Computer Science First

Google has created an excellent resource for learning Scratch, with lots of ideas and helpful videos to assist students with independent learning.

Check out this link below to see the different options available:

Computer Science First

You will need a Scratch username and password to be able to complete the activities.

Caine's Arcade and the Global Cardboard Challenge 2017

Here is an amazing video that tells the story of what one nine-year-old boy can do with some cardboard, spare time, an imagination:

Caine's Arcade

There is in fact a whole web page dedicated to Caine's continuing story:

cainesarcade.com

Here is an inspirational video showing how some elementary students in Bermuda celebrated Global Cardboard Challenge Day in 2014:

Global Cardboard Challenge Day 2014 Bermuda

And here are some students in France:

Global Cardboard Challenge Day 2014 France

To see more videos of other cardboard challenge days, go to:

More Cardboard Challenge Videos

To learn more about Global Cardboard Challenge Day, go to:

Global Cardboard Challenge Day

Learning About Our Eyes

During their current unit, the grade 1/2/3 class is learning all about their bodies. Here are some interesting stories and experiments about our eyes:

• Experiment: Are Two Eyes Better than One?
• Experiment: The Red, White and Blue
• Experiment: Catch the Penny

• Really Cool Optical Illusions 

• I was born blind, Julia's story

Solar Oven S'mores

We are starting the STEM year off with some sweet memories of summer. We are going to build solar ovens to melt s'mores.

Here are some websites that provide ideas:

• Adding Chocolate and Marshmallows to Your Creations
• Solar Oven Plans

We will use one class to plan, then the next class to build and bake. Here's hoping for sun on Wednesday!

Inventions that Were Mistakes

Did you know that many useful (or sometimes just fun) things that we use and see every day were invented by mistake? Check out this great article from Amazing Kids Magazine:

• Inventions that Were Mistakes

Welcome back 2016-17!

This year in PYP STEM, there will be many fun challenges and activities, including, but not limited to:

• Global Cardboard Challenge Day
• Caribou Math Contests
• Programming in Scratch, and Hopscotch
• Experiments related to our Units of Inquiry

I'm really excited for another great school year!

Scratch Programming Challenges

Here are some interesting and fun program ideas to challenge your Scratch programming skills:

1. Write a program that asks the player to guess a number between 1 and 20. After each guess, tell the player if the guess is correct, too high or too low.
2. Write a program that tests the player’s knowledge of multiplication, up to 10 times 10. Have it ask them 10 questions. Make it so that every time the game is played, the questions are different. Tell the player at the end how many questions she got right.
3. Write a program in Scratch in which a sprite draws a, square, equilateral triangle and a circle. 
4. Pattern Studio, challenge #5 from EdTechExperience.
5. Collect the Coins Game, challenge #6 from EdTechExperience.
6. Cat and Mouse Game, challenge #7 from EdTechExperience.
7. Magic 8 Ball, challenge #9 from EdTechExperience.
    

Choose Your Own Adventure

In support of the current unit's theme of stories, legends and fairy tales, the grade 3-4 class will be using Scratch to animate and write their own "Choose Your Own Adventure" stories.

Here are some examples of these types of stories:

• Mortifying Monday: Choose Your Own Way to Escape the Worst Day
• The Fantastic Idea

Both of these stories are neat, but what they lack are pictures and animation! That's where the fun of Scratch comes in. Students will write their own short adventure stories (with choices) and provide pictures or animations.

Scratch is a great language for having characters have conversations. There are two basic methods, (1) using "wait" blocks and (2) using "broadcast" and "receive" blocks.

Each of these starter Scratch projects may be remixed to practise these techniques.

• Conversation Using Wait/Say
• Conversation Using Broadcast/Receive  

Before starting their original Choose Your Own Adventure stories, students will first complete a basic storyboard.

To get started in Scratch, here is a basic five page choose your own adventure story program. Remix this program, add your own story, and consider adding more choices with more pages. Look carefully at the scripts on the buttons to see how to control the story flow. Use the duplicate feature in Scratch to create new buttons - the scripts from the old buttons will be copied over, and will only need to be updated.

• Starter Choose Your Own Adventure Program

Making Quality Video Collages

I'm new to the world of video and image collage videos, and thought this blog post had some great tips, especially useful in the classroom.

Animoto's Five Tips for Good Videos

Copyright and Using Pictures from the Internet in School Projects

Teaching students that they must respect international copyright laws is an important part of any lesson I teach where students will be using images and videos they find on the internet. Here is a great blog post which comments on the legal issues involved, as well at lists several great sources of pictures that are in the public domain.

Copyrighted images and sources of images in the public domain

We need to remember that although students may use almost any image for educational purposes, if projects containing those images are then posted on-line, a definite grey-area is entered. Also, outside of the educational setting, in copyright laws must be respected, and creating good habits that will carry on into a students' adult life in the workforce is important.