8th Grade  Project 2 weeks

Charles's 2nd design

Charles H
Updated
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.6-8.6
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.6-8.5
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.6-8.7
MS-PRO-PD-15
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.6
+ 5 more
1-pager

Purpose

Students investigate, “How can we use Canva to document and communicate how to build a safe web shooter?” Teams begin with launch-and-aim stations, then measure range, accuracy, and consistency as they collaboratively plan, program or construct, test, critique, and revise prototypes using safe classroom projectiles. With support from the media/technology teacher, students research focused questions, keep a digital build journal, use feedback, and create a concise explanation of how their design works, changed, and responded to frustration. The project culminates in a Web Shooter Showcase where students demonstrate their final prototype and present their learning to classmates, teachers, and invited staff.

Learning goals

Students will investigate, “How can we use Canva to document and explain how to build a safe, effective web-shooter prototype?” Teams will research ideas from several sources, develop a simple program using inclusive collaboration practices, and measure range, accuracy, and consistency during launch-and-aim trials with safe classroom projectiles. After each trial, partners will identify one strength and one improvement, revise their design and digital writing, and document changes, feedback, and responses to frustration in a build journal with support from the media/technology teacher. Students will demonstrate their final prototype at the Web Shooter Showcase and publish a concise explanation of how it works, the evidence behind their revisions, and what they learned.

Standards
  • [Common Core] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.6-8.6 - Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas clearly and efficiently.
  • [Common Core] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.6-8.5 - With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.
  • [Common Core] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.6-8.7 - Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
  • [Computer Science Teachers Association] MS-PRO-PD-15 - Develop a program utilizing inclusive collaboration practices.
  • [Common Core] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.6 - Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.
Competencies
  • Collaboration - Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.
  • Effective Communication - Students practice listening to understand, communicating with empathy, and share their learning through exhibiting, presenting and reflecting on their work.
  • Critical Thinking & Problem Solving - Students consider a variety of innovative approaches to address and understand complex questions that are authentic and important to their communities.
  • Self Directed Learning - Students use teacher and peer feedback and self-reflection to monitor and direct their own learning while building self knowledge both in and out of the classroom.
  • Content Expertise - Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.

Products

Teams will create launch-station observations, a self-generated research question, and a digital build journal with source notes, sketches, measurements, and shared roles. The journal will compare range, accuracy, and consistency across trials, recording partner feedback, one strength, one improvement, and each resulting design change. Each team will collaboratively develop a simple program to track or display test data and build a working, low-force web shooter prototype using teacher-approved materials and a safe classroom projectile, with guidance from the media/technology teacher. At the Web Shooter Showcase, teams will demonstrate their prototype and share a polished digital explanation and reflection describing how it works, revisions made, learning gained, and strategies used to handle frustration.

Launch

Begin with a Web Shooter Kickoff Challenge featuring three launch-and-aim stations made from safe classroom materials, with projectiles directed only at fixed targets in a controlled area. In teams, students rotate through stations, measure range and accuracy, and record observations in a shared digital build journal. After each trial, partners identify one strength and one improvement, then make and test one small design change. Close by asking, “How can we design, test, and clearly document a safe web shooter that launches accurately and consistently?”

Exhibition

Host a Web Shooter Showcase where teams demonstrate their final prototypes by launching soft classroom projectiles at fixed targets, never at people. Classmates, teachers, invited staff, and the school media/technology teacher can view digital build journals showing measurements, trial results, feedback, and design revisions. Each team briefly explains how its prototype works, how changes improved range, accuracy, or consistency, and how members collaborated and handled frustration. Visitors provide one specific compliment and one question, followed by a short team reflection.