CS in the Learning Village - September Highlights
It's the start of my 6th year at St. Anne's-Belfield School. As I prepared for the curriculum nights in the Learning Village, I tried to think of one big CS program take away for parents and it really comes down to this - 100% of the students do CS! And they don't just do it, they enjoy it despite facing challenges and failures along the way because the aha moments make it all worthwhile!
Here are some highlights from September:
Kindergartners have been learning about the fundamental CS concept of sequence using Kodable in TAC, a class co-taught with Ms. Mathieson. They have also just begun exploring robots in a library/CS collaboration with Ms. Fitz.
First graders have been journeying inside the computer with Ruby. Along the way, they have been practicing their mouse skills and exploring the keyboard. This is another TAC class that runs every rotation with Ms. Mathieson.
Second graders have also been exploring the concept of sequence as my robot paper airplane assembly team. Turns out the order of instructions is super important!
Third graders have been writing code out for each other to reproduce pixel images. Ms. Corbin’s class also created Museum of Me projects to share at curriculum night.
Fourth graders have started their journey into Scratch on the laptops. They will ultimately be creating interactive math games for 2nd grade.
This summer, Mr. Jones discovered something called the Turing Tumble and his 5th grade science class has been abuzz with solving ever more complex CS challenges.
They have taken their hands-on experience with this mechanical computer and started bringing projects to life in Scratch, like helping others learn about habitat fragmentation.
The 5/6 FIRST Lego League Robotics team has started getting ready for the City Shaper Challenge.
7/8 Digital Arts students have been remixing Processing code to experience first-hand what it actually takes for their favorite digital tools to work.
26 middle school students joined the CS department through the Whose Computer Science Department Is It Anyway? FABLab and Quest. They are currently planning and creating for the Haunted Library coming October 29.
Another set of 7/8 Quest students are exploring the question - Can we micro:bit? with Mr. Gulotta who says, "Trial and error has been the norm." The micro:bit is a small, but powerful programmable computer. So far projects have included a reaction game, music creation, digital watch, electronic wallet and pong.