STEM Lab Round 3

It has been another great rotation in the STEM Lab! We have done a lot of programming, some building, and also gotten into some physical computing. Read a bit about what each grade level has been up to the last few weeks.

Kindergarten & 1st Grade

You may recall that Kindergarten and first grade started the year working on computer science and programming courses in Code.org. These puzzle based lessons are great for teaching concepts and helping students practice skills, but there is not much scope for student creativity. That is where Scratch Jr comes in. 

Scratch Jr is new to most of the Kindergarten students so we start with a refresher on what it looks like to write a program in Code.org (which they used at the start of the year) and compare that to the Scratch Jr environment. Each day I show them what they will be programming and talk about the command blocks they will be using. Then the students go to their seats and we code together. They are allowed to choose their own characters and backgrounds, but they copy my code at this point. When we finish coding together the students have what we call "creative time" when they are allowed to change their program and project by adding or deleting characters, choosing new backgrounds, and writing new code. 

The first graders who attended Sinclair last year are familiar with Scratch Jr, though there are always a few new faces, so we start with just a brief review the programming environment. The daily lesson outline is fairly similar however. I talk them through the day's program as I show how it is built. That is followed by the code-a-long and then creative time. In first grade I teach the students how to change scenes and use the message events to coordinate the actions of the characters so that they do not all run their code at the same time.

Throughout this round I was quite impressed with the creative projects the students in both Kindergarten and 1st grade created. They did a wonderful job of creating personally meaningful scenes and stories while quickly grasping the programming concepts necessary.

2nd Grade

The work Kindergarten and 1st grade did in Scratch Jr lays the groundwork for the digital diorama project 2nd grade completed in round 3. On their previous rotation through the STEM Lab, 2nd grade conducted research into an animal and took notes about it in their journals. The next step had them use those notes and the Nat Geo Kids website to guide them as they drew pictures of their animals and their animals' habitats. We talked about the elements of scientific drawings (big, colorful, and accurate) as well as being comfortable with one's best effort (it doesn't have to look like a photograph). These elements were photographed into a Scratch Jr project, the habitat as a background and the animals as characters, to create the dioirama. Students then programmed their characters to move around and to talk sharing facts about the chosen animal. 

I do some variation of this project most years. It serves as the first STEM lab project students complete that involves research along with both digital and physical elements. Most of the projects students work on in 3rd through 5th grades are patterned on those pieces, so I like to get the 2nd graders ready with projects like this one.

3rd Grade

This round 3rd grade embarked on the first of a 2 part project. Part one has the students creating a Scratch project that teaches the user about a topic. The project must use key presses to activate the various parts of the program because in part 2 they will design and build an intereactive poster that will connect to the Scratch project using the Makey Makey. I presented them with a list of topics from the 3rd grade science curriculum. Students chose either to work alone or with a partner and then used resources like Brain Pop and Britannica to research the topic selected from the list. Once their notes were complete I showed the students how to plan their projects. The basic formula is key press plus picture plus facts. That is, each key press should display a picture related to the topic and share facts relevant to the image. I had the students begin working on their projects before teaching them how to find and add pictures.

The studio of projects can be found here. (Disruptions caused by baseball, boil water notices, and fundraiser rewards mean that some of the projects are more of a work in progress than others.)

4th Grade

The Micro:bit has been an important piece of technology in the STEM Lab for some time. Fourth grade returned to this small but mighty microcontroller for round 3. Last year when they were introduced to the Micro:bit, students worked on making use of the basic inputs and outputs of the device and on becoming comfortable with the block-based programming environment MakeCode. MakeCode feels familiar because it akin to Scratch. However, the structures are different and can take some getting used to. We started the unit with a review session meant to refresh the memories of the students who used Micro:bit last year and to initiate those students new to Sinclair this year. Over course of the week students learned to used the Micro:bit's input/output pins to light LEDs. They used the environmental sensors (light level, temperature, sound level) and conditional statements to generate outputs that vary depending on the sensor input. The accelerometer (tilt sensor) was used to sound different notes based on different tilt gestures. The challenge was then to use the Micro:bit to play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. 

5th Grade

Fifth grade completed and presented their mini museum projects this rotation. In the prior round they used Scratch to build and program a digital museum room, complete with virtual docent to narrate, about a self selected and research topic. This time out they built a physical version of their room and the objects within. They used copper foil tape to built a circuit on the room's door which was connected to their Scratch projects with a Makey Makey. Openning the door to the physical room closed the circuit and triggered the virtual narrator to begin describing the objects in the room. Most classes got the opportunity to present their projects to visiting 2nd grade classes and administrators. The Echo magnet group also had the opportunity to share their work with Houston ISD Chief Academic Officer Dr. Bird and members of the Instructional Technology Department.

The Mini Museum Room Scratch projects can be found in this studio and a sample video of presentation day is below.

STEM Lab Round 2

We just wrapped up round 2 in the STEM Lab and it was all around amazing! Here is a recap highlighting the incredible project our Superstars created.

Kindergarten & 1st grade

One of my favorite units to teach is Math Stories. Each day begins with a book that I read aloud to the class. The books incorporate a variety of math concepts including number sense, measurement, geometry, and problem solving. After reading and discussing the day's story,  The stories for Kindergarten and first grade are different of course. Thanks to our generous PTO, I was able to add several new math stories to the rotation this year. 2

2nd grade

Second grade completed the first half of a two part project this round. They were introduced to the practice of keeping a STEM lab journal. Using the Nat Geo Kids website, they researched an animal of their choice and took notes about it in their journals. The notes also included drawings of the animal and its habitat. They will use this information to complete the next part of the project when they return in round 3. 

The highlight of this round, though was participating in Skype-a-Scientist.  This program connects teachers with professional scientists working in a variety of fields. Students then have the opportunity to meet virtually with that scientist and ask questions about their field and the experience of being a scientist. I was matched with 2 different marine biologists, one who studies fish and another who works with marine mammals like seals and sea lions. The students asked some really excellent questions and both scientists remarked to me how impressed they were.

3rd grade

It was cardboard arcade time for 3rd grade. Students were challenged to make an arcade style game with cardboard, craft supplies, and other upcycled materials. We watched Caine's Arcade for inspiration, then students planned their projects and began building. This is the first big engineering project in the STEM lab curriculum and there was some definite trial and error as students worked out the best materials and construction methods for their games. I was impressed by the perseverance the students displayed, working through their frustration and reasching their goal. At the end of the week students presented their work to a visiting class of 1st graders and administrators. I love how excited they get to share their work with an authentic audience.

4th grade

Many of the learning experiences I design for students in the lab are meant to emphasize the natural connections between disciplines like computer science and engineering and other subjects like social studies, ELA, and fine arts. This round had students writing programs in Scratch that used key press inputs to play notes and drum beats. They used the Scratch Makey Makey extension which features a "cheat code" block that allows a sequence of key presses (e.g. left, up, and right arrow keys pressed in that order) to act as another input event. With that finished, students constructed an instrument used to control the program and play music. Students used copper tape and aluminum foil to create the keys/ strings/ drum heads for their instrument. Finally the cardboard instruments were connected to the Scratch programs with the Makey Makey i/o board and made beautiful music. The week ended with the classes sharing their work with Sinclair administrators and a visiting 2nd grade class. 

5th grade

Our 5th graders completed the first half of a 2 part project this round as well, the mini museum room. First, they researched a self selected topic. I had a list of suggestions they could choose from, but I also allowed them to pick a topic of personal interest. With their research coomplete, they determined which objects would be included in their virtual museum room. The room includes a narrator that describes the importance of the objects to the room's topic. The narration was required to display text that is read by the the text to speech extension as an accessibility feature for the 2nd grade students they will present to in the next round. The full studio of virtual museum rooms can be seen here and one is embedded below (click the green flag, then press space).

STEM Lab Round 1

The 2022-2023 school year is off to an amzing start in the Sinclair STEM Lab! The first unit of the year is mostly about computer programming in order to introduce new students to coding, and to review for those students who are returning. There have been many wonderful creative computing projects in the upper grades. Meanwhile, Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grades have been learning the fundamentals of computer science. Our younger students have also had the chance to do some creative building.

Kindergarten, First, & Second

The first STEM lab rotation for K, 1, and 2 is centered on Code.org computer science courses. Students are introduced to core computer programming concepts and practice algorithmic thinking through a variety of puzzles. There is not always as much scope for student creativity as I would like with these exercises, but the stuctured practice gives them a strong foundation for the creative computing projects that are to come. We split our time between programming on screens and unplugged activities. One of those unplugged experiences had second grade taking turns playing the part of a robot being programmed to follow a set of instructions to create an arrangement of stacked cups. Everyone discovered the importance of clear commands when writing a program. Each week ended with some building stations giving students a chance to flex their creative muscles.

Third

Third grade began the year becoming familiar with using their Scratch accounts. We went over the importance of good digital citizenship and digital etiquette. Their project was drawn from the Harvard Creative Computing Lab's outstanding Getting Unstuck curriculum materials and explored the idea of parallelism, when 2 or more things are happening at the same time in a program. The prompt is open-ended to allow for maximum student choice and creative expression. Along the way, students explored example projects to draw inspiration for their own work. They reflected on their experiences and learning in their STEM lab journals. We practiced comment on our code, leaving little notes on the scripts in a program that tell others what that bit of the program does. Students also practiced leaving each other helpful feedback on the project pages. All of the parallelism projects can be found in the Parallelism G3 studio.

Fourth

The fourth grade also got back into Scratch through a Getting Unstuck project. Theirs focused on using the broadcast function in Scratch. Broadcasts are pair of blocks that let students control when various elements in a program start running. They can be used to let characters have a conversation, change levels in a game, play different melodies, and much more. Again, the prompt is wide open for full creative scope. Students created projects that shared facts about the Grand Canyon, told knock knock jokes, animated stories, and played games; just to name a few. The broadcast projects are collected in this studio: Broadcasts G4.

Fifth

The fith grade started the year learning to use lists in Scratch. They are quite familiar with using variables to keep track of scores and lives and other bit of information. Lists however, which store several pieces of information, are compeltely new. They explored some examples and we discussed the different list blocks that were used. There was a fair bit of trial and error getting projects working as intended and no shoratge of creativity in the final products. I have been really impressed with the troubleshooting and debugging strategies and the level of perseverence I have seen so far. The full studio of list projects can be experienced here: Lists G5.

Springtime in the STEM Lab

I has been a busy few months in the lab with projects galore at every grade level. I have obviously fallen a bit behind in my posting, but I will do my best to recount the highlights here.

Kindergarten & 1st grade

After a year in the closet, our friend Robo-Mouse was able to come out to play once more. The arrows used to program Robo-Mouse are quite similar to the command blocks students use in Code.org, so it is very much like a physical version of the Code.org puzzles. Students really enjoy designing a building their own mazes to solve with their mouse.They have to keep careful track of their program steps because they cannot see the program on a screen as they can in Scratch Jr and Code.org. I love watching them collaboratively problem solve the intricae mazes they build.

First grade and Kindergarten also completed a unit of origami models. The first graders did an origami unit last year, so this year's models were a step up in difficulty. Each day had a different model and students had the opportunity to build it a few times ("it's not practice if you only do it once"). Sometimes students mounted their models to paper and drew backgrounds for their builds. Even when the models were the same, individual creativity shone through as everyone personalized their projects. Another element of this unit was the 2 frame animation. This is not origami of course, but is a fun creative storytelling project.

Kindergarten and 1st grade also returned to their Code.org courses. They focused on learning to use loops effectively to write more compact code. Loops generally take the students a little time to get used to, particularly when there are multiple commands being repeated. We reviewed the protocols for pair programming and students usually worked with a partner and collaborated on solving the puzzles. I have been truly impressed with the progress the students have made throught the Code.org course this year. Several students have nearly finished their grade level course which is something of a rare occurance most years.

2nd grade

The 2nd grade began the spring semester with a Scratch Jr project made to share their learning about an animal. We call this the digital diorama. First, students selected an animal from the Nat Geo Kids site and took notes about it. They recorded information about what it eats, its adaptations, and what threats it faces. Next they drew scientifically accurate pictures of their animal and its habitat. These were photographed into a Scratch Jr project and used as the characters and backgrounds. They coded their digitized characters to move around the habitat and to tell the viewer facts about the animal. The final result is a mini nature documentary.

The digital diorama project was followed by an introductory unit in which the students began the transition from Scratch Jr to the full version of Scratch. Each day focused on a Scratch tutorial. I selected the tutorials to highlight connections between the Scratch Jr command blocks the students know to show them what those commands look like in Scratch. The tutorials were all fairly short leaving students some time each day to explore and experiment in the new coding environment. I started introducing students to Scratch at the end of second grade a few years ago and have found that it is so helpful for them to have had that initial exposure before they get to third grade. With Scratch Jr still fresh in their minds, the step up to Scratch does not feel so overwhelming. 

Second grade also returned to their Code.org courses this semester. While Scratch Jr and Scratch emphasize the creative side of programming, it is important that students have opportunities to practice applying their skills to a specific task. The puzzles in the higher levels of the second grade Code.org course challenge students to combine a number of programming concepts into their solutions. In particular, I like that there are frequently multiple solutions to a puzzle which reinforces the lesson that there is almost always more than one way to write a program that achieves the desired output. 

3rd grade

The third grade spent their first round of the semester learning to program the Micro:bit microcontroller. A microcontroller differs from a regular computer in that it can only remember and run one program at a time. These devices are all around us, turning on the AC, openning the door a the supermarket, and turning off the lights when a room has been empty for a while. The Micro:bit has a variety of inputs including buttons, an accelerometer, light sensor, and more. Its outputs inlcude a 5x5 LED matrix, a speaker, and a set of I/O pins. Each day they practiced writing programs using the various inputs and outputs. At the end of the week they built a 2 dimensional animal and incorporated the Micro:bit into the build to make the model interactive. 

Next the students returned to Scratch and learned to use the pen and music extensions. These extra block palettes allow students to explore the connections between programming and the arts. The pen blocks turn the sprite into a drawing tool. First students worked on drawing basic shapes and changing colors. Then they moved onto creating more complex figures by drawing multiple shapes and experimenting with randomness. The music extensions allows students to compose music using an assorment of instruments and percussion. These blocks differ from the sound effect blocks in that students can adjust the tempo, insert rests, and play several ocatves worth of notes. The unit began with a one day introduction tutorial for each extension. Then students were prompted create a project that used both extensions. There was a wonderful variety of final projects, Some leaned more heavily on the music while other were more about the drawing. That kind of creative freedom is so important for students to have as they are able to make something that is personally meaningful. Here's the studio where their projects were shared.

Earlier in the year the 4th grade built cardboard controllers that they used to control their own Scratch music project. I wanted to see how 3rd grade would do with a similar project, so that is what they did after the pen and music project. Each day they completed a phase of the build. Measuring, cutting, and decorating the board and the keys is first. They the copper tape is added and the keys glued to the board. On the third day the glue is all dry and the students tested their keyboards using Makey Makey's "plug and play" apps. The rest of the week they made simple Scratch programs to use with their keyboards. I was quite impressed with how well the building went nad I think it bodes well for being able to do more complcated constructions next year with this group.

4th grade

I think I have mentioned before that the transition from 2 week magnet blocks to 1 week has taken some getting used to. There are several projects that simply cannot be completed in a single week, in particular those done by the upper grades. My workaround has been to break projects into two parts. These projects generally have a digital element and a physical one. Students complete the digital parts in one round and then do the physical part during the next round. One such project was the biography bottles project done by the 4th grade earlier this semester. This project starts with research into the life and contributions of a significant scientist. Students take noted and then plan a Scratch project that uses key press events to share information about the topic. They added images from online resources and checked to be sure that they included biographical data and told about their subject's important contributions to society. The projects went into a studio at the end of the week for peer feedback. When the students returned for the next round of STEM lab they went to work building a model of their person using a repurposed plastic bottle as the base. This model was attached to a cardboard base punched through with metal fastners. Using the Makey Makey the model and base were connected to the Scratch project. The metal fasteners served as buttons to trigger the key press events that opperate the program. At the end of the building week, each 4th grade class got to present their projects to a visiting class of 2nd graders. I have missed being able to invite lower grade classes to the lab to see the upper grade projects. I think it helps the younger students see where their STEM lab skills are leading, and it is important for the older students to have an authentic audience to share their work with.

After completing such a long form project, the 4th grade moved on to something a bit shorter. They were introduced to the Raspberry Pi microcomputer and how it is used for physical computing. The Pi does just about everything a regular computer does, but it also has an array of 40 GPIO (General Purpose Input Output) pins. These make it possible to build a variety of circuits that can then be programmed with Scratch, Python, and several other languages. Before getting to the Raspberry Pi, students learned to build circuits on a breadboard in order to become familiar with the proper handling of the components. Next they had some guided practice using the components with the Pi. They started with one LED and programmed it to blink using Scratch. Then they were challenged to add more LEDs and to program different blinking patterns. Later in the week they learned to use buttons to generate outputs both on screen in Scratch and on the breadboard circuits they had built.

5th grade

One of my favorite projects in recent years has been "hacked art" in which students take a digital version of a famous painting and use Scratch to make it interactive with movement, sound, and hidden surprises. Even when students work on the same painting they end up with wonderfully different final products. They have their choice of about a dozen different images that I share to them in a Google folder. They have to include 5 elements that react when they are clicked by the user. The only other constraint is that the starting screen of the project must be just the painting they started with. The students use the Scratch drawing tools to crop the elements they want to make interactive and make them sprites that can be clicked. They learn a lot about initialization with this project because as sprites move, they have to be programmed to go back to where they started. The projects are in this studio. Check them out.

In keeping with the fusion of programming and fine art, 5th grade's next project was called interactive artworks. In this case, rather than adapting the work of a famous artist, the students created their own artwork. First they drew/painted an image, planning which elements would be sprites and which would be part of the background. Next, they drew that image as sprites and a background in Scratch using the digital drawing tools. They used key press events to animate the sprites. Their physical image was wired with copper tape and metal fasteners so that, with the help of the Makey Makey, it could be used to trigger the key presses that govern the digital elements of the project. Full disclosure: many of these projects did not achieve the state of completeness I would have liked to see. This seems like one of those projects that needs to be split into two parts.

Most recently the 5th grade got their own taste of the Raspberry Pi. They were introduced to text-base programming with the language Python. We started with a side by side comparison of the Scratch and Python programming environments. I highlighted what the Scratch they know looks like in Python. First they used the turtle art module to program drawings. I gave them starter code which they were encouraged to tinker with to create their own outputs. The Raspberry Pi OS includes an educational version of the digital sandbox known as Minecraft. Students can run around in the world building just as in the full version of Minecraft, but all of the most interesting things in this world happen with programs. Again, the students had starter code, but were encouraged to creatively adapt the programs to generate original outputs. It will surprise no one that a great many of the programs the classes created involved lava flows and TNT. Students were generally excited about the move to text-based coding. They said it felt more like "real" programming. No matter how often I remind them that Scratch is a real coding language, they idea that it is less than because it is block based remains hard to shake.

So there you have it. We have about 6 weeks of school left, so be sure to check back for one last update as we close out the year.

It's Micro:bit Time!

STEM Lab round 4 has the 4th and 5th grade classes exploring the realm of physical computing using the BBC Micro:bit microcontroller. The Micro:bit has a variety of inputs that students can program to generate outputs. The device's inputs include 2 buttons, an accelerometer, and sensors for temperature, light, and sound. Its outputs include a 5x5 LED matrix that can display images or text and a tiny speaker that can generate tones to play music. The Micro:bit also has a set of GPIO pins that can be used as both inputs and outputs depending on how they are programmed. The students used the Makecode language to program in this unit, but the Micro:bit can also be programmed with the text-based languages Python and Javascript.

Each day students were given a brief introduction to a particular input or output. They coded along with me to create a starter project. After that, students were tasked to continue independently using the day's programming concept to make their own creative project. They used the buttons to play animations. The accelerometer (tilt sensor) was used to play the different notes of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Jingle Bells. Students learned about using the GPIO pins as outputs by connecting LEDS with wires and programming different blinking patterns. They used the light sensor to play notes and display images based on the measured light level.

One of the things I love best about the Micro:bit is the amount of creative freedom students have. Even within the constraints of the daily task, they can create images, animations, and music. A 25 pixel "screen" does not seem like much, but I am always amazed at how expressive the students are able to be. Moving forward students will have the opportuity to use the Micro:bit as the digital element of a physical building project.