Circuitry Science Lesson With Arduino and the C+ Language

Coming soon!

6th Grade English/Language Arts Activity - Point of View and Debate

So, the following standards were presented to me and I wanted to come up with a fun way to implement some coding:

HOUR OF CODE CORRELATION TO ELA STANDARDS

·      Analyze the impact of the way in which a literary text is told. Reflect and discuss the following questions: How does 1st person allow one to peer more deeply into a character’s psyche than perhaps other viewpoints? Would this scene evoke the same reaction in the reader if told from 3rd person point-of-view? How would it differ if told through a different voice?

·      Understand how the author of an informational text develops the point of view of the speaker in the text or presents his/her purpose throughout the text. Reflect upon certain portions within a text and imagine how the content/style would change if the author’s point of view shifted to an alternate purpose/point of view. Reflect and discuss the following questions: If the author’s purpose shifted from informing his/her audience about facts and details to persuading them to take action, how would the tone and style of the this text change? What techniques does this author use to appeal to the reader (pathos, ethos, logos)?

·      Speaking and Listening:

·      Engage in a variety of collaborative discussions to build on ideas, evaluate claims, and express ideas clearly.

Looking at the above standards,

In “The Hour of Code” Lessons, students view tutorials “first person” which elaborate on the coders' and computer scientists' experiences.  They also talk about the benefits of coding throughout their careers and in society. 

After students complete the Hour of Code, they could write an excerpt in their own journals from a 3^rd person perspective and analyze the differences between first person point of view and 3rd person point of view.

Additionally, the following articles have an alternative view on computers in the classroom: 

http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-case-for-banning-laptops-in-the-classroom

http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/07/case-against-laptops-in-the-classroom.html#

Students could compare the points of view of these articles and have an extremely intriguing class discussion/debate.  

**  If you are interested in the intro video I have teachers show to students, here it is:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-9TSeS9nRwTV1BjTGxFb1Nlb0k/view

6th Grade Science Activity - Waves

Science:

A recent lesson I just taught in a 6^th grade science class was the coding of a sine wave. One of my teachers told me she was studying waves and she wanted to implement some kind of coding activity. 

Please remember that these students had no prior coding experience, so the lesson is fairly easy.

First, I gave an intro to coding and how many jobs were available, yet few to fill them. I talked about salary and all that good stuff.

Then, I gave them the reasoning for my lesson and a real-world connection. Sound waves are Audio Waves! Audio waves are perfect for students because they LOVE music!

Next, I showed them an example of an audio wave in the Garage Band Program. Of course, playing a trendy rap song.

Next, I went over a few key points from the following site:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dawate/archive/2009/06/22/intro-to-audio-programming-part-1-how-audio-data-is-represented.aspx

** Making sure I emphasized sound waves and possible careers in audio programming

Next, I had students go to the following site and create an account using their Google Accounts: http://studio.sketchpad.cc/sp/account/sign-in?cont=http%3a%2f%2fstudio.sketchpad.cc%2f

Finally, I had students just copy the following code into their Sketchpad:

http://funprogramming.org/41-A-function-that-generates-sine-waves.html

** What I did was screen shot the code, and print it out so students had to type each line by hand and not copy and paste.

Copy? You say? Yes! Because most students do not know the first thing about coding, where to even begin, or any real world connection.

Starting out with code.org or Scratch are great! But, many students will want to get their hands on the actual feel of coding.

My experience with the 120 students I taught this to last week was absolutely amazing. When they messed up typing the code and left out one semicolon or forgot to capitalize a letter, they meticulously searched through their code making sure they corrected their errors. 

 Might this transfer over to a language arts class one day when proof reading an essay?

It just might!

I have never witnessed students being so thorough! Finally, when their code was typed correctly and they saw their sine wave examples, they jumped out of their seats and cheered with excitement! 

The teacher in the room and I even had to push them out of the room to go to lunch. They didn't want to stop coding. 

Coding or copying? You might be thinking. Well, it turns out that they started researching, on their own, how to alter the code. For example: changing the background color, making the sine waves appear differently, etc..

This is indeed the beginning of something great!