Mr. Wicks’ 6th grade science students used the Scratch programming platform to create animated versions of their names, and, in the process, learned about concepts such as loops, movement using a coordinate system, and conditional commands. See some name Animation examples by Diego, Olivia and Daniel
Later in December, the students in Ms. Diana Boyle’s 7th grade math classes created programs in Scratch that would draw different geometric shapes at different scales. In addition to better understanding the mathematical concept of scale, students learned about many programming concepts, including operators and variables. They also designed programs that require user input to function. See scale factor examples by Jeong, Ana Luisa, Ricardo and Renata.
In addition to these in-class experiences, students also had the opportunity to explore independently in the library during lunch. The new Little Bits kit was a favorite, but students also engaged in learning with Makey Makey, Arduino and online coding options. It was wonderful seeing middle school students so engrossed in learning and coding, and many of them discovered a talent for programming, circuit creation or debugging that they didn’t know they had!
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