STEM Lab 23_24 Round 6

As you have no doubt come to expect, the penultimate round of STEM lab for the year was awesome, just as its predecessors were. There was a great deal of programming going on this time. Kindergarten and 1st grade returned to their Code.org courses, while 2nd grade took their first steps in the full version of Scratch. The third graders had their first experiences coding the micro:bit microcontroller. Meanwhile, our 4th and 5th graders extended their micro:bit skills by incorporating the device into creative projects.

Kindergarten & 1st Grade

You may recall that the Kindergarten and 1st grade students begin the year in Code.org. The puzzle-based nature of the activities help the students develop their algorithmic thinking skills while also giving them valuable practice with programming concepts like loops and events. Most of the programming activities we do later in the year, such as Scratch Jr and Robo-mouse, have a more creative lean to them. I try to strike a balance between formal coding instruction and creative coding projects so that students not only learn the programming concepts, but also see programming as a tool they can use to express themselves and share their learning. This round was not all Code.org however, as we also did a day of Scratch Jr and completed a building challenge.

2nd Grade

The end of the year is always one of my favorite times with 2nd grade. That is when I introduce them to the full version of the Scratch programming language. Scratch was designed to have a "low floor", so even students who have not programmed before can get started with relative ease. Most of our students have been programming since Kindergarten and are very excited to start using "real" Scratch. I start each class with a code-a-long activity in which I show them some of the similarities and differences between Scratch and Scratch Jr. Following that guided tour, students have some time to explore the new coding environment and to try things out. They very quickly find that there is a lot more to Scratch than there was in Scratch Jr, and this discovery leads to some productive struggle as they work to understand how to create the movements, effects, and sounds they want for their projects. For the rest of the week students work through a set of tutorials embedded within Scratch that teaches them how to use the most common events and commands. I encourage them to put their own creative spins on the tutorials as they go. In rounds 7 the students will complete their first multi-day Scratch project and I cannot wait to see how they do.

3rd Grade

This round the 3rd grade was introduced to the wonderful world of microcontrollers with the BBC micro:bit. They learned that a microcontroller is the perfect device for when you need a computer that will only have one job, such as turning street lights on at night and off in the morning, or opening the doors at the grocery store as someone approaches them. The micro:bit has a number of inputs including buttons, an accelerometer, and sensors for light, sound, and temperature. All of these can be used to generate outputs like images or animations on the LED screen or sounds from the speaker. We spent the first few days of the week practicing with the various inputs and outputs. Thursday and Friday the students were challenged to build a model animal and to use the micro:bit to make their model interactive. The results of the Micro:pet project are always outstanding. Some groups used the device as their animal's mouth and others as its whole face. One group used animations on the micro:bit's screen as the tail of their model cat. 

4th Grade

Fourth grade used the micro:bit earlier in the year in a unit that was a kind of "next steps" continuation of the unit the 3rd graders did. They learned to use the micro:bit's input/output pins, more of the device's sensors, and generally created more complex programs. In this round the students used the micro:bit in conjunction with a breakout board kit called Crazy Circuits from Brown Dog Gadgets. The breakout board gives one easy access to the full array of pins on the micro:bit. The kit includes additional hardware like LEDs that students can connect and program. This is the first time we have used these kits in the lab so there was a bit of trail and error as we worked out the best ways to employ them. We worked it out though and at the end of the week the students used the a selection of Legos to build a scene from a story of their choosing which they then animated with the micro:bit and the breakout board components. While there was a bit of frustration at the limited Lego resources the students were given, that constraint by and large inspired creative work arounds.

5th Grade

In keeping with this round's micro:bit theme, 5th grade used a different breakout board and handful of components to create "moving masterpieces" or "animated artworks". We started the week by learning to wire LEDs and a servo motor to a breadboard. Most of the students used breadboards last year and were familiar enough with them to assist those who are new to Sinclair this year. Once the wires were all in place, students coded the LEDs to blink and the servo to rotate on a button press. They used this program as a starting point for their projects later in the week. I showed them one example project, my personal riff on Van Gogh's Sunflowers with a couple blinking LEDs and a moving butterfly, and then instructed the students to think of what they wanted to create. I made a few suggestions like book covers, scenes from movies, or some random silliness, but left the final decision to them. (I do not like to give the students too much direction for fear of stifling their creative process.) Over the next few days the students, some working independently, others with a partner created their image, mounted it to a file folder, added the LEDs, servo, and wires to the breadboard. They tweaked the original program to incorporate more LEDs or multiple servos, and to make the lights and motion fit with their vision. I was not disappointed with their work... so much impressive creativity!

STEM Lab 23-24 Round 5

It feels a bit repetitive to say so, but it was another awesome round of programming, building, and making in the STEM Lab! From origami to retro arcade games, our Sinclair Superstars created some amazing things over the last few weeks.

Kindergarten & 1st Grade

After completing a couple of units on computer programming with Robo-mouse and then Scratch Jr, we went unplugged for this round and learned some origami. I made sure to highlight the algorithmic nature of folding origami models and connected this process to the writing of programs for computers to run. Each grade level made 3 different models. Kindergarten folded cats, dogs, and flowers while 1st grade folded rabbits, fish, and frogs. In addition to the origami models, the students also learned to create 2 frame animations. These are not origami, but they are so much fun to make and the students always blow me away with their creativity. 

2nd Grade

Building with cardboard is one of the central skills required in the STEM lab, and in this round the 2nd graders began learning the carboard construction techniques in earnest. We started by looking at some different mazes and discussing what made for a good maze. Next students designed and built Lego marble mazes to challenge their classmates. Before planning and building their cardboard mazes, students were introduced to the concept of the L-brace. For this project students used single ply cardboard to make L-brace shaped walls and attached these to a base of corrugated cardboard. There was a good bit of trial and error as students discovered issues like walls being too close together and insufficiently L shaped walls. I am really proud of the perseverance the students displayed as they worked through the difficulties.

3rd Grade

The cardboard construction continued in 3rd grade this round. Students designed and built keyboards that they used along with the Makey Makey to operate Scratch projects. In the previous round students made interactive posters. In that set up, the user acted as the switch by holding the ground wire and touching the wires connected to the key presses. The keyboards we made this round used a shared ground wire running under the keys which were also made of cardboard wired and connected to the Makey Makey inputs. Pressing the cardboard key down connects the two wires and triggers the key press. I wanted the students to develop and understanding of a type of switch they could use with the Makey Makey, and they certainly did that. The best part of this project however was seeing the creative decorations they made for their keyboards. Though the projects all work the same way, each one is different, reflecting the personality and interests of the maker.

4th Grade

This round had 4th grade combining computer coding, music, and cardboard construction skills. First they created a Scratch project that used key presses to play different notes and/or percussions. Scratch has a special event block for the Makey Makey that allows a specific sequence of arrow key presses to be used as additional inputs. We called it the "cheat code block". Next students designed a musical instrument in their journals and used that plan to guide their building. When construction was complete, they connected their instrument to their Scratch project with our old friend Makey Makey. As I have come to expect, there was a dazzling array of creative expression on view. At the end of the week each class shared their work with a visiting class from 1st grade or Kindergarten, teachers, and administrators. 

5th Grade

I tried something entirely new with 5th grade in this round. Late last school year I learned about something called MakeCode Arcade. MakeCode is a free computer programming environment from Microsoft that we use to code the micro:bit. MakeCode Arcade allows students to create retro style video games in a block based code editor. I played around with it a bit over the summer and discovered that MakeCode Arcade games can be added to a variety of hardware. Thanks to the support of our Sinclair PTO and families generously buying from my Amazon wish list I was able to get a dozen of these game consoles, which brings us to this unit. The MakeCode platform has a variety of getting started tutorials that the students used to start designing their games. Within the guides students have a lot of creative freedom to alter the look and play of their games, so even started with the same tutorial end up being quite unique. As with most new units there was a bit of a learning curve to optimize the pacing and sequencing, but the end products were truly wonderful. Each 5th grade group got to share their work with a visiting group of 2nd graders who were a delighted and inquisitive audience.

STEM Lab 23_24 Round 4

 We have been having a wonderful time in the STEM lab during this rotation. There is a lot of computer programming going on these days. Kindergarten and 1st grade have been using Scratch Jr, while 2nd grade has been working on the more advanced lessons in Code.org. The third grade classes finished their interactive poster project and shared it with a visiting Kindergarten class. (One 3rd grade class will actually do this during the next round thanks to the unfortunate alignment of ice storm cancelations and me having to be out for 2 days.) Fourth grade learned to use more of the micro:bit's inputs and outputs to create programs, and 5th grade used Scratch to create "hacked" fine art images.

Kindergarten & 1st Grade

Our youngest students started the year in Code.org completing tutorials meant to introduce them to the basic concepts of computer programming. These tutorials of developing students' algorithmic thinking skills, but they are generally lacking in opportunities for creativity. The Code.org puzzle tells the students what the objective is, and while there are frequently multiple correct solutions, there is only one correct thing to do with the program. 

This is where Scratch Jr comes in. This programming language is perfect for introducing students to the idea of creative computing. In Scratch Jr, the students have the ability to choose their characters, their backgrounds, and to decide what they want their program to do. We start each day with a code along activity where I teach the students to use one or more of the command blocks. Next students are given a short independent practice task. Once they share their solution to the prompt with me, they are released to what we call "creative time". This is an opportunity for them to explore, experiment, and create personally meaningful projects.

2nd Grade

This rotation had 2nd grade return to the Code.org courses they started at the beginning of the year. Rather than having them pick up where they left off however, I selected a number of lessons to prepare them for the transition from Scratch Jr to the full version of Scratch. One of the selected lessons focused on using loops effectively, but the others had more of a focus on creative expression. My goal is for students to understand that as they work on the types of projects they will be doing in the STEM lab in the coming years that they are not just they are not just allowed to personalize their projects, but are encouraged to do so. Students too often internalize the message from their teachers that there is one right answer and one right way to get to that answer. There are of course times when is just the one correct answer, but it is important that students have classroom experiences of creative freedom. Experiences in which they have to decide what they want to make, have to figure out how to overcome the difficulties that will inevitably arise, and have to assess how well their finished product aligns with what they were attempting. 

3rd Grade

In round 3 the third graders researched an arctic animal of their choosing. They took that research and incorporated it into a Scratch project that shared what they had learned. (Studio of projects here.) The program used key press events to change background pictures and to present the facts associated with the pictures. The main goal of this project to for students to use computer programming as a tool for expressing their ideas and sharing their learning. The other part of this project is to introduce the students to physical computing, connecting a computer program to physical objects. In this case, the physical element is a poster. 

First students were introduced to the Makey Makey, a device that allows one to turn any conductive substance into a switch capable of sending commands to the computer. After learning to set up, operate, and pack the Makey Makey, students got to work creating their arctic animal poster. With that complete, they added metal fasteners as "buttons" and copper foil tape "wires" to the poster. Paired with the Makey Makey, the poster was used to trigger the key press events that control the different parts of the Scratch program. At the end of the week the students presented their interactive poster projects to a visiting class of Kindergartners. (Presenting to a visiting class of younger students is an important part of the STEM lab program. The older students have an authentic audience to share their work with, and the younger students get to see what the skills they are learning will lead them to.)

4th Grade

The BBC micro:bit is a microcontroller (like a computer, but only capable of storing and running one program at a time) with an array of inputs and output. Students were introduced to the micro:bit in 3rd grade and learned the basics of using the input event handlers to generate different outputs. We started with a review lesson which also served as an introduction for the students who are new to Sinclair this year. The we moved on to using some of the micro:bit's more advanced functions. First students constructed circuits with LEDs and wires which were then connected to the i/o pins (input/output) on the micro:bit. Next we used the light and sound sensors along with conditional statements to make the micro:bit react to loud noises and low light conditions. Students also used the micro:bit's accelerometer to play different musical notes when tilted different directions. They then had to play the tune Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star on the micro:bit. (One group impressed me by moving on from Twinkle to playing the opening notes of Smoke on the Water!) We wrapped up the week with a free choice coding activity in which students chose any 5 inputs and combined them with any 5 outputs. 

5th Grade

The "hacked art" project has become a favorite of mine the last few years. The project itself is fairly straightforward. Students select a famous painting from a selection of a dozen or so. An image of the painting is uploaded into Scratch as a background. Then the same image is added as a sprite and students erase all of the painting except one element to make interactive. This sprite blends into the background, but is programmed to react when it is clicked. Students repeat the process until they have several interactive elements along with a bit of artist biography in the project. What I love about the project is the boundless creativity the students display in their creations. No two projects are ever the same, even when the starting point is the same still image. Below are a few examples. The full studio of projects is here.

STEM Lab 23_24 Round 3

We have had another awesome round in the STEM lab. From storytelling with robots to miniature museums, the students have created outstanding projects. 

Kindergarten & 1st Grade

Our youngest Superstars returned to computer programming this round. This time however, there were no screens involved in their coding. Rather, the students wrote programs for a pair of robots; the perennial favorite, Robo-Mouse, and exciting newcomer, Bee-Bot. Students built mazes of increasing complexity for Robo-Mouse to navigate. With the Bee-Bots, students creates sets and costumes and programmed the robot to act out the main events of a story. 

There is a saying of uncertain origin among computer programmers that goes something like this: the good news about computers is that they do exactly what you tell them to do, the bad news about computers is that they do exactly what you tell them to do. Of all the coding activities I do with students, none evokes the spirit of this aphorism more than this robotics unit. The number of times I have heard some variation of the phrase, "I programmed it right, but it's not working" from the students during robot week is beyond reckoning. However, I do not think any unit in the whole of the STEM Lab curriculum I have created more completely drives home for students the importance of clear, orderly commands when coding than this one. 

2nd Grade

One of the best things about being the STEM lab teacher is the mandate to create learning opportunities that allow students to discover the connections between the different content areas. The Math Stories unit is a favorite of mine for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is that thing I miss about being in a regular classroom is getting to teach books on a regular basis. Another one of the reasons is chance to let students play with and explore math concepts which is sadly not a regular part of the standard issue math curriculum. The books I chose for this year's 2nd grade math stories unit were: A Remainder of One, One Hundred Hungry Ants, Grandfather Tang's Story, and Perfect Square. The first 2 titles explore ideas related to multiplication and division while the other two are an opportunity to play with geometry. 

3rd Grade

Third grade also returned to computer programming this round. This was the first half of a two part project that will combine both digital and physical elements. Inspired by my National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship this past summer, students researched an arctic animal, taking notes on its habitat, behaviors, and the challenges it faces. They created a Scratch project to share what they learned from their research using pictures from Britannica and National Geographic to illustrate the facts they included. 

This is the first project that I have the students do in which they use Scratch to create a product with a specific purpose. It is when I teach them to add pictures to their Scratch programs and when they learn about key press events. In the next round they will create a poster about their selected topic and wire it to a Makey Makey that will allow users to control the Scratch project by touching different parts of the poster. When everything is complete they will share their projects with a visiting class and administrators. 

The Scratch projects are in studio that can be viewed here. Please note that some of these are works in progress.

4th Grade

The fourth grade classes wrapped up their biography projects this round and presented their work to visiting 2nd grade classes. Previously the students researched the life and contributions of a chosen historical figure. They had a variety of choices ranging form artists and composers to inventors and scientists. In this round the students put the finishing touches on the Scratch projects they created last time in the lab and built a model of their subject using a plastic bottle, cardboard, and construction paper. At the end of the week they connected their models to their Scratch projects with our old friend Makey Makey and presented their finished products. Not only was I proud of the amazing job the 4th graders did explaining their work to our visitors, but I was so impressed with how the 2nd graders grilled their hosts with questions about the historical figure, the working of the Scratch project, and how the model was constructed. 

5th Grade

The 5th grade also completed the second half of a larger project this round and presented their learning. This project too was inspired by my Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship expedition. Students researched the arctic ecosystem and the issues facing the natural and human communities of the region in the previous round and programmed a digital museum room using Scratch to share what they had learned. In this round they constructed a miniaturized physical version of their digital museum exhibit. The door to this model was wired to a Makey Makey so that opening it triggered the Scratch project to begin narrating the contents of the museum. At the end of the week the students shared their work with visiting first graders and administrators. 

STEM Lab 23_24 Round 2

I have been so busy being amazed by the incredible work the students are doing this round, I just realized that I had yet to write the blog post about it!

Kindergarten & First Grade

This round is one of my personal favorites, Math Stories. In this unit, each day starts with a picture book that centers on some kind of math concept. Some of the books tell stories, while others are more like counting books or math puzzles. Each grade level's books feature a variety of math topics including number sense, geometry, measurement, multiplication, and general problem solving. After the day's reading, students complete a hands-on activity related to the math concept covered in the book. Sometimes the activity is a bit like an art project, other times it is practice employing a particular tools or strategy. What I love about this unit is the chance to pair two subjects (math and literature) that students too often think of as related. 

Second Grade

This past summer I was fortunate to be able to travel with Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic as a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow to the high arctic archipelago of Svalbard. (You can read more about the particulars of that experience here and here.) This is the first project inspired and informed by my fellowship experience. I have done other iterations of this project before, but this time it was fully centered on the arctic. We started with a photo highlights tour of my time in the arctic. Then students chose one of the arctic animals from a list and researched it using the National Geographic Kids website. Part of the note taking process included drawing the animal and its habitat. Those drawings served as practice for the elements that were included in a Scratch Jr project about the selected animal. Students drew their animal's habitat and several versions of the animal. These drawings were photographed into a Scratch Jr project and coded to share information that students gathered from their research. This is one of the first projects students in the STEM lab complete that combines physical and digital elements and the results were amazing.

Third Grade

A perennial favorite in the lab is cardboard arcade, and this round saw 3rd grade get their chance with this project. Many of the current 3rd graders remember getting to visit the lab in 1st or 2nd grade to play cardboard arcade games and there were cheers from several students in each class when I announced the project for the week. We start by watching the short film Caine's Arcade for inspiration and discussion. Then students begin brainstorming and planning their games in their STEM lab journals. The middle of the week is spent building, testing, and making necessary adjustments to the design. At the end of the week finished products are presented to a visiting group of students from 1st grade along with administrators. These presentations are an important part of the design process in the lab. Sharing their work with an authentic audience gives the students a chance to practice talking about what they have created and what they have learned from the building process. The presentations also serve to inspire the younger students when they see the kinds of projects they will get to do as they progress through the STEM lab curriculum.

Fourth Grade

For the 4th graders, this round was the first half of a 2 part project. The end result will be an interactive biography programmed in Scratch and controlled with a physical display. Part 1 involves researching the life and important contributions of a well known artist or scientist. They had their choice of 11 different people as well as the choice of whether to work alone or with a partner. Once they had completed their research, students moved on to the Scratch project. The programs are run with key press events which will allow them to be controlled in part 2 with the Makey Makey and the physical display. Students had to find 3 relevant images and at least one map to include with their program. We had some great discussions about using images to illustrate the information being shared in the program. In round 2 the students will share their completed projects with a visiting class and administrators. 

The Scratch biographies can be found in this studio. (Some are still works in progress.)

Fifth Grade

Like 4th grade, the 5th graders started work on a two part project. This one is called Tiny Museum. The students conduct research on a chosen topic and use Scratch to create a virtual museum room with artifacts and images that share what they have learned. The project includes a narrator that serves as a digital tour guide to the exhibit they have put together. The topic choices I gave them were inspired by my aforementioned National Geographic fellowship. I wanted them to focus not just on the basic information about the topic, but also the impacts human activities are having on the arctic ecosystem. The second part of their project will have them building a physical model of their museum room and wiring a switch to the door that triggers the tour guide to start start speaking upon the door opening. 

Here is the studio of virtual museum rooms. (The projects at the top of the studio are very much works in progress because our 5th graders went to camp the last week of the round, so they only had 2 days to work on their programs.)

STEM Lab 23_24 Round 1

The new year is off to a terrific start in the Sinclair STEM Lab! It has been wonderful to reconnect with all the returning students and to get to know those who are new to Sinclair. The first round each year is largely focused on computer programming. This is to refresh the memories of the returning students and to introduce coding to students who have not previously had the opportunity. I teach programming in order to give the students another tool that they can use to express their ideas and share their learning. 

Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grades

The primary grades begin the year in Code.org courses. They learn to use Blockly, a programming language in which the commands are represented as blocks that the students arrange to create programs. The programs they write are to solve a variety of puzzles, many of them like mazes, by giving directions to an on screen character. Throughout the course the students are introduced to several programming concepts including loops, events, and algorithmic thinking. The puzzles increase in complexity as the students progress through the lessons. Some of the lessons let students practice coding skills without a computer and we call these "unplugged" activities. I have been using Code.org courses since the founding of the STEM lab 9 years ago and have found the structured programming tasks give students an excellent foundation for the creative, open ended projects they will create in Scratch and Scratch Jr.

On Fridays the classes participated in a building challenge meant to give them a chance to stretch their creativity. First we read the book What Do You Do With an Idea which I really like for its focus on creative confidence and wonderful illustrations. The challenge this round was, "Build something that helps people", and the material to be used was Legos. I encouraged the students to think as creatively as they wanted about what it meant to help people and then gave them about 20 minutes to work. As always, I was deeply impressed by the solutions they built.

3rd, 4th, and 5th grades

The upper grade classes returned to the Scratch programming language this round. For 3rd grade, this was also their introduction to the online Scratch platform where they are able to share projects, turn them in to the class studios, and give and receive feedback from me and their peers. Each grade created projects focused on a different programming concept. Third grade worked on parallelism, multiple outputs occurring at the same time. Fourth grade learned to use the broadcast commands to control their programs, while 5th grade created projects with lists that store multiple pieces of information for use in the program. Each group started by exploring projects related to the theme in an inspiration studio to gain an understanding of how the programming concept works and to spark ideas for their own projects. We discussed the importance of commenting one's code and reviewed good digital citizenship practices. The fantastic final projects can be found in the grade level studios linked below.

3rd Parallelism

4th Broadcasts

5th Lists

The implementation of my National Geographic Fellowship to the Arctic is a work in progress, but you can read my post journey reflections here.

STEM Lab Round 6

This was the last full round of the year in the lab as there are only a few weeks of school left. Some classes returned to their Code.org courses and others created their first true Scratch projects. We also got our hands on the Makey Makeys again and also rolled out the Raspberry Pi computers for some physical computing.

Kindergarten & 1st Grade

When it comes to teaching computer programming, I try to strike a good balance between giving the students set tasks to complete and giving them the creative freedom to explore the possibilities of what they are able to create with code. Code.org is a great tool for giving students practice with specific coding concepts like using loops or particular events. This kind of practice prepares them for the upper grades when they will work on projects with more open ended prompts.  

2nd Grade

In round 5 the second graders were introduced to the full version of the Scratch programming language. They completed several short, guided projects designed to familiarize them with the most useful commands and concepts. Round 6 had the students create their first multiday project with Scratch. The task was to plan and create an "about me" project. They planned their project on paper first determining what facts they would share about themselves. In Scratch the students spelled their names with sprites and then gave each letter a new costume that represented one of their personal facts. Clicking a letter causes it to change costumes and say something about the student before changing back into the letter. I was quite impressed with the projects the students created. Even though they all work the same way, each one reflects the personality and interests of the student that created it.

3rd Grade

Third grade spent round 6 learning to build a new kind of switch for the Makey Makey. Previously they created interactive posters that required the user to place one finger on a metal fastener serving as a  "ground" point and then touch the other metal fasteners connected to the key presses on the Makey Makey. We mostly referred to this week's creation as a keyboard. It had one long strip of copper tape acting as the ground for the cardboard keys. The underside of each key had copper tape that ran to the edge of the board where the Makey Makey's clips were attached. Pressing the key down brings the copper tape in contact with the ground wire, completing the circuit and triggering the key press. Students tested their boards with pre-made apps on the Makey Makey site as well as on Scratch projects they created.

4th and 5th Grades

Our 4th and fifth graders both worked on physical computing using the Raspberry Pi single board computer. The Pi functions like pretty much any other computer. It is about the size of a credit card and uses a micro SD card as its memory. The best thing about the Raspberry Pi is that is is designed for digital making projects. It has 40 general purpose input output (GPIO) pins that can be used of power and program physical components like LEDs, buttons, and motors. The Pi is a logical next step in physical computing after working with the micro:bit as the students did earlier in the year. 

Fourth grade started the unit by learning to build circuits on a breadboard using AA batteries to power the LEDs. Next the students moved to the Raspberry Pi and built circuits connected to the GPIO pins and programmed various blinky light effects using Scratch. They learned to use a tactile button to trigger actions with both the LEDs on the breadboard and on the computer screen. I was super proud of how well they did building their different circuits and then programming a variety of sequences. Several even discovered more efficient wirings so they had space on the breadboard for more LEDs, and more LEDs is always better!

The fifth grade classes learned to use the Python language to build graphical user interfaces (GUIs) in this unit. Those who were at Sinclair last year got a taste of Python in 4th grade, so most of the students had that familiarity with a text-based programming language. First they created a simple GUI that included a text box, a button, and a slider, each programmed to execute a certain function. As always, they were encouraged to tinker with the code to personalize their GUI. The week's final task was to create a GUI that could be used to control the behavior of bread boarded circuits (which they had worked with last year). Once again, their tinkering and customizations produced some wonderful results.