The Next Tech Thing: robots

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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:

Monday, November 12, 2018

Minnetonka’s Coding Program for Every K-5 Student Now Assessed on Report Cards

Now in its fifth year, our Tonka<codes> program continues to teach every K-5 student in Minnetonka Public Schools about computer science fundamentals. In kindergarten, teachers use Bee Bots to help students learn the basics. Beginning in first grade, students use the lessons and curriculum on Code.org and work their way through self-paced lessons that teach them about coding and computer science. Students can work collaboratively to help one another figure out what can sometimes be quite complex skills. Code.org even incorporates lessons on pair programming to emphasize the skills for working together when coding. Coding helps our students become better problem solvers and think critically, in addition to teaching them important fundamental skills for their future. Unplugged lessons are taught at all grade levels, which are non tech-based whole group activities that teach students fundamentals of coding, sequencing, computer science and more. Because of our language immersion program, coding lessons are taught in the students’ instructional language (English, Chinese, or Spanish).

Last year Tonka<codes> lead teachers from each elementary school worked with media specialists and Tonka<code> lead Andrea Hoffmann to figure out how to assess students’ coding skills. They used Human Centered Design and small groups of teachers each analyzed the CSTA Standards for grade levels 1-5 and identified the standards that aligned with the Code.org curriculum. Beginning this year, teachers will assign a coding grade on the report card for students in grade 1-5. In Minnetonka, elementary students receive a B (Beginning), D (Developing), or S (Secure) as their letter grades. The fourth grade report card for coding is shown below. Students will receive a grade based upon their successful completion of Code.org lessons for both first and second semester. Lessons that meet the corresponding grade level standards have been identified and teachers follow a scope and sequence to ensure that students progress through the curriculum.

Semester 1:

Lessons 10-14, including unplugged lesson Dice Race

CSTA Standards:

1B-AP-08 - Compare and refine multiple algorithms for the same task and determine which is the most appropriate.

1B-AP-11 - Decompose (break down) problems into smaller, manageable subproblems to facilitate the program development process.

Semester 2:

Lessons 15-20, including unplugged lesson Songwriting

CSTA Standards:

1B-AP-08 - Compare and refine multiple algorithms for the same task and determine which is the most appropriate.

1B-AP-11 - Decompose (break down) problems into smaller, manageable subproblems to facilitate the program development process.

1B-AP-12 - Modify, remix or incorporate portions of an existing program into one's own work, to develop something new or add more advanced features.

This semester is the first time that teachers will formally identify students’ progress on our coding curriculum. In the past we have had teachers self-report progress teaching the curriculum, but not identified students’ achievement. Now we will be able to look at this data overall as a district and identify successes and points of struggle.

In addition to instruction by classroom teachers, Media Specialists teach the unplugged coding lessons for all students in grades 1-5 which are part of the Common Sense Media’s Digital Citizenship curriculum. First graders learn about going places safely and digital footprints. Second graders learn about cyberbullying. Third graders learn about being a good digital citizen. Fourth graders learn about private and personal information. Fifth graders learn about the power of words (cyberbullying). In addition to these lessons media specialists also support the Hour of Code week in December and teach and support the fundamentals of computer science lesson to grades K-5. Examples of computer science lessons include directional coding, how the internet works, and the parts of a computer.

To help teachers continue to learn about coding, we continue to offer training opportunities offer training opportunities for our teachers to learn more about coding as well as our maker spaces during the summer. This summer was no different and we had both face to face and online training options. Elementary coding offerings included:

Code.org Grades 1-5
Hub, Deep Dive: Grades K-1, Grade 2-3, or Grades 4-5
Sphero:The Power of a Sphero
Sphero: Digging Deeper
TinkerCAD & 3D Printing

Besides using Bee Bots and Code.org, Minnetonka students experience a wide variety of experiences to learn to coed. We continue to use Tynker, Kodable, Scratch, Swift Playgrounds, Finch Robots, Lightbots and more. Each of these experiences are part of the Minnetonka Framework for Teaching and Learning, helping students with critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, the use of technology and more. Some related posts and videos to learn more about coding in Minnetonka Schools are listed below:

Monday, April 30, 2018

Behind the Code: Using Spheros in Middle School for Deeper Learning

We continue to look for opportunities to provide our students with experiences coding. Recently seventh grade students at both of our middle schools had the opportunity in our gifted and talented program to work with Spheros. These devices are much more than round robots that can be controlled remotely through an app. They have a number of features that really allow students to learn and practice complex coding within another separate app.

Students can begin coding with Spheros using blocks that can be dragged and connected in order to program the robot to move around with commands such as turn, move forward, etc. Within these various commands there are options for the number of degrees to turn or how far forward to roll in time or distance. In addition to this block coding, students can also directly edit and type in code as JavaScript text. Students can also switch between the two to see the code behind the blocks they have compiled. One of the teachers, Deb , at Minnetonka Middle School East, explained that this was a great differentiator for students--it allowed those who were fairly new to coding to get comfortable with it and allowed others with more experience and knowledge, as well as seeking a greater challenge, to work directly with JavaScript.

Sphero Jackson Pollack Art Activity

The teachers had the students program their Spheros to move through mazes, which proved to be more complex than students initially realized. They quickly learned they had to factor in variables like uneven floors, initial starting location and angle, and even debris on the floor that would change the Sphero’s trajectory. Students also programmed their Sphero to paint a picture (see the time lapse video above made by Andrea Hoffmann) and held Sphero Olympics with a slalom course and curling. Adding even more complexity, students learned Morse Code and programmed their Spheros to display messages through the blinking links in Morse Code, then read one another's messages. The complete outline for the nine day unit is below.

Sphero Olympic Curling

Deb explained that she found this project to be so much fun for her students that it really motivated her to do all the extra work learning about coding and Spheros herself as well as put in the additional preparation time needed for the activities. “It was one of the best things I’ve done in teaching!” she said. She came up with a number of workflow strategies which were important to ensure successful activity results. Deb plans to continue to explore new activities to include in the unit and introduce formal instruction in text coding in the future. She explained that they will need to address redundancy that may occur in regular courses as more and more middle school teachers begin using the Spheros.

“Alien Attack” Simulation:
Students used Spheros to deliver the anti-venom to animals
but avoided humans as the venom was toxic to humans.

At Minnetonka Middle School West, teacher Margaret McDonald at Minnetonka Middle School West also found that her students really enjoyed the coding activities with Spheros. One of her students told me it was his favorite activity of the class this year. He liked all the hands on activities using the Spheros and seeing the actual results of the coding.

Students have further opportunities to learn coding in middle school, including using Apple’s Swift program on their iPads. Students also use LEGO’s NXT robots as well as a 3D printer (MakerBot) with Fusion 360. Elective classes in eighth grade include Advanced Robotics using EV3s and a Computer Science class in which students learn Java and HTML. These elective options continue at our high school as well.

Day 1 Introduction – get acquainted with the SpheroParts – diagramHow it worksDownload appSet-up accountShow video diagram of insides of a Sphero

Day 1-2 Learn basic commands of: Roll (variables – heading, duration and speed), Color, SoundMake a square

Day 3 Maze Mayham move through a maze

Day 4 Secret Message Morse Code – light series of dots & dashes

Day 5 Martian Attack – game using X/Y coordinates (code the bot to knock down pieces)

Day 6 Sphero Olympics – Slalom Course: code the bot through gates – fastest person wins

Day 7 Sphero Olympics – Curling: Working in teams, Code the bot to land in the circle, receive points offensive and defensive knock opponents out of circle.

Day 8 Sphero Olympics – Hockey coding the bot to hit another object (wiffle ball) into the man-made net (shoe box)

Day 9 Sphero Art: Jackson Pollack and Art Activity – make a mural using paint and the Sphero with or without the nubby Sphero cover.

Monday, January 15, 2018

Why Teach Coding? Same Reasons to Teach Writing Even When Not All Students Will Be Writers

Students using Robot Turtles to learn coding.

According to the team at Code.org, computing is “a fundamental part of daily life, commerce, and just about every occupation in our modern economy.” Across the country and around the world, there is a growing call to action for educators, insisting that it is essential that students are exposed to the field of computer science because it is foundational in transforming the way a student thinks about the world in a way that is unique to the 21^st Century landscape. Computer science not only teaches students about technology, it also teaches them how to think differently about any problem. In a December 2017 interview, Mitch Resnick, MIT professor and one of the creators of Scratch, was asked whether or not coding should be required in every single public school. He answered as follows:

If it were up to me, I would introduce it. But I want to be careful because I don’t want to embrace it for the same reason that some people might. The first question I would ask is: “Why should we learn coding at all?” Many people embrace coding in schools as a pathway to jobs as computer programmers and computer scientists, and of course they’re right that those opportunities are expanding rapidly. But that’s not a great reason for everyone to learn how to code.

Very few people grow up to be professional writers, but we teach everyone to write because it’s a way of communicating with others—of organizing your thoughts and expressing your ideas. I think the reasons for learning to code are the same as the reasons for learning to write. When we learn to write, we are learning how to organize, express, and share ideas. And when we learn to code, we are learning how to organize, express, and share ideas in new ways, in a new medium. (Source)

Students using BeeBots to learn to code.

The Tonka Codes program gives all of our students in Minnetonka these opportunities. In Minnetonka, the Big Idea designed in 2013-14 and launched in 2014-15 called Tonka <codes> has tested the hypothesis that computer programming and computer science can succeed as core content at the elementary grades and can prosper as a series of elective courses at the secondary level. As the District continues its fourth year of implementation, the results of the test continue to show positive data based on both student performance and student interest. Tonka <codes> is also a program that provides Minnetonka students with the training and support to make a significant contribution in the 21^st Century marketplace.

Students using Code.org

Want to learn more? Last week we presented an update to our School Board about the Tonka <codes> program. Associate Superintendent Eric Schneider, Teacher Leaders Andrea Hoffmann and Lisa Reed and I spoke about the 2017-18 scope and sequence through the grades, the progress made in elementary schools, the impact on Middle School STEM, Core Content Areas and High Potential Programs, and the current and new High School courses. We also spoke about the impact of The Hub, makers and coders spaces in the elementary and middle schools and highlighted some of the projects students had completed. You can watch the full presentation here.