Make Create Educate

How can I teach in nature? An alternate way to teach inquiry learning. I  have just had the pleasure of spending a day with @ClaireHWarden, hearing about #NaturePedagogy. People tend to be indoor dwelling. While some people thrive on the adventure of being outdoors there are many that avoid the outdoors for a wide variety of reasons. Add to this to opportunity to be in nature, hiking, bush walks or just sitting absorbing the serenity. This often requires an absence of mobile data and no wi-fi. For some being outside or being in nature means accidents, possible injury and feeling unsafe. What if we took time to teach our children the idea of safe limits, how to be safe and what it means to be in a physically unsafe space? What does it mean to give children an opportunity to learn beyond the gate?  What does Nature pedagogy look like? How can I teach about Nature? How can I teach in Nature? How can I teach with Nature? The idea of teaching about nature is...

STEM, STEAM or STREAM is the latest acronym to hit schools. Schools are spending thousands on resources, rooms and even buildings.  This post will consider what STEM is, what it isn't and propose 5 ideas for teaching STEM. STEM is an acronym that encompasses Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. The acronym was first coined in "2001 by  American biologist Judith Ramaley" ( Britannica ). Prior to this it was referred to as SMET.  STEM is a pedagogy not a subject area. STEM is learning how to teach with a focus on these four areas and this can be done in a low cost way. The best way to spend scarce money is on teacher training and upskilling teachers to improve their pedagogy (ACER, Hattie), rather than expensive rooms staffed by a specialist. If your specialist moves on all the knowledge and skills are lost. The STEM movement began in the early 2000's when it was noticed American students were underperforming in PISA (Program for International Student A...

Ed update: This blog was published in MicroMag Issue 6 Nov 2016. The Microbit can be used to create music. I recently watched the MicroMonsters YouTube video. The video is easy to follow and the purpose of the video is to learn to use a Piezo speaker. So of course I composed the code but I found the code very long and complex. Then I wondered how can you simplify the code to make it shorter and easier to manage. Definition Functions are a way to store information that can called at anytime during the program. Functions remove the need to type the same code over and over and allow you to reuse repetitive pieces of code. This reduces the number of lines of code and errors. Example For example, the tune of Star Wars has several parts that are repeated throughout the song.  By creating a Function for each repeating part it is possible to use the function multiple times. This creates simpler code. The first phrase of Star Wars can be rewritten as SWIntro . It con...

Did you know the Micro:bit requires firmware upgrades. Firmware is the operating system for the Micro:bit board. If you are getting unexplained errors when downloading programs it may be that your firmware is out of date. To check what version of firmware you are running there are 2 methods. Method 1 Plug in the Micro:bit to the USB port. Open the Block coding editor  https://makecode.microbit.org/#editor Click on the three dots beside the download button. Click on Pair device When you click on Pair device a window will pop up to prompt you to pair. Click on Pair Device . Then click on the device you want to pair from the list. Click on Connect. If you get this message below, you will need to update your firmware. How to video Under "Update Firmware" it will list the minimum firmware version you will need. Click on Check you firmware version here and update if needed." This will take you to the  support site  published by Micro:bit on how to troubles...