STEM Lab 23_24 Round 7 - Wind Whipped Edition

STEM Lab year 9 is coming to a close, and we are definitely finishing on a high note. For kindergarten and 1st grade, this round was a chance to apply their programming skills to a multi-day project. Second grade planned and programmed their first project in the full version of Scratch. In third grade we explored the connections between the fine arts and creative coding. The 4th and 5th graders had their first experiences with text-based programming using the Python language. 

As I have begun thinking about the 10th anniversary of the Sinclair STEM Lab next year, I have also been thinking about how the lab got started. When the task of creating the lab was appointed to me, I was given an extraordinary amount of freedom in terms of lessons, projects, and content. It has been a great deal of work to develop a curriculum for 7 grade levels, and there has been a fair amount of trial and error over the years. Looking back at posts here from the early years of the lab what stands out most to me is how this space has evolved and grown. Credit for that development goes in large part to the students. It is thanks to their ideas, their enthusiasm, their creativity, and their feedback that the STEM Lab is the place it is today. 

Kindergarten & First Grade

I had a number of project ideas that I was considering for this final round, but ultimately my love of incorporating literature into computer programming won out. The students used Scratch Jr to create an animated retelling of a self-selected story. First, I read the class a book and modeled how they would create their story plan. We reviewed the elements of a story, including characters, setting, and plot. Then the students chose a story and created a plan. When the plans were finished, they began working on their projects in Scratch Jr. Most of them had to use the drawing tools to create the characters and settings for their stories. Next they programmed each scene using the broadcast commands to ensure the characters spoke in turn and that the scenes advanced automatically. I was really impressed with how well the students persevered through the challenges. 

Second Grade

In round 6 the second graders made the transition from Scratch Jr to the full version of Scratch. In that round each day was its own project. The students completed a different tutorial every day selected to give them time to practice with the most commonly used commands and structures of Scratch. In this round the students applied what they learned in round 6 to the planning and creation of a multi-day Scratch project with the theme "All About Me". In the final program when the letters of the student's name are clicked the letter changes its appearance and shares a piece of information about the student. First the students made a 3 column chart to plan what each letter would change into and what it would say about them. After that they went to work in Scratch. They wrote a script that set each letter in the correct place and with the correct appearance at the beginning of the program. Then they wrote the scripts that cause the letters to react when clicked. As with the K and 1st grade project, many students needed to draw their own sprites because the thing they wanted to change into is not one of the sprites preloaded into Scratch. 

Third Grade

One of the most important parts of the STEM Lab is making connections between the elements of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and subjects like language arts, literature, history, music, and visual art. (The siloing of subjects into individual, unrelated units is one of my greatest frustrations with the way so much of the modern school curriculum is done.)

For this unit, the 3rd graders explored the intersection of art and computer programming. As always we used Scratch. The music extension allows students to compose music, while the pen extension turns sprites into drawing tools that can be programmed to create images on the background. We started with a day of exploration for each extension. Students were provided with a brief step-by-step guide and some starter code that they were expected to tinker with until they had something original. Following that, students designed and programmed a project that included both the pen and the music extensions. I gave them a checklist with a few elements that had to be included (though these were deliberately open end to allow for individual student creativity), but they were encouraged to personalize their projects as much as possible. The studio including all the projects can be viewed here.

Fourth Grade

The 4th graders have done a fair bit of work this year building physical circuits and writing programs to control the behavior of those circuits. To wrap things up, the students were introduced to the Raspberry Pi computer. The Pi is about the size of a credit card, costs as little as $35, and was designed as a tool to make programming and physical computing accessible to all. 

We started the week building circuits with LEDs and buttons on a breadboard. For this step students powered their lights with batteries, so no programming was done. Their previous circuit building experience was evident as the students needed very little guidance to get the lights glowing. By the end of class most groups were asking for more LEDs and resistors and also wanting to know if I had larger breadboards they could use. 

The next day students started with a brief overview of the Raspberry Pi and how to connect their circuits to the input/output pins. The micro:bit used earlier this year has i/o pins as well, so the students all grasped this quite quickly. The Raspberry Pi includes a version of Scratch with a set of command blocks that can be used for physical computing. First the class used a diagram to build a simple LED circuit connected to the Pi. Next they built a short program to blink the LED at 1 second intervals. From there, the students bowled ahead adding LEDs to their circuits and additional commands to their code to create a dizzying variety of blinking patterns. The next day students continued working with their circuits, adding a button, and adapting the program to respond with blinky lights when the button was pressed. 

All of this was a lead-in to introducing the students to text-based programming. With the students feeling comfortable programming circuits in Scratch, I showed them a Python program side by side with a Scratch program with the same output: blinking an LED at 1 second intervals. We discussed which part of the Python code corresponded to the Scratch command blocks. Students returned to their computers with a packet of circuit diagrams and Python starter code. I was, as I often am, truly impressed with how quickly the students picked up on this new skill. Before long they were adapting the starter programs to blink more LEDs using more button inputs than I would have imagined.

Fifth Grade

The 5th graders finished their STEM lab careers with a full unit of text-based programming with Python on the aforementioned Raspberry Pi computer. They split their time between using the Python Turtle Art and Minecraft Pi Edition. The Turtle library is a set of tools for programming drawings and is also used to create games with Python. The Raspberry Pi used to include a version of the game Minecraft designed to be a virtual world students could manipulate with code. This feature is no longer available since Microsoft acquired Minecraft. Fortunately, it is still available to us because we are working with an older version of the Raspberry Pi operating system. As with the 4th graders, I gave the students a packet of sample programs to familiarize them with the basics, and then encouraged them to adapt, alter, and experiment with the programs to create their own unique outputs. They did not disappoint. Their screens were filled with kaleidoscopic Turtle drawings and Minecraft worlds awash in towering pixel art sculptures, lava waterfalls, and TNT produced craters. 

And then came the wind...

I had this final post about 70% written, just needing a few final notes and a few more pictures, when the storm blasted our campus. Suddenly I was back on my pandemic era cart pushing into other people's classrooms and trying to maintain at least some vague semblance of my plans. Mr. Zogg's 2nd grade class was moved to the lab and so to make room for them I was obliged to pack up the Raspberry Pi kits. Some of the projects described above I have been able to implement as planned for the most part. However, I have had to switch gears entirely for the 4th graders. The worst part has been missing out on seeing the last two 5th grade magnet groups and the awesome things I know they would have created with Python. 

It is too early to say at this point what the beginning of next year will look like. I am hopeful, and trying to be optimistic, that I will be housed in the STEM lab once more when August arrives. In a very real sense my class is the STEM Lab's physical space, and when I cannot have class there, some elements of the class are lost. (I would never have students engage the kinds of beautiful, creative chaos we get up to in the lab, with its attendant cardboard scraps and drippy glue, in another teacher's room.) Whatever the situation may be in August, we will meet it with perseverance, creativity, and playful, personally meaningful projects.

Have a wonderful, safe summer. 

STEM Lab 23_24 Round 6

As you have no doubt come to expect, the penultimate round of STEM lab for the year was awesome, just as its predecessors were. There was a great deal of programming going on this time. Kindergarten and 1st grade returned to their Code.org courses, while 2nd grade took their first steps in the full version of Scratch. The third graders had their first experiences coding the micro:bit microcontroller. Meanwhile, our 4th and 5th graders extended their micro:bit skills by incorporating the device into creative projects.

Kindergarten & 1st Grade

You may recall that the Kindergarten and 1st grade students begin the year in Code.org. The puzzle-based nature of the activities help the students develop their algorithmic thinking skills while also giving them valuable practice with programming concepts like loops and events. Most of the programming activities we do later in the year, such as Scratch Jr and Robo-mouse, have a more creative lean to them. I try to strike a balance between formal coding instruction and creative coding projects so that students not only learn the programming concepts, but also see programming as a tool they can use to express themselves and share their learning. This round was not all Code.org however, as we also did a day of Scratch Jr and completed a building challenge.

2nd Grade

The end of the year is always one of my favorite times with 2nd grade. That is when I introduce them to the full version of the Scratch programming language. Scratch was designed to have a "low floor", so even students who have not programmed before can get started with relative ease. Most of our students have been programming since Kindergarten and are very excited to start using "real" Scratch. I start each class with a code-a-long activity in which I show them some of the similarities and differences between Scratch and Scratch Jr. Following that guided tour, students have some time to explore the new coding environment and to try things out. They very quickly find that there is a lot more to Scratch than there was in Scratch Jr, and this discovery leads to some productive struggle as they work to understand how to create the movements, effects, and sounds they want for their projects. For the rest of the week students work through a set of tutorials embedded within Scratch that teaches them how to use the most common events and commands. I encourage them to put their own creative spins on the tutorials as they go. In rounds 7 the students will complete their first multi-day Scratch project and I cannot wait to see how they do.

3rd Grade

This round the 3rd grade was introduced to the wonderful world of microcontrollers with the BBC micro:bit. They learned that a microcontroller is the perfect device for when you need a computer that will only have one job, such as turning street lights on at night and off in the morning, or opening the doors at the grocery store as someone approaches them. The micro:bit has a number of inputs including buttons, an accelerometer, and sensors for light, sound, and temperature. All of these can be used to generate outputs like images or animations on the LED screen or sounds from the speaker. We spent the first few days of the week practicing with the various inputs and outputs. Thursday and Friday the students were challenged to build a model animal and to use the micro:bit to make their model interactive. The results of the Micro:pet project are always outstanding. Some groups used the device as their animal's mouth and others as its whole face. One group used animations on the micro:bit's screen as the tail of their model cat. 

4th Grade

Fourth grade used the micro:bit earlier in the year in a unit that was a kind of "next steps" continuation of the unit the 3rd graders did. They learned to use the micro:bit's input/output pins, more of the device's sensors, and generally created more complex programs. In this round the students used the micro:bit in conjunction with a breakout board kit called Crazy Circuits from Brown Dog Gadgets. The breakout board gives one easy access to the full array of pins on the micro:bit. The kit includes additional hardware like LEDs that students can connect and program. This is the first time we have used these kits in the lab so there was a bit of trail and error as we worked out the best ways to employ them. We worked it out though and at the end of the week the students used the a selection of Legos to build a scene from a story of their choosing which they then animated with the micro:bit and the breakout board components. While there was a bit of frustration at the limited Lego resources the students were given, that constraint by and large inspired creative work arounds.

5th Grade

In keeping with this round's micro:bit theme, 5th grade used a different breakout board and handful of components to create "moving masterpieces" or "animated artworks". We started the week by learning to wire LEDs and a servo motor to a breadboard. Most of the students used breadboards last year and were familiar enough with them to assist those who are new to Sinclair this year. Once the wires were all in place, students coded the LEDs to blink and the servo to rotate on a button press. They used this program as a starting point for their projects later in the week. I showed them one example project, my personal riff on Van Gogh's Sunflowers with a couple blinking LEDs and a moving butterfly, and then instructed the students to think of what they wanted to create. I made a few suggestions like book covers, scenes from movies, or some random silliness, but left the final decision to them. (I do not like to give the students too much direction for fear of stifling their creative process.) Over the next few days the students, some working independently, others with a partner created their image, mounted it to a file folder, added the LEDs, servo, and wires to the breadboard. They tweaked the original program to incorporate more LEDs or multiple servos, and to make the lights and motion fit with their vision. I was not disappointed with their work... so much impressive creativity!

STEM Lab Round 3

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.

What We Have Been Up To In the STEM Lab

 What a year it has been thus far in the STEM Lab. Despite my best intentions to keep up with this blog, the fast pace brought on by 1 week rotations (rather than 2 week), and the challenges of teaching both in person and virtual students simultaneously, defeated me.

We have been busy as usual in the lab (which is to say on a cart that I have been pushing around the school since October). Here's the short version of what has been going on with the STEM Lab.

Computer programming

As always, developing computer programming skills is an important element of our practice. Coding helps build critical problem solving and algorithmic thinking strategies. My approach in the lab places equal emphasis on instilling a sense of creative confidence in the students. I want them to thinking of programming not as an activity, but as a tool they can employ to share their learning and express their ideas. 

Kindergarten, first, and second grades have been using Code.org and Scrach Jr while the third through fifth graders have been using Scratch. 

Math Stories and Math Art Challenges

Kindergarten and first grade recently finished up an unit on math stories. Each day we read a book that combined literature and a math concept. Following the book students completed a an activity related to the book's theme. 

Earlier in the year, all of the students in Kindergarten through fifth grade enjoyed a unit of math art challenges. This unit was a playful exploration of the connections between mathematics and art. We looked at elements of geometry and probability along with patterns. Most of the math art challenges were adapted from a project maintained by Annie Perkins on her website: #MathArtChallenge. Many of these are geared towards middle and high school math students, but there are several that work for elementary students.

Skype-a-Scientist and Research Projects

One of my favorite additions to the STEM lab over the last couple of years is Skype-a-Scientist. This organization matches K-12 educators with scientists working in a variety of fields. This gives students the opportunity to have a conversation with (as many say) "a real live scientist". They learn about the diversity of careers paths in the sciences and see that science is open to people of all backgrounds. Over the years we have spoken with ecologists, biologists, paleontologists, speleologists, and more. We have met people from the USA, UK, Sweden, Germany, Portugal, and Brazil. 

I incorporate Skype-a-Scientist meetings as part of projects that have students researching and sharing their learning. This year so far all of second (learning about food webs) and third grade (coral reef ecology) have had scientist meetings. By the time spring break gets hear, fifth grade (cartography) will be part of that list as well. Going forward, fourth and first will have their turns.

Building

One activity that has fallen by the wayside during the pandemic is physical building and making. The projects cannot involve materials that are not common household items and for the in person students, they have to be simple enough that students can complete them independently. Then there was the issue of being on a cart and necessity that the materials be easy to move between classes.

Second grade is currently completing a project in which they are building 3D models of animals by combining 2D slotted cardboard pieces. The last day of the project has them mix up their pieces to create fantasy animals that they name and describe for science.

This has certainly been the strangest of school years. I am excited nonetheless about the projects I have planned for the rest of the year. Check back soon to see what we work on next.

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.

Getting Unstuck 2020

This has not been the summer that I imagined. I know that holds true for everyone, teachers, students, and parents alike. The ongoing uncertainty regarding the coming school year has been challenging to manage, and has become more so as June has become July, and July slides relentlessly towards August. The current state of affairs has created a paucity of things to get excited about. There are no trips to take, no conferences to go to, no gatherings to attend.

Enter the Scratch Ed Team from the Harvard Graduate School of Education with Getting Unstuck. The Scratch Ed Team works to support teachers with incorporating creative computer programming experiences into their classrooms using the Scratch Programming Language. The Creative Computing Curriculum Guide shares ideas and strategies meant to be adaptable to any computing classroom, afters school club, and other educational spaces. This guide is paired with the Getting Unstuck strategies that offer ways for educators to support their students with problem solving their way through a creative project. Together they help answer the questions, "how can I engage my students in creative computing? and, "what do we do when we get stuck?". These resources are open source, available to all, for free. 

The Getting Unstuck summer learning experience was designed for educators, formal and informal, to connect and support each other through creative Scratch projects. Each week day, from July 6 through July 17 participants received an email containing an open ended programming prompt. There was a link to a studio for people to share their projects in. The studio serves not just a as a warehouse for projects, but as a place for people to draw inspiration, learn how to do things, ask questions, and to gather and offer feedback to each other through the comments feature of Scratch. In addition to the communication tools in Scratch, there was a Twitter hashtag (#GettingUnstuck) to follow and a Facebook group where participants could interact to work out bugs and share tips. Finally, there were two live video meetups for people to gather live to talk about their projects, teaching, learning, and anything else that came up.

I have long felt that the best professional development is teachers talking to other teachers. The Getting Unstuck experience is the best example of this kind of learning. Over the course of this 2 weeks I connected with many dozens of educators from around the world. I saw hundreds upon hundreds of inspiring Scratch projects. I learned new ways to use Scratch, explored elements of the language I am unfamiliar with, and collected inspirations for student projects to last me many years. 

I had the great pleasure to serve as a facilitator for Getting Unstuck. As such, I spent many joyful hours checking out projects in the studios each day helping participants debug their programs, offering tips and encouragement in the comments, and feverishly taking notes in support of my own learning. During the two video meetups I acted as one of the breakout room small group facilitators. Getting Unstuck would certainly have been the highlight of my quarantine professional development schedule on its own. Getting to work alongside Karen and Paulina from HGSE, and Kimberly and Susan, both teachers with a wealth of experience teaching with Scratch, made the experience not just inspiring, but transformative. Heretofore it has been tough to muster much excitement about planning for the new school year given that so much of how it will go remains a colossal question mark. Now, at the conclusion of two weeks of intense making, learning, and connecting, I have finally found the energy and the sense of purpose I need to start crafting my lessons. 

 

Today's live meetup ended with each of the 50+ participants individually unmuting themselves and sharing one word for how they are feeling here at the end of our Getting Unstuck adventure. Inspired, grateful, creative, empowered, and joyful were just some of the words given. I am feeling all of those.

My words cannot fully express how grateful I am to everyone who participated in Getting Unstuck 2020. The energy and inspiration I have received from this community will sustain me through the many challenges that lie ahead. 

My personal Getting Unstuck studio.

Each day's Getting Unstuck studio with everyone's projects linked from this page.

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. 

Stepping up to Scratch

This rotation sees the second graders transition from programming in Scratch Jr. to programming in Scratch. This is a pretty big step. Scratch introduces students to concepts like coordinate pairs, negative numbers, and variables well before they are covered in math class. This is the second year that I have finished with second grade learning Scratch, and I have not been disappointed in how well they have handled the change. In addition to the upper grade math and the need for increased vocabulary (Scratch blocks have text on them, not images, to indicate their function), there is the sheer number of blocks the students now have at their disposal. Their natural curiosity leads them to try everything. This is fine, but it can quickly lead to frustration when they discover that they do not know how to undo the effects they have created with their experimentation. Still, by and large, the students have accepted the challenge with a wonderful enthusiasm. I am excited to see what they will be ready to make next year when they will have their own accounts and are able to participate in the Scratch community.

And on something of a personal note, my wife and I will be presenting a workshop at the Scratch Conference being put on by MIT this summer. Scratch was developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab and this conference brings together educators, developers, and researchers to discuss and collaborate. Work by a number of our Sinclair Superstars will be the focus of our workshop.

The Youngest Programmers

The first post of a grading cycle usually ends up being about one of the upper grades. I'm not sure why, but it is what I have noticed after a short browse through my older posts. So for the final grading cycle of this most peculiar year, I will start with the early grades and work my way up to the 5th graders who will soon leave us for the exotic lands of middle school.

I wanted to finish up the year by introducing the kindergartners to Scratch Jr. and to start training the 1st graders to plan their digital projects before diving into the programming. Scratch Jr. a programming environment like Scratch, which the older students use, but it is suitable for pre-readers and beginning readers. It is an excellent introduction to creative coding for young learners and sets them up to begin working in the full version of Scratch (which is what the 2nd grade is doing this cycle.)

Before I do anything with kindergarten, I give them a day to explore Scratch Jr. I give them a brief introduction to the blocks (which they are familiar with from code.org) and the drawing tools and then set them free. It is awesome to see the excitement as they make discoveries and share them with each other. The unit activities start with a BrainPop Jr. movie about a particular topic. I start with parts of a plant because that is one of the topics they are working on in their classrooms this time of year. After watching the movie we make a digital anchor chart to review and to reference later. Then I guide the students through the making of a 4 flap foldable version of the anchor chart so they each have the experience of making their own plant model. The next day we start by reviewing the anchor chart and how to draw characters before I show them how to use the "when character touched" event block to make the characters do things. In the case of plant parts, I have them draw each plant part as a character and then program each one to say what it is when it is touched.

The rest of the lessons follow a similar pattern. The second topic is the seasons which I use to give them practice using the "switch background" block. They use the "when touched" block again, but add the "switch background" command so that the scene changed to the next season after the character names the current one. From there I change the topic for each class for the sake of variety and to see how the students represent different concepts digitally. I have used (or will in the coming weeks) states of matter, habitats, and weather. The students transfer their learning from Code.org to Scratch Jr. so quickly and are so excited to discover all they are able to do.

Most of the first graders have not done much with Scratch Jr. this year, so I start this unit with a pretty open ended assignment, though not a free explore like kindergarten. We watch the BrainPop Jr. movie about ancient Egypt and talk about some of the things they learned. I then give student pairs an Ipad with the instructions to make a Scratch Jr. project about ancient Egypt. The only requirement, aside from the topic, is that the characters have to say what is going on in their scene. Obviously there are a lot of pyramids, but it is interesting to see them draw hieroglyphics, people fishing in the Nile, and mummies. I leave a few minutes at the end of the class for them to share with the other groups which they always enjoy. The next day, I show how I would plan a Scratch Jr. project on paper. I draw a background and characters, then I add what the characters will say about the topic. We watch another BrainPop Jr. movie (insects, fish, rain forests, or something) and then the students go to the tables to plan a project about the topic. They have to detail the backgrounds and characters as well as what will be said by each. As they work I move around and talk to them about their plans and what code they will need. Once the plans are complete, the students begin working in Scratch Jr. to bring their plans to life. Again, sharing and collaboration is key to success. We move from there to a compare and contrast project based on animals or habitats usually which requires them to plan 2 backgrounds worth of characters and information. The final project deals with even more steps and a topic like life cycles of plants or animals. A project that complex requires them to use all of the programming skills they have developed and so far they have done some amazing work.

Made with Scratch, and with Scratch Jr.

For the final rotation of the year, I decided to introduce the 2nd graders to full size Scratch. I had done a few lessons with them using Scratch Jr. which is a programming tool for early readers. These lessons focused on how to use the various commands to create different movements and actions. The great successes the students had with Scratch Jr. led me the decision to take them to the next level. In doing so, I hope to have them ready to use Scratch as a means of expression in their work next year.

During the first week of the unit I had students work through the built in tutorial lessons found in Scratch. After a brief introduction to the user interface, drawing their attention to the various palettes and drawing tools, I set them to work on the "Animate your name" lesson. Students worked in partner groups as pair programmers, taking turns as drivers and navigators. This partner work helps by lending each project 2 sets of eyes to read the directions and to watch for mistakes. Over the next few days, the students made a number of different games that employed a variety of programming techniques including different kinds of loops and conditional statements.

The second week began with an introduction to using broadcasts to control the flow and action in the programs. I started with a whole group example program using a knock knock joke. In the program the sprites each say their portion of the joke at the appropriate time. This is accomplished by coding each statement the sprites say as separate script, each initiated by a broadcast. The first task I set the groups was to program a simple conversation. Many elected to copy the knock knock format, but others decided to try to create an original conversation. Keeping their broadcasts in order proved challenging to many students. As the conversations grew in length and complexity (thanks to the addition of more sprites), the number of broadcasts also grew. They worked on programming conversations and stories all week. There was some frustration when all of the sprites started talking over each other. However, there was a lot of excellent debugging practice as well. By the end of the week, most groups had succeeded in creating a story with conversations, movements, and scene changes. No two stories were alike, which is the most wonderful thing about Scratch, the amount of creative freedom students can have while still working on the same assignment.

As I had done with second grade, I also taught Scratch Jr. lessons to the kindergarten and first graders. The focus was on using the various tools and giving the students time to explore and experiment. During this final unit, I wanted to begin to teach them how to use Scratch Jr. to show what they have learned about a topic similar to what the 3rd and 4th graders have been doing. So each day we started by watching a Brain Pop Jr. movie about a different topic; parts of a plant, frog life cycles, the seasons, etc. and made some kind of illustrated foldable paper display for the information gathered. The next class, after reviewing the previous day's topic, student pairs then worked in Scratch Jr. to create a program that shared what they knew about that subject. I offered some guidance about getting started for each topic, but most of the creative choices were left to the students. They had to learn about drawing their own sprites and backgrounds. They also had to master the Scratch Jr. version of broadcasts to initiate scene changes and sprite conversations. The most truly wonderful part of watching the students work on their programs was the moment each day when a student made a discovery and called to his or her neighbor and said, "Look at this!". The neighbor would inevitably ask, "How did you do that?" at which point the first student would teach what they had learned. In this way, discoveries spread across the room from all directions like ripples in a pond.

In the end, I am so proud of the amazing work these young coders have done and I am so excited to see where they will take this learning next year.