Starting the Year in the Virtual STEM Lab

Now that the first 3 weeks of the strangest school year of my career are behind us, and we have settled into a rhythm of sorts, it seemed like a good time for the first blog post of the year.

The lab schedule and projects were created in order to minimize stress on families. Synchronous whole group meetings were set for Monday to introduce the projects and Friday to review and share. The projects varied by grade level of course, but the theme across the board was "plugged or unplugged". I wanted students and families to have a project choice that did not involve a computer because I am well aware of how much time the children are spending in front of the computer already.

The "plugged" option for my Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd graders had them working in their grade level Code.org courses. It was a bit different this year since the unplugged activities are a bit of a challenge to lead in a Teams meeting. The students who have chosen this activity have done a great job progressing through the lessons. I have been most impressed however with the quality of their responses to the reflection prompts. (These get submitted through our district LMS called the HUB.) It was great to see their excitement about successfully completing the puzzles at each level and to see them reflecting on what they had learned. So far my favorite response to "what is one thing you have learned this week?" is from a 1st grader who noted, "I learned that there is more than one way to do things". That is one of the key messages in the STEM Lab.

The 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders' "plugged" choice involved using the Scratch programming language to create a project. The 4th and 5th graders are familiar with Scratch for the most part and I challenged them to create an animated book review project. The 3rd graders missed out on their traditional introduction to Scratch at the end of second grade, so they are mostly new to the platform (though most have experience with Scratch Jr). Their task was to create a project that introduced themselves to others. In both cases I provided examples, but encouraged the students to be as creative as they wished with the form their projects took. I have not been disappointed so far. The 3rd graders are doing an amazing job of problem solving their way through this new programming environment, and the 4th and 5th graders are extending their skills through some playful experimentation.

The "unplugged" activity was the same for everyone, Kindergarten through 5th grade. The challenge was to use whatever materials they have around to build a 3 dimensional model of a favorite book cover. I showed the students a few examples, but again, they were encouraged to be as creative as possible. The only rule was no 2D products. I have gotten so many amazing projects back so far. This building project has proven to be a bit more of a popular choice than the coding project. I am not terribly surprised by this because when I told the classes in our meetings that they had a non-computer choice there were many looks of relief.

 

As I mentioned above, there is a reflection piece to these choices. The prompts vary by grade level a bit, but are all aimed at getting students to reflect on what they learned, the quality of their work, and to think about how they might improve their projects in a second iteration. One of my favorite prompts is the one that asks students to choose 3 adjectives to describe their work. Some responses I have enjoyed from a variety of students include "challenging", "surprising", "awesome", and "breakable".

We have a few weeks left of fully digital learning. Beyond that point there are many unknowns. But whatever may come, I have loved seeing the students' work, and I know that we will find a way to continue making together.

Prekindergarten Building Stars, Kindergarten Programmers

Last Saturday I spent the morning at the School Choice Fair, and enjoyed the opportunity to share some of the amazing things that go on at Sinclair. A great many of the people who stopped by to talk to us were looking for Kindergarten and Pre-K programs. That got me thinking about what I have done with these grades in the past, and what I have planned for them going forward, so it seemed like a good week to write about the youngest engineers and computer programmers that I teach.

I will begin with Pre-Kindergarten. My schedule last year did not include them, so this is the first year that I have seen them in the lab. I teach each Pre-K class once a week (rather in than in a two week block as with the other grades), so they are not working on a themed unit like other grade levels. Instead, during each class period I guide them through a set of activities in which they have the opportunity to practice their creativity in a variety of ways. It is important to start children early with creating and making things so that it becomes a habit. There is also a great deal of research that children, especially the young, learn best when they are given the opportunity to explore and build, to "construct knowledge".

We start each class with a song or two. The first was "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", which many students knew. Few of them, however, were familiar with the idea of a song that had hand motions. That was perfect because it allowed us as a class to imagine our own. I asked questions to get them thinking like, "What does something look like if it twinkles?" and "How could we show 'up above' with our hands?". After a few good minutes of conversation and practice, we had student generated hand motions for "Twinkle, Twinkle." (I was most impressed a couple weeks into the year when one of the students noticed that "Twinkle" is set to the same tune as "The ABCs".) We have repeated the process of creating hand motions now for "London Bridge" and "This Land is Your Land".

Next, we move on to some kind of hands-on creating. So far, this has included drawing images from the songs we are singing or activities we have talked about. Also, I have had them building with Unifix cubes. We are 5 weeks into the school year now and I am amazed at how much more complex their structures have become with a little encouragement and guidance. The first week, every student built the longest stack of blocks they could. Standing up, it was a tower, on the floor, it was a snake or a train. After a short class discussion about what bridges looked like, they began building some very exciting structures. It has been wonderful to watch them break away from the one dimensional train of blocks. In addition to bridges, they are now building houses, cars, and animals.

Kindergarten, who I see two weeks at a time, by class, began the year learning the basics of computer programming. They use a resource from Code.org designed for early readers in which students solve a series of puzzles using blocks that represent lines of Javascript code. The students create algorithms that navigate characters through sets of mazes or that draw pictures. The goal is to get them thinking logically about the steps needed to accomplish a task. As they progress, the students learn about concepts such as looping and debugging. Another important part of this unit is what is called "pair programming". In this, students work in teams of two with one acting as the "driver" and the other as the "navigator". The driver uses the mouse and keyboard while their navigator watches for mistakes and offers suggestions. A great part of this program is that both students are able to login as a team, so that both are earning credit for the puzzles they solve together.

I started using Code.org with my 3rd graders a couple years ago (when I was still a regular classroom teacher). They are now 5th graders entering their third year of computer science instruction. While it is anecdotal evidence at best, those students seem more skilled in algorithmic thinking than they might otherwise be. I have had subject area teachers tell me that they have seen the students make connections between the computer science skills I have been teaching them and the work they do in their classrooms. All of which is to say, I am excited to see what my current kindergartners and first graders will be capable of by the time they get to 4th and 5th grade. I suppose I am just hoping that I am able to keep up with them.