This week has flown by! It has been a busy few days in 6th Grade Digital Literacy!
We started independent coding projects in Code.org this week. Many of the students have enjoyed using their developing block coding skills to program games, dance parties, Minecraft worlds and more! Overwhelmingly, the favorite was the dance party. I have included links to a few of the more advanced dance party codes. Not only did this coding project provide the opportunity for the students to choose a project that they were most interested in, it also created a great sense of classroom camaraderie! Students were collaborating on bits of codes, pooling their collective knowledge and marveling at each others projects! It has been a great week watching the students grow in their tech and coding skills, and I can't wait to see more.
Next week, as the semester comes to a close, I will be meeting with each of my students to talk about their code. We are going to look at what they found difficult, and what was easier in this project. They will also use the rubric to tell me what they feel they deserve as a grade, and I will give them their final score.
We also will be transitioning into our next unit, which will last us until the end of the year. Together we will be learning about coding phone Apps using MIT App inventor. This is a free program, and I am including the link here if you would like to check it out yourself. With this program, we will be completing the App Inventor project through Project Lead the Way.
I hope you can take a look at some of the Dance Party codes below. They are very impressive! Take a look at the coding by pressing the "How it Works" button, and peek at what is behind these animations, and see if you can figure out how to interact with the Dance Party!
Dance Party Student Example
Dance Party Student Example Two
Dance Party Student Example Three
Friday, January 18, 2019
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
Spheros, Playgrounds and Cubelets, Oh, My!
It has been a wild few days back from our break exploring different robots and a fun coding explorations using a Circuit Playground which plugs directly into the Chromebooks and can be coded to do all sorts of fun things with lights and sounds. If you haven't heard of a Circuit Playground, take a peek at the some of the projects that you can make with them below.
Circuit Playground Projects
For our exploration with the Circuit Playground, we had the challenge of trying to turn our Circuit Playground into Harry Potter's Sorting Hat! Though it is a tricky bit of coding in Microsoft's Makecode program linked here, several of our students were able to complete the project, and were able to sort their classmates into the different Hogwart's houses!
We also explored a few different types of robotics, learning about how to troubleshoot technology that we do not understand every step of the way. One of the important aspects of this class is to find ways to use new technologies. For this station, we looked at Ozobots, Cubelets, and the Spheros to try and figure out how to get them to work! Many of the students had some frustrating moments when the Bluetooth did not work the way they wanted it too, or they didn't understand the direction cards they were given. By working together, the students continued to work through their frustration, and were able to get the robots to do a few things!
This week, we will be looking at another new technology, virtual reality. We will be exploring how it works, and taking turns experiencing it. We also will be starting an independent coding project, which the students will be able to bring together all of the skills they have been learning about coding to create a project that is unique to them. I hope to be able to share a few of these projects in a future post.
Circuit Playground Projects
For our exploration with the Circuit Playground, we had the challenge of trying to turn our Circuit Playground into Harry Potter's Sorting Hat! Though it is a tricky bit of coding in Microsoft's Makecode program linked here, several of our students were able to complete the project, and were able to sort their classmates into the different Hogwart's houses!
We also explored a few different types of robotics, learning about how to troubleshoot technology that we do not understand every step of the way. One of the important aspects of this class is to find ways to use new technologies. For this station, we looked at Ozobots, Cubelets, and the Spheros to try and figure out how to get them to work! Many of the students had some frustrating moments when the Bluetooth did not work the way they wanted it too, or they didn't understand the direction cards they were given. By working together, the students continued to work through their frustration, and were able to get the robots to do a few things!
This week, we will be looking at another new technology, virtual reality. We will be exploring how it works, and taking turns experiencing it. We also will be starting an independent coding project, which the students will be able to bring together all of the skills they have been learning about coding to create a project that is unique to them. I hope to be able to share a few of these projects in a future post.
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