Press “a” to begin. Clouds appear at random. Aliens enter the screen every few seconds. Destroy 10 aliens to win. Press “space” to fire. Project page: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/95785178/#player For more lessons, activities and ideas, grab a copy of my book, Code Breaker, on Amazon here!
When considering assessment and evaluation, it is important that any culminating activities accurately match the delivery of previous lessons. This week I wrote about Mathland, a place described by Seymour Papert in which students are immersed in mathematics. They construct their own knowledge of mathematics with tangible options and computer coding. Papert was a firm […]
I’ve been reading more and more about Seymour Papert as I continue my research on computational thinking. I’d like to highlight a body of work from one of his books. In Mindstorms, Papert continues to make good evidence of a constructivist approach to learning. Constructivism is basically a theory — based on observation and scientific study […]
I’ve spent a good portion of the morning working on this Scratch project. The game uses Geometry to control the paddle and determine the direction in which the ball moves. After 5, 10 & 15 points the ball speeds up and black boxes appear which affect it’s behaviour. Check the project page and “See Inside” […]
I am growing a little tired of the coding narrative. Suggesting everyone should code seems quite trivial without any fundamental research as to why we should all be doing that and leaves me feeling offended. Whoa, what? Brian just said “not everyone should code.” No, I didn’t. I’m suggesting that we look beyond coding. Coding […]
I must make a confession as this has been bothering me for quite some time. It has been a reoccurring thought on my morning commute to school over the last few months. When I landed my first LTO (long term occasional) job back in 2007 I was ecstatic. It was a grade 5 position, and […]
Happy birthday, edmettle! Support the project on Kickstarter! A little over a year ago I began working on this project as a way to improve vocabulary in young students, as well as have students of all ages recognize each other when demonstrating skills positively. Mettle (noun) – a person’s ability to cope well with […]
Vizwik is a fairly new coding application to hit the scene in North America. I’ve been following their story after meeting Simon, the CEO, a little over a year ago. Vizwik stood out to me for a variety of reasons, most importantly that 1) it is Canadian and 2) it does more than other […]
![[Pedagogy] - Beyond the Hour of Code](http://brianaspinall.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Untitled-2.002.jpeg)
As many of you are aware, I am a big advocate for integrating coding into classrooms of any age. Coding makes students think critically, look beyond the surface, solve problems, debug, collaborate and share. Coding is like solving a giant puzzle, where some answers are more efficient than others, but every kid gets an […]
In this post I’d like to share another unplugged activity that was inspired by a comment and memory from Doug Peterson’s (@dougpete) university course on this post. As you are aware, it is Hour of Code week. It is also Computer Science Education Week and I’d like to raise more awareness about CS so please enjoy […]
Teaching kids to code is arguably as important to today’s youth as numeracy and literacy. In many ways code is numeracy and literacy. More so, it is also a way of looking at problems, breaking them down, thinking about solutions and being creative. From an industry standpoint, there will be more jobs than coders in […]
I loved “Choose your own adventure” books as a kid. They had a way of immersing me into the story under the guise of gaming. So when my colleague Colin (https://twitter.com/colinjpattison) showed me twine, I was hooked. …I am more than hooked. What makes twine so unique is that it gives students a chance […]
I’ve been reading up on the Enhanced Teacher Education Program that began here this school year and I would like to share some highlights as these changes will be incredibly beneficial for both future teachers as well as future students. Later in the post I’ll share some simple ways to incorporate technology into existing […]
Clickbait! OK, I’m in a mood. Not a bad mood. Just a mood. I love twitter for many reasons. I love to share “stuff” and see what others are doing in their classrooms on a daily basis. I love reading professional articles and seeing other opinions and ideas. Twitter gives me a voice and […]
Computer Science education week is fast approaching and Microsoft and Code.org have teamed up to provide us with the Minecraft Hour of Code edition. Throughout the campaign, users will learn the basic building blocks of coding and have the opportunity to preview the code as Javascript. Upon first glance I see immediate curriculum links to […]
In this activity I would like to demonstrate how concepts of Computer Science can be used to support numeracy. As many of you are aware, I am a big fan of coding to support critical thinking and math, but Computer Science is bigger than just coding. Big Ideas: Exponents, Patterns, Base 10, Base 2, […]
There has been a lot of request to share more from yesterday’s post about interactive bulletin boards. I managed to grab these shots today before we took the remainder of it down. Students worked hard on the art component of the display but the real challenge was determining how to wire the Makey Makey circuits in […]
We have been having discussions around the notion of making bulletins boards more engaging and interactive so I wanted to share a few ideas. 1) QR Codes Recommended app: I-nigma iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/i-nigma-qr-code-data-matrix/id388923203?mt=8 Windows: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/i-nigma/9wzdncrcwnwp Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.threegvision.products.inigma.Android Make bulletin boards more interactive by posting various QR codes. Providing students with scannable content engages them in the curation and […]
In this lesson students will explore Geometry by coding and writing narratives about life on Mars. Thanks to Sharon Drummond & Mel Poissant for the inspiration. Grade six students figuring out how to use Sphero so they can use them for learning about how the… https://t.co/obLeVGijRk — Sharon Drummond (@Sharon_Drummond) October 13, 2015 Mars […]
This post is in reply to Doug Peterson’s post here. As a former student of Harrow District High School (and current small town resident) I am saddened by the recent turn of events in which it was voted to close the high school. To be honest, I am a quite teary eyed writing this. Very […]
This is just another post about grades, feedback and “good” math questions. I’m at a loss, so feel free to dive in. The context of this post is about providing students with one or two rich open ended math problems instead of quantities of more of the same. You know, textbook work. Please consider the […]
Yup, thats me in the video. What a surprise reunion with Mrs. B – I hadn’t seen her in 15 years since I graduated High School. Mrs. Boudreau took a chance on me and allowed me to create a project that had never been done before at school – a website (keep in mind its […]
For all the kids who grow up in a small town and think they don’t stand a chance. You do. I was once that kid.