Posts Tagged ‘coding’

Learning Programming with the Headmaster

Last May, I met with our headmaster, Gary Krahn, about establishing a more formal coding program for our fourth graders. The exciting news from the meeting was that Dr. Krahn wanted to teach our fourth graders on a regular basis. We discussed some possibilities – whether to use Scratch or go with JavaScript. Dr. Krahn wanted to play with both before deciding what to do. A few weeks later, we met again. The decision was to teach JavaScript using Processing 2. Dr. Krahn would teach twice a week for the entire year!

Well, not all plans work perfectly – for whatever reason, our tech department couldn’t get Processing 2 to download correctly. With one day left before Dr. Krahn was to teach, there was a frantic search for some other application to use. Khan Academy was the choice. The students were quickly set up, we added a link on my web page,  and Dr. Krahn was ready to begin.

Dr. Krahn with the 4th graders

Dr. Krahn with the 4th graders

As Dr. Krahn introduced the lesson, the students listened intently (except for the tired boy in the corner!) and asked lots of questions. Dr. Krahn started with some basics:

  • Background color – Example:  background(181, 85, 85);
  • How to place objects on the screen (x,y axis)

And then the students explored. The first session of 40 minutes went by very quickly, much to the chagrin of the students!

Exploring

Exploring

In the next class, fill, strokeweight, and rectangle were introduced. Using an idea from Dr. Ginger Alford, our Director of Computer Science, Dr. Krahn discussed Mondrian paintings and how to create one using coding. This time, we had high school students come in so there were plenty of helpers to go around!

The students are extremely excited about learning coding AND having Dr. Krahn as their instructor. Many have continued working at home – anytime a child is inspired to learn on their own time is thrilling! I can’t wait to see how far they go this year!

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Techie Club: Hour of Coding

Every year our school has an auction and the teachers are encouraged to provide some type of activity for bidding. In the past, I’ve always done a “TechnoWizard of the Day” where a student plans and teaches the classes that come to the lab.

This year I decided to offer something different. It was open to five students who would come in after school for an hour of tech activities.

auction description 2014

Four terrific third graders and one stupendous 2nd grader bid on the item and joined me last Friday for a fun afternoon.

As usual, I had TOO much planned but that’s okay, we had lots of fun. We started with the Hopscotch app and downloaded and Etch-a-sketch program. The children were encouraged to experiment with the variables in the script blocks to change the way the program responded.

Clearing the Screen!

Clearing the Screen!

Next, we moved to Scratch to create a maze and then it was on to the Makey Makey boards to control our project. We also used a pre-made Scratch piano and playdoh to hook that up to make music.

Here is a glimpse at our quick afternoon of coding!

Celebrating the Hour of Code!

What a fun and exciting day we had on December 11th as the entire school celebrated the Hour of Code! Here is a snippet of what occurred that day.

As usual, I planned far too much for 15 minute periods! How could I really think that we could work with 3 or 4 apps in that short amount of time? (See previous post: Getting Ready for Hour of Code). But, that’s alright! The students had a wonderful time working with apps, online programs, and coding with cups during P.E.

I loved watching the thinking processes that occurred as the students worked. You could almost see their brains spinning as they practiced how to solve each level! The collaboration among the students was fantastic. If someone was “stuck” another child quickly and willingly stepped in to offer guidance. The best part was watching the students help their teachers! I even had one teacher who apparently worked with the Cargo Bot app all day; giving up his planning periods to move up through the levels. He even searched for me after school to discuss it!

Our coding day was a resounding success. My part was with Lower School but I know exciting events were going on in our Middle and Upper Schools as well!

Enjoy a longer animoto video of the day.

Getting Ready for Hour of Code

Several weeks ago, two of our upper school teachers invited me to join them in celebrating Computer Science Education Week’s Hour of Code. After adding a teacher from Middle School and participating in some fun brainstorming sessions, we’ve come up with several exciting activities to encourage ALL ages that they can code!

First, what is Hour of Code?

  • From Code.orgThe Hour of Code is an opportunity for every student to try Computer Science for one hour during the week of Dec. 9-13 (Computer Science Education Week).

We have chosen Wednesday, December 11 to have our “Hour of Code” Day. Here is a look at what we’ll be doing.

Lower School will be coming to the lab for 15 minutes of coding either using apps on our iPad minis or online programs.

Kindergarten and first graders will be using:

Kodable

Free & paid versions
Light Bot

Free & paid versions

Both are fun ways for younger children to understand how putting instructions together causes something to happen.

Second graders will use the above apps along with:

Daisy the Dino

Free

Daisy the Dinosaur guides children to drag command blocks to the program area to make the dinosaur perform a task.

daisy the dino

Third graders will be coding an Angry Bird puzzle.

The puzzle was specifically designed for Hour of Code and can be done on the iPad or on a computer.

angry birds puzzleFourth grade moves to Hopscotch and Cargo Bot.

Hopscotch

Free
Cargo Bot

Free

Hopscotch is created by the same people who designed Daisy the Dinosaur. It’s the “next step up” and is definitely more challenging and it provides the opportunity for students to use a variety of coding blocks.

hopscotchCargo Bot has the user drag coding tools to program the robot to move boxes. Sound easy?? Not necessarily, as the user moves through each level that grows progressively more difficult.

cargo botI’ve collected some other resources to encourage students to code beyond our short time together. You can find these on my Coding webpage.

More Activities:

We are extremely excited to have our coaches participating. They will be doing the Traveling Circuits cup-stacking activity with grades K – 6. The goal of this off-line activity is to highlight programming techniques as they instruct their “robot” to build a specific cup stack using only six symbols.

Our older students will be participating as well. A middle school math instructor will hold coding sessions for fifth and sixth graders. Technology labs will be staffed by computer science students and instructors to aid new coders as they drop in throughout the day.

During our lunch periods, middle and high school students will be coding as the output is projected on a large screen in the cafeteria. The coder will sit on the “Throne of Code” and wear the Coding Crown.

Throne of Code (and crown)

Throne of Code (and crown)

We’re looking forward to an exciting day!

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