Make Create Educate

This post will be referring to a publicly available and free project made by CodeClub Australia.  CodeClub Australia has some wonderful projects that are documented for beginning Scratchers. Each year they run a program called MoonHack . In 2020 there were over 34000 participants in the project worldwide.  They have multiple projects for a range of ages from early years to high school.  https://moonhack.com/projects/ The 2020 the " Space CleanUp " project focused on the problem of Space Junk. There is a 10 min video discussing the problem. There is also an additional Blog Post with some extra reading about Space Junk should you be interested. This project could be used in the Year 5 space content for Australian Curriculum. It is suitable for year 4 and up. Or year 3 with some experience coding. The projects will take an experienced coder about 45mins. But less advanced coders could take up to 2 x 1 hour lessons. Before using it in your class, be sure to complete the p...

Year 1 have been investigating branching, decisions and flow charts. Lesson 1: Making decisions about what activities to do during whether Investigating branching with paper flowchart shapes. Stick them on a page and use arrows to indicate possible decisions.  Lesson 2: Use Microbits to randomly select Program Microbits to make random decisions.  On Shake  Display randomly the weather Sunny (round image) or Rainy (Umbrella) On Button A pressed Display randomly selected clothing Sunglasses or a jumper On Button B pressed Display randomly selected activities Zoo (Giraffe) or Park (Duck) or House or Beach (Wave) Use the Microbits to write down a new flowchart. Write down what is selected. Discuss crazy combinations the computer selects. Discuss how we can not always trust decisions made by computers.  Have they had any experiences with Siri or Alexa making silly suggestions or saying things that don't make sense. Reinforce tha...

The Makey Makey is a board that replaces the keyboard. It also has mouse functions. If you use the "On Click" function you need to position the mouse over the area on the computer screen you would like to click on. For this project you will need: 2 10x10cm squares of cardboard. Aluminium foil to cover one of the squares. Makey Makey  2 alligator clips USB power cord Sticky tape to attach squares to the floor. They should be taped jumping width apart. Board set-up This project uses the "on click" function to activate an onscreen counter to count the number of jumps. Attach one alligator clip to the on click circle. Attach one alligator clip to the earth. See the steps below to set up the switch. Extension If you need to make the alligator clip longer you can join the clips.  Use tape over the silver connections to make them more secure so the connection is not lost. Screen set-up Open an online counter, this project used  https://coun...

Year 1 students have been learning about weather and how it changes. So we decided to make an animation of  changing weather with Scratch Jr . This style of animation introduces coding concepts to young students and allows conversation about the teaching content in any key learning area. The group had recently had discussed temperature and different types of clouds. Firstly they named the program Changing Weather. Then they added an outside background of their choice. They then added multiple sprites Sun Cloud Storm Cloud A person without a face Adding a face to a sprite Add a sprite with out a face. Tap on the paintbrush. Tap on the camera. Tap on the face. Position the camera to take a photo of your face. Tap the tick. The photo will be inserted as the face of the sprite.  Creating your own sprite Students were required to create their own sprite for the rain. This required them to learn to use drawing tools, line thickness, line colour. Tap ...

There is now a range of books both fiction and non fiction that teach about algorithms and coding concepts. These books can be used individually or in series. Picture Books If I were a wizard by Paul Hamilton Paul is an Australian author that has published a sweet story with Australian bush animals. Each page of the story introduces a coding concept. The back of the book has a brief definition of the concept and how it links to the story. This style of book is useful for teachers wanting to learn more about coding concepts and gives key terms that can be researched to find project ideas and further information. The concepts included in the story include: Repeats and Loops Sequence and Order Algorithms Variables Conditionals Functions Debugging and Patterns Paul's website includes additional resources that can be used in conjunction with the book, apps, augmented reality, games, and lessons.  https://www.wizardcodingbook.com/ This book would be suitable as a story ...

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...

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 is Binary? Binary is a base 2 numbering system. It uses 2 numbers 0 and 1 to count and is used by computers to transmit information. 1 digit is a bit. 8 digits is a byte. More information about Binary How does binary work? This video shows how Binary works. Need another explanation? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD6lcIIOeic Curriculum links There is a requirement for all Australian schools to teach Binary from year 5-8. States not using the Australian Curriculum will have modified versions of what is required but binary is mentioned in both year 5-6 and year 7-8. If you are using a document that is based on the Australian Curriculum try searching your document for the AC codes below. In primary years primary often makes sense when taught following a base 10 lesson. Discuss the structure of the base 10 system and then introduce the binary system. Below there are resources both online and offline that can be used to teach this concept. Year...