Term 4 2020, Year 6 at Holy Family Primary School, Granville has been learning about coding and programming with robotics called Ozobots.
Ozobots are part of the Digital Technologies Syllabus for K - 12.
Ozobots are robots that code through identifying lines, colours, and codes on both digital surfaces, such as iPads, and physical surfaces, such as paper.
Students have been programming their Ozobots to complete different tasks through an app called OzoBlockly editor.
Students have been using the Ozobots in Numeracy to explore Area. Students created a 2D shape that had an area of 40cm2.
Once students had created this area they were asked to use the program OzoBlockly to make this 2D shape 2 times bigger.
Students needed to explore ratio and use measuring devices such as rulers and tape measures to make sure they were accurate.
Computational Thinking for Primary Students from Linda Lukas of Hello Ruby fame has made a number of great resources to support teachers in computational thinking. Available on her website are posters (see link to one below), videos and lesson plans.
Love Letters from Computers ( for Teachers) is a free resource including a series of videos, resources, classroom materials and a teacher journal that will help you plan how to integrate computer science into your curriculum for children in kindergarten and first years of primary school.
Computer Science in 60 secs series ( for students ) is a series of 30 videos introducing big ideas of computer science (in one minute or so). The self-paced videos are followed by an activity the kids can complete at home.
Clickview video resources
Great news - all CEDP school have a subscription to ClickView and that means you have access to this great new series on Coding!
Teach your students how to code
Make teaching coding easy with ClickView’s new series for Year 3-6 primary students. Algo’s Adventures explores computational language, thinking, and concepts in a fun and interactive way. Each episode includes a student-directed activity booklet featuring unique opportunities for them to engage with coding. The series includes several visually-stunning videos and digital printable resources and lesson plans.
Students used a creative problem-solving methodology that incorporated cross curricular skills in maths, english and science and ICT capabilities in digital technologies to develop 3D designs for the space.
Throughout the process, students were immersed in utilising their algorithmic knowledge to determine sizes of the entire space and to exclude the sizes of other objects in the space. From these measurements they were able to start ideating and creating a draft design on grid paper.
To visualise and share this design more authentically, students then used Tinkercad, an online coding and design platform to create a 3D version of the design.
Tinkercad is a free, easy-to-use web-based app or iPad app for 3D design, electronics, and coding. It's it provides a space for anyone to create their design by placing, adjusting, and combining objects and shapes. Students can use Tinkercad to prototype their designs and/or print them in 3D.
The students then created this video documenting and reflecting on their learning.
Our Lady of Lourdes Seven Hills LTST Clare Willemse introduced Makey-Makeys across the school grades as part of Creative Arts lessons.
The result was a whole school imaginative exploration of understanding connections between science, coding, electricity and creativity.
Year 2 did a Makey-Makey interactive artwork with Year 2 (no scratch)
Years 3-4 did basic scratch and groups had to create a project incorporating the Makey-makey as either an interactive artwork, a musical instrument or game controller.
Years 5-6 went a bit further with scratch and had the choice to create the same options as Stage 2 as well as a dance board. Some groups chose to create an actual video game in scratch but didn't quite incorporate the makey-makey.
Watch the video to see the depth and breadth of learning across the school with the Makey Makeys.
The rubric with curriculum connections can be seen below or click here to see full doc.
Students often struggle to make the connection with what programming is and how it connects with the world they live in.
Teachers also struggle with introducing coding, integrating it across the curriculum and having a continuum to support them.
The following resources are a useful starting point:
In the article linked above in Teacher Magazine below Associate Professor James Curran, Director of the Australian Computing Academy and co-founder of Grok Learning runs through how teachers you can choose which programming language is right for you and your students?
Python
Scratch
He discusses which programming languages are suitable for each band of the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies and for extra-curricular computing activities.
The article looks at Scratch, Java, Python, Ruby programming languages and others.
Another good article Code-it-Gold looks at Concepts before Coding along with some practical programming resources for teachers.
Stage 3 at Our Lady of Lourdes Seven Hills have been integrating the digital technologies strand from the new Science and technology K-6 syllabus in their project based learning activities for Exploration: the Final Frontier.
Students were investigating the solar system, and in particular, comparing the liveability of MARS in the solar system to Earth using the Earth liveability index.
Based on their research, students created a large map in groups to represent the features of Mars using google Mars as an aid, and the liveability/non liveability on the planet.
They then had a choice to either program Spheros as a simulated Mars Rover to identify features on their map, or use Scratch to present animated information using sprites on the program to show the liveability of objects on the planet.
Program and Outcomes met
Key information about the program The students entry events were videos of the original Lost in Space and then looking at the new Lost in Space and how digital technologies have changed. Students inquired about the possibility of living on another planet. Their 1st benchmark was: what makes a planet habitable? As a result of their brainstorming they realised only Mars could be liveable. Students worked in pairs to constructed their own liveability index and then compared earth with Mars A key event for students knowledge and engagement in this project was going to see the Mars Rover at the Powerhouse and visiting the Sydney Observatory straight after benchmark 1.
Organisation and documentation of student's work for the project was arranged through Google classroom. Students were grouped for their projects in Google classroom to streamline submission and marking of group assignments. Google classroom also provided a great way of students sharing their own expertise in programming in Scratch or with the Spheros. Students created Screencastifys to support other students. The program was integrated with the English program which was looking at animation through the links of watching an animation on Planet unknown.
Reflection on the program so far Teacher Lucy Messina reflects that she and the other teachers are pleased with the outcome from their beginning steps in the digital technologies programming area but will adjust things for next year based on their new skills and understanding around this syllabus and with programming. Children at all levels were engaged and learning at all levels and teachers took it on board and happy to experiment and also let the students be experts at certain times. Having an integrated program with clear and purposeful connections to the digital technologies syllabus was also a key factor in the success of the learning program.
At
St. Finbar’s Glenbrook, the children in Stage 2 and Stage 3 have been using Blue-Bots to explore measurement concepts and developing coding programming
skills.
Stage
2 Exploring Perimeter with Blue-Bots
Stage
2 students used the Blue-Bots to explore the measurement concept of perimeter.
As this was their first experience with this kind of robotic technology. The
students began by estimating how far a Blue-Bot travels with each programmed
forward move. They confirmed the distance by measuring accurately with rulers
or tape measures. Children converted these measurements between mm and cm.
Then students were introduced to the symbols of coding. In teams, they were
challenged to programme (code) their Blue-Bots in teams to travel a perimeter
of more than 80cm. They recorded their programming code in their Mathematics
books. Students verbally discussed in their group and wrote reasoning
statements to prove how they have been successful or the changes they needed to
make to fix the programming code if they were not successful.
After
this session, the children in Stage 2 also used the Lightbots Website (link
below) to further explore basic coding programming concepts. http://lightbot.com/flash.html
Stage
2 Blue-Bot Obstacle Course
The
children used their understanding of basic coding programming concepts to
create an obstacle course for their Blue-Bots to travel through.
The
students worked in small groups of 4. They coded their Blue-Bots to travel
through the course and return to their original starting position. The students
recorded the coding instructions used in their Mathematics books, so that they
had a point of reference as they programmed their Blue-Bots. Students then
collaborated, communicated and problem solved their way through trying to fix
the programming errors as they trialled their Blue-Bots navigating through the
obstacle course.
Stage
3 Exploring Area with Blue-Bots.
Stage
3 students used the Blue-Bots to explore the measurement concept of area. The
students began by estimating how far a Blue-Bot travels with each programmed
forward move. They confirmed the distance by measuring accurately with rulers
or tape measures. Children then worked with a scale of 1 movement forward = 15
or 16cm.
Once introduced to the symbols of coding. In
teams, they were challenged to programme (code) their Blue-Bots in teams to
travel an area of more than 1800 square centimetres. Students worked out the
mathematical calculations for their programmed areas and recorded their
programming code in their Mathematics books. Students verbally discussed in
their group and wrote reasoning statements to prove how they have been
successful or the changes they needed to make to fix the programming code if
they were not successful.
