By: TwitterButtons.com
By TwitterButtons.com

Thursday, May 9, 2013

How to use Xbox kinect in the middle school classroom

I made this video showcasing my work using Xbox in the classroom

It showcases the project that I did with the Xbox Kinect and the three games

  • Xbox Kinect Adventures
  • Just Dance 4
  • Star Wars Kinect

This lesson came about is an improvement from last semester when I solely did data collection with my students when they danced to a select set of songs in Just Dance 4.

Xbox kinect in class
My students dancing in Just Dance 4

This time by collaborating with my Math teacher, I only collected the age and their scores - but at least get three dances in.

Xbox kinect data
ISpreadsheet screen cap of dance data

I also knew that I wanted to use the XBox Kinect with my students for years, so I would need to change up the games. The 8th graders played the Kinect Adventures game. It had five different mini games and the kids had fun with the variety and getting active. Each student had to play three different mini games and we averaged their scores.

My 7th graders were my largest class, so they needed to play Just Dance 4 due to the fact I could get four players playing at once. My first round I let the kids pick whatever dance they wanted. Unfortunately the game takes a long time to get picked and it seems you need quite the precision to click. The second round was VS. matches, where they would get a partner and team up to battle each other. The third round I just put the game into Non-stop shuffle due to the fact I only had four days total. It was tough getting everyone's score in the last day, so it took a lot of team work and unfortunately too many kids were just goofing off.

My 6th graders were the smallest and I knew they would appreciate my Star Wars Kinect game. The first round was dancing, the second round was their time on Podracing and the third was Rancor Rampage. They had the most amount of fun playing the Rancor game, what twelve year old wouldn't enjoy smashing buildings and eating Stormtroopers?

While the few students were playing, the other kids had to document the scores in iSpreadsheet. The scores would then be sent to my Math teacher for an upcoming collaborative project in his class. My students will also analyze the averages of those scores and create something that summarizes their data and create some programming in Hopscotch.