Hacking the Classroom

Hacking the Classroom

  Last week I had the most fortunate opportunity to attend Microsoft’s E2 Global Educator Exchange conference in Budapest, Hungary. The E2 – Educator Exchange is Microsoft in Education’s annual event recognizing and celebrating the achievements of educators who combine content, pedagogy, and technology in exemplary ways to prepare students for success. This event brings […]

Coding Spiral Art With Python

Coding Spiral Art With Python

The following spiral art can be coded using python. It’s a simple script that can easily be manipulated to explore how different number variables will change the spiral. import turtle colors=[‘red’, ‘purple’, ‘blue’, ‘green’, ‘orange’, ‘yellow’] t=turtle.Pen() turtle.bgcolor(‘black’) for x in range (360) : t.pencolor(colors[x%6]) t.width(x/100+1) t.forward(x) t.left(59) TwitterFacebookPinterestLinkedinemailReddit

Tackling TouchDevelop in Grade 1 via @LeahO77 #CSforALL

Tackling TouchDevelop in Grade 1 via @LeahO77 #CSforALL

This is a guest post by Leah Obach. Follow her at @LeahO77. By Mrs. Leah Obach  Since starting the Kids Who Code project, I have introduced my students to a number of different coding tools through classroom activities, Code-a-thon events and coding club.   I feel pretty comfortable with several tools, such as Kodable, Scratch Jr. and Lightbot. As a new year begins, I’m stepping […]

Designing Meaningful STEM Environments

Designing Meaningful STEM Environments

With regards Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, David Jonassen classifies “meaningful learning” using five categories: Active: Students should be actively engaged in their learning – typically this will be doing something on a computer, but it could also be taking part in a discussion or an activity away from the computer, such as role-play to illustrate how packets […]

Learn to Code "Space Shooter" #CodeBreaker

Learn to Code “Space Shooter” #CodeBreaker

  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! TwitterFacebookPinterestLinkedinemailReddit

The Importance of Conversation

The Importance of Conversation

  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 […]