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. 

STEM Lab Round 5

It has been another fantastic round in the lab. From origami and two-frame animations to moving masterpieces programmed with Micro:bit, the students have created some truly wonderful things.

Kindergarten & 1st Grade 

This round I introduced the Kindergarten students to the craft of origami. It is such a wonderful way to practice fine motor coordination. Even though they all fold the same model, the creative ways they decorate their work makes each piece unique. Most of the first grade students had the introductory origami unit last year, so for this year they learned to fold models of increased complexity. It was a fairly big step up, and there was some frustration, but every student was eventually successful. It is not an origami thing, but most classes also got to try their hand at 2 frame animations. This is something along the lines of a flip book, but with just two images switched rapidly back and forth. See below for some hightlights.

2nd Grade

A few years ago I started introducing the second graders to the full version of Scratch at the end of the year. The hope was that they would be able to begin 3rd grade ready to use Scratch to make real projects rather than learning the particulars of the new platform. The jump in complexity from Scratch Jr to Scratch is quite large. Not only are there hundreds more command blocks and a far greater range of project possibilities, but there is also the distraction of learning to navigate the online version of Scratch where students turn in their work, share projects, and try projects made by others. In second grade we use the offline version of Scratch and students complete a set of tutorials that I have chosen first because they teach particular programming skills, and second because they allow for a great deal of student creativity within the guided practice. My favorite part of this unit is listening to the excitement as students make a discovery and call out to their frineds, "Look what I made!". Someone then asks, "How did you do that?", and before long they are all sharing their learning with each other. 

3rd Grade

As students move up through the grade levels in the STEM Lab, the projects increasingly rely on both digital as well as physical elements. The 3rd graders got their first taste of that with the interactive science posters they created in round 4 using the Makey Makey. Another tool we use rather often in the lab is the BBC Micro:bit. This microcontroller differs from the Makey Makey in that it is programable and has a number of input and output possibilities built in. In addition to a couple of buttons, it also contains an accelerometer (tilt sensor), light and sound sensors, a thermometer, and capacitive touch capabilities. For outputs, it has a 5 x 5 LED "screen" and a small speaker. It also has i/o pins that can be used to control external components (see below in the 5th grade section). We spent the first few days of the week creating animations and sound effects programs using the buttons and the tilt sensor. The culminating project had students use construction paper and craft materials to build a model animal, a "micro:pet" if you will. Then they wrote a program for the Micro:bit and attached the device to their model animal to make it interactive and animated.

4th Grade

Last round, 4th grade researched one of the Texas state parks and began work on a Scratch project to act as a digital tour guide for that park. This time the students completed their Scratch projects and created a poster-sized park make to accompany their program. Some groups took the added step of making the map interactive using the Makey Makey, though not every group had time for that due to a number of short weeks during round 4 that cut into the amount of work they were able to complete. I was really impressed with the variety in the finished projects. The completed Scratch projects can be see in this studio and a few highlights in the video below.

5th Grade

This round had 5th graders creating moving masterpieces with programmed LEDs and servo motors. This project was the resurrection of one I did years ago. Back then we used the Raspberry Pi computers and had 2 week magnet rotation blocks. The shift to one week blocks forced me to reimagine how to do this with a single week. In the end it was the Micro:bit to the rescue. The first day of the week we went over how to build the circuits connecting the Micro:bit to the motor and the LEDs. Students programmed these components to blink and move in various ways. Next they created a picture and mounted it to a file folder. I cut the openings for the lights and motor and the students did the wiring and programming. I was so impressed by the creative ways they made their pictures come to life!

STEM Lab Round 4

Round 4 in the STEM lab has been truly wonderful! The students have done some amazing work and leanred so much. From programming robots to interactive posters to hacked works of art, I could hardly be more proud. Read on for a look at what we have been up to in the lab.

Kindergarten & 1st grade

Robo-Mouse returns! This is always a fun unit to teach in large part because of the excitement of the students. At this point in the year they have had a great deal of experience watching their programs run on a screen. The year started with Code.org coursework and was followed later with Scratch Jr. However, there is a special thrill to seeing one's code run in the physical world as the Robo-mouse moves through the mazes students constructed. 

In Kindergarten we start with a general introduction to handling the robot to keep it safe, and then we do a couple short programming exercises together so we can discuss the differences between this and our screen-based programming tools. Then students work in groups to create a maze for their robot and take turns coding it to the cheese. After this initial exploration time, students are given task cards with mazes to build and then program the mouse to navigate. The task cards describe long mazes requiring more complex programs to complete.

Most of the 1st graders remember using Robo-mouse last year, so we begin with a brief review and some exploration time in order for them to get reacquainted with the device. The rest of the week they work on a series of increasingly challenging task cards. They build the maze and, before getting their hands on a robot, they use the algorithm cards to plan their programs. This gives them the chance to develop their algorithmic thinking and to practice debugging as they identify the place in the program where things went wrong. Each day after they complete the task cards, students are allowed to design their own mazes and they delight in challenging themselves with the most difficult ones they can imagine. 

2nd grade

I have wanted to do a math stories unti with second grade for a while, but was not able to get a hold of the books I wanted to use. Thanks to the support of our awesome PTO, I was finally able to gather the desired books to bring math stories to second grade. Most of the books have a focus on building number sense and on operations like addition and multiplication, but we also touch on geometry. After reading and discussing each day's story, students work together on an activity related to the math found in the book. The activities are generally in the form of a number puzzle or problem solving activity. Students have to share their reasoning both with me and their classmates. I was so impressed by the rich discussions I heard students having with each other as I walked around the room. Our geomtry book, Perfect Square, lent itself to a more artistic project. Students decorated and dismantled a plain white square of paper to create a picture inspired by the story. The primary goal of the unit's activities is showing students that there are a variety of strategies, all equally valid that can result in solutions. 

3rd grade

In round 3 our third graders selected a science topic to research and then created Scratch project to share what they had learned. Round 4 started with an introduction to the Makey Makey I/O board. The name is an amalgam of "make" and "key" and stands for "make a key". It allows us to  use any conductive material to build switches and keys that can communicate with and control our programs. Students practiced setting up the Makey Makey and explored its capabilities with a set of plug and play apps including a piano, audio sampler, and etch-a-sketch drawing program.

Next, students created a poster that complemented their Scratch project. They added metal fasteners and copper foil tape to create touch points for the user to control the program. These were connected to the computer via Makey Makey, here acting as a USB keyboard. The Scratch programs they created use the space and arrow keys as events to run different parts of the code. The Makey Makey is precoded to those keys. Touching the "earth" point and one of the others at the same time closes a circuit that the board reads as a press of that key. The corresponding part ot the Scratch program runs as each point is touched. We wrapped up each week by sharing our work with a visiting first or second grade class. Everyone did a great job presenting! All of the Scratch projects are in this studio.

4th grade

This round was the beginning of a two part project centered on the state parks of Texas. The theme of the fourth grade curriculum is the history and geography of Texas, so this project is a natural tie in. Students explored different sites on the Texas Parks and Wildlife site. They were allowed to select any park that caught their interest to be the subject of their research. I gave them a series of guiding questions to help their notetaking that included identifyinig the region of Texas the their chosen park is in, the history of the park, and the plants and animals that can be found there. After gathering information, the students planned and began programming a digital tour guide for the park using Scratch. The most of the projects are in this studio, but many are works in progress because of the week's other activity. 

The fourth graders also participated in a Skype-a-Scientist meeting during this unit. Skype-a-Scientist has been part of many STEM lab units over the years. They partner classroom teachers with scientists working in a variety of fields. Students have tthe chance to have a conversation about a scientific topic with an expert and to learn about what it is like to work as a scientist. I requested ecologists for this particular round of meetings because one of the things I want to students to investigate about their park is the ecosystem it is a part of. Skype-a-Scientist took 2 days of the unit, one to learn background on ecology and our scientist's particular focus, and one day for the meeting. Each meeting is a bit different, but they are always interesting.

5th grade

This round's fifth grade project is one I have done in a few different iterations in recent years, and I look forward to it. I alternately refer to it as "Interactive Art" or "Hacked Art". Students select a painting from a famous artist from a collection I have put in a Google folder. Students are allowed to suggest a painting that is not one of the ones provided, but I do insist on approving it. The painting gets loaded into Scratch as a background first, and then as a sprite. Using the image tools, students erase all of the painting added as a sprite except for an element that they want to be interactive. They place this element against the background where it blends in. This sprite is coded to react to being clicked. This process is repeated several time until most of the painting has been made interactive. I always love seeing the creative outputs the students imagine into the paintings. Below are two standout projects (it was really hard to choose just 2). Click the green flag and then click the elements of the painting. Sound on to get the full effect. The complete hacked art studio is here. (Until 2/17/2023 the projects at the top of the studio are works in progress.)