• The Creative Innovations course at Oak View is an exciting new 8th grade elective that started for the 2013-14 school year. This course meets every-other-day and is split into 3 major units to coincide with the 3 trimesters throughout the school year. The school year starts with Digital Photography where students will learn elements of photography as they take digital photos with their Nikon digital cameras. Students will create a stop motion animated movie using the photography & editing skills they have learned. Each student will create a digital photo portfolio throughout the process that they will save onto a DVD to bring home. The middle of the school year will be a hands-on unit on LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Engineering. Students will work in small groups to build a robot using the LEGO EV3 robotics system. The teams of students will learn how to program their robots to navigate various challenges and learn how sensors are added to make the robots more reliable. The school year wraps up with the Power, Energy & Transportation unit. We will create working models to explore how electromagnetism is used in electric motors and wind turbines. Students will design solid-fuel rockets and wooden gliders to flight test them.