Kindergarten & 1st Grade
Robo-mouse is always a huge hit with our youngest programmers here in the lab. It is also an important step in the development of their algorithmic thinking because the robot's programs have to be structured a little differently from what the students are used to from Code.org. In Code.org, students write programs using the cardinal directions. As a result, the students do not have to consider turns when writing their programs. They just have to instruct the character to north or east or whatever. With Robo-mouse however, the students need to decide whether the robot need to turn left or right before instructing it to move forward. While most of the 1st graders remembered this from last year, it was a fairly big adjustment for the kindergartners. They persevered through their early frustrations and by the end of the week were building elaborate mazes and programming Robo-mouse to run them.
2nd Grade
Something that the 2nd graders have come to look forward to each year is the point when they step up to using "real" Scratch rather than Scratch Jr. So there was considerable excitement when students arrived in the lab for the first time this year and saw that their promotion to Scratch was at hand. We started the week with a code along activity in which I walked them through the process of adding characters and backgrounds and then coding them to do things. Scratch has a LOT more going on than Scratch Jr and that can be a tremendous distraction as when the students discover the hundreds of hilarious noises in the sound library and feel the need to listen to every single one. However, this vast array of added commands is what makes Scratch such a powerful creative tool.
3rd Grade
One of the hardest things about being chained to a cart for the first two thirds of the year was the need to water down the projects so as to minimize the movement of materials and the mess generated by building projects. One building project that simply could not be adapted to the cart life is cardboard arcade. It is certainly one of my favorite projects and I know it is something the students look forward to. The project is inspired by the short film Caine's Arcade, which kicks off the week. Afterwards, the students start planning what they will build, either in pairs or independently. The middle of the week is for building. In the process, they learn to use L-braces and flanges along with liquid glue to build stable structures. They test and refine their projects until they have a playable game. The week ends with the students presenting their games to a visiting class and whichever our our administrators are able to attend. Occasionally the 3rd grade classroom teachers will drop by. Every year I am impressed by the creativity the students display in their cardboard arcade games, and this year was no exception.
4th Grade
In 4th grade, the first real building project of the year combined physical and digital elements. First, the students used Scratch to create a program that plays drums and notes when different keys are pressed on the keyboard. This is something they have worked with before. The real challenge was to then create a controller for the program using cardboard, construction paper, copper tape, and the Makey Makey. What I love about this project is that it has a rather low floor, and it is easy to code and build something that will work, but the possibilities are endless in terms of the creative directions students can go with it. We ended up with guitars, pianos, and drum kits, but we also had musical donuts, pencils, and baseball bats. Each class presented to one of our kindergarten classes.
5th Grade
Some of the STEM lab projects are too involved to be completed in just one week. With those projects, students complete the research and digital work during the first week, and then do the physical building and presenting the next time they are in the lab. You may recall that 5th grade started the tiny museum project back in round 4. When it started to look like we would get the lab back in time for round 6, I held off on doing the pared down version of the 2nd part project in hopes of being able to do the physical building and presentation piece for real. Thankfully, that is exactly how things worked out.
The second half of the tiny museum project has students build a physical model of their digital museum room. The door to this model is wired to the Makey Makey and opening it triggers the program to run and narrate to the user about the objects in the room. Owing to the time gap between parts one and two, students needed some time to refresh their memories about the first part of the project. Many wanted to make improvements, which was fine of course. Students assembled their tiny rooms from a net I had traced for them and then built models of the objects in the virtual museum room. Copper tape was added to make the switch on the door. On Friday the classes shared their work with a class of second graders.
