck on the idea of the Gary Numan song. I'd be curious to find out which one you like better. Let me know what you think and I'll go with whichever gets more nods!

Clip of the Day

A few years ago I ran across this catchy video clip on YouTube that connected with what my students had been studying in class (Rube Goldberg Machines):

I downloaded it and showed it to my classes and they loved it. It dawned on me just how much of a YouTube generation today's learners are and I began looking for other short clips that I show a few times a week at the beginning of class as the Clip of the Day. In preparing for this weeks wiki classwork I was reminded of another clip I show:

To date these clips are pretty much a one way process - I find them and show them. While once in a while a student recommends one that is relevant and actually school appropriate I am looking for ideas to make the collection (or creation?) and sharing of them more collaborative. Let me know if you have any thoughts!