During the second magnet rotation, the third grade took a bit of time to continue building their programming skills with Scratch. They were introduced to the Makey Makey input/output board. This device allows one to use conductive materials like Play Doh, paperclips, and even classmates as inputs for their programs.
Their main project however was to design, build, and present a tabletop cardboard arcade game. This project was inspired by Caine's Arcade, the wonderful story of a 9 year old boy who created his own arcade with cardboard boxes in front of his father's auto parts shop. Students worked in teams of 2 or 3 and started by brainstorming ideas for games and designs. From there they began building, testing, and improving. Many groups discovered that getting a game that has just the right amount of challenge was not as easy as they thought it would be. A great many groups learned that masking tape is not always the best choice for joining two pieces of cardboard. My personal favorite part of this project is watching students work through the design process on a personally meaningful project. each group is authentically invested in their game. That was evident at the conclusion of each unit when a first grade class (along with the administrative team) visited the lab to try the games. Students were so excited to talk about their work and have others try out their games.
The 2nd grade classes spent this rotation working on a series of design challenges using a variety of materials. My focus for this unit was on the elements of the design cycle and on having students record their work in their journals. Each day they were assigned a particular task, build a bridge to span a distance with craft sticks, build an animal in its habitat with Legos. Some of these challenges were independent, while some involved teamwork. Some were deliberately quite advanced because I wanted to be able to teach students about the lessons of failure and the importance of perseverance. 
Kindergarten and first grade completed a unit of math stories. Each class started with a read aloud book and discussion. The books selected included "How Big is a Foot?", "Inch by Inch", "Two of Everything", and "The Greedy Triangle", just to name a few. Each book illustrates a particular math skill or concept which we discussed and connected to our classroom work. Following the reading, students worked on a project which allowed them to work with the math that played a part in the story. Students made input/output tables to show doubling, built pictures with different polygons, and measured the dimensions of birds that they drew. I personally enjoyed this unit because I love to emphasize to students the connection between math, science, and literacy.
Looking ahead to the 3rd magnet rotation starting next week (Yikes! Yay!), Kindergarten and first grade will be participating in a robotics unit. Second grade will be working on a research project, while 3rd grade will be introduced to the BBC Micro:bit board. The 4th graders will be working with electrical circuits. To start, they will use batteries and LEDs, but they will finish the unit with building programmable circuits using the Raspberry Pi computers. The fifth grade will be working on a history-based research project that will include interactive displays.
Check back in a few weeks to see how things are going. You are sure to be impressed with the amazing things the students make.
No comments:
Post a Comment