Term 4 2020, Year 6 at Holy Family Primary School, Granville has been learning about coding and programming with robotics called Ozobots.
Learning and Teaching with Bots and Code
Tuesday 22 December 2020
Numeracy skills with Ozobots in Yr 6 Holy Family Granville
Term 4 2020, Year 6 at Holy Family Primary School, Granville has been learning about coding and programming with robotics called Ozobots.
Tuesday 6 October 2020
Computational Thinking and Coding Resources for Primary Schools
Hello Ruby resources
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
- EPISODE 1 - What Is a Computer?
- EPISODE 2 -Why Learn Coding?
- EPISODE 3 -Why Do We Need so Many Languages?
- EPISODE 4 -What Is Binary?
- EPISODE 5 -What Are Algorithms?
Planning an Outdoor Classroom using Algorithms and Tinkercad
Recently students in Year 6 of Holy Family Primary School Granville East were given a challenge. They were asked to design an outdoor classroom.
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.
Syllabus outcomes
NSW K-6 Science Syllabus - Digital Technologies Strand outcomes met:
- ST3-2DP-T- plans and uses materials, tools and equipment to develop solutions for a need or opportunity
- ST3-3DP-T -defines problems, and designs, modifies and follows algorithms to develop solutions
Resources
- Tinkercad help video on how to create a floor plan in Tinkercad.
- Tinkercad lesson plans
- Digital Technologies Hub - About Tinkercad
- Design based thinking and 3D printing
- NSW Educations Standards Authority Stage 2 STEM Challenge - Creating a Time Capsule (incorporates use of 3D design using Tinkercad)
Other Design applications for creating floorplans
Thursday 21 November 2019
Creative arts and coding with Makey Makeys
- 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.
The rubric with curriculum connections can be seen below or click here to see full doc.
Monday 23 September 2019
Getting started with Coding in the classroom
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 |
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.
Wednesday 21 November 2018
Exploration: the final frontier - Digital technologies and PBL at OLOL Seven Hills
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.
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.
Thursday 1 November 2018
St. Finbar’s exploring the use of Blue-Bots in Mathematics
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.