STEM Lab 24_25 Round 7... So Long, Farewell Edition

Round 7 was the last full rotation of the year, and as such, it was the last time a couple classes had STEM lab for the year. Each grade level worked on a variety of creative coding and digital making projects with Scratch Jr, Scratch, Makey Makey, and the micro:bit. As always, the creativity and originality the students displayed was truly impressive.

Kindergarten & 1st Grade

Most STEM Lab units for kindergarten and 1st grade are centered on daily activities rather than multiday projects. Each day's activities are related of course, but can also stand alone. To finish the year however, both grades worked on a Scratch Jr storytelling project meant to last most of the week. First, I guided them through the process of creating an organizer for their projects. In this they drew out the beginning, middle, and end of their story they had chosen to tell. They had to sketch the settings and characters as well as draft the dialogue and movements of the characters. When the plans were complete, students started working in Scratch Jr. In most cases the students had to use the drawing tools to create the characters and settings they needed which led to a number of digital art lessons. We ended up with a beautiful variety of story projects at the end of the week. Some students chose to retell a favorite book they had read, while others decided to create an original story. 

2nd Grade

The 2nd graders continued their introduction to the full version of Scratch this round. Rather than completing a different tutorial project each day as they did in round 6, this time they planned and programmed an "about me" project. They began by planning their sprites, costume changes, and which facts they would share about themselves. The project required them to add the letters of their name as sprites and to then give each letter a costume that represented something about them. (In my example project the letter Q, when clicked, turns into a coffee cup which declares "I drink a lot of coffee" before changing back into a Q.) As they started working on the project in Scratch, they found the need to draw many of the things they wanted their letters to turn into because there was not a sprite in the library that worked. Like with Kinder and 1st grade, this facilitated a number of great teachable moments about how to best use digital drawing tools. The students have done a really wonderful job transitioning from Scratch Jr to "real" Scratch. It is a rather large step up in terms of complexity and they have handled the jump admirably. 

3rd Grade

The 3rd grade project this round is one I typically do earlier in the year, but that wasn't an option because... carts. Anyway, the project was constructing controllers for Scratch projects with cardboard, construction paper, and copper tape. The overall design of the controllers was the same for everyone, but the decorations reflected the students' wide variety of interests and ideas. Students had to construct the individual keys and board, add copper tape to each key as well as to the board, before finally assembling the pieces. While the glue dried, the students started work on a Scratch project to accompany their controller. The only rule that they had to follow was that their  Scratch project used key presses. Many students made games while others made programs that draw or play music. A few were themed around topics the group was passionate about, like travel or pollution. There were also a number of projects that would best be classified as "random silliness", which was of course fine so long as the silliness was achieved with key presses. (Mr. Banner's class did not do this project because they were doing the cardboard arcade project from round 6. They did not do it then thanks to a short week.)

4th Grade

The end of the year is usually a time when I try out new things, or try an old project with a different grade level, and that I what I did with 4th grade this round. Specifically, I had them do the "hacked art" Scratch project that 5th grade did a few rounds back. I was interested to see how they might approach the task differently than the older students, but I also just really love this project and wanted to do it again. It is always fun to see how, even when students start with the same image, they more often than not go in wildly different directions with the effects they create. For me this highlights one of the best things about Scratch: its adaptability to a wide variety of student interests and ideas. In the end, the 4th grade hacked art projects are not just more of what 5th grade did, but their own thing. You can check out all of the projects in this studio. (Ms. Aceves' class did not do this project because they were completing the musical instrument project from round 6, which they did not do then thanks to a short week.) In the sample below, click the green flag, then click on the objects in the painting.

5th Grade

The fifth grade returned to programming with micro:bit this round, incorporating the device into a physical project with LEDs and servo motors. We began by building circuits on a breadboard, two LEDs and a servo, and then created a starter program to control these components. In this project the micro:bit gets plugged into a breakout board attached to the breadboard giving us access to all of its input/ output pins. Students looked at a few example projects, and then designed their own animated display piece. They had to include the two LEDs and the servo, but I made them aware that they could have up to four LEDs and 2 servos. The diversity of projects was truly wonderful to behold. From a riff on Van Gogh's Starry Night to Nyan Cat complete with theme music, the results were delightful! I have had to break the highlight reel into two parts because there was too much amazing for a single video.

And now the hard part...

As many of you have already heard, this is my last year at Sinclair. I have accepted a position at an international school in Bangkok, Thailand as a STEAM Lab teacher beginning in August. I have been at Sinclair for 14 years, the last 10 of which have been in the STEM Lab, and the decision to leave was not made lightly. However, the chance to live and work overseas was an opportunity I could not let pass me by. 

I could not have wished to be part of a better community, and I am eternally grateful for all of the support I have received from the families at Sinclair. That support and encouragement has made the STEM Lab what it is today. I am going to miss the community and the amazing students that it has been my privilege to teach over the years. 

Thank you for everything, Sinclair! You will always hold a special place in my heart!

STEM Lab 24_25 Round 6

After an agonizingly long wait, Round 6 finally celebrated the full return of the Sinclair STEM Lab! Everyone was excited to have things back to normal, and we took full advantage of the situation with the kinds of creative, messy, wonderful project that can only happen in the lab. Kindergarten and first grade stepped up their coding skills while programming Robo-mouse. The second graders "graduated" from Scratch Jr. to the full version of Scratch. In grades 3 through 5 we made up for lost time and dove into some building projects.  Third grade built cardboard arcade. Meanwhile fourth grade wrote Scratch programs that make music and built cardboard instruments to play the code they created. Fifth grade returned to their tiny museum projects building a physical version of their virtual museum. All three grade presented their work to a visiting class from the primary grades.

Kindergarten & 1st Grade

Robo-mouse is always a huge hit with our youngest programmers here in the lab. It is also an important step in the development of their algorithmic thinking because the robot's programs have to be structured a little differently from what the students are used to from Code.org. In Code.org, students write programs using the cardinal directions. As a result, the students do not have to consider turns when writing their programs. They just have to instruct the character to north or east or whatever. With Robo-mouse however, the students need to decide whether the robot need to turn left or right before instructing it to move forward. While most of the 1st graders remembered this from last year, it was a fairly big adjustment for the kindergartners. They persevered through their early frustrations and by the end of the week were building elaborate mazes and programming Robo-mouse to run them. 

2nd Grade

Something that the 2nd graders have come to look forward to each year is the point when they step up to using "real" Scratch rather than Scratch Jr. So there was considerable excitement when students arrived in the lab for the first time this year and saw that their promotion to Scratch was at hand. We started the week with a code along activity in which I walked them through the process of adding characters and backgrounds and then coding them to do things. Scratch has a LOT more going on than Scratch Jr and that can be a tremendous distraction as when the students discover the hundreds of hilarious noises in the sound library and feel the need to listen to every single one. However, this vast array of added commands is what makes Scratch such a powerful creative tool. 

3rd Grade

One of the hardest things about being chained to a cart for the first two thirds of the year was the need to water down the projects so as to minimize the movement of materials and the mess generated by building projects. One building project that simply could not be adapted to the cart life is cardboard arcade. It is certainly one of my favorite projects and I know it is something the students look forward to. The project is inspired by the short film Caine's Arcade, which kicks off the week. Afterwards, the students start planning what they will build, either in pairs or independently. The middle of the week is for building. In the process, they learn to use L-braces and flanges along with liquid glue to build stable structures. They test and refine their projects until they have a playable game. The week ends with the students presenting their games to a visiting class and whichever our our administrators are able to attend. Occasionally the 3rd grade classroom teachers will drop by. Every year I am impressed by the creativity the students display in their cardboard arcade games, and this year was no exception. 

4th Grade

In 4th grade, the first real building project of the year combined physical and digital elements. First, the students used Scratch to create a program that plays drums and notes when different keys are pressed on the keyboard. This is something they have worked with before. The real challenge was to then create a controller for the program using cardboard, construction paper, copper tape, and the Makey Makey. What I love about this project is that it has a rather low floor, and it is easy to code and build something that will work, but the possibilities are endless in terms of the creative directions students can go with it. We ended up with guitars, pianos, and drum kits, but we also had musical donuts, pencils, and baseball bats. Each class presented to one of our kindergarten classes.

5th Grade

Some of the STEM lab projects are too involved to be completed in just one week. With those projects, students complete the research and digital work during the first week, and then do the physical building and presenting the next time they are in the lab. You may recall that 5th grade started the tiny museum project back in round 4. When it started to look like we would get the lab back in time for round 6, I held off on doing the pared down version of the 2nd part project in hopes of being able to do the physical building and presentation piece for real. Thankfully, that is exactly how things worked out. 

The second half of the tiny museum project has students build a physical model of their digital museum room. The door to this model is wired to the Makey Makey and opening it triggers the program to run and narrate to the user about the objects in the room. Owing to the time gap between parts one and two, students needed some time to refresh their memories about the first part of the project. Many wanted to make improvements, which was fine of course. Students assembled their tiny rooms from a net I had traced for them and then built models of the objects in the virtual museum room. Copper tape was added to make the switch on the door. On Friday the classes shared their work with a class of second graders. 

STEM Lab 24_25 Round 5

The mobile STEM Lab cart rolls on and student greatness ensues. Round 5 was heavy on creative computing projects in Code.org and Scratch, but there was also some physical computing in 3rd grade. The long awaited return to normalcy is finally upon us, and come Monday, March 3rd, the STEM Lab will be restored to its former glory. Round 6 is going to be amazing!

Kindergarten, 1st, & 2nd Grades

The primary grades went back to work in Code.org this round. However, rather than picking up where they left off in their various courses, students skipped ahead in order to be sure of covering all of the important programming concepts for their grade. Kindergarten did a number of lessons centered on using loops (repeats) effectively. There were lessons at each level using code to create drawings and games. Second grade had the chance to try out some different activities that involved coding music and programming in Minecraft. A few students were even able to complete their grade level Code.org course!

3rd Grade

During this round the 3rd  graders returned to a project they started way back in October/ November. Back then they researched a science topic and then coded a Scratch project to share what they learned. The students added pictures from Britannica School and used key press events to switch between them. Each picture shared facts related to the image. 

To complete the project students created a poster that complemented their Scratch project. They added copper foil tape wires to the poster to act as "buttons" used to trigger the key presses that run the Scratch project. The poster was connected to the computer with an input/output device called Makey Makey. (The Makey Makey allows one to use any electrical conductor as a switch controlling key presses on the computer.) At the end of the week, with posters and Scratch projects complete, students presented their work to a visiting class from Kindergarten. This presentation piece is an important part of the STEM lab curriculum and being cart bound has limited how much of it I have been able to do this year. The Scratch projects from round 3 can be found in this studio.

4th Grade

The 4th graders worked on a Scratch project in this round using the Ask and Answer commands. This pair of commands lets the students write programs that solicit user input and to respond to the inputs received. We started the week by exploring some example projects and discussing how they used Ask and Answer blocks. As a group we brainstormed a few ideas for the kinds of projects these blocks could be used for, then the students went to work. They created a dazzling array of projects ranging from quizzes to chat-bots to mad libs to choose your own adventure stories. The projects were added to a class studio where the students could try out the projects created by their peers. Part of the project included leaving constructive feedback for their peers in the different projects' comment section. This last piece is part of practicing good digital citizenship.

5th Grade

One of the trickier programming concepts to master is using lists. A list in a computer program is exactly what it sounds like, an ordered collection of bits of information. The confusion comes from the fairly large number of commands needed to use a list in a program. Many of these commands need to be nested withing other commands in a particular order to work properly. Fifth grade's prompt this round was to create a project that uses lists. As with the 4th grade project, we began with a selection example projects. After talking about those I led a code along so students could practice creating and manipulating lists. Next, students got to work on list projects of their own. There was a lot of testing and revising of code to get things working, and I am really proud of the perseverance the students showed. It was especially great to see students helping each other through the troubleshooting process. The projects have been collected in this studio. 

STEM Lab 24_25 Round 4

It is hard to believe that we are already at the end of Round 4 in the STEM Lab, but here we are. Things got a little scrambled in 2nd a 4th grades on account of my having to be out for a few days during the first week of this round. Not to worry though, because those classes did the round 5 project that week, and they will do the round 4 project during the first week of round 5. Now let's dive into the amazing work the students did...

Kindergarten & 1st Grade

In this round our Kinder and 1st graders went unplugged and learned to make several origami models. For most of the Kinder students, this was their first experience with origami. We discussed the origins of the art in Japan and looked at a map to see where Japan is in relation to Houston. In Japanese "origami" means "folded paper". We likened the steps of creating origami models to the steps we follow when writing computer programs.

Most of the first grade students did an origami unit with me when they were in kindergarten, and a great many of them remembered how to make the models we learned then. We reviewed the vocabulary for the unit and the different types of folds. The models I introduced them to this year were a bit more challenging, but with some practice everyone succeeded in completing them. 

All of the paper we use for this unit is standard rectangular copier paper that I chop into squares with the paper cutter. This leaves me with hundreds of 2.5" by 8.5" strips of paper that I cannot bear to just throw away. So each year, the origami unit also includes a day of 2-frame animations. I love the origami part of this unit, but I love this part even more because of the outstandingly creative animations the students make. The highlight reel below is just a small sample.

2nd Grade

One of the many drawbacks of not teaching in my own room so far this year has been not having the full complement of tools that I am accustomed to using. We felt that lack pretty keenly during this 2nd grade project, creating an animated story retell in Scratch Jr. The 2nd grade Chromebooks do not have Scratch Jr and I am not able to cart enough devices out the 2nd grade buildings. It is not a huge problem, but I do not like having to force partnerships on creative projects if it can be avoided. Fortunately we managed without any major issues.

The project started with a story map on which students sketched out the beginning, middle, and end of their chosen story. They also planned how they would draw the settings and characters, and wrote out the dialogue. Most groups chose books they have read or had read to them, but some created original stories. This is the most involved project they have ever done in Scratch Jr, and the process of planning, coding, and debugging mirrors what they will be doing in their 3rd through 5th grade projects. 

3rd Grade

We took a break from the science themed Scratch projects started in round 3 and explored some of the extensions available in Scratch this round. (We will return to the science projects in round 5.) Extensions are additional sets of command blocks with a particular function. In this round, students experimented with the pen and music extensions. The pen blocks turn sprites into drawing tools that make marks on the background as they move. The music blocks allow students to compose drum beats, rhythms, melodies in their projects. The first 2 days of the week students had a getting started guide for each extension and had some time to explore. The rest of the week had students creating an original project incorporating both extensions. There is so much amazing, all of which can be seen in the studio.

4th Grade

In the last round, the 4th grade researched the life and work of an important artist or scientist. They created a Scratch project to share what they learned. 

In normal times, this round would have students constructing a 3D model of their chosen person that functions as an interactive display when combined with the Makey Makey. Alas, these are not normal times and I was forced to turn the building part of this project into an interactive poster. This annoys me because most of these students made an interactive poster in 3rd grade and I despise having to recycle projects. 

Anyway... the posters looked great and the students did a wonderful job of presenting their work to visiting 1st grade classes and administrators. See below for a highlight reel.

5th Grade

This round was the first of a 2 part project. The students chose a research topic, took notes on their topic, and then created a virtual museum display to share what they learned. Students selected a few objects for their display that best help to illustrate to most important elements of the topic. The Scratch project was coded in such a way that the display has a digital narrator that explains each objects and shares information. The projects can be seen in the studio, but some are works in progress at this point thanks to short weeks, testing, absences, etc. We will return to these in round 6 to finish coding, build and interactive physical display, and to present to a visiting class. In the meantime, you can check out the works in progress in the studio.

STEM Lab 24_25 Round 3

The mobile STEM Lab rolls on... Round 3 saw the primary grades build their creative coding skills by creating projects in Scratch Jr. Meanwhile, the middle grade worked on various research projects. Second grade's final product was physical, while 3rd and 4th made Scratch projects to share their learning. The fifth graders put their creative coding skills to the test using Scratch to make a still image interactive. 

Kindergarten & First Grade

As you know, Kindergarten and 1st grade started the year with a unit of Code.org programming puzzles. Code.org is a great way to introduce students to computer programming concepts, but it is lacking in opportunities for creative self expression. Fortunately we have Scratch Jr which is a perfect creative complement to Code.org's structure.

Each lesson started with a guided coding activity allowing students to practice with the day's concept. In Kindergarten we covered different kinds of events and motions. We also used various control commands to change how fast our characters moved and to change from one scene to the next. The first graders reviewed some of the things they learned last year before moving on to events like "bump" and the messages. We also used loops to make our code more efficient. After the guided portion of the lesson, students were tasked with adding something to their project using the command or concept we had practiced. They were allowed to add whatever they wanted, so long as it included the requisite code. Once a student successfully demonstrated their code, they were allowed what we termed "creative time". During this portion of the lesson students were able to further explore and experiment in Scratch Jr. Each day I was impressed with the joyful creativity students put into their work. They drew their own characters and backgrounds and were playful engaged in creating personally meaningful projects with code.

Second Grade

In the STEM lab, 2nd grade is a year of transition. They move from lessons and projects that are geared towards practicing skills like programming and building to projects in which they have to apply those skills in the creation of a product that shares their learning or demonstrates an original application of those skills. This round's project for 2nd grade involved research on a few self-selected animals and the creation of a set of animal fact cards. The students used National Geographic Kids Animals as their main resource. They read about the animals and synthesized what they learned. For each animal they used an oversized notecard, writing facts on one side and drawing a picture of the animal on the other side. 

Another activity from this round was Skype-a-Scientist. They match classrooms with scientists from a variety of disciplines for a live meeting. The students have to opportunity to ask questions not only about the scientist's field of study, but about what it is like being a scientist. Mr. Spencer's class spoke to an entomologist studying food webs. Ms. Foley's class got to talk to an ecologist working on kelp forest habitats in southern California. Ms. Muguerza's, Ms. Elder's, and Ms. Stano's classes got to talk to a researcher studying whale and seal evolution. Each talk was a bit different as students asked their own questions which guided the discussion, but in every case we had a great time and learned so much!

Third Grade

We returned to Scratch this round in third grade and made a start on a project that will have two parts. The first part has the students selecting a 3rd grade science topic from a curated list and doing some research. They used Brain Pop and Britannica School as their main resources and took notes about their chosen topic in their journals. Once their research was complete they created a Scratch project designed to share their learning with students from a lower grade. The students learned how to add pictures to their Scratch projects and used key press events to start different parts of the program running. 

In the new year, the students will create a physical display to complement the Scratch project. This will be connected to the computer with an i/o board called Makey Makey. This makes the physical display a controller for the digital presentation. The Scratch projects can be viewed in this studio. (FYI, some of the projects are still works in progress.)

Fourth Grade

The 4th grade project for this round is similar to 3rd grade's. However, the theme is biographies rather than science. The students chose an important person from a given list of artists and scientists and researched both the "when and where" of that person's life, as well as the "what they did and why it is important" part. They used a variety of resources to inform their work and, aside from some basic requirements, had free rein over the design of the Scratch project. Like 3rd grade, in a later round they will create a physical display piece that will function as an interactive controller to run the Scratch project for a visiting class of lower grade students. The work in progress Scratch biographies can be found in this studio.

Fifth Grade

This round's 5th grade project is one of my favorites, Hacking Fine Art. Students use the image editing tools in Scratch to take a famous work of art and make it interactive. They had a Google folder with several paintings to choose from, including works by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Leger, and others. The first step is to upload the painting into Scratch as the background of the project. After selecting which parts of the painting they want to make interactive, the students uploaded their chosen image, this time as a sprite, and erased all but the part intended to be clicked on. They positioned this sprite exactly over the corresponding part of the background image, hiding it in plain sight. Using the "when this sprite clicked" event, students created a wide ranging variety of highly creative effects. The full collection is in this studio. Some of the projects are from the week that 5th grade went to camp, so those are going to be a bit less complete than the other projects the studio.

STEM Lab 24_25 Round 2

The limitations imposed by cart-based STEM Lab notwithstanding, a whole lot of great things got done in Round 2! In Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grades it was time for math stories. Third grade got started with physical computing on the micro:bit. Meanwhile, 4th and 5th grades designed video games with MakeCode Arcade and presented their work to a visiting class and administrators.

Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd Grades

I am not sure how long I have been doing the math stories unit, but literature has been part of the STEM Lab since its inception. Mostly that is because I have always loved teaching books, but a part of that is a revolt against the isolation of subjects from one another that is lamentably common in schools these days. STEM is about teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in a way that helps students discover the natural connections between these disciplines. In Sinclair's lab STEM is connected with subjects like literature, history, fine arts, and anything else I can think of.

During this unit, each class starts with a book in which some math concept or another is central to the story. I read the story pausing frequently to ask the students guiding questions and to have them discuss their wonderings and ideas about the book. When the story ends students complete an activity related to the math concept of the day. Sometimes this takes the form of a number puzzle, while at other times it looks more like an art project. There are also times when it is more of a guided exploration. In any case, the goal is for students to play with the math in question without worrying about finding one right answer, or the "right way" to get to an answer.

Here are the books we read this week, by grade level:

Kindergarten: Rooster's Off To See the World, Two of Everything, Inch By Inch, Circle.

1st grade: The Greedy Triangle, How Big is a Foot?, One Gorilla, Math-terpieces.

2nd grade: Remainder of One, 100 Hungry Ants, The King's Commissioners, Perfect Square.

3rd Grade

In this round the 3rd graders were introduced to physical computing with a microcontroller called micro:bit. The students learned the difference between an input and an output. The micro:bit's inputs include buttons, an accelerometer, and sensors for light, temperature and sound. The outputs include a 5x5 LED array that can show images and scroll text, and a tiny speaker that can play sounds. It also has a set of input/output pins that allow the micro:bit to connect to other hardware. The first part of the week had short daily code-alongs followed by time for students to explore the micro:bit's capabilities and tinker with their code. At the end of the week students made a 2D model animal of their choosing and wrote a micro:bit program to make their creation interactive. We called the project "Micro:pet". When the STEM Lab was a room rather than a state of mind, this project involved a lot more cardboard, construction paper, and glue and the animals were far more elaborate. However, we adapted and the students made some wonderful things. 

4th and 5th Grades

In round 1 this year the 4th and 5th graders created games that could be played on the micro:bit using the Microsoft MakeCode language. In this unit the students built upon the skills they learned last time and used the MakeCode Arcade platform to create games of greater complexity with vastly superior graphics. Students started by choosing an introductory skillmap (collection of tutorials aimed at creating a single project) to complete. As they worked through the steps they learned how to add characters of different kinds, how to make them move, how to animate them, and used conditionals to code how they behave when they overlap with other objects on screen. The students were encouraged to tinker with the code to personalize the project and to add elements they thought would improve the game. 

With their first project complete, the students chose another skillmap to form the basis of their final product. Students were allowed to work independently or in teams of two. They worked through their chosen project guide and adapted the elements as they went. Some groups created original themes for their games or composed background music and sound effects. Most of the games ended up with a variety of power ups or more challenging enemies. I was really impressed with the creativity on display and the perseverance students showed when faced with challenges. At the end of the week the students presented their work to a visiting class and they all did a wonderful job talking about what they made. (During the 3 day week students shared their work with their peers in class.) 

STEM Lab 24_25 Round 1

Alas... this is not how I had hoped the year would start. The STEM Lab has been relegated to a cart for the foreseeable future. That puts some serious constraints on the kinds of projects we are able to do. However, we will not let the cart life keep us ,down and the year is off to a fantastic start with lots of creative coding projects across the grade levels.

Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd Grades

As usual, the primary grades started with Code.org activities this year. I have found that this is an excellent way to refresh the memories of returning students, and the best introduction to computer programming for students who are new to Sinclair. Over the course of the week students work on various coding puzzles in the online courses, as well as complete some unplugged activities, to develop their algorithmic thinking skills. In normal times Friday is usually reserved for a building challenge, but as that would require moving a whole bunch of stuff, I have changed that to a Scratch Jr coding challenge for the time being. I read the students a book and then presented them with an open-ended prompt. While Code.org serves to teach the students particular programming skills, Scratch Jr allows them to explore the creative possibilities of computer coding.

3rd Grade

At the end of 2nd grade I begin to transition the students from Scratch Jr, which is designed for emerging readers, to the full version of Scratch. At that time they worked in the offline version so that I could be certain that they stayed focused on the tasks at hand rather than getting lost in the wonderland that is the Scratch online community. At the start of third grade the students are introduced to the online version of Scratch. They log into their accounts, learn how to share projects with appropriate documentation, and they practice giving meaningful project feedback to their peers. The week's project centers on the concept of "parallelism" which is when multiple things are happening at the same time in a program. It is a simple prompt that is completely open-ended so students have a chance to be highly creative. You can check out the project studio here. 

4th and 5th Grades

This past June I attended an online workshop hosted by Chris Lovell, a brilliant computer science teacher in the UK. Mr. Lovell's specialty is creating retro games and student guides for the BBC micro:bit microcontroller. In the workshop we were guided through the process of coding these games and playing them on the micro:bit. I was honestly a bit shocked to see how easily such games could be created and knew that I wanted to try these with the students this year. I introduce our students to the micro:bit in 3rd grade, so the majority of this year's 4th and 5th graders are familiar with it. 

As expected, the students were super excited about this unit. The student coding guides Mr. Lovell has created are so accessible that even students who are new to Sinclair, and have little to no prior coding experience, have had no trouble getting started. First we made a game together, code-a-long style. When that was complete according to the game guide, I challenged the students to customize their game. They came up with with several amazing additions: increased difficulty , more obstacles, faster enemies, sound effects, game over music, and more. For the last part of the week students chose another game to create and customize from among the other guides. I really loved seeing them all start from the same place and end up with such different final products.

The guides so generously shared by Mr. Lovell can be found here.