Make Create Educate

To enable students to continue working at you you may need to teach them how to log into online tools at school before schools are shut down. For offline tasks you will need to prepare resources and send them home in a pack, eg: construction may require specialist materials, coloured paper, paper clips, etc. Pack up and send home.  It will be difficult to teach new content in this time as now all students will complete the tasks unsupervised. It is a very difficult time. Online Tools e-Safety Commisioner  https://www.esafety.gov.au/educators/classroom-resources Online tools and videos that could be used as stimulus for a question and answer or "design a campaign" to educate kids about online dangers https://aca.edu.au/resources/ Teacher will need to sign up (for free) with their school account and upload student names and distribute user names and passwords. I would be ideal if you do this before the school closes so students know how to use it....

Year 1 and 2 are required to " Recognise and explore digital systems (hardware and software components) for a purpose ( ACTDIK001 ) "  The Australian Computing Academy has unpacked what this means.  They need to " name digital systems (e.g. smart phone or laptop) that they interact with at home and school and recognise that they are digital systems" they also need to "play (with guidance) and use different systems to explore what they do and how they work. They match digital systems to specific purposes (e.g. using a phone to call a family member)." In NSW the above requirement is contained in the content of Outcome 11 in the Stage 1 Science and Technology Syllabus. ST1-11DI-T identifies the components of digital systems and explores how data is represented The purpose of the lessons below are to recognise and explore components of digital systems. Lesson 1 : Introduction Watch and discuss Read and discuss Hello Ruby, Journey inside a compute...

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...

A Makey Makey is a board that can be connected to a computer as a replacement keyboard. It can also be used with Scratch.mit.edu to add voices, gaming controls and interaction with the computer. MineTap created by Shalise (yr 4) in a gifted makers program. Strap the velcro to your hands and allows her friend with cerebral palsy to play Minecraft The Makey Makey requires a completed circuit to operate. It can use any conductive material to complete a circuit including: Wires People - skin to skin contact Playdough - high in salt Foil Copper tape Tap water Living things eg: live plants/flowers Trouble shooting When troubleshooting it is important to only change one thing at a time and check the circuit after each change. This will ensure you don't introduce new problems. Create by Katie (year 2) in a gifted makers program. Audio Tour of Paris each part has an interactive point. The circuit isn’t working Check the light turns on when you...

Creating paper circuits is an introductory activity to teach about the concepts of circuits and switches. It can also be used for prototyping etextiles. Paper circuits can be used at all levels by students and adults. To work with copper tape students will need to be able to manage copper tape which is like working with sticky tape.  Paper circuits can be used to add bling to dioramas, poster and models in subjects that don't usually incorporate digital systems, such as Art, History, Geography, Science. Paper circuits can be used to prototype more complex systems. There are now a range of resources that allow you to create more complex circuits that also include digital technologies such as stick on stickers and sensors. ChibiTronics  were created by Jie Qi and she show cased a range of projects that incorporate copper tape and micro-controllers. This is an example of Jie Qi's integration of paper circuits and micro controllers with Art. Original link This...

What are your plans? Ada Lovelace is truely cross curricula, her father was a poet, she studied maths and science and she is credited with being the first programmer before there were computers to be programmed.  Why Ada Lovelace Day Matters. Who is Ada Lovelace? Source Did you know Lord Byron the poet only had one legitimate a daughter? Her name Ada Lovelace Byron. His wife -  Lady Anne Isabella Milbanke Byron ,  only tolerated his philandering ways for a short while and left him when Ada was 8 weeks old. Lady Anne had Ada tutored in Maths and Science so she was not go the way of her father. Ada went on to study Advanced mathematics at a time when women did not study mathematics or go to university. At 17, Ada went on to work with Charles Babbage who is credited with inventing the first programmable computer.  Ada was later asked to translate an article on Babbage's analytical engine that had been written by Italian engineer Luig...

I recently purchased this most amazing book. Rubber Band Engineer by Lance Akiyama. The purpose behind the purchase was to find some quality projects that had instructions and pictures to learn new techniques with construction. I know you can find them on Pinterest , but many sites have great pictures but lack instructions or quality instructions. Wanting to explore construction with predesigned projects that worked I have found this book to be exactly what I needed. The first project was an opening box using pneumatics. I enlisted the enthusiasm of a year 5 child to gage the difficulty of the task. During construction I was required to assist with measuring accurately, sourcing the glue gun and glue sticks and holding the duct tape. While the box looks complicated it went together so well I found I am " Just as smart at a 5th Grader ". A visual procedure for the project. The box is made from 6 15cmx15cm squares of cardboard. These are then covered with coloured ...

Coding the latest buzz word There is an international movement to teach coding in schools, everyone is talking about coding, the media , schools , not-for-profits , summer camps , women's magazines . The difficulty is the responsibility for integrating coding into the curriculum falls on the teachers who are not all equipped with the skills to teach coding.  Why? Teaching coding skills is not about teaching everyone to be a programmer. It is about digital literacy and ensuring all students understand how technology works. It also teaches a thinking style referred to as "Computational Thinking". Computational Thinking  (CT) is the thought processes involved in formulating a problem and expressing its solution(s) in such a way that a computer—human or machine—can effectively carry out.  (Jeanette Wing 2-14) ( Source ) It was first referred by Seymour Papert in 1980 and then in 1996 and it is an important thinking style for solving complex problems.   ( Sourc...