The Valiant Turtle

Programming The Computer Rather Than Being Programmed By It

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Spectroscope

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LEGO WeDo 1.0 Party in East Palo Alto, CA with 2/3 graders.

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LEGO WeDo 2.0 are making building a little more fun.

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Piper Computer Kits in action! The fourth and fifth grade after-school program kids at Los Robles Ronald McNair Academy in East Palo Alto, CA. are putting together, and learning many different things from, these computer kits.

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Everybody at my school has a CODE.org account and program (block-based). This year I rolled it out for my kindergarteners. It was difficult at first, but once they got the hang of it, it was somewhat smooth sailing with minor occasional glitches here and there.

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4th and 5th graders in the after school program at my site (LRRMA) designed and created their own scribble machines using random materials I already had in the classroom. Thanks, MAKE:

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Postcard idea for next school year. The front (image) will change weekly/monthly. I’m still flirting with the idea of either mailing a few out per week/month, or just keep it digital.

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The 5th grade students in the Ravenswood City School District are using Scratch and Hummingbird boards to make their first robot pet.

This short video is an example of one teams work in Ms. Palomera’s class at Los Robles Ronald McNair Academy.

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4th and 5th graders at Los Robles Ronald McNair Academy are making pop-up cards for Mother’s Day using LEDs, copper tape, coin cell batteries, tape and Silhouette Cameos.

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The “new” makerspace open recess schedule at Los Robles Ronald McNair Academy in East Palo Alto, CA. This is my third or fourth iteration of trying to serve everyone equitably during recesses without losing my mind too much due to the hoards of students crashing into my room during that time to hang (with friends or myself), make, game, and/or play.

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The weekly makerspace schedule for Los Robles Ronald McNair Academy in East Palo Alto, CA.

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3rd - 5th graders in the after school program at Los Robles Ronald McNair Academy are assembling computers from scratch.

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5th graders in Los Robles Ronald McNair Academy (East Palo Alto, CA) making robot pets using Hummingbird boards, servos, LEDs, cardboard... and Scratch.

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To better inform the community about what’s happening in my room, I was handed the task of making a newsletter or something. This is version 1.0, minus all the info and all.