Coding and computational thinking tools are all the rage in education right now... everywhere you turn, another company has popped up with another electronic device that will teach your students to code. But sometimes it is nice to unplug, right? Enter the Turing Tumble - a computer that doesn't need any batteries, wires, or plugs... just your brains, perseverance, and some little marbles! So how exactly does it work? First, you have assemble the computer. This can be a bit of a process, so I'd recommend it be done before you hand the Turing Tumble to students. I had my library helpers assist me in assembling my five kits for first time use. Here's a great unboxing/setup video if you want to see what is involved before you begin: The included graphic novel style challenge book is fairly self-explanatory. I went over expectations with my students and let them go... and wow, did they ever go! Within minutes they had the first puzzles set up and began running their "programs": But then came the best part... the talking. The first 2-3 puzzles are fairly simple and mostly teach the operations of the computer. Starting with the 4th puzzle, things start getting intense. The collaboration! The trial and error! The discussion about WHY it wasn't working and HOW to fix it! My nerdy-teacher-heart was SINGING!! YES!!! Just listen in on this discussion: And this one (from the same group)!! The puzzles continue to get more and more complicated, adding more pieces, demanding different outputs - it really gets them thinking! The Turing Tumbles are, without a doubt, one of the best additions to our Makerspace. I can't wait to see what else my students do with them!
Side note: The Turing Tumbles are named after Alan Turing, the famous mathematician responsible for laying the foundation for modern computer science! His work with decoding ciphers helped win WWII. Unfortunately, he was arrested and jailed for his at-the-time illegal relationship, dying an untimely death that is still debated whether it was accidental or suicide. Alan Turing's work was critical to the development of stored-program computers, and it can be argued that all modern computers are an iteration of Turings' work. Can you envision using a Turing Tumble in your classroom? Leave a comment below and let me know!
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When someone says "computer programmer" to you, what do you immediately think of? If you're like many people, it's something like this: A nerdy white guy, right? Girls Who Code is here to shake up that stereotype. Their mission statement, from their website, states: Girls Who Code is a national non-profit organization working to close the gender gap in technology. Our programs educate, equip, and inspire girls with the computing skills they’ll need to pursue 21st century opportunities. Fantastic, right?? I am proud to be the first school in WCPS to host a Girls Who Code Club. We met 2x a week, 24 girls participating. As a secondary GWC Club, my girls had access to their iPads to work. They learned how to write "real code" - not just block coding in a drag-and-drop interface, but by actually writing code in Apple's Swift Playgrounds, shown here: With the Learn to Code I, Learn to Code II, and the Answers playground, my girls learned how to write lines of code in Apple's Swift language. They found and fixed bugs, learned about variables, and so much more. The final project was to work on coding a personal assistant, much like Apple's Siri or Amazon's Alexa. More importantly, these girls discovered that they COULD code... that they could break down the stereotype of the nerdy white guy and that THEY, this amazing, talented, diverse group of brilliant young women, could be the future faces of programming: To quote Beyonce... "Who runs the world? GIRLS!"
It's not secret that I love Capstone Interactive eBooks... if you've been in my library for more than a few minutes, you have probably heard me talk to a student or staff member about them! How can you not love professionally narrated eBooks that have an unlimited number of simultaneous users? Note: I am not compensated by Capstone in any way - I just love them THAT MUCH!!! My amazing school has a substantial EL population. How lucky that Capstone has a whole section of books called "Hello/Hola!" These books include books written in Spanish, and even some dual language books! Here' s a quick video I made on how to use the Capstone Library: I knew after reviewing the phenomenal titles that we had available through WCPS that I had to test them out with my EL students... I set up class time with our awesome EL teacher, Mrs. Phillipson, and her students. The books were a hit! The students were able to listen to professionally narrated books read by native speakers in their home languages. They felt "seen"... a critical step in their development as learners and English speakers. Every single student was able to find multiple books that they wanted to read. When it was time to close up for the day, the students groaned and didn't want to leave. THAT is the hallmark of a successful lesson! If you have Capstone Interactive eBooks in your library, what are your students' favorite titles? Drop a comment below and let me know - I'll get it for my kids, too!
I recently had the opportunity to partner with a 6th grade math teacher and her Magnet students for an amazingly awesome and fun project - making pianos with Makey Makeys! If you aren't sure what a Makey Makey is, check out this video for a quick explanation... it takes any item that conducts electricity and turns it into an input device (like a mouse or keyboard) for a computer! We've used water, aluminum foil, playdough, even PEOPLE! This lesson was the perfect collaboration between the classroom and the library. The math teacher handled all the math content, while I taught the kids how to use the Makey Makeys to create a scaled-up piano... like in the movie Big! (Yes, we showed them this clip... and yes, they thought it was pretty cool!) Here is the small model piano the kids used, which was drawn by the creators of Makey Makey: The teacher allowed the students to pick their own scale factor. She created a quick rubric for grading, found HERE. The kids had worked on scale factor in class prior to coming to the library, so after a brief review of scale factor, I taught them how to wire up the Makey Makey... and they were off and running... well, dancing! Take a look at some of the amazing work they did! And now you know why I say I have the best.job.ever. How would YOU use Makey Makeys with your students? Drop a comment below and let me know!!
In the spring of 2018, I attended the Common Ground Conference in Ocean City, Maryland, where I had the pleasure of attending a session all about using drones in the classroom! The session focused on an after school drone club using Parrot Mambo Fly Drones. These cool little drones are very stable when they fly, making them perfect for beginning drone flyers. I immediately set to writing a Donor's Choose grant for some drones to start an after school club of my own. Much to my chagrin, the Parrot Mambo Fly drones were not available through Donor's Choose, so I was able to procure some Holy Stone HS170 Predator Mini Drones instead. These small, inexpensive drones are not quite as stable as the Parrot Mambo Fly drones, but they do have some advantages! Replacement parts are cheap, including batteries, motors, and propellers. They also come with a separate controller, so no external technology is necessary (unlike the Parrot which requires a device to fly). When the drones arrived, drone club was born! We meet once a month on select Thursdays after school. Right now we are still learning to fly our Holy Stone Predators, but the kids are loving the experience. Our first order of business was to create a drone safety guide. The students generated our drone "best practices" to make sure everyone was safe and had a good time!
We have also done research into real-world careers that make use of drones, including real estate photography, military use, and even the future of retail delivery! Here are some photographs from Drone Club... more to come as we expand our drone program! My next goal is to get us eight Parrot Mambo Fly mini drones (we currently have 2) so we can code them using Swift Playgrounds on the iPads. Look for a future blog post as it develops, and if you have any ideas for our drone club, drop a comment below and let me know!
If you haven't met Botley yet, you NEED to hang out with this cool little guy and his fun personality! This battery driven robot requires no previous coding skill and no additional technology - he just needs you to be ready to problem solve! I found the perfect opportunity to use our Botley coding robot kits with our Life Skills students. With the easy, push-button remote and the fun activity cards included, my life skills kids were coding within seconds! First, the students explored creating line paths for Botley to follow using the puzzle-piece shaped cards included with the kit: Next, they tried experimenting with some of the accessories, including the blocks, flags, and circle goals! They used the accessories to make a goal for Botley to go and "grab" the square block with his two small arms, coding it with the remote control! They even created fun obstacle courses for Botley to navigate, and coded him to move through it: Using these Botley Robots with my life skills students was one of the most rewarding lessons I've done yet this year. These student-friendly robots truly allow anyone to code successfully!
How would YOU use Botley in your library? Drop a comment below and let me know! Are you looking for a Lego kit for your students that teaches coding? The Lego BOOST Creative Toolbox is perfect for ages 7-12! It claims to help kids learn the basics of coding, engineering, and robotics. To accompany it, you'll need to download a free app: The kit includes a motorized hub, color sensor, distance sensor, an extra motor, and a little over 800 pieces to build one of five models. It reminds me of a kinder, gentler, less expensive version of the Lego Mindstorms EV3 kits! I wrote a grant for the Lego BOOST Creative Toolboxes on Donor's Choose and it was funded fairly quickly. My students tore into the boxes as soon as they arrived: I was a little concerned at first that the functionality would be too easy for my middle school students, but they proved to be engaging enough that even my 8th graders enjoyed the challenge of building them! One group chose to focus on building Vernie the robot, who moves and talks: The other group decided to work on the M.T.R.4., or the Multi-Tooled Rover 4. It's a rover with several fun attachments that kids can use in a variety of ways! I love that the Lego BOOST Creative Toolbox provides versatility in a way that is less overwhelming than the Mindstorms EV3 kits. We have the EV3 kits, but my students often shy away from them because they are more difficult than they have time or desire to break into. The BOOST kits, however, feel fun and accessible from the beginning! As far as the coding goes, the app is very easy to use. My students, with little prior coding experience, were able to pick it up effortlessly. It teaches coding through a series of step-by-step challenges, and it provides the chance for open-ended play with the robots as well. The only limitation I would say that this kit has is the same as other Lego Robotics kits - generally they are built to be 1:1 or 2:1 student-to-kit ratio. At $160 a kit, that can get expensive very quickly. I have two kits in my middle school media center and for now, that is enough for us!
Otherwise, I would definitely recommend the Lego BOOST Creative Toolbox for students in 3rd - 7th grade! I'm always looking for new and exciting ways to engage reluctant students and increase foot traffic in the media center. I was doing some research on a super awesome robot that we have in the library, Cozmo, when I discovered that ANKI also makes a robotic race car track called Overdrive. I knew immediately that this was going to draw students to the library, particularly some of my reluctant readers who check out race car books by the armload but will engage in no other texts. Enter DonorsChoose.org. After a little more research, I wrote a grant for the ANKI base kit, two additional cars, a storage bag, some extra track pieces, and several books related to robotics, race cars, and more. The grant was funded almost right away! I love it when donors believe in what I'm doing and fund my little pet projects! When the cars arrived, the kids tore into them right away. The kids were captivated - within a few minutes, they were building tracks, downloading the app, and driving the cars. As I mentioned - the grant I wrote included several books. I processed them that morning and by that afternoon they were gone. It was a very easy sell to get the kids to take the books - they were engaging and interesting! In fact, I don't have pictures of the kids reading them because they aren't ever on the shelf. Mission accomplished! Over the next few weeks, interest in the Anki cars continued to grow. Two students brought in their own Anki base kits to donate to our collection, growing it from 4 cars to TEN! We had an incredible amount of track, too - the kids were able to make some amazing courses! The robotic Anki smart cars have certainly sparked an interest in coding, robotics, artificial intelligence, and racing in my students. What are YOU doing to increase foot traffic in your media center? Drop a comment below and let me know, I'm always looking for new ideas!
Sphero SPRK+ robots are not new to my blog... I have blogged about using them in class (and in summer school!) before. My students love them. This year I wanted to try a new approach to coding them. Thanks to inspiration from other blogs and the Sphero website, my students and I did a Sphero Mini-Golf Challenge! The goal was simple - design and build a golf course, then code your Sphero to get to the hole in the least number of movements possible. The kids had an absolute blast coming up with their golf course designs. They each had to select a theme and "hazards" that went with the theme. For example, one team created a beach theme and they created palm trees and surf boards to go with their project: This project was fantastic - it hit all the components of the engineering and design process that we've been working through, and it really stretched their coding skills! Once everyone created their mini golf course, we had one whole class period where everyone circulated around and played golf on each others' designed courses. They even kept score using these golf score cards, created by Sphero... It was amazing, and engaging! Disclaimer: I have a LOT of Spheros... we have 15 here at SPMS, due to generous donors on DonorsChoose.org. We are also a 1:1 iPad school, so my students could work in partner pairs. For this project, I would recommend groups of 4 or less to allow everyone to design, build, and code. Check out this groups' success with coding... this was a tough project, but they did it! How would you integrate Sphero Robots into your instruction? Comment below and let me know!
Do you want to take your class on a field trip but don't have the funds? There is a solution - Google Expeditions! Our friends at Google have developed a wonderful tool for education that allows you to travel anywhere in the world via virtual reality. Are you ready to travel?? What You'll Need:
Let's begin! First, you'll need to sign into the app with your Google credentials. Then you'll be asked to select "Be a Guide" or "Be an Explorer". Teachers should be guides, students should be explorers. NOTE: Students can "be a guide" on their own time and explore all the awesome expeditions that are available! Guides, or teachers, will select which Expedition that they want to lead the Explorers on. For this class, the teacher selected an expedition to Mount Everest. The students had been studying Everest in her 7th grade social studies class. Students can "Join" the expedition from their devices. Once they have joined, the teacher can begin the expedition. Each expedition has a series of scenes to show students. The scenes are 360 degree photographs. Students can swipe the screen or physically turn themselves and their devices to view it. Below is the teacher screen. In this image, the teacher is showing and discussing with students the circled image. She can see that the students are looking - each smiley face represents one explorer! The teacher can even circle, highlight, and draw on the pictures to capture students' attention and highlight important details that they may miss. Each scene includes background information, several objects to point out, and even differentiated questions to prompt discussion among students! It's amazing! Check out this video that I took while the teacher was leading the lesson. It shows you how the iPad moves and what the students saw during the lesson on Everest. Google expeditions gave our students a whole new viewpoint on Everest. We frequently overheard "WOW!" and "This is so cool!" while the students were exploring Mount Everest. Here are a few photos of our students enjoying Google Expeditions! Expeditions isn't just for social studies... there are expeditions for almost any subject! Science, the arts, famous people... just search within the app and see what you find! Tour the International Space Station, check out a coral reef... examine a human body, view Mount Rushmore, walk among ancient ruins! The possibilities are endless!
How will you use Google Expeditions with your students? Comment below and let me know! |
About the AuthorHi! Welcome to my blog! My name is Christine Hurley. This is my 17th year of teaching - I've taught Kindergarten, 4th grade, elementary media, and now I am in my 6th year of teaching middle school media! Archives
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