Mrs. Henderson's Tech Class

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Black History Month: What Kindergarten Learned

Last month, all students researched a tech innovator. Here is a showcase of what they learned through this biography study.

Kindergarten

Kindergartners made a class video using Adobe Spark. Through this project students worked on basic collaborative video design, audio recording, and graphic selection based on content.

K1

1st Grade

First graders worked on basic keyboarding skills by typing their research in Microsoft Word. They also learned how to save and open files. Students combined their text with a graphic using a web-based tool called Big Huge Labs to create trading cards.

A1

2nd Grade

Second graders worked on basic keyboarding skills by typing their research in Microsoft PowerPoint. They also learned how to save and open files. As part of making a collaborative slide presentation, students chose a design, created a title slide, added additional slides for each fact, and inserted graphics related to the content.

B1

3rd Grade

Third graders made iMovie trailers in partnerships. Students had to work collaboratively to choose a trailer template, type a catchy title, insert graphics, vary the graphic compositions to make the video more interesting, and type biographical information.

D1

Black History Month: Honoring the Contributions of Tech Innovators & Advocates

Many past and current innovators and advocates have enriched the field of technology. Students will learn about just a few of these amazing people by doing a WebQuest. Later in the month students will share what they learned.

Angela Benton

Picture Source: www.pipelinefellowship.com/about/workshopspeakers/speaker-benton-angela/

Kimberly Bryant

Picture Source: www.blackgirlscode.com/about-bgc.html

Marc Hannah

Picture Source: www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/marc-hannah-41

Roy L. Clay, Sr.

Picture Source: http://africanamericancyberreport.com/2015/02/roy-clay-sr-godfather-silicon-valley/

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

"Unplugged" Coding Activities

Students in grades Kindergarten through third grade have been busy coding. Ask any kindergartner what an "algorithm" is or what "debug" means. They can probably tell you!

Students participated in several "unplugged" activities to build the foundation for the coding concepts they would later use on the computer. Young children often learn best when first presented with concrete, hands-on materials and then connecting that experience with visual and abstract representations. Here are some of the activities we did.

Move It, Move It Maps

Kindergarten and first graders created maps with a hidden picture of a smiley face and guided a partner to the hidden picture using body motions as commands for each step of the task. Students really got creative with this. When asked what they liked about the activity, first grade students said the following.

"I liked when the person walking got to the smiley face." (AA in A1)
"I liked that it was a mystery and you had to find where the smiley face was." (MA in A2)
"It was a game." (NK in A2)
"I liked that you needed to jump." (TV in A2)
"It was like programming a robot and telling it what to do." (HZ in A3)
"It was fun because it was a mystery." (SG in A3)
"I liked going where the person tells me to go to find the smiley face." (AR in P7A)
Other students in P7A liked setting up the maze (JV & DS), guessing (AHC, MLB, & MLP), programming (SS), and moving their bodies (AW & AA).

Real-Life Algorithms: Paper Airplanes

Third graders built a foundation for algorithms by making paper airplanes. Students sorted visual directions, determined which steps were needed, put them in order, and then followed the algorithm to make a paper airplane. This activity showed students that algorithms can be found in many real life scenarios. It also reinforced that steps need to be in the right sequence to reach an intended outcome.