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.
