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.)

Winding Down This Most Peculiar Year

My best intentions for keeping a schedule of posting have come to naught under the weight of other digital responsibilities. That is not to say however that we have been idle in the STEM Lab. Quite the contrary, we have been designing, programming, and building up a storm. 

So here is the short version of what the various grade levels have been up to these last couple of months. 

Kindergarten & 1st grade

We spent several weeks exploring the nature to be found on campus. Students used their senses (not taste) to make and record observations about the living and non-living natural things they saw. We walked around campus noting the different types of trees, the birds, and even visited the habitat to see the pond. One of the most exciting things was getting to monitor the progress of a robin nest in a crepe myrtle outside one of the kindergarten classrooms. We made leaf rubbings and created pictures using natural materials as well.

The next unit was a return to computer programming. However, the focus this time was on creative computing rather than solving puzzles as we do in Code.org. We used the language Scratch Jr. for its ease of use. Each class began with a guided lesson followed by an independent practice challenge. Once students had completed the challenge they were invited to create their own programs with self designed characters and backgrounds. One of my main goals for the lab is that students see computer programming as a tool for self expression and sharing their learning. I start teaching them that lesson early and I am endlessly impressed with their creativity.

2nd grade

One of my favorite things to do with my second graders is to introduce them the "real" Scratch. Most of them have been using Scratch Jr. since kindergarten and stepping up to the full version make them feel like they are now the big kids. This was a 2 part unit (on account of the fact that I only have one week with the class rather than two. The first week was guided practice using the various commands and relating them to the Scratch Jr platform that they are familiar with. The second week involved planning and then programming an "All About Me" project in which clicking each letter of their name shared something about them.

Second grade's final unit of the year is, like their introduction to Scratch, about preparing for next year's STEM Lab projects. This one aims to develop the students' cardboard engineering skills. In the lab, our primary building material is cardboard. It is plentiful, easy to work with, and sturdy enough to build large structures. The students practiced constructing models using L-braces, flanges, and slotted pieces before combining these methods into a stabile. I have discovered that most students do not know how to effectively use liquid glue, so that is another one of the goals of this unit.

3rd Grade

The third graders also experienced a 2 part unit, this one involving the BBC Micro:bit device. This is a microcontroller that students program using a block-based language called MakeCode. The first week was spent becoming familiar with the various inputs and outputs found in the Micro:bit. The primary inputs students learned to use are buttons, the accelerometer (tilt sensor), and the I/O pins. They used these inputs to trigger outputs to the 5x5 LED screen and sound effects played through an add-on speaker board. The next time they visited the lab, students built a model animal with cardboard and construction paper and incorporated a Micro:bit running a program of their own creation to make their animal interactive.

The last 3rd grade STEM Lab unit was an introduction to the concept of "broadcasts" in Scratch. A broadcast sends messages between different elements of a program allowing the students to coordinate their these elements to create projects of greater complexity. Here are a couple examples.

4th grade

Our 4th graders spent a few extra units on Scratch this year. We were involved in piloting lessons and activities put together by the Creative Computing Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. These projects seek to develop students' coding skills while also developing their creative confidence. One of my overarching goals in the lab has always been to make students comfortable with open-ended tasks with many possible solutions. The general emphasis on standardized test results tends education toward standardized answers. Students display this training by point at whatever they are working on and asking, "Like this?".  A collection of the projects they created for these units can be found here: When Clicked, Broadcasts, Ask & Answer. 

After so much computer programming we took a break to do some purely physical making. This was the "biography bottles" research project. Students researched an important figure from the sciences. They then built a model of that person with plastic bottles, cardboard, and construction paper. They completed their display with a timeline of significant dates in that person's life and a notecard detailing their contributions and accomplishments.

The 4th grade is finishing the year setting up a project for next year when they are in 5th grade. My wife is also an elementary STEM lab teacher (at another school of course) and in 2020 we were awarded a summer study grant from Fund for Teachers, an organization that funds self designed professional development experiences for teachers. Our grant will help us visit the Galapagos Islands to create a model GeoInquiry project based on the framework created by National Geographic. This type of project engages students in geographic thinking and encourages them to take action to improve their communities. Students have been researching things to see and study in the Galapagos and will begin writing questions for us to ask the naturalists and guides we meet with on our expedition.

5th grade

My 5th grade students are often "asked" to be a beta testing group for new STEM lab units and this year is no different. Related to the aforementioned GeoInquiry project related to the Galapagos, I want to include GIS mapping next year when we review the data related to our expedition. Never having used this kind of technology with students, I wanted a test drive. I find 5th graders to be brutally honest about what works and what does not when given the chance (and when they trust the teacher enough to be honest with them). We worked with a number of resources including surveys and map explorations. I am extremely grateful for the feedback the students provided. Another part of this unit was a set of Skype-a-Scientist meetings. They facilitate connections between scientists in a variety of fields and classroom teachers. 

The 5th grade finished the year with a couple units based on art. In the first they used their skills in Scratch to "hack" a famous work of art. The result is a painting that one can interact with by clicking the different parts. Here are a couple examples: 

The other art-meets-programming project used Turtle Art, a language based on Logo that allowed students to draw with code. This drew (haha) not just on their knowledge of coding, but on their geometry skills as well. I was quite impressed with the things they were able to make.

So there you have it, everything we have been up to the last few months. It is certainly been a strange and taxing roller coaster of a year and I certainly hope that the 2021-2022 school year will be a bit more normal. 

Check here for updates on the Galapagos expedition.

Have a wonderful summer!

Digital Dioramas and Skype-a-Scientist

This rotation in the STEM lab has the second grade taking their first steps into combining physical elements with digital ones to create projects. In my almost entirely self-designed curriculum, this kind of fusion is the ultimate goal for the students I work with. 

The students began by selecting an animal to research using the National Geographic Kids page about different species of animals. I let them explore an bit before choosing and starting to take notes in their journals. They also selected partners for this project. I provided the students with a list of facts that they needed to read for and record in their notes, but also encouraged them to include any information that they found especially interesting. Required information included what their animal eats, where it is found, and what threats it faces. We discussed how threats may be natural (predators) or human-caused (habitat loss/ poaching). Finally, they drew a picture of their chosen animal and its habitat in their journals.

Next, the teams worked together to create detailed drawings of their subject animal, its food, and its habitats. They cut out their pictures and practiced animating how they would move around in a Scratch Jr. project. Students used the camera function to photograph the pictures they drew of the habitats as backgrounds. They also added photos of their animal drawings as well as drawings of what it eats and the threats it faces.

Finally, the students programmed their hand-drawn characters to move around and to share facts they gathered through their research. This process was a great opportunity for me to teach the students about a number of different computer science concepts. They are already familiar with the primary event block in the Scratch Jr language, the Green Flag. This event is a general purpose "go" to all of the characters students have added to their programs. However, most of the teams discovered that the Green Flag event has its limitations because it makes everything move at once. When they wanted different characters to move and speak at different times I showed them the messaging events. When they wanted a prey animal to disappear after being eaten, I was able to show them the uses of the "when characters touch" event which is the beginning of understanding conditionals. 

We finished the unit by having each student team share their work on the SMART Board so they could practice providing each other feedback.

Another element of this unit that I personally find super exciting is our video chat with a scientist. This is facilitated by Skype-a-Scientist, a program that matches classrooms with scientists working in a variety of fields. Skype-a-Scientist connects teachers and scientists and they coordinate the scheduling of a video call. This program lets students see and engage with "actual living scientists" who were once sitting in a classroom as they are now. Each class gets to speak to a different scientist with a different area of study, so each conversation is unique. The first group spoke with a conservation biologist in Seattle, and the second group will be speaking with a geologist from the UK. Skype-a-Scientist is a non-profit run by Dr. Sarah McAnulty. I am proud to support this program with a monthly donation, and I would encourage our Sinclair Elementary families, and anyone else who cares about supporting science education to do the same at patreon.com. 

Imagining Adaptations

Fourth grade's final rotation in the lab for the school year begins with research into the Earth's biomes. Students started with some note taking on BrainPop and identified the different biomes and the variations in climate and elevation that define them. Next, students formed teams, or elected to work alone, and were randomly assigned one of the biomes. They continued their research using BrainPop along with National Geographic resources and online encyclopedias to learn about the plants and animals that inhabit the biome they were assigned. In particular they were to find the adaptations that organisms in that biome use to survive. The information collected was organized into a table showing the name of the organism, the adaptation, and the role that adaptation plays in keeping the organism alive.

Up until this point, I did not tell students what they would actually be making in this unit because I did not want the product to influence their research. However, with the note taking portion of the project complete, it is time to outline their task. The challenge is to imagine an organism that lives in the biome they were assigned with a focus on giving it the adaptations it needs to survive there. Students planned their organism in their journals complete with labeled sketches highlighting the adaptations. With their plans complete, students used the STEM Lab standard materials of cardboard and paper scraps to build a model of their imagined organism.

Students spent several days working on this part. One of the things I have been focusing on getting the children to understand when they are making things is that just because we are building with trash, it doesn't have to look trashy. It is sort of like a neatness counts idea, but really it is more about getting them to slow down and take their time. Their project being done well is more important than it being done fast.

The final step was for the teams to make a small model of their biome to to display their model in. They also filled out a display card to accompany their work. I invited one of the first grade classes to the lab to visit the imaginary menagerie and the fourth graders had to discuss their projects for a younger audience.

This was a new project for the lab and I am generally pleased with how it has gone so far. However, for future iterations, I am planning on direction students to include at least one adaptation from different categories into their imagined organism. That is, an adaptation for dealing with the climate, an adaptation for getting food, and adaptation for defending itself, and so on. As it was, many of the projects so far have focused on adaptations for doing just one of those things and I want them to think about adaptations helping organisms do all of things they need to survive.