Showing posts with label Ozobots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ozobots. Show all posts

Monday, January 13, 2020

Every Week is the Hour of Code in Minnetonka Elementary Classrooms

Our Tonka Codes program is now in its sixth year. Starting last year, coding was added to the elementary report card. There is always coding going on in Minnetonka elementary classrooms, so in a way, every week is the Hour of Code. However, each December we participate in the International Hour of Code along with schools around the world, and last month was no different. We set a 5,000 hour goal for the Hour of Code week and students in our district ended up with a total of 6,481 hours of coding! Every single school coded higher than one hour per student on average. A big thanks to our participating teachers and to our Elementary Tonka Codes Teacher on Special Assignment, Tarah Cummings, for leading this effort! 

 Below is a sampling of what I saw while visiting each of our six of our elementary schools during the Hour of Code Week and posted to Twitter. A few of our schools organized special coding parties and events with parent volunteers. Many teachers paired up with buddy classes in which older grades helped younger students with coding such as fourth graders helping kindergartners. There were also high school volunteers who helped elementary students learn coding. One of the common themes I saw was collaboration and communication. Very rarely is coding done in isolation--even when students are individually doing a task or working on a program on their own device, they are almost always trouble shooting with others and helping one another out. 





In addition to these highlights, almost 50 elementary teachers shared what they did by posting a summary and photos to our Elementary Coding Schoology Group. There were so many great coding experiences! As I wrote at the start, these happen weekly for our K-5 students since coding is part of curriculum. To learn more about coding in Minnetonka K-12, please see some of the related posts listed below:
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Monday, January 6, 2020

15 More Examples of Meaningful Coding Across the Middle School Curriculum

Back in December during the International Hour of Code, we asked all of our middle school teachers to include a coding activity tied in with their curricular area and share with all teachers what they did by posting to a Schoology Group. Below is a sampling of what was done at both of our middle schools along with some of the photos they submitted. As you can see, there was great variety and creativity involved and teachers tied it to their curriculum, from language arts, music, math, science and more. A big thanks to our participating teachers and to our middle school computer science teachers, Lisa Reed and Michelle Pease, for encouraging colleagues to explore the opportunities for integrating coding into their curriculum. 
  1. My 8th grade geometry students used Spheros to calculate polygon interior and exterior angles, and programmed their bots to draw pictures. 

  2. I had my 7th grade Comp Math students work on coding the coordinate plane. Students were able to learn about the coordinate plane and coding through this Codesters activity. They had a great time! 

  3. 8th grade Global Studies students at MME coded flags of the world today! Fun times coding Libya then going for more challenging flags of Ukraine and Germany. Some students designed and coded their own flags.
  4. Students are currently reading The Cay by Theodore Taylor in 6th grade LA class. The book lent itself well to a connection about WWII, Alan Turing and the Enigma code in spirit of Code Week! They learned what encryption is and how to decrypt messages just like Alan Turing did during WWII in the fight against Nazi Germany. Students attempted to decrypt the attached cryptogram, and some were successful! Those that finished could extend their knowledge of Cryptography with Swift Playgrounds: Cipher. The conversations spurred from this lesson were not all focused on coding, but the life of Alan Turing brought rich conversations about history, persecution, and humanity that brought great value to the class. 

  5. My classes are participating in code week this week. Today we did a coding Breakout EDU. Tuesday and Wednesday we are using Spheros and Thursday we are doing Swift Playgrounds. On Friday we are ending the week with a coder speaker.
     
  6. In my social skills class we did an hour of code using Breakout Edu. The students had to work in partners to problem solve various puzzles and codes. It was a great way to observe collaboration skills and their ability to persevere through frustration!

  7. I had students code a health super hero that would rescue someone from drug use. My 6th graders were really creative. One student coded a grandma figure that went into schools and talked to kids about how drugs have aged her. And even though she looked old like a grandma, she actually was not as old as she looked because of her drug use. So fun to see their creativity!

  8. 6th Grade LA coded Homophone stories - the requirements were three sets of homophones that were different and a story that made sense! Many kids had a lot of fun with this!!

  9. 7th grade Spanish Immersion LA students created story maps to retell fairy tales. They programmed Ozobots to follow their story maps.

  10. In 7th grade life science, students had the opportunity to explore the Code.org website tutorials. Many a Flappy Bird game were coded this day.

  11. In 8th grade earth science the students played with the different Hour of Code Activities! Some of them created their own games! 

  12. In Band 8, we worked on coding the music of Franz Lizst. A great activity to do right after the concert!!

  13. In Language Arts, students created a PSA with Codester.com. 

  14. In comp math students were coding a snowman with coordinate points. 

  15. In our language arts hour of code, students are coding mini narratives! Students code to establish character and setting in a short story.
To learn more about coding in Minnetonka K-12, please see some of the related posts listed below:

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Friday, November 22, 2019

20 Examples of Makerspace Projects in Minnetonka Classrooms


Minnetonka's Makerspace, called "The Hub" is now in its third year. Makerspaces are “are informal places or materials for creative production in art, science, and engineering where students of all ages blend digital and physical technologies to explore ideas, learn technical skills, and create new products” (source).  The Minnetonka Foundation has invested in materials and equipment at each of our six elementary schools plus our two middle schools. More about the Foundation here. Read more about the original launch here.

To encourage teachers to integrate the materials into their curriculum, professional development has been offered over the past two years, including August classes and even through a summer online course. Teachers have had opportunities to use the materials during these trainings to get more comfortable with the possible activities and gain ideas on how to use them. One page guides on how to use materials in The Hub were created. Some of our Spanish and Chinese immersion teachers even provided translations for the task and challenge cards that were created during the initial curriculum writing phase of year one. We also have a Schoology course for teachers to share ideas with one another. 

 Tarah Cummings, part time Teacher on Special Assignment for The Hub, took 20 ideas our teachers shared using The Hub materials and put them together in a great Adobe Spark Video. As you watch the video, you'll see some of the great ways that our teachers are integrating Hub tools into their curriculum in actual projects and lessons that have been taught at the elementary and middle levels in a variety of content areas. 

 Each year two sites host a family event with The Hub, too. They were typically held on a Saturday and encouraged the parents to participate with their children to try out various Hub materials and activities that promote coding and making. You can read more about that here. Many of the makerspace activities and materials in The Hub also involve coding and robotics materials. You can learn more about Tonka Coders and Makers in these related posts:

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Monday, April 29, 2019

Using Technology to Think Critically About History & Engage Students' Creativity

Teachers are passionate about the subjects they teach. Sometimes however, students are less so--they might not share their instructor’s enthusiasm and/or find the topic inherently exciting or motivating. Middle school social studies teacher Jim Malewig at Minnetonka Middle School West is familiar with this scenario. One of the topics he teaches seventh graders about is the Reconstruction post Civil War, and over the years Jim has come up with some creative ways to make it more engaging and memorable for his students. 

Recently I was in his classroom during this unit of study and was amazed to see the students’ engagement on their “Road to Reconstruction” projects. Students were working to answer the question, “To what extent did Reconstruction bring African Americans closer to full citizenship?” A few years ago Jim began having students make a timeline of the events during this period and used a road map as an analogy. Then after working with Lisa Reed, Tonka Coders and Makers Teacher on Special Assignment, they decided to integrate Ozobots with the project. Ozobots are programmable robots that read special colored markers to gather their instructions. Depending on what colors and patterns are used to create the code, Ozobots can be programmed to turn, change direction, color, speed and more. 

Now as part of their learning, students identify the key events of the time period, create a roadmap/timeline of ten major events during the Reconstruction, decide what actions the Ozobot will take while traveling this path to symbolize the each event, and then film an Ozobot on their timeline. But the project doesn’t stop there. Students import their video into iMovie and add in historical photos to illustrate each of their selected events. Then they write a script and record their narration into their film. 

Throughout the project students are very motivated. This project is a great example of learning at higher levels on the Minnetonka Framework for Teaching and Learning. Students are communicating and collaborating in small groups, critically thinking and analyzing events and their effect on history. They are able to use their creativity and technology to illustrate their learning. Perhaps without realizing it, they are coding their Ozobots and debugging issues to get things to work, too. Rather than just reading about this in a textbook and taking notes, students are deeply learning and understanding the material and historical time period. Perhaps some of them will become future social studies teachers, too, motivating their students in unique and creative ways!

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Monday, April 22, 2019

Earth Day at Minnetonka Schools Family Makerspace Event



On Saturday, April 13, Minnewashta Elementary hosted a makerspace event to celebrate Earth Day. Families could select from two 75 minute time slots for an open-house style event with opportunities using makerspace materials to create, code, and play. A year and a half ago Minnetonka officially launched our “Hub” Makerspace program at all K-8 schools, providing supplies and instruction to integrate maker activities for students into the curriculum.
I attended the Earth Day event with my fourth grade daughter who had a great time. There were five stations which we rotated through. At the first station, she cut up an old t-shirt to make an “upcycled” bag. Then she was on to the next stop, coloring an animal mask and using DoInk Green Screen to place a photo of herself on an Earth Day themed background (pictured).
There were also multiple stations set up for coding and robotics. Attendees could use Ozobots and program paths and patterns for the robots to follow. At the Makey Makey stations, students could use both circuits and coding with Scratch to play a piano made out of fruits and vegetables, play drums made from potatoes, and play and reprogram the code in an “operation” type game. My daughter enjoyed playing “Ode to Joy” on the food (watch video).
At the another station, students could make light up insect critters using LED lights and circuits along with craft supplies. There were also Rig-a-ma-jig, Keva planks, and straw building areas where many families spent time creating, designing, and constructing things. The event was sponsored by the Minnetonka Public Schools Foundation, Executive Director Melissa Streit, and led by Minnewashta High Potential teacher, Joy Curran and Minnewashta Information and Digital Learning Coordinator, Shelly Traver, as well as Andrea Hoffmann, Middle School East Tech Coach and Tonka Coders & Makers Project Lead and Julie Baeb, one of our Innovation consultants.
The event was a great way to build community awareness and support of our makerspace program and the Minnetonka Foundation which provides the funding for so many opportunities for our students such as this. It gave parents a firsthand experience using the great materials that their children get to use at school. It also was a great way for parents to spend some quality time with their children in fun activities!
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Monday, January 7, 2019

40+ Ideas for Coding Across the Curriculum in Middle School: Math, Band, Language Arts, Science, Spanish & More

Back in December our elementary schools tracked over 7,300 hours of coding for the International Hour of Code. Our middle schools students also did a lot of coding in a wide variety of classes, too. Below is a list of the projects and work students at both of our middle schools did. Lisa Reed, middle school coding coach, asked teachers to post a short summary and some photos. Note that each of these listed below is in addition to the activities students did within specific coding classes like technology education, STEM classes, and elective coding courses:
  1. My 7th grade life science classes created mitosis animations using Scratch. For most of them this was their first time using the Scratch platform. They found it challenging, but fun!
  2. My LA classes did a shield design code activity. It enhanced their understanding of character traits related to their own family.  
  3. My Math 6 and Pre Alg 6 students worked on Khan Academy using JavaScript to create a drawing. I challenged them to “Meet or Beat the Teacher.” 
  4. My 7th grade Pre-Algebra class used Spheros to test different speeds and distances!
  5. My 6th Grade Comp Math class used the Sphero bots to compete in a 100cm Dash. They needed to use coding and subtraction of fractions and mixed numbers to get to exactly 100 cm. Once they completed this task they were tasked with creating code to maneuver the bots around the perimeter of the classroom without hitting any desks or chairs. 
  6. 8th Grade Global Studies used the Flag Coding on Grok Learning.  Students were able to do basic coding to create world flags and also had a chance to create their own.  Some students even continued to work on it over break! 
  7. 7th Grade Science students did an hour of code before break. I introduced it with talking about how coding relates to their lives whether they pursue science and coding directly or not, showed them a video about the Hour of Code and then gave them 4 choices of which coding apps to explore. Flappy bird was the favorite with many students. 
  8. The 6th grade science students were able to pick the lesson based on their comfort level. We encouraged type coding with Karel the Dog and Khan Academy lessons in web development and Javascript. Students also really enjoyed the lesson 'Code Machine' in Swift Playground. 
  9. My Comp math students did Learn to Code with Swift Playgrounds.  They enjoyed their time coding! We discussed how it relates to math and their daily lives! 
  10. My Pre-Algebra students explored the linear relationship between time, distance, and speed with the Spheros! It was a fun learning experience for all!
  11. My global studies classes at MMW are coding the flags of the world today! So far the students are enjoying the challenge and seeing different flags from countries around the world. 
  12. In Advisory, we did a quick tutorial on how to make a Pong Game. It was frustrating that students moaned and groaned when they learned they'd be coding, but I think that's because it's always so challenging! This tutorial had nice, easy, step by step instructions with many things being customizable, and after 26 minutes, several students commented how fun that was!
  13. In Comp Math, students were able to explore several different coding apps including swift playground, Tynker, and hopscotch. We talked about how coding relates to math and how they might use this in the future.
  14. My Global Studies classes coded “Flags of the World” with Grok Learning.  Not only was it fun to see flags from around the world, but it was a challenge to create the designs with code.  Students loved it.  They coded some common flags then designed their own! 
  15. For one day in math class we worked through the Khan Academy lesson on coding.  Students designed a snowman using Javascript.  They learned how to draw ellipses, rectangles and lines and to color it in and to make it move.  They felt very professional using Javascript.
  16. This week I did painting with Spheros for my hour of code. It was a lot of fun! In Social Skills we discuss a lot about the Zones of Regulation. Students needed to create a painting representing their zone by using the app to move the Sphero through the paint. The other activity we did was mini golf using the awesome course that the Hub Club created! It took a lot of collaboration and teamwork.
  17. Students used Scratch in Spanish to make short animations in Spanish related to the book we are reading in Spanish Immersion Culture.  There were varying skill levels and the more experienced students were great about helping others.
  18. My 6th grade students completed the online coding activity called "Karol the dog" and then had a choice of which coding activity they wanted to complete from code.org.
  19. My 7th grade students coded stop motion videos through BrainPOP to show their knowledge of organisms, cells, and chromosomes.
  20. Students in my science classes will spend two days on coding activities. Day 1: Choice of Swift Playground Code Machine, Microsoft Minecraft, or Tynker.  Day 2:  Olympic curling with the Sphero
  21. Today my class is working on solving a Breakout EDU using code. Although this is an unplugged activity, it will help to introduce how coding can be used in situations other than technology. We will also be working with Spheros tomorrow and completing our hour of code on Friday with The Incredible Code Machine challenge in Swift 
  22. Today we celebrated Code Week by creating solar system models using a Tynker Hour of Code tutorial! Students set initial positions of planets, then used loops to move planets in orbital patterns.  They followed up by setting the program to pop up the name of the planet when a user touched the planet.
  23. 6th graders programmed Spheros to communicate secret messages using Morse code!!
  24. In 6th Grade Language Arts my students spent time exploring and coding with the Tynker app!
  25. In 6th grade science, my students focussed on Javascript and HTML programming!
  26. Thursday in Global Studies we coded flags of the world through Grok Learning. Students successfully coded the flag of Libya and some attempted harder designs like Ukraine and the Bahamas.  They caught on pretty quickly and I even learned how to code.  Super fun! 
  27. My 7th grade science students participated in the Hour of Code. Students were tasked with making their own popular app games. Students created and made their own twists on Flappy Bird and Crossy Road!
  28. We're doing hour of code today in 6th grade science. Students were able to pick from a list of code options based on their skill level. The intro is Karel the Dog, intermediate is Java with Khan Academy, and some students were beyond these options and worked on their own projects.
  29. Yesterday, we did an Hour of Code in Algebra classes. The videos encouraging coding and computer science classes were excellent for the students to see! It got them engaged immediately, and they had the choice which modules to work on once they filtered their options on code.org. I also checked out laptops for more options, which many appreciated. Beginners created their own Google logo and games. Advanced students even ventured further!
  30. This past week, I did a 2 day lesson sequence about coding with my 6th grade science students. On the first day, I had a guest speaker from Microsoft who ended up introducing the technology and computer science field to my students. She showed them coding projects she has recently been working on, as well as some fun websites that the students could try out and then see the code behind them.
  31. I did hour of code with my Math Comp Students. They did an awesome job of coding on the Coordinate Plane with Codesters! It was so fun to see them finding success!
  32. 8th grade global studies students coded flags from all over the world! Then students were able to create and code their own personal flag using colors that represent and symbolize them! 
  33. My 6th graders spent Hour of Code with Karel the Dog.  The students also worked their way through other Hour of Code programs including Scratch and Minecraft.
  34. My 8th grade Advisory did an Hour of Code tutorial of their choice over two Advisory periods.  I conducted a short survey afterward to get feedback from them. Most were able to work on more than one tutorial as they had prior experience with Hour of Code and languages.  
  35. Students coded with the Edison robots. Although it was just a taste of Robotics, I was proud to see the students troubleshoot their problems.
  36. My 8th grade geometry students used python to create programs that “did the math for them.” This unit is on circumference and area of circles, sectors, and segments, so students had plenty of formulas to pick from and practice with!
  37. My 8th Grade Band classes did the Hour of Code activity: Code the Music of Franz Liszt. They followed the step-by step instructions to properly code the various musical voice parts (treble vs. bass clef) along with repeats and various sections in the song. Then at the end, they were able to make their own changes to the music including title, notes, tempo, and rhythm. They took a screenshot of their final product and submitted it as a formative assessment. 
  38. My comp math class did a coordinate plane hour of code to help review before our tables and graphs test next week. Two of my students finished the tutorial and were able to design their own coordinate plane code pictures.
  39. My social skill classes worked with the Ozobots today (from the hub cart) and had a blast! They were given various options such as: set up a bowling game, set up Ozobot races, or explore and play with the website ozoblockly.com. A great takeaway from today was how advanced kids are with coding!! I literally took the back seat with teaching this activity and they took over, which was great.
  40. We did the Khan Academy Drawing with Javascript activity.  Here are some pictures of snowmen that the kids made.  The ones who got the farthest made the 3 circles, a rectangular base and 2 arms.  We did not get to coloring the background in class. If they did the steps in order, Khan told them what they needed.
  41. My classes today had a professional coder from Target come and talk about his experiences coding and how his day to day work looks.
  42. Comp Math students used App Inventor, a blocks programming language, and "The Hub" Nexus Tablet devices to create math apps. Students chose a topic that they recently studied as content for their game. They added sound and original artwork to personalize their games. At the end the students got to play each other's games. 
To learn more about coding in Minnetonka K-12, please see some of the related posts listed below:
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