Titan eNews
Weekly Campus Update
Mission: To create a community of learners empowered to collaborate and compete in a rapidly changing world.
Thankfulness~
1st Years:
Here's the link to our Project Parent Letter.
Dear First Year Parent,
The Grove to Glass boardroom presentations were a success! Once again, our first years amazed panelists with their research and professionalism. Now, it’s time to put the suits aside and start building! In A League of Our Own, learners will transform themselves into athletes in the Academy Projectile League. This is a one-of-a-kind sport in which teams build a launching device, form alliances with other teams, and compete against other alliances on the field. Learners will explore projectile motion, analyze the effects of collaboration and resource management, create a sports story for their team, and document their design process using augmented reality technology. Learners will show their final products and compete at our fifth annual Tailgate Tournament on Saturday, January 20. Please plan on bringing your cameras and your Titan spirit to support your learners on an epic Saturday afternoon!
Anchor Document:
A League of Our Own
Bring your A game!
Driving Question: How can I maximize my potential?
Plano Academy first years have faced trial after trial this year. After learning how to navigate a new environment and encountering a monstrous panel of judges, they must now face their biggest opponents: themselves. The Academy Projectile League is searching for champions of unmatched intellectual skills, phenomenal athletic ability, and outstanding cooperative mindsets for the fifth annual League of Our Own competition. Teams must be able to assess their limited resources, collaborate amongst themselves, and cooperate with other teams in order to succeed in this year’s tournament.
Prior to the event, each team will:
Use the design thinking process, create a launching device and document the process.
Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of collaboration in order to optimize resources within given constraints.
Create a narrative which enhances the marketability of your projectile team.
At our Academy Tailgate Tournament, learners will form alliances and compete in an elimination-style event for the coveted Iron Goalpost.
Major Assignments & Checkpoints:
11/27 Gesture Drawings
11/28 World Conference 1
11/30 Photographic Compositions
12/1 Popsicle Prototype Challenge
12/8 World Conference 2
12/19 Individual Athlete Story
1/8 Cultural Diffusion Assessment
1/9 Team Program Page
1/12 Team Story
1/15 Global Dynamics Assessment
1/17 Team Augmented Reality (Aurasma) Video
1/19 Digital Portfolio Updated
1/20 League Tailgate Tournament - Saturday at Clark Stadium 12pm - 4pm
1/22 League Reflection Essay
How can you help?
PTSA will host a tailgate party before the tournament begins on Saturday, January 20. We will send out more details at a later time.
Support your first years at the Tailgate Tournament! Bring blankets, cameras, and your cheerleader spirit!
Questions for the dinner table:
How do modern writers and storytellers utilize ancient techniques to create heroes or villains? How do you see the hero archetype or the hero’s journey in the modern world?(consider current events, movies, TV shows, books, etc.)
How does an artist document their design thinking process? Why is it important for artists to document their ideas?
What factors encourage different countries to work together or engage in conflict?
What does it take for a country to establish a position of power?
What are the effects of the spread of language and religion across the globe?
What factors will contribute to the flight of your projectile after it is launched?
What factors of projectile motion can you control in the design of your launching device?
How can one use augmented reality to show their design thinking process?
Thank you for all your support! Please let any of us know if you have questions about or ideas for this project.
Sincerely,
The 1st Year Facilitator Team
2nd Years:
3rd Years:
Learners have been charged with the task of creating products within a self-contained Academy economy! They will use those products to create a business that physically and mathematically participates in that economy. Their business plan, marketing campaign, and visual merchandising all culminate in a night of promoting products to the Plano community
Overall goals for the project include learners:
Engaging in the processes of ideation, implementation, analysis and prediction in order to bring innovative products from concept to market.
Identifying a target audience for products and researching strategies to develop a marketing plan to maximize profit.
Below you'll find pictures of company teams presenting their business plans to loan and marketing professionals - we appreciate our volunteers!
4th Years:
The 4th Years are excited to have completed up the Proposal Phase of Capstone. Their proposals not only identified the purpose of their project, but also the methodology and a review of literature. As they move into the Implementation Phase after break, they will design, create, explore and/or innovate their self-selected project idea. All the while, they continue to work diligently on their group project, It's Alive. In English, learners have been reading and discussing the nonfiction text, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which highlights the life of the woman behind the scientific discovery of the HeLa cells. In Calculus, they have been examining position, acceleration and velocity. Pre-Cal has just begun their trigonometry unit.
Also, the learners were fortunate to have Greg Gorman, Director of Developer Outreach for IBM Watson, spend time discussing and showing them features of Watson and tjbot. They will ultimately use their research, knowledge and skills in the upcoming mid-project debates. We are still looking for volunteers to judge the event. The debates will be held on November 29th-December 1st from 9:30am-12:30pm. If you are interested, please contact Marissa Pinder at marissa.pinder@pisd.edu.
Save the Date!
11/18 PTSA Practice ACT
11/20-11/24 Thanksgiving Break
11/30-12/1 4th Year It's Alive Debates
12/11 3rd Years Ring Ceremony
12/12 PTSA General Meeting
12/14 3rd Years K'Ching Presentation Event
12/14 Carter Bloodcare Blood Drive
12/15 Plano ISD Academy 8th Grade applications close for 2018-2019
12/20 Last Day of Fall Semester