Making and using springs in Moovl
July 31, 2007 at 7:33 am | Posted in How to, Primary curriculum, Science | Leave a commentWhen objects are drawn as overlapping in Moovl, then they are joined by invisible ‘springs’. This is what the ‘tight-loose’ slider controls. Make the objects very ‘loose’ and the springs that join them together will be slack. Make the objects ‘tight’ and the objects will stick close together and interact strongly.
You can use this property to build visible ‘springs’ by joining small objects together, eg small circles or triangles. Although clearly younger children need to explore the properties of springs using real objects, Moovl allows experimentation and prediction (Unit 3E: Magnets and Springs from the QCA Science Scheme of Work gives practical examples and activities).
In the drawings here I’ve used series of small triangles and circles joined together to form ‘springs’. I think the ‘robot on a trampoline’ amply demonstrates my point…
Fun curriculum idea
July 16, 2007 at 7:57 am | Posted in Animation, Fun, How to | 2 CommentsI’ve been experimenting recently combining Moovl with other creative tools to make ‘mini-animations’.
The drawings and animations in this film were done by my son (who is 8) in Moovl. We then screen-captured them using CamStudio and imported them into Windows MovieMaker. My son added his own voiceover, and I helped with the transitions, titles and credits.
Because the animation tools in Moovl are intuitive and designed with children in mind, my son got to grips with them immediately. The other tools we used would probably require teacher-intervention to get the best from them, though I’m sure there are movie-making tools designed specifically for younger children.
Although this was an ‘after-school’ activity, it does help to incorporate the use of ICT into other curriculum areas, for example art and design (eg pupils apply their experience of materials and processes, including drawing, developing their control of tools and techniques). Simon Mills’s ICT Inspirations blog has lots more thoughts and examples of using animation and film-making in the primary curriculum.
Anyway here is our effort… it may not be Oscar material yet, but we had a lot of fun (and a little learning) along the way.
Anyone for tennis?
July 2, 2007 at 11:46 am | Posted in Animation, Fun, How to | Leave a commentInspired by Wimbledon, though not necessarily the British performances, I used Moovl to create a little game myself. First of all I drew the two players, then a ball (which I made very bouncy). Then I animated the two tennis rackets and let them get on with it.
Although mainly for fun, this activity shows how the physical properties of Moovl (like the hardness of the rackets, or the heaviness of the ball), can interact quite nicely with the animation effects (the loop of the players’ shots).
Next time I’ll add some rain…
French kinetograms
June 21, 2007 at 11:54 am | Posted in How to, Primary curriculum | Leave a commentInspired by Primary Teacher UK’s blog post about Diglot, I suddenly realised (sacrebleu!) that the text tool in Moovl, along with the physics could be a great way of learning some vocab.
I typed in the words, then adjusted the physical properties to give the desired effect. Works best with verbs and adjectives, but I could see it might also work with adverbs and some nouns. I hope this could help with remembering the vocab, by relating the word directly to its meaning in a very visual way.
Spaceman
June 13, 2007 at 11:48 am | Posted in Fun, How to, Science | Leave a commentInspired by NASA’s recent spacewalk to repair the International Space Station I created a little Moovl experiment…
I created three identical men. Then I made the one on Earth quite heavy (for gravity) and quite sticky (to simulate air resistance). I made the one on the Moon lighter, and slippier. Then I made the one in space ultra-light and ultra-slippy.
As you would expect the Earthman managed a small jump, and came to rest quickly. The Moonman jumped higher and took longer to settle back down. And the spaceman… well, let’s just say I’m still looking.
Problem-solving in Moovl
June 7, 2007 at 2:48 pm | Posted in How to | Leave a commentThis Moovl drawing is set up to encourage problem-solving skills.
The man lives in the desert and needs to collect rain – but his house doesn’t have a roof. Draw a roof to keep him dry and collect the rain.
I’ve come up with a couple of solutions, but I’m sure there are many more. At the moment my solutions do allow him to collect the rain – but unfortunately he can’t seem to get at it. Mind you, he can’t get out of his house either…
Kinetograms (2)
May 29, 2007 at 7:54 am | Posted in How to | Leave a commentHere are three ‘kinetograms’ built in Moovl.
All of these use the ‘text’ function along with the physical properties to show not just the word or phrase – but to emphasise the meaning, and give an interesting focus.
I explain how I set these up on the ‘How to’ page.
Kinetogram
May 26, 2007 at 2:21 pm | Posted in How to, Moovl development | Leave a commentPondering further on the use of the text tool in Moovl (see Making bounce bounce), I wondered if there was good a word to describe the moving word pictures that Moovl can make.
The closest is Calligram, which comes from the Greek for ‘beautiful writing’ and which describes a word, phrase or poem where the style and layout of the text forms a part of the focus. But as far as I can tell Calligrams are only static sections of text.
So, how about ‘kinetogram’ meaning ‘moving writing’?
Over the next few days I’ll add some kinetograms to the ‘How to’ page.
Making bounce bounce
May 22, 2007 at 11:57 am | Posted in How to | 1 CommentAnother nice aspect of Moovl is the ability to add text, and also treat the text like an object – assigning physical properties like hardness and heaviness.
Here’s a quick way of making ‘bounce’ bounce.
You can also make ‘shiver’ shiver and ‘stretch’ stretch, but not, I’m afraid, Wagga Wagga.
Make music with Moovl
May 21, 2007 at 9:42 am | Posted in How to | Leave a commentI’ve been experimenting recently with the musical properties of Moovl.
As well as assigning physical properties to shapes (hardness, heaviness etc.). you can also assign a sound that plays when the object comes into contact with another object.
This drawing assigns a ‘piano’ sound to some rectangles, that then ‘play’ when the hands come into contact with them.
It may not be music, but hey, is it art…?
…ok, so it’s not art either.
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