Who will buy?: Buds

Flannel flowers by Sahel
Flannel flowers by Sahel, Stage 1, 2010

Once again exploring TaLe, in the quest to find engaging learning objects for the IWB to support Stage 2 in their HSIE unit, “Who will buy?”, I found this:

Buds (Code X01DA), in which the students help a farmer to win an award for business innovation. Players must start out by farming fresh flowers and selling them. The students are encouraged to think creatively to find new market opportunities and meet demand. They decide when to use equipment to make different products, such as compost and pressed flowers.

We will begin exploring this new learning object today. If it’s half as successful as Fish market: explore trading, it should be great!

Who will buy?

Stage 2 students are studying the topic “Who will buy?” The TaLe learning object, Fish market: explore trading is gain proving popular with the students, who are playing it on IWBs and at home. It is code X01DI on the Tale4Students site. They enjoy attempting to secure a rare fizzer tropical fish.

Fizzer
Buy and sell fish in trading markets in a range of Australian and New Zealand cities. Compare market prices, supply and demand. Explore a range of traders to find the best deals and open up new markets. Find a rare fish. Maximise your profit and reputation as a smart trader. This learning object is the first in a series of two objects that progressively increase in difficulty.

This Youtube video clip about a toy hovercraft uses persuasive language techniques to encourage children to want the product:

Buy me that: Helping kids understand toy ads

Magic Art Reproducer

After seeing this advertisement in US comics over many, many years, Magic Art Reproducer finally turned up in a local Magnamail mail order catalogue. Mr McLean’s mother agreed to order him one for his birthday (he was about 14), and the result was very underwhelming, especially the tiny box it arrived in! While it appears to be a large, commercial overhead projector (only just starting to become popular in schools in the 70s), it was extremely tiny and required no power source to operate.

The ad misleadingly shows the artists using the device from a distance, but the barely-visible superimposed image you are supposed to trace can only be seen on the paper if you press your eye to the viewer. (Then you can’t really control your pencil very well.) Mr McLean’s device had a hairline crack in the base, where the upright pole was supposed to connect, so there was enough wobble to be annoying. When copying a 2D artwork, the source material had to be pinned upside down on a wall. It was hopeless trying to get enough light to fall on a 3D object. The trickiest thing was directing light across the source material to illuminate the image clearly – he spent a long time trying to direct a goosenecked desk lamp at the right angle (that he had to return to to his Dad’s desk as soon as possible).

Mr McLean used the device once, then hid it in a drawer.