Lakeview 5th Graders Use PicCollage and ChatterPix to Portray Famous Scientists

“App Smash” has become an increasingly popular term to describe the process of using several apps in combination to complete a task or create a project. The process of App Smashing encourages students’ creativity and problem-solving skills as they work among multiple tools to develop content and share their learning. The Lakeview fifth graders are working on an App Smash project to synthesize and share what they have learned from their research on a famous scientist.

To begin their project, each student conducted online research on a famous scientist using Google search tools to find important biographical facts. Students also conducted a Google image search to find a photo of their scientist. Next, students pulled their photo into PicCollage, a free design app that offers access to a tremendous gallery of backgrounds, stickers and customizable fonts for creating photo projects. Finally, the students are using  ChatterPix Kids to animate their scientist so he or she can speak. ChatterPix is a free iOS app that can be used to animate an object within a photo so that it can “talk”. Students are able to draw a mouth on an object in a photo and then record themselves talking. The object’s mouth animates and moves with the voice recording. Using ChatterPix, students will assume the role of their scientist and record themselves sharing biographical facts from their research.