Welcome Semester 2 Friends!

We are off to a great start in the Innovation Lab! It was great to see returning students and to meet lots of new ones. On day two we followed up with a scavenger hunt to learn more about our space. 

Both fifth and sixth grade classes are getting to know their way around our learning space and the curriculum. We started with a short slide show, tour of the room also known as, "The Motherboard," and finally a scavenger hunt. As part of this experience students also identified their "street address," by number and name using their location and a map of the motherboard. The rows and tables in room 88 have street names related to computer things. Take a walk down Grace Road or find classroom supplies stored on Hard Drive.

Returning sixth graders had a chance to review their classroom constitution from last year. They are still FAB and they know it! Classes voted unanimously to move forward with their existing constitution, no amendments required. Fifth graders will complete some activities before finalizing their classroom constitution.

Both grades are learning about abstraction, one of the sub-strands under Computational Thinking in the Massachusetts Digital Literacy and Computer Science frameworks. Click here to download a copy. We are discussing using symbols and letters to communicate abstract ideas with a focus on machine language or binary code, base2. Currently they are learning to convert between the base2/binary and base 10/decimal systems using a tool called the Flippy Do which you can find on the Code.org binary numbers lesson, see Flippy Do below. 

I was excited to learn that the sixth graders are coincidentally learning about abstraction in Social Studies as they focus on the cuneiform alphabet and in Math they are exploring exponents. This provided a great opportunity for them to connect concepts across the curriculum. 

Next they will use "alphabytes" to create words and messages using an alphabet decoder key. Correctly completed student work will be displayed around the room and used in an upcoming Challenge. Stay tuned for more on binary code and abstraction.

Click the image to the left to make a copy of your own Flippy Do from code.org. To learn more about how you might use this tool see their lesson plan or wait for my next post to see how we used it in class.

Let it Snow

Since my last post my students were busy making snowflakes and stop motion videos with Google Slides. Boy do I love this tool! They began with some research to learn a little about the science behind snowflakes before diving in to "make a point" for their snowflake. 

Most points were made with simple shapes like hexagons and lines. The main requirement was that any shapes or lines had to show symmetry. Once they made their first point as simple or complex as they desired, they grouped the pieces together before they duplicated it. Next they flipped the copy vertically before they aligned both points so that these segments mirrored each other, more symmetry. Once these opposing points were aligned and grouped together, they made two new copies. Then they used the align center and middle features to stack these three layers on top of each other. To complete the snowflake they rotated two of the three grouped segments to create six points for their snowflake. They rotated the top layer 60° and a second layer 120° to create the perfect six-pointed snowflake. 

Finally their snowflakes were downloaded as png files with transparent backgrounds, something they learned about with their previously made avatars. If submitted on time, these snowflakes were used for the snowy day stop motion video.

Using the publish to the web feature and a URL hack they learned how to advance each slide two-tenths of a second. Take a look at the final products from my day 2 classes to see how some students enjoy snowy days. 

Check out my Google Slide how to to make a snowflake of your own. 

Screencasts, CS Ed Week and Micro:bits

We have been busy as usual in the Innovation Lab. The fifth graders wrapped up their how to videos and are currently finalizing CS Heroine and CS Hero posters to celebrate CS Ed Week. In sixth grade we are talking, exploring, and writing simple programs with the MakeCode.microbit.org coding platform and Micro:bit. They will use the radio feature to communicate and identify a CS Hero or Heroine as well.

Grade 5

For the video production project students selected a simple Google Slides task to demonstrate. They captured this demonstration on the school issued Chromebook. Recording and editing were done using the screen recording application Screencastify. Earlier in our course, they learned how to edit an imported video. For this project they created everything from scratch, even the prepared slides.  Click a link below to sample an example. They are FANTASTIC!

Grade 6

We have just begun working with Micro:bit. So far, they have made a simplified version of "Magic 8-Ball" but with 3 inputs and outputs to represent yes, no, and maybe. Students who finished early were encouraged to try showing all 20 outputs as character strings. Now we are exploring the radio feature learning about transmitters, receivers, conditionals, loops, and a variety of inputs to communicate secret messages. 

Micro:bit Starter Projects

Magic 3 Ball Click to try.	Marco Polo Click to try

CS Ed Week

CS Ed Week always falls on the week of Grace Hopper's birthday, December 9. This year it kicked off on Sunday, December 5. To celebrate both fifth and sixth grade students are making posters about a CS Heroine or CS Hero. That said, they are approaching this task differently. In fifth grade they are reinforcing Google Slides skills used to make their avatars by learning how to trace images. They reviewed a list of influential people in CS to help identify a person of interest. Some students picked family members they looked up to and in some cases they selected me as their CS Heroine.

In grade six instead of picking their person, they were assigned a part of their persons name. Now they are writing programs using MakeCode and the Micro:bit to communicate with a mystery partner so they can complete the name and begin their research. Stay tuned and look for your CS posters below.