2nd Grade Scratch Jr Stories

A few weeks ago, our 2nd grade classes came to the Lab for a 60 minute mini-lesson on using Scratch Jr. We went over the basics and then had the students create a few screens with interaction, communication, movement and sound.

After the initial lesson, their teachers incorporated Scratch Jr into their language arts program. After learning about parts of a story and different story elements, the students were challenged to take one of their writing pieces and put it on Scratch Jr as a 4 part (beginning, middle, middle, end) project.

Once their story was "programmed" they were shared with fellow students who peer critiqued them on certain elements like; did the story make sense; did the graphics go along with the story; did the project flow (both as a story and a visual/interactive project)?

Following the feedback, students went back into the program and began to make changes to "fix" the story. This process will go on a couple of times until the students feel their story is the best it can be.

First Grade Christmas Ornaments

It's that time of year again for Christmas Ornaments. Our first graders used the computer program Kidpix to make their design. Then, to the printer they went to make a "hardcopy" of their drawing. Next came the iPad and a program to vectorize their creation. A quick email to the laser cutter computer and after a little formatting, another batch of ornaments ready.

This project also lead to an introduction to symmetry as well as talking about shapes.

 

Hour of Code 2016 - Wayfinding

For Hawaii, the idea of "wayfinding" is very important...it's how these islands were discovered and settled many, many years ago. This years Hour of Code is highlighting the new Disney movie Moana, the story of a young Polynesian girl named Moana and the demi-god Maui finding their way in the Pacific.

This year we again did a physical computing activity for our lower school students to help them learn about coding. They were also given the chance to do the Moana-themed Hour of Code activity.

We made a 12 x 12 grid (each square 3x3 feet) on the lawn outside our computer lab. We put cones in some of the grids...some with pictures of honu (turtles) others with the dreaded Kakamora (coconut pirates from the movie). Students could not go into these squares. We also made instructional signs and placed them face-down in a few of the squares. These signs said things like, "Move forward one space.", "Start Over.", "Do 2 jumping jacks."

Students were paired up, one taking the role of the robot and the other, the programmer. The robot stood on a spot at the side of the grid and it was their goal to reach an "island" on the other side...the programers job was to give the robot directions to get across the grid without going into a square with a cone or a square with another robot (if they did, they had to start over). If they stepped in a square with a sign, the programer had to read it and tell the robot what to do. Robots can't talk and programers can't touch robots...they have to walk along side the robots, give them the "code". To know which island to direct their robot to, programmers picked a card, numbered between 1-6.

Once the pair completed the maze, the robot picked a coin our of the island bucket. Then the students returned to their starting side, where they switched job...the new programer had to direct the new robot to a different island for that robot to win his coin. For the older students (grade 4-6) we blindfolded the robots.

After everyone had gone and gotten a coin, we sat down and talked about the experience, about coding terminology, and how/why coding is important. This was done either during the classes computer class, recess or another time of the classroom teachers choice.

This years coins (made on our laser cutter)