Academy of Discovery Blog

Please vote in the comments for each of the following categories.

Best use of Story

• Shelby’s Shouyou
• Madeline’s Stories from Venus
• Dane’s Origins

Best use of Images

• Dillon’s Techno Topia
• Oscar’s Risker Island
• Allie’s Origins

Best use of a Sport

• Andy’s Footsketball
• Puck and Stick

Best use of a Map

• Susheel’s Population Map

Best Overall Utopia

• Imarian Republic
• Risker Island
• Live to Compete
• Amerisafe
• Utopian Islands
• Civilization of the Great Flood
• AU of CC

Best (Mostly) Text-Based Utopia

• Emily’s Hatikva
• Katy’s Utopia

Best Use of Enhancements:

•  Nominate your favorite utopia for this category

So, as you all know, we had a great group of chaperones to help make our Digital Denver trip an enjoyable experience. These folks took time out of their day and, in some circumstances, took the day off to hang out with us (which, most of the time, is not so bad ;). That being said, we need to share a word of thanks for their time and energy. Today, you will have a thank you to write a note and sign telling these parents how much we appreciate their sacrifice. Please, be thoughtful.
Also, we’ll be spending a little time discussing our field trip and your responses on the wiki and looking at some of the accrued information and photographs — should be fun!

So . . . after some consternation, a little figuring out, and, hopefully, a little ingenuity, you figured out some objectives, took a few snaps, and enjoyed a beautiful day downtown. We will be sharing full-scale all of our material when we reconvene on Monday. For now, let’s do this:

• Return your GPS to Mr. Wakefield
• Hold on to your computer to do a little reflection and work (post your answers to the top of your wiki-page):
• First, what worked for your group when you hit the proverbial speed-bump? How did you problem solve? Did you work collaboratively or did you lean on one person? How many times did you call Digital Central? (We had over 30 “help center” calls during the day. Were you one?)
• What was the best thing about the day? The not-so-good?
• Give a little feedback. If you were in charge of improving this activity, what would you improve?
• Next, were you surprised by anything?
• If you were to write another clue for downtown Denver, what would it be (include coordinates)?
• Finally, take the time to upload any of your remaining images to your wiki and return any tech. tools to the proper owner.
• Well done, everyone! This was a good day!!
• Upload any extra pictures to your wiki page and describe the different places you went to and events your participated in that were not part of our official field trip. Be creative with your page and put yourselves into it.

Today the GPS Specialists and Sherpas will be continuing to navigate the Cresthill Hunt. Please make sure that you are writing down what you believe each set of waypoints is a location for. You should be able to navigate through the five points today. Please return your completed paper to either Mr. Wakefield or Mr. Wilkoff when you have finished and we will let you know about your correctness.

Another member or group members of yours will be responsible for copying over the template for your objectives. All group pages MUST have this template on the top of their page. All of your images, information, and a objective requirements will be placed into this template. Please do not try to make your own, just copy it from the following table.

Today, the Digital Media Specialists, Laptop Commander and Blogger need to be with me during ELT to figure out how to upload photos using the laptop and figure out where to put them. I will also be answering any questions you have about your responsibilities.

Weather or not you realize it, you are right now a particular point of longitude and latitude; you exist in some place that we could navigate to with no more than a GPS device and the will to do so. Obviously, that goes for everyone and everywhere else on this earth. Although you may not be overwhelmed by the magnitude of that idea, I find it to be truly amazing because it gives us the opportunity to find anything that we are looking for. It gives me comfort to know that I am held by the joining of two imaginary lines on an imaginary grid spanning every geographic location imaginable. I feel connected to it all. But enough about my musings on the beauty of GPS coordinates, let’s go find some stuff.

Today you will be learning how (or teaching someone else how) to use both a GPS receiver and a mass cell phone text message in order to go on a digital scavenger hunt. You will be practicing the use of both of these devices so that you will be familiar with them for the big hunt on Friday.

Because we don’t want the world to know about how to set up their cell phones to receive text messages from the Digital Denver trip, I have set up the instructions here (on a google document that you can only access as a member of The Academy of Discovery).

(A special note about the above service: Please only use this service if you have the ability to do text
messaging on your cell phone plan. Although we will only be sending out
about 10 text messages total, it still can get very pricey if you
aren’t supposed to be using texts on your phone.)

Now it is time to figure out how to put GPS Coordinates into your GPS receiver. For this we will be using the knowledge of everyone on our team who has geocached or used a GPS unit before. We would like to have one of those brave souls give a tutorial to all of you, so stand by for such a display of instruction as you have never seen before.

I will give you three of the coordinates on the blog and two by text message. It is your job to go to those waypoints and then write down what you believe the object, location, or scene that the waypoint is offering you. Once you have completed them, come back and we will tell you if you have achieved your mission.

Waypoint #1: N 39 degrees 32.822 minutes, W 104 degrees 55.825 minutes.
Waypoint #2: N 39 degrees 32.854 minutes, W 104 degrees 55.836 minutes
Waypoint #3: N 39 degrees 32.911 minutes, W 104 degrees 55.842 minutes

Today is the first official day of our work with Mission: Digital Denver. Soak up as much information and excitement as you can because you will need both to get you through this journey.

The first step on your digital path is to select groups using Mrs. Chenoweth’s amazing form. Please do not proceed until you have finished this step.

The next step is to organize your group into its roles. Use the DigitalDenver Document found here in order to read up on these roles, or you can simply go to our wiki page.

The final step for today (many of you may not reach it) is to set up your team wiki page on the Mission: Digital Denver wiki. We will be using this wiki page to post objectives for you and you will be using it to craft your learning and your hunt through Denver.

Now that you have started working on your organizing document for our Digital Denver Trip, it is time to get a little bit more specific and visual. Rather than simply looking at a a map of Denver and knowing where certain sites and businesses are, today you will be looking at actual 3d photographs of intersections along the 16th street mall in order to get your bearings and collect information on the points that we will most likely be using as hot spots in the GPS scavenger hunt. We are intentionally being mysterious about these places and their whereabouts in order for you to do a little critical thinking about them. We also want you to be aware of the entire area and not just of the specific points of interest on your hunt.

You will be using something called Google Street View in order to take screen shots of each intersection from Wynkoop to Broadway along 16th street. Please include these screen shots in your google document. Remember, you will be looking for areas of significance. Also, start to brainstorm on your google document about possible places for our scavenger hunt.

Here are the boundaries of our field trip:

Here is an example screenshot from Google Street View:

The caricatures that have been produced are extraordinary. Seems as though some are not finished, yet. That being said, here’s what’s on the plate today:

1. Finish any caricature work. Add color and refine and, on the back of your drawing, add some notes on why you drew your caricature as you did. Get this turned in as we would like to post work and possibly use it on our downtown field trip;
2. If you haven’t finished answering the essential questions (see below) and sending your responses to Wakefield, do so (herrwakefield@gmail.com);
3. Google Earth Experience. As you know, Google Earth provides an awesome glimpse into the geography and culture of a city. Spend a little time exploring Downtown Denver (specifically, the area of the 16th St. Mall between Wynkoop and Broadway). Click on the “layers” on the left to get Panamario and Wikipedia on your maps. Find information on items downtown and start a Google Doc called “Digital Denver Details”. Jot down some of the specifics on the items listed below (e.g. historical stuff, interesting details, etc.) Things to look for:
• Daniels & Fisher Tower
• Painted Cows
• State Capitol Building
• . . . more to come!

Now that you know a little bit more about the whys and wherefores of Denver, it is time to go a little bit deeper in to the whos of Denver. Today you will be exploring 16 of the most famous characters to ever call our city home. You will be looking for important details about what they did, how they lived, and why they are important. The life summaries on this site should give you more than enough information, but you may do more research if you wish.

The creative part of this process comes in when you take what you have learned and created a caricature. You may be asking yourself at this moment, “What is a caricature?”

Well, a caricature is an exaggerated representation of a person, usually drawn in order to bring out the details of a person’s life (as well as partially make fun of their appearance). So, in your caricature, you will draw one of these important people of Denver holding important things in an important place. Feel free to exaggerate any part of the person you would like, as long as you do not make up aspects of their lives. We will then display all of our caricatures and reflect upon the important founders and influential people of Denver.

(By the way, here is an example of soccer player caricature)

In order to better understand the place in which we will all be
navigating, we must take a closer look at how our wonderful city was
built. Over the next week we will be exploring Essential Questions about Denver, delving into the city’s past, and pulling out the most essential elements for our search through the city.


Essential Question(s):

Demas Barnes, an argonaut
crossing the plains, marveled at Denver’s site and its construction.
“Why [Denver] was ever located here is more than I can decipher,” he
wrote home on June 25, 1866. “Ten thousand carcasses of poor overworked
animals mark the highway over seven hundred miles of parching, treeless
plain.”

1. Denver is located where it is — as
   our state’s capital — for a reason (or reasons). What reasons led
   early settlers and developers to choose the current location of Denver?
2. What are the factors that have led to Denver’s continued growth?
   


After you have written out your answer to the essential question and discussed it with your classmates, you will be exploring a full answer and blogging it on one of your group member’s blogs. Please support your answer with at least three details from the text.

• Founding of Denver
• Denver getting under way.