Group items tagged

"Are you thinking about buying a 3D printer for your school or classroom?  Before you buy something that could turn into a very expensive paperweight, I recommend you consider these factors. How is a 3D printer going to enhance your curriculum?  Are you going to buy it first and explore the possibilities, or do you already have ideas for utilizing it with students to benefit their learning?  If you would give the second answer, keep reading.  If it's the first, you need to do more research.  If the sole purpose of the printer will be to perform as a 21st century copy machine operated only by the teacher, then you will be doing your students an injustice, as the cost would definitely outweigh the benefits.  The only reason to buy a 3d printer for your classroom is so that students can learn and create. Once you decide that this printer will benefit student learning and you have concrete ideas for curriculum integration, then you need to think about some down-to-earth questions like these"

"Erika Christakis' new book, The Importance of Being Little, is an impassioned plea for educators and parents to put down the worksheets and flash cards, ditch the tired craft projects (yes, you, Thanksgiving Handprint Turkey) and exotic vocabulary lessons, and double-down on one, simple word: NPR ED Why Kindergarten Is The New First Grade Play. That's because, she writes, "the distinction between early education and official school seems to be disappearing." If kindergarten is the new first grade, Christakis argues, preschool is quickly becoming the new kindergarten. And that is "a real threat to our society's future.""

"In this series of tutorials I'll give you a detailed introduction to Scratch and how to use it. This first part will give an overview of how Scratch works and its main components and concepts. I'll cover: getting started projects assets: backdrops, sprites, costumes and sounds scripts where to get help First, here's how to get started with Scratch. "

"What makerspace materials and supplies should you buy or stock for your hands-on learning lab?  There are a lot of options out there to choose from and it can be confusing when you're first starting out as a maker educator.  Instead of just spending money randomly on items you think you will need, it's always a great idea to work backwards first.  You need to make a list of your goals for your makerspace and then define some of the projects you want to do in your makerspace.  Once you have defined the projects, you will have a better idea of the materials you need to buy.  Since money is always tight and you can't buy everything, try partnering with another maker educator and share/trade some of your items.  Lets say you're both working on a series of robotics lessons.  Each of you can buy one type of robotics kit and then when you have completed a few lessons you can trade with each other.  This is also a great way to try out new types of kits, equipment or materials before buying them. Now keep in mind makerspaces don't always need structured lessons and are great for open ended exploration.  Give your students some materials, maybe a little instruction and then let them loose to see what they do. Here are some of the top makerspace materials and supplies a classroom or library should consider adding to their space.  They are not ranked in any particular order and they all have a STEM component to them.  Please let us know in the comments section if we are missing any good materials so we can send out an updated post later on."

"t's been two and a half years since Code.org hired our first salaried employee. We've been humbled to watch the landscape change in K-12 computer science (CS) over that time. This teacher-powered movement has reached hundreds of thousands of classrooms and millions of students. We've never been more confident in our ability to realize our vision - that every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science. Although only 25% of U.S. schools teach computer science and computer programming, the field is growing at a rapid pace. Enrollment in computer science is exploding. Over 10% of all U.S. students in grades K-8 registered accounts to begin coding in just the last 2 years. CS is the fastest-growing AP course of this decade. For the first time, the diversity of participating students is improving, with enrollment growth by women and students of color outpacing enrollment growth by White and Asian males."

"What comes first: education or technology?"

"I have been asked to return to teach summer enrichment classes on maker education for elementary-aged learners at a local school during the summer of 2016. One of the new classes I am designing is called Coding and Bots. The description is: Learn how to code first by playing games and then by coding some bots including Sphero, OZOBOT, and Dash and Dot. All ages are welcome but the child should have basic symbol recognition/reading skills. Two things to note about this class are, first, I learned last summer not to underestimate the learning potential of very young kids. These classes are mixed ages ranging from 4 to 10 year old kids. For most of the maker education activities, the very young ones could perform them, sometimes better than the older kids. Second, I am a strong proponent of hands on activities. Although I like the use of iPads and computers, I want elementary aged students to have to directly interact with materials. As such, I am designing Coding and Bots to include using their bodies and manipulating objects. This translates into having all activities include the use of objects and materials excluding and in conjunction with the iPad - not just using the iPad and online apps/tools to learn to code. The activities I plan to do follow:"

"Getting Started with Minecraft Improving Minecraft Performance on Old and New Computers Meet the Biomes of Minecraft Exploring Minecraft's Structures Meet the Mobs of Minecraft Exploring Minecraft Game Modes Surviving Your First Night In Survival Mode Your First Mine, Armor, and Further Exploration Advanced Mining and the Magic of Enchanting I'm a Farmer, You're a Farmer, We are Farmers All Engineering with Redstone Creating Custom Minecraft Maps Downloading and Installing Custom Maps Setting Up Local Multiplayer and Custom Player Skins Exploring Minecraft Multiplayer Servers"

"In December our hackerspace, Crash Space in Culver City, hosted an Instructables Build Night featuring Chibitronics Circuit Stickers. With Channukah around the corner, I thought an LED menorah would be a perfect project to see what I could make with the stick-on circuits. When celebrating Channukah, the candles of the menorah are lit each night, one for the first night, two for the second, and so on until the eighth night, when they are all lit. The middle candle is lit first each night, and is used to light the other eight candles. My goal for the LED menorah was for it function like the candles, with the center always lit, and an additional LED "candle" lit each night. I also wanted to set it up so that lighting the LED's each night didn't require additional construction. As you will see, the goals were met and turning on each additional LED was done using a pull tab, which allowed all the taping and construction to be done ahead of time."

"The Raspberry Pi is a great little machine-it's very affordable, highly portable, and user-friendly. But when you first get one, it can be a challenge to figure out which projects you should take on first. These 10 Raspberry Pi projects for beginners are great for getting an introduction to the hardware and software capabilities of the Pi, and will help you get up and running in no time!"

" For many hard-working people, email has naturally become a significant part of our everyday lives. When we wake up in the morning, the first thing we do is check our email; when we get to work, the first thing we do is check our email; on our lunch break, we check our email; before we leave the office, we check our email; when we're getting ready for bed, we check our email. There are some studies that say the more we check our email, the harder it is to remove ourselves from our work in order to live our normal lives-to the point where it can have detrimental effects on our mental state. However, the fact of the matter is that even if we're limiting how often we check our email, we will have to deal with all the unread messages sitting in our inboxes at some point. If we have to deal with our Gmail inboxes anyway, we should be taking the time to learn how to make the experience more seamless and personalized so we don't have to spend as nearly as much time managing emails. Here, we have 16 tips and tricks you can use to create a seamless Gmail inbox."

"The First Page is a brand new creative writing challenge for students in Grades 7 to 12, created by CBC Books. The challenge? We want students to give us a glimpse of the great Canadian novel of the year 2167. Write the first page of a book set 150 years in the future, with the protagonist facing an issue that's topical today and setting the scene for how it's all playing out in a century and a half."

"Last month, TIME and Felix & Paul Studios launched VR cameras to the International Space Station (ISS) in a new project to bring viewers an intimate look aboard one of the most exclusive places in human existence. Dubbed The ISS Experience, over the course of the next year VR cameras will provide what the makers call "unprecedented access to a participatory experience-one that will culminate with the first-ever filming of a spacewalk in cinematic virtual reality." The year-long project was announced at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah this weekend. The project's first VR scene was filmed on Friday, January 25th."

"Leka DeGroot can relate to teachers who would like to bring coding to their classrooms but just can't fathom fitting it in. "Teachers often tell me, 'It sounds great but I don't have time, or I don't have the skills,' but you don't have to be a computer scientist to teach coding," assures DeGroot, a first grade teacher at Spirit Lake Elementary in Spirit Lake, Iowa. Just a few years ago DeGroot explored coding for the first time through Hour of Code. Today, she's a trainer for Code.org. She's driven by a desire to introduce students to computational thinking and integrating coding into the curriculum. "The basic concepts of listening to each other, communicating and collaborating, these are not just for computer science. We want every student to have those skills," DeGroot says. Even the youngest students benefit from the critical-thinking and problem-solving skills that coding provides. Not only do kids learn from it, they love it! Recently, for example, collaborated with a teacher in Wisconsin to have students write loop code dances for each other and then held a Google Hangout dance party. "

"Caine Monroy became famous for his creativity at the age of nine, but the 14-year-old high school freshman has never stopped learning and imagining. Imagination is how he created Caine's arcade, arcade-style games made out of his cardboard nestled in a corner of his father's auto parts shop in Boyle Heights. Five years ago, Nirvan Mullick became the first Caine's Arcade customer. The filmmaker put together a flash mob to get more people through the door. NBC4 was there. We were one of the first to chat with the then 9-year-old Caine just as the viral moment turned into a movement."

"During CS Ed Week, countless teachers and students experienced computer science for the first time. Whether it was their first, second, or hundredth time, I hope that this taste of CS left them hungry for more. Code.org has created a great compilation of resources for how students can continue learning. In this post, I'd like to suggest some ideas for how teachers who are new(ish) to CS can go beyond the Hour of Code."

Across Australia students are returning to school. Armed with fresh stationery, new books full of promise, shoes that are not yet comfortable and uniforms washed and ready to go, students will be heading off for the first day of a new year. What do they hope to find and how might we make sure their first day back sets them up for a successful year of learning?

"This course is targeted to middle school grades 6-8 (ages 11-14 years). It is also written for teachers who may not have a Computer Science background, or who may be teaching an "Intro to Computer Science" course for the first time. This course takes approximately 14 weeks to complete, spending about 1 week on each of the first 11 lessons, and 3 weeks for students to complete the final project at the end. Of course, teachers should feel free to customize the curriculum to meet individual school or district resources and timeframe."

"In India, 41km of highway road was constructed every day for the year of 2016. In the Indian government budget, it estimated the cost just for 2016 to be 19 billion USD. It would be financing any shortfall through tax-free government bonds. Computational thinking would have played an instrumental role in deciding on where the road would go through with taking into account the key hubs and may have saved the government millions, if not billions of dollars. Jeanette Wing (2012) defines computational thinking as the thought process involved in formulating a problem and expressing its solution in a way that a computer-human or machine can effectively carry out. It is the process of abstraction by; choosing the right abstractions, operating in terms of multiple layers of abstraction simulations and defining the relationships between layers guided by efficiency, correctness, and flexibility. Computational thinking can best be related to as writing software or instructionals. Every action or non-action is accounted for in the way computational artifacts are constructed. Computational thinking is great for working out a solution but there is an argument that computational thinking does not put enough emphasis on the problem itself. Design thinking, on the other hand, attempts to understand the intent or problem before looking at any solution - computational or otherwise. Design thinking attempts to identify why the problem exists in the first place before solving it. IDEO defines design thinking as the application of empathy and experimentation to arrive at innovation solutions through making decisions based on stakeholder input and evidence based research. Using the Indian roading example, a design thinker would ask, what is the intent of building the roads in the first place?"