Summer School...Session One (week 1)

This summer I am teaching three sessions of summer school. The first session started last week. We have 12 students (raising 4th-6th grader)...6 boys and 6 girls. We started by introducing the students to the engineering design process. I introduced electricity & circuits, and gave the class a design challenge. Using copper tape, a LED and a coin cell battery, they had to make a simple circuit. Next they were asked to come up with an interactive board that could be used to teach the kindergarten students some concept.

Next we introduced Scratch programing. The kids started by playing games on the Scratch website, and looking at their scripts. Next they were given a design challenge to make program Scratch and create a screen that move the sprite, had some interaction with the keyboard, incorporated sound and have some "communication". After that, we introduced them to MaKeyMaKey's and playdoe.

Next came littleBits. We put out project cards and asked them to create two different one. After that, they could design and create systems of their own.

It was a great first week. Next week we'll move on to the vinyl cutter and laser cutter.